Best of Enid Blyton (1-10) reduced from £49.99 to £12.99 at WH Smith

jeppy

Kyresa wrote: »

It's why I won't update my copy!!! I also have the Wishing Chair and the Wishing Chair Again

Me too!!! It was wonderful to dream!!:)

suzi_69

Awwww, the memories!! Enid Blyton was fab! I loved them all - Wishing Chair/Faraway Tree, Secret 7, Famous 5, Twins at St Clares, Mallory Towers......oh, those were the days! I still love reading now & put it down to good old Enid!! Kids these days just don't read enough, its all tv & computer games. It helped my spelling & punctuation by reading so much. I loved escaping into my little fantasy worlds!

NinjaB

Clara381 wrote: »

The Magic Faraway Tree series are by far my favourite books of all time! I still have my very worn copy from the seventies of the Magic Faraway tree but I also have a new hardback of all three. At one point they changed the kids names- I know Joe Bessie Fanny and Connie aren't very 'noughties' but they shouldn't be allowed to change these classics!

I didn't know that ... I shall have to get on old one for sure, wouldn't be the same for me reading it otherwise

jeppy wrote: »

I loved that magic faraway tree and dont forget the enchanted wood!!

Ah yes, thanks! I think I shall make myself a hitlist of all the ones there were to make sure I don't miss any

scottishminnie

suzi_69 wrote: »

Awwww, the memories!! Enid Blyton was fab! I loved them all - Wishing Chair/Faraway Tree, Secret 7, Famous 5, Twins at St Clares, Mallory Towers......oh, those were the days! I still love reading now & put it down to good old Enid!! Kids these days just don't read enough, its all tv & computer games. It helped my spelling & punctuation by reading so much. I loved escaping into my little fantasy worlds!

I'd forgotten the Twins at St Clares and Mallory Towers - as a 10 year old I was desperate to go to boarding school which my parents couldn't grasp - the only boarding schools in Scotland were places like Gordonstoun. not quite the "jolly hockey sticks" places like Mallory Towers where the first years made toast with anchovy paste for the prefects - ah happy memories of these books

Kyresa

scottishminnie wrote: »

I'd forgotten the Twins at St Clares and Mallory Towers - as a 10 year old I was desperate to go to boarding school which my parents couldn't grasp - the only boarding schools in Scotland were places like Gordonstoun. not quite the "jolly hockey sticks" places like Mallory Towers where the first years made toast with anchovy paste for the prefects - ah happy memories of these books

I still have my copy of those too

Didn't we all desperately want to go to boarding school then!

Oh... don't forget "The Naughtiest girl in the school"

luxor4t

scottishminnie wrote: »

I'd forgotten the Twins at St Clares and Mallory Towers - as a 10 year old I was desperate to go to boarding school which my parents couldn't grasp - the only boarding schools in Scotland were places like Gordonstoun. not quite the "jolly hockey sticks" places like Mallory Towers where the first years made toast with anchovy paste for the prefects - ah happy memories of these books

I couldn't understand why my mother laughed when I asked when I'd be going to boarding school - then she realised that ALL my story books about school were set in boarding schools (& as all were second hand, they were 1930s/40s boarding schools).
I thought I'd prefer Mallory Towers to St Claires - shame I couldn't go, that swimming pool on the rocks sounded lush (if freezing cold!)

JustaNewbie_2

I loved the Enid Blytons as a kid, I think I've read almost all of her books. Sadly they do sound dated now, I realised it when I read them with my 7 year old. She liked the Wishing Chair series but is bored to tears by the Faraway Tree ones . Will persist and get her some Secret Seven, Famous Five and Mallory Towers (the latter was my favourite).

thezib

aww, u guys have got me rememvering those good old days.
i love enid blyton, her books framed my childhood.
ah the joys of the wishing chair series and the magic far away tree series!

aloiseb

If you read the Magic Faraway Tree in your youth, you may find it slightly unrecognisable in places:-

the names for a start - Rick instead of !!!!!!, Bethy instead of Bessie, Franny instead of Fanny (well, I suppose that one had to go):o

Dame Slap and her dastardly School for bad pixies has been changed to Dame Snap's school.... I think they may have a "naughty step" but certainly nobody gets slapped any more!

Probably just as well but it does take some of the spice out of the original I think.

Re Peter and Jane...I think they were Ladybird reading books, and Ladybird has a big recently published compendium edition of a lot of those lovely 50s titles with their devastating sexism and political incorrectness. They may be in it. Otherwise you can get the original books second hand on Ebay etc, at a price. (I paid £12 for "the Party" :eek: - so much for moneysaving....)

Troythecat

scottishminnie wrote: »

I'd forgotten the Twins at St Clares and Mallory Towers - as a 10 year old I was desperate to go to boarding school which my parents couldn't grasp - the only boarding schools in Scotland were places like Gordonstoun. not quite the "jolly hockey sticks" places like Mallory Towers where the first years made toast with anchovy paste for the prefects - ah happy memories of these books

I read these too...over and over again..used to imagine my School was like that! Somehow the reality was quite different, my Teachers were all strict with no sense of humour at all and were to be feared! we are talking the 70's tho:rotfl:
seems to be much different nowadays tho...I get the feeling from my sons and daughter that Teachers treat pupils in a completely different way...talk to them like they are humans (not down to them)..even have a friendly manner with them...I would have like high school so much more it it had been like that!
Was nowhere near brainly enough for Gordonstoun