# Enid Blyton **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097 "2002-06-20T17:20:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![QueenAl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/d26b3c/32.png) [@QueenAl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QueenAl)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/21 "2002-06-22T11:08:27Z")
**Gex** , you sound as obsessed as I was! I was very proud of owning every single Enid Blyton book, from Noddy to Mallory Towers (Darryl was pretty cool). If I ever win the lottery and design my dream house, instead of stairs it will have a pully and a helter-skelter slide like the one in the Faraway Tree. Not sure I could manage the magic lands at the top, but i’d give it a try… I actually re-read a Famous Five story not that long ago, using a teaching course as an excuse to regress, and I don’t care about the racism and sexism, those were great books. Those kids do all the things I wanted to do as a kid, and they do it without any help from the grown-ups. Why couldn’t _I_ accidentally get in a plane with smugglers and end up hiding out in a cave in an exotic valley? Why couldn’t _I_ have my own run-down castle and fight villains in the tunnels under it? Why couldn’t _I_ join the circus? Actually, I do care about the racism and sexism, and I noticed them even when I first read them. ‘The River of Adventure’ had a few sections that made me so uncomfortable that I had to skip them on re-reads (because of course every book had to be re-read fifty times at least). However, I hope that my daughter will read these books when she’s older, and we’ll discuss the issues they raise. That’s why schools ban them (though not all do) - not because the racism and sexism are so bad, but because they don’t want to have to talk about them with the children. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/22 "2002-06-22T13:49:59Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by QueenAl_ > If I ever win the lottery and design my dream house, instead of stairs it will have a pully and a helter-skelter slide like the one in the Faraway Tree. my dream come true! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/23 "2002-06-22T15:20:27Z")
I only had the Noddy books - never got the adventure stories you guys mention. I seem to have missed out ☹ ---
**Author:** ![white-tigeress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f475e1/32.png) [@white-tigeress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/white-tigeress)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/24 "2002-06-22T16:07:02Z")
I had every secret seven and Famous 5 books. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/25 "2002-06-23T22:12:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TPWombat \* > \*\* > **Zoggie** It was a half hour one-off for TV made by **The Comic Strip** aound IIRC 1980. There was also a sequel : _Five go Mad on Mescalin_ \*\* Woah. It was really called that? I would LOVE to get a copy of that. I think I’d die happy if I could watch that half hour special. I read it and adored it. As a fan of Enid Blyton, I’m sure I should be getting offended, but it’s just such a perfect send up. Did she live to see that “Five Go Mad in Dorset” and if so, does anyone know what she thought? ---
**Author:** ![QueenAl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/d26b3c/32.png) [@QueenAl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QueenAl)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/26 "2002-06-23T23:02:24Z")
**Zoggie,** she was dead long before the Comic Strip got to her work (I don’t think there ever really was a mescaline parody, anyway). According to [http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bio1.html](http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bio1.html), she died in 1968. ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/27 "2002-06-23T23:47:13Z")
Ahhh… The Faraway Tree. I loved that book. I usually climbed up into our tall Jacaranda tree and read it there, shielded from view by the foliage, but not quite able to see the top of the tree. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Burnt\_Sugar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/28 "2002-06-24T06:16:18Z")
Ohhhh, Enid Blyton books were my favourite books to read when I was little. They are very engrossing. Joining the circus, midnight feasts at school, magic places, adventures away without parents, saving the day… it’s the stuff of dreams. I’ve remembered another little series you guys haven’t mentioned yet - The Adventurous Four. (I think) It was a group of 3 siblings and a friend. The friend had a little boat, and they went on sailing trips and became lost and found smugglers (etc) and saved the day. I think there were only about three books in the series. ---
**Author:** ![Coil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Coil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coil)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2002, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097/29 "2002-06-24T12:16:44Z")
I used to read the Famous Five books when I was younger. They were all translated into swedish. I don´t remember much of them except that there always seemed to be at least one secret passage in every Five book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enid-blyton/115097.md?page=1)