#enid blyton

[alwaystuesday]

Five Start Armageddon

This week’s prompt in the GO Reference Library study club was the Them. And this immediately popped into my head! I loved the Famous Five as a kid, and Eileen Soper, who illustrated them, made such lovely art.

Edit: This is now available as a print on my InPrnt store - currently with 25% off!

[geese-in-a-frock-coat]

I'm working on something about the inadvertent queerness of Enid Blyton's works. So if you have absolutely anything to say on this matter, up to and including:

the transess of George Kirrin

Bill unorthodox gender presentation

Bill and Clarissa

The lesbian undertones in both Malory towers and St Clares

Adaptations adding/ removing queerness

anything else

Please, please, please talk to me about this in any way shape or form. I would love to hear anything you have to say.

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Dogs 2

Dodie Smith: i've got another story about pongo and missus King: ah do the dogs go on another fun adventure? Smith: no this time aliens put all humans to sleep and give dogs psychic powers King: Lovecraft: Barker: Poe: Koontz: WOWWWW Koontz: BEST STORY EVER!

Smith: ok so all humans are catatonic now and there's only psychic dogs Smith: and the dogs think 'oh i bet cruella de vil is behind this' Smith: 'we should go murder her' Smith: 'like, we should just go fucking murder her' Smith: 'put a fuckin bullet in her head'

Smith: but the dogs find out that cruella de vil isn't actually behind it Smith: so that puts a crimp in their plan to murder her Smith: then sirius the dog star comes to earth Smith: like the literal star

Smith: you know, he has the super power to appear as any dog breed Koontz: [sullenly] i wish i had that power Frank Belknap Long: dean remind me to talk to you after the story's done Koontz: no i don't want a fursuit, i want to do it for real!!

Smith: so sirius the dog star is all 'god i'm so lonely, i wish i had a dog' Smith: 'i wish i had ALL the dogs' Smith: 'would you dogs like to come live with me in space' Smith: 'like where laika lives' Smith: 'in a big nebula with a lot of space to run around'

Smith: so sirius is all 'dogs of earth, would you like to come live with me in space' Smith: 'WHO WANTS TO GO OUT TO SPACE??? WHO WANTS TO GO OUT TO SPACE???' Smith: 'WHOS A GOOD BOY??? WHOS A GOOD BOY???'

Smith: sirius is all 'you should all come to space and live with me in space' Smith: 'you'll know true bliss in space' Smith: 'and also you'll avoid complete eradication in nuclear apocalyse' Smith: 'cuz, oh yeah, that's gonna happen btw'

Smith: if they choose to go to space Smith: then all memory of dogs on earth will be erased Koontz: no Smith: no one will remember that dogs ever existed Koontz: NO! Smith: it will be as if earth was always a dog-free planet Koontz: NOOO!!!!!!

Smith: now the dogs of earth have to make a weighty decision Smith: will they go to space or will they stay loyal to their masters? Koontz: oh god oh god Koontz: please say they stay!! Smith: so the dogs decide… Koontz: yeah?? yeah???

Smith: the dogs decide… Koontz: WHAT DO THEY DECIDE!?!?!? Koontz: I NEED TO KNOW!!! Smith: the dogs decide… Koontz: AUGHHHH!!!!!

Smith: the dogs decide to stay on earth because, even though earth is imperfect, it carries the promise that maybe, someday, every good dog can find a home Koontz: b-but they're ALL good dogs! Smith: exactly Koontz: Koontz: whoaaaaaa

King: wow uh King: that's some story King: not what i expected Barker: oh that's british kids lit for you Barker: it's all bonkers Roald Dahl: ee hee hee Barker: i mean Barker there ya go Barker: case in point

King: really? all of it Barker: oh yeah trust me [meanwhile] Beatrix Potter: my story is mr thumpybunny minds the shop Enid Blyton: my story is Giggles the happy gnome runs afoul of an irishman JK Rowling: Rowling: you know what i'm going to sssay

[godzilla-reads]

This book was on track to being recycled because a child had torn a couple pages out and it was in rough condition. Luckily, I love this writer’s fairy stories so I took it out of the bin, taped the pages back together, and got to take it home.

🧚 The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton

[georgekirrin]

For those wondering who George Kirrin is: may I present 8-year-old me's hero, a 1940s children's book character

[callonpeevesie]

the horse lesbians! i love them i miss malory towers. also gave clarissa her glasses because Reasons

[sincericida]

Cameras roll at Shinfield Studios on The Magic Faraway Tree - The Knowledge Online

Simon Farnaby (Wonka, Paddington 2) has adapted the much-loved children’s classic with Ben Gregor directing. The story centres on children Beth, Fran and Joe as they encounter an array of eccentric, magical characters at the top of an enchanted tree.

Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy star, with recent casting reports saying Nicola Coughlan, Mark Heap, Jessica Gunning, Simon Russell Beale and Oliver Chris are also on board

[skyriderwednesday]

So George, huh? This is the first time we meet her, as she was Off Somewhere for hours when her cousins and their parents arrived and seemingly snuck into the house after everyone else went to bed (she's eleven, btw).

Anyway, here we have her first line of dialogue being "No. I'm not Georgina.", and then her saying "I hate being a girl. I won't be."

Then we have some very 1940s gender attitudes, but then for the first time we see that being perceived as a boy makes George extremely happy.

Also the extremely relatable Gender Experience of cutting your hair off without your parents' permission, and thinking that everybody must hate being their assigned gender.

[fruitandflowercrowns]

wow!!

source

[all-action-all-picture]

Five Go Off To Camp by Enid Blyton (1897-1968). The seventh book in The Famous Five series. Interior illustrations by Betty Maxey. I remember this Five book being one of my favourites. First published 1948, this edition was published in 1978 with a photo cover to tie in to the 26 episode TV series. My recollection is it was shown on a Sunday afternoon and I enjoyed it at the time. Catchy theme tune as well. Don't know if it was ever repeated. Knight Books, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton.

[m00nch1ld333]

my pretty lil shelf 👼🏻

[could-transition-save-him]

George from The Famous Five (Enid Blyton books)

Reasoning: Listen. I, as a little transmasc egg, read about him and thought "oh, just like me! :)" and didn't think more of it. Then, about a decade or two later, I suddenly remembered him and holy shit, he was straight up trans. Like it's not even coding, he literally identifies as a boy, experiences gender dysphoria, experiences gender euphoria, he... he's literally just straight up trans and nobody even told us when we were little. This is a trans character from 1942. He's literally trans. Save him

[perplexingluciddreams]

I finished my book!

[Image description: The book "Five on a Treasure Island" by Enid Blyton. The cover shows a watercolour painting of the four children in a rowing boat on the water. They are all looking down at a dog in the water, holding a piece of paper in his mouth. One of the children puts a hand on the edge of the boat and leans down to take the paper. There is a small rocky island in the background, with a thrown-up shipwreck on some rocks just in front of it. End ID.]

I love this book series and I have loved it since I was quite young. I have read this specific book too many times to count! I had a collection of several stories from this series, and read it over and over.

I recently found out that there is actually 21 books in this series!! And so many of them I have never read. I love the characters. It is quite easy for me to read because of age range it is aimed at, which makes me enjoy it way more. It is also not too long, so I don't get lost as much.

I am so happy to be reading again. I read a LOT of fanfiction, but I have missed "real" books. It makes me feel safe and calm to go into another world. Especially this one, because it is so familiar to me.

I love to read!!! 😄

[queeringclassiclit]

George Kirrin

from The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton

submitted by @probably-an-alien who said:

that kid is so trans-coded. When my oblivious little trans guy ass read some of those books as a kid I wanted to be George so badly!

[hermerriday]

Malory Towers (S4 & S5)

I recently finished the series! I will definitely re-watch it because it became my comfort show this mid-year.

[blytons-fairy-cottage]

In the Fifth at Malory Towers was always my favourite book in the series I think. By the time of Last Term at Malory Towers the story becomes very focussed on the younger girls like June and Felicity, and the original characters that we have been with throughout the whole series suddenly “mature” and become very uptight and uninteresting. It feels seperate to the rest of the series and like a bit of a disappointing end. Meanwhile In the Fifth at Malory Towers is just a really fun story and I think it would have been a better way to end the series. The girls all work together and overcome their differences and dramas to create a play. Everyone gets their chance to shine and in contrast to some of the other more ✨dated✨ (violently sexist) stories Blyton wrote, the message of In the Fifth is one of teamwork and friendship and mostly holds up to this day.