Sunday, May 25, 2008
Back from England!
For some reason it feels like I've been away for months. Normally time flies when you're having fun, and drags when you're not, but I have to say I had a LOT of fun and time just ambled along — a great combination. Now, if only time would fly by when I'm sitting in an airport waiting to board a plane!
Where to start? I think I'll break this up into several posts, as I have a few things to say about various different things. First, a quick run-down of my two and a half weeks in England. I arrived at London Heathrow (thankfully Terminal 3, not 5) around 12.30pm on May 6th, where my dad and older brother Steve were there to collect us. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were able to collect our baggage — but as we walked out of the secure area into the main terminal, I realized that I'd forgotten to pick up Lily's car seat! I tried to backtrack through the doors, but a security man said, "Whoa!" and that was the end of that. Darn. To get back into the baggage claim area I had to pick up a phone, call security, then go to a special door and wait while I was escorted back inside. This meant going through the metal detector, which in turn meant putting my watch, phone, change, and even my shoes into a tray! What a pain. Finally I collected the car seat and rejoined the others. That'll teach me for being too hasty.
Vanessa, Lily and I stayed with my parents in Aldershot for a few days, the plan being that we'd all head down to the Cotswolds on Saturday 10th May for a week's stay at a castle. Well, I say castle, but it's really a castellated mansion. The place is actually Stouts Hill in Uley, Dursley (just south of Gloucester), and I have to say it was money very well spent. The place is fantastic — excellent accommodation, amazing setting, quiet as anything, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, 360 degree views of rolling hills... Honestly, it was perfect. The staff are very relaxed there too. They're only on site in the morning; the rest of the time it's up to the various guests to make sure communal doors are locked and lights are off. There's a small "Honesty Bar" too, where guests may help themselves to liquor using measuring cups, and jot down each measure on a card so it can be added to the bill. This seems too good to be true, but the staff report that they never have any problems with this system. I guess they only get respectable, responsible guests staying at the place. I suspect that trust of this nature brings out the best in most people, but it's not hard to imagine how others could easily take advantage of it.
Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the day we were due to go to Stouts Hill was also Enid Blyton Day. I left my wife and parents to pack up the car and jumped on a train to Twyford so they could swing by later and pick me up on the way to the Cotswolds. So I arrived in Twyford just after 10am and walked through the door 15-20 minutes later. It was good to see Tony Summerfield again, as well as Nigel Rowe and Anita Bensoussane. It was also interesting to meet various others that I'd not met before, such as Nanny from the Netherlands (she runs the Yahoo! Blyton Group), Wolfgang and Frank from Germany, plus Pippa-Stef and Julie from the Society forums. There were plenty of others too — but it's still amazing how many I missed!
The trouble with Enid Blyton Day is that there's too much going on. You arrive at 10.30am and, before you know it, it's 5pm and time to go. Admittedly this year I had to leave a little earlier because my folks were picking me up for our early evening journey to the Cotswolds, but still, that extra hour wouldn't have been enough. I did enjoy the first two guest speakers, Pamela Cox (writer of the St Clare's sequels), and Esra from Chorion, but didn't really have so much interest in the others that followed — I was not really in the mood to sit and listen to someone reading an excerpt from a book, or to watch a TV episode of The Island of Adventure starring a full-grown adult as Philip. Personally, I find that most of these TV shows are cheaply made and poorly acted, and often vastly changed from the original books, so I prefer not to watch them at all.
I did, however, sit through an episode of Disney's new Famous Five animated series, presented by Esra of Chorion. Yeesh. Afterwards, the audience made it pretty clear that the series is NOT welcomed by die-hard Enid Blyton fans! I listened, amused, as various people around me moaned about it afterwards, and finally I said, "Well, I thought it was brilliant," just to add a bit of variety. I was joking though. Esra said that she hoped the series would introduce more children to Enid Blyton, but I honestly cannot see how that can happen when Enid Blyton's name isn't even mentioned in the credits at the beginning. If her name is mentioned at the end, well, it went unnoticed. If a child has never heard of the Famous Five, and sees this cartoon series, how does he or she make the vital connection to the author? If Chorion truly hope to sell more Blyton books through this show, then perhaps they should have a large message at the beginning that says, "Based on Enid Blyton's Original Famous Five Characters."
As usual, my grateful thanks go to Tony Summerfield and Norman Wright for organizing this event each year. Truthfully though, Tony does most of the organizing; Norman does the public speaking on the day, as well as other things, but I believe he's only involved on the day itself. This year Norman seemed a little impatient. When Esra was politely but firmly berated on stage for the Disney episode, Norman finally interrupted to put a stop to it and try to praise Esra for all her work on Enid's behalf. The thing is, people in the audience were coming up with perfectly valid points, even though a few went on a bit. To say the show has elements of the original Five in it is, in my opinion, wildly optimistic. Take away "Famous Five" from the title and the show would bear no resemblance to the Five at all. Or, conversely, try adding "Famous Five" to any episode of Scooby Doo and you could probably, if you looked hard enough, find elements that hark back to the original Five books! To say that this series is connected with the original Five just because of a casual mention of George's mum or whatever, is stretching it a bit. A true connection would be revisiting Castaway Hill or Demon's Rocks, or going off in caravans and meeting circus folk.
Moving away from this decidedly touchy subject, I wanted to comment about the venue itself. On the one hand I love everything Tony is doing to promote Enid Blyton and to bring together fans from across the world each year. It seems that every year there is nothing but praise for the Day, and everyone goes away happy. I'm the same. But if I might dare to offer criticism, and ignoring any cost issues, I personally would like to see a venue that has a bit more character. Loddon Hall is, well, a red brick building with a small car park outside. I wish it could be an older, more picturesque building with ivy up the walls and some attractive gardens outside. I wish there were low ceilings with beams, tight staircases with creaky steps, hallways lit by lanterns... all the things that have a Blytonesque feel to them. Practically speaking, of course, the venue needs to accommodate two hundred people and have a stage, but surely there are old buildings suitable for this? Failing that, there's a lot than can be done with a basic, empty hall — Blytonesque scenes adorning the walls and so on. I don't know — maybe I'm dreaming. I'm certain there are perfectly valid reasons why Loddon Hall is the venue each year, and as I write this I'm thinking, "Why don't I just ask Tony?" But perhaps this is a good a place as any to ask the question, and that way others can provide feedback too. It's just one of those things that never gets mentioned, and I wonder if I'm the only one who feels this way? Sorry, Tony! ;-)
One other comment, while on the subject. This year I was less interested in the afternoon speakers and TV clips, and wanted to chat and/or browse the book stalls. But with everyone sitting quietly in the hall, it's impossible to chat without going outside, and not exactly polite to browse books either. For this reason it would be nice to have the book stalls in a separate part of the building, or perhaps at the back of the room with a divider so that those who want to take the opportunity to browse books while it's "quiet" can do so without feeling that they're being rude.
Anyway — moving on. I spent a week in the Cotswolds visiting places in the local area, such as Bourton-on-the-Water which is like a mini-Venice with its shallow river running right through the middle of the old town. We also went to a not-so-close place called Hay-on-Wye, right on the border of Wales. This is the self-proclaimed Town of Books, and I've wanted to visit it for a while now. I wasn't disappointed. How could I be, with 29 or so secondhand bookshops in one very small area? I picked up a few reasonably priced books, albeit after I'd wrangled with the prices. Many of the books were way more expensive than I could manage, but it was nice to see so many Blytons.
We returned to dreary Aldershot for the final week. That week was packed out with visits here and there, including a trip to Tony's house in Salisbury. Tony's house is incredible, a veritable maze of hallways and rooms filled with books and other treasures relating to children's books. Anita Bensoussane was there too, having arrived a little earlier. After that we migrated to Nigel (Rowe) and Jane's house a few miles up the road, where we enjoyed a smashing picnic in their sunny garden. More on this in another post.
We finally arrived back in the USA on Friday night, May 23rd. Georgia is quite a bit more muggy than England, but the temperatures are still fairly moderate at the moment, in the early 80s. We had amazing weather in England during our trip — I think the heat wave started the day we arrived, so we must have brought it with us!
All in all, a very pleasant trip... but it's always nice to be home again. However, apparently a storm came through and knocked down a couple of trees at my brother-in-law's house, two doors down, and the bulk of the trees fell across three vehicles and crushed his much-loved welding machine. It also knocked out the power, and for some reason my DVR lost it's satellite settings, so when I switched it on I found that it hadn't recorded anything for the last two weeks. Doh! That's at least two season finales I've missed!
This post has 18 comments
Yesterday (25/5) hubby and I went to visit The Knoll House Hotel in Studland where as you probably know Enid stayed on many occasion. There's quite a bit of information about her around the Hotel. What a wonderful venue this would make for any Enid Blyton Day, but reading their brochure, it seems they do not cater for functions of any kind. It was lovely to spend some time though in the Hotel Enid stayed in.
Best wishes.
Loddon Hall is located in a very good position with easy road and rail access and good free parking. We get people from all over the country and indeed from Europe as well and we therefore need to be within easy rail reach from London. An Enid Blyton Day in Dorset might sound good, but not for someone coming by train from Yorkshire! We need someone on the spot and in the case of Loddon Hall we have both David Cook and Barbara Stoney, at Rickmansworth we had Norman Wright living just down the road.
As far as the programme goes I hold my hand up and admit that this year's was a bit of a mess. We only managed to get one speaker, when we actually look for two (other Societies have as many as five!). Esra Cafer very generously offered to fill the second speaker spot if we failed to get anyone. We really only want one visual item and we are aware that this was overloaded this year.
Our programme actually allows three and a half hours of book browsing/chatting and again this is far more generous than other Societies. What you also need to remember, Keith, is that you are in a minority in knowing a number of people there, a large percentage don't know anybody other than the person they come with, and many others just know one or two people -- it would be a very long day for these people if the chatting time was increased, and of course those that do know several people often attend the picnic as well. Somebody said to me that he thought I probably recognised everyone there and I went through the list and found that I only knew 30% by sight!
As far as making Loddon Hall more attractive, we only have a very limited time setting up and clearing up, and also when the entire pre-day organisation is left to one poor soul, he has more than enough to worry about anyway -- every year I say to myself, never again!
Julie, Knoll House sounds like a great place. I once stayed at the hotel where Agatha Christie "vanished" for a week, up in Harrogate. The Old Swan Hotel, if you ever go up that way and want to chalk up another famous author's welcome break!
What did Pamela Cox have to say about writing the St Clare's fillers? How did she come to write them? Did the person from Chorion have anything to say about the proposed adult Famous Five TV show -- the one mentioned on the EBS forum not so long ago, with the original four middle aged and solving murder?
I love the Cotswolds -- I have a friend who lives there, so always get to stay there for a couple of days when I visit England.
In answer to Liz's question, Pamela Cox said she'd read the St. Clare's books as a girl and felt sorry that Enid Blyton hadn't written about some years, especially Pat and Isabel's time as joint Head Girls. So, as an adult, she decided to fill in the gaps herself! Her favourite characters were Alison and Claudine.
Chorion didn't mention the proposed adult Famous Five TV show. Esra was too busy answering questions about the Famous Five cartoon, which came in for rather a lot of criticism!
I do get slightly annoyed by so much connection being made with Enid Blyton and Dorset. Yes, we know Enid stayed at Studland and Swanage, and indeed loved the Isle of Purbeck. However, she didn't make Corfe Castle village Kirrin, or the castle itself Kirrin Castle! The National Trust are now saying that Corfe Castle is Kirrin -- this is both misleading and incorrect. It is perhaps not so widely known that Enid based Kirrin on one of the Channel Islands.
As for Agatha Christie's disappearance, this was all explained in last week's Doctor Who episode, The Unicorn and the Wasp. ;-)
It was so good to meet you again, Keith; made all the more special by spending time with Nessa and Lily too. It was a privilege attending the International Blyton Summit as well; distinguished company, a distinguished setting and all due to a distinguished authoress.
They also wanted me to lend them the Society archives on a semi-permanent loan basis, for a special display room. I turned them down as I needed to have most things available for reference purposes. They opted for Noddy instead and purchased a large collection of Noddy memorabilia. I made a wise decision, as I learnt later that the entire collection got stolen! You mention in the Society forums that they now have Blyton books in their display case and you wondered if any were signed. I doubt it!! If they are claiming that Enid presented the books, my potted history above would seem to indicate that this could be a trifle misleading.
Thanks, Anita, for answering Liz's question. Your recollection of what people said on the Day is always much clearer than mine!
Nigel and Tony, it sounds like we need to produce a report on places that are supposedly connected with Enid but in fact are not! A sort of Blyton Debunk Report. Top of the list, of course, would be Corfe Castle... Thanks for the info about Doctor Who, I'll look out for it. The first three episodes of the series that's showing here, starting with Kylie Minogue and then with Catherine Tate, have been abysmal. Hopefully they'll improve. :-p
Welcome, Heather! We were talking about you the other day, while I was in Nigel's back garden with Tony and Anita. We were saying wouldn't it be great if Heather were here too, representing Heather's Blyton Pages. Anyway, I'm glad you're glad to see me... although I sense a programming question coming on! :-)
Thanks very much, Anita, for your response to my queries. Is Pamela planning to write more fill-ins? I haven't actually read any of them, because, being honest, fill-ins are not my bag, but it always frustrated me too that we didn't see anything of the third form or the sixth form at St Clare's.
The good news on the New Who front, Keith, is that after 2009 we will be rid of Russell T Davies as producer and lead writer and in his place will be the marvellous Stephen Moffatt, who wrote last year's brilliant Blink episode -- and, more notably, was responsible for the late 80s/early 90s kids show, Press Gang. In theory at least, Dr Who should improve with him at the helm -- more scary stuff, less silly angst from companions. Let us hope so, anyway.
The Blyton Debunk Report sounds really good and well worth doing...
And yes, Doctor Who's "Blink" was really good, one of the best, and as it happens it featured the gorgeous Sally Sparrow, surely the ideal candidate as the Doctor's companion!
Sally Sparrow in shop
Sally Sparrow with wet hair (okay, not technically from Doctor Who but, well....)
Better stop now, in case my wife reads this. :-p
Pamela Cox has finished with the St. Clare's series now, Liz, but she has been commissioned to write six additional Malory Towers books focussing on Felicity's time at the school. In fact, she has already completed the first one and delivered it to the publishers.
I like the idea of the Blyton Debunk Report! It could cover other Blytonian myths besides places -- for example I've read in a number of articles that Enid Blyton "invented" the golliwog, when in reality golliwogs were already well-established as nursery toys by the time Blyton wrote about them. Florence Upton was actually the first children's author to feature a golliwog in her work. A few weeks ago I visited the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood in London, where Florence's golliwogg (that's how she spelt the word) and wooden Dutch dolls were on display.
The only fill in/continuation I'd like to read is that German Malory Towers one where there's a reunion and Gwen pretends to have married a really rich bloke ... but my German's not good enough for it, unfortunately. Otherwise, fillers leave me cold. And cynical ...
Heh -- the story about Gwen pretending to be married to a really rich bloke does sound rather amusing, but I'm not keen on the idea of having additional books about Darrell et al as adults.
POSTS ARE NOW CLOSED