Dinesh and Bawa

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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Favourite Authors and Books - 1 (Enid Blyton)

It's nice to start from the beginning :)

Enid Blyton is an author who writes for people between the ages of 6 to 18 or so... I still enjoy her books (guess i have still not grown up)

Her worlds are all sunshine and splendour, animals that talk and fairies and pixies and brownies and elves and witches and wizards and nature and fun and good always triumphing over evil and happy endings!

The best of her fairy stories trace the adventures of 3 children and their cousins in the Enchanted Wood where they climb the Magic Faraway Tree (the tallest, most magical tree in the world) to explore the magical lands that come by weekly at the top of the Tree... Oh what fun to be in the Land of Birthday Parties or the Land of Treats, and deliciously scary to be in the Land of Secrets and saving the Tree from evil trolls... what a romp! I still have these books on my book shelf, and they never fail to bring back very sweet childhood memories of when i was reading them for the first time... everyone should read these :)

Her other Stories for small children include the very funny Brer Rabbit Books, stories of Amelia Jane the very very naughty doll and the adventures of the Wishing Chair (a chair that flies to wherever you wish it to go) and Mr. Pinkwhistle a very good wizard with a naughty sense of humour that he uses to punish bad people :)

The Circus series with the adventures of Lotta, a brave, fierce and mischievous girl who rides her horse Black Beauty in the ring and Jimmy and nice boy and his wonder dog Lucky... When i used to read these books i used to seriously question why i went to school... when i could have joined a roaming circus...

The Adventure Series include the Secret Seven books (didnt like them much, the secret seven are quite snobbish and too goody goody for my taste), the Famous Five (adventures with 4 children and their dog, very grown up, very brave and with nice moments of good hearted fun and frolic)

The "of Adventure" series were even better, with Jack and his talking parrot, gentle Lucy-Ann Jack's sister, Phillip, a boy who could almost charm any animal, bird or insect with his presence and his sister who hates all creepy crawlies... incidental adults try to stop the children from getting into trouble and fail miserably and arrive only in the last chapter of the book by when the children have successfully captured all the baddies :)

My favourites were the Five Find-outers and dog! I have just started to re read these... They are so much fun, 5 children, a dog, all sorts of baddies, an inefficient village policeman (Mr. Goon) and some really nice mysteries make these evergreen for me... They are sometimes laugh out loud funny :)

The School Series: St. Clare's, Mallory Towers and the Naughtiest Girl series made me ache to goto a boarding school :) full of really nice characters, students from different backgrounds and very funny or wise or strict teachers and all the (mis)adventures that can happen in a school, but with no one ever really meaning to hurt anyone else... These too occupy a place on my shelf and i wonder when my sister's twins will start reading them...

There was another book called Those Dreadful Children which was about very prim and proper kids forced to become friends with completely crazy, full of fun very naughty kids (one family moves into the neighborhood and the fathers turn out to be school buddies...). Was a very nice tale about how 2 completely different types of people can learn, accept and become the best of friends...

I could go on... suffice to say that her books are good solid fun for young people, her language is great and her style is absolute innocence... highly highly recommended to anyone who is young or young at heart :)...

Curl up on a rainy day with some hot drink and read these books...

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

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12 comments:

Anupam Gupta said...

jai gurudev bau..

again..u have this way wid words bau...they transport u back into some place that u have never been...and it feels like u have always known how it really was...really mind blowing...and HOW do u do it????

i never really read any enid blyton...hmm nned to start....so would u mind lending me some???for starting me out???LOL

tc bau
love

MJ said...

hehe.. u too :P Felt nice that even you are into Enid Blyton stuff even now :P

Anyways,the dog's name is Scamper in secret seven ;) Hehehe..!!
Certainly, these books have their own charm :)
Happy Reading :)

Jai Gurudev :)

Nimisha said...

i too 'still' have all my enid blytons with me! :) (and pick them up too, time and again..and agin :))

and the faraway tree series was actually the best of the lot! :)

another good book was the 'treasure hunters'. it had 3 siblings and their dog searching for their family's fabled treasure..

but, i actually feel that you should pen down some things for the kiddos as well. they'd be absolute smashing hits! :)

regards,
nimisha.

Arsheen said...

dear bau
you're so right about enid blyton books... its so nice to know that there are other people who share your interests even at this age... :)
i've too picked up enid blyton again to finish off the st clare's series this time... :)
she definitely has her way with imagination and fairy ideas.... :)

Anonymous said...

i grew up reading some of these books too and loved them ..
what strikes me is that you lead a life of service and make it all seem so magical ! reading your blog makes me wish sometimes painfully intensely that my life could be soo much more of use than it is .. and to also learn to make it magical as you do ..

Anonymous said...

Wow! Bau! I've too've grown up on a diet of Enid Blyton and would read them even when my peers were into Mills&Boons and other similar inane crap[UUGGHH..]. They'd think I was abnormal! The adventures always transported me into 'magicland'. Fatty, George, Larry,Scamper,and the others and their fab picnics were so much an integral part of my life and I read Enid Blyton with the same zeal even today, ofcourse now I even understand Ayn Rand and Danieele Steele but Blyton takes the cake, Bau. 'Tis said though she herself had a sad childhood - quite an irony, isnt it? Tell me if you are looking for a particular book Bau, and I'll get it next time we meet. Till then 'Happy Reading' Bau. :) Sonia (Anu)

Anonymous said...

you didn't ask for the details, but i wanted to explain i especially didn't like the dark colours (black backgrounds? etc) in your blog - it took me a while to notice that that was a lovely starry night right up front, until then i didn't like the black out there either !
love ...

Oishee said...

TOTALLY AGREE! loved all of her books i've ever read and still do pick one up every now and then. find secret seven a tad less engrossing than the others. envied everyone who ever went to a boarding school aftr reading malory towers (pretended to be Darell while i was in school. made my friedns call me that). The craze actually spawned a 30 page novel by me called Tulip Towers. Hee hee! Famous Five is my all-time favourite though.

Anonymous said...

Hey Khurshed. Loved reading your post on Enid Blyton. You really took me back in time to when I "met" the O'Sullivan twins of the St. Clare's series, Patricia and Isabel (wanted desperately to be like Pat,the sprightly one, but was more like Isabel,the sedate one). Used to get them mostly from "aapri" Petit Library. Those Dreadful Children sounds very similiar to the stories of Children at Holly Farm and Family at Mistletoe farm, both with very real and close to life characters. Tons of love- Shehnaz

Anonymous said...

Hey Bawa, You must read this Book called Many Lives , Many Masters. Its about a real story of this psychiatrist who treats a patient for her baseless fears. He then takes her through her past lives and make her a much stronger person. It sounds really wacky but one would tend to trust the author.

Devi said...

Oh yes Bawa, I really loved reading Mallory Towers, Secret Seven.. and wanted so much to join boarding school.. Never thought of getting to read them again though! Maybe I should.

Vasumathi said...

Bawa

I stumbled upon this blog toay, and was thrilled to find that you are an Enid Blyton lover! I can still rattle off characters in various series! And yes - I do read them even now, and I still have some of them.

I also remember the time when I was pregnant and under rest.....and did a revision of all EBs from a lending library (in "HOT" Chennai) - where my mom was a member. At some stage - she said - I cannot afford to borrow at the rate at which you are reading :) :)

If you ever get to read one book called the Put-em-rights, I'd strongly recommend it!

Vasumathi Sriganesh

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