Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Sunday 11 March 2012

A Faraway Tree and Famous Five


These stamps, issued in 1997, commemorate the birth centenary of the children’s author, Enid Blyton.The stamps, designed by Christian Birmingham have delicately coloured scenes from one of her many children’s books. My favourite, however, is the 20 pence stamp which shows a child totally lost in a book, a scene to gladden the hearts of parents and educators. The booklet, which comes with the set, diplomatically avoids mentioning the controversy of her private life. There will always be arguments about Enid Blyton and her writing style, but there is no taking away the fact that many children, for successive generations, enjoy her stories. Some commentators can be rather sniffy about her and want to dictate children’s reading choice by removing her books from libraries. My own opinion is that anything that gets children interested in reading has my vote. As long as children have a wide variety of books from which to choose, then there is no point in depriving them of a rattling good adventure story from the pen of Mrs Blyton.  This is a post for Viridian’s Sunday Stamps. Why not have a look at how others have interpreted the theme of famous women?





12 comments:

  1. I never heard of Enid Blyton. I feel kind of deprived that I wasn't familiar with her books when I was young.

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  2. We still have an Enid Blyton book on our shelves. Her books were certainly popular when I was at school. Our headmaster read one of the Famous Five books to use.
    I was at university at the same time as her daughter Imogen. She taught me to play bridge.
    This set of stamps was a well deserved commemorative.

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  3. Goodness, another series of books I know nothing about! I'll have to look these up too. I am more familiar with E. Nesbit books. thank you for participating!

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  4. SW is a big fan of Enid Blyton's books. She's also mad about Harry Potter, at the moment. So anything magical, really.

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  5. I have to confess that I did not like her books, though so many of the girls in my class loved them...

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  6. Ah well, now Enid Blyton I am very familiar with! Loved her books. My aunt used to send them over to us for birthday presents.

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  7. I never heard of Enid Blyton but my husband who is English definitely had her Famous Five books when he was a schoolboy. I clicked the link to the Wiki to know about Enid Blyton more. She seems to be a prolific writer having churned out about 800 books over 40 years. Great choice for this week's Sunday Stamps :)


    Postcards Crossing
    My Stamp Menagerie

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  8. I came over via Alan's blog. I can't resist a good stamp story, nor a good children's book author. Lovely post.

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  9. These are amazing. What a great way to grow reading and viewing these delightful pictures. This is the first time for me seeing this author as well, thanks for sharing this.

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  10. Hi Nell, I don't think that I have read any of her books. I'll need to check this out. Thanks for highlighting Ms. Blyton today.

    Kathy M.

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  11. What lovely stamps, and I'm really sorry I missed them somehow. Our post office seems to hoard its special issues.

    Agree with you totally about Enid Blyton. Sometimes it's rather hard not to laugh at some of the cds the kids like to listen to (very seriously because they find them so exciting). The only thing I would say, though, is that it is as well to pull out the anti foreigner and jingoistic stuff which figures in some Blyton books - of their period of course, but really appalling to modern ears.

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  12. The stamps are a lovely commemoration of the stories. I remember usually getting at least one of her books at Christmas as a child, there was certainly plenty to choose from.

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