The Magic Faraway Tree

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

BlueBelle

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

She has been accused of being sexist, racist and xenophobic. All probably justified. Her "baddies" were always foreigners, and she used the "N" word and other derogatory terms frequently. Her style of writing was rather simplistic.

However - much of her writing was "of the time" and I seriously doubt she was trying to emulate Chekhov or similar.

Her books were very relatable to children and appealed to their imagination. Who wouldn't want to scoot down to the beach with their friends and hop into a rowing boat to search for the naughty smugglers in the caves?

Midnight feasts in the dorm? Gosh, yes please. But don't tell Mummy and Daddy.

And as a P.S. to my post above, The Da Vinci Code was a massive success - and he went on to write more. Dan Brown's style of prose is awkward, repetitive and fragmented. He often missed the mark by a long mile with religious topics.

Just goes to show you don't have to write well to captivate your audience.

BlueBelle

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

As a child, I felt they were poorly written. Also felt very uncomfortable that the baddies were always “foreign” or “gypsies”. Even as as 6/7/8 year old in the sixties, I knew that was wrong. As an adult, reading them to our children (someone bought them), even more so.

Allowed myself a wry smile as I watched various characters played by black and Asian actors. No, it wasn’t “the times”: many people didn’t hold her views, even then.

EB may have started many children off on their reading journeys. So has the creepy David Williams 🤷‍♀️

The adaptation by Simon Farnaby was excellent.

I can remember "the dark swarthy foreigner" being the villain of the piece, particularly in the Famous Five books, some of my extended family were dark swarthy foreigners but I don't think that necessarily resonated too much with me at the time. I was possibly more put out with the "you're just a girl" directed towards Ann from her smug brothers, or that the female protagonist had to inhabit the persona of a boy, as cousin "George" did to have any sort of gravitas within the group. As with Christie who I also read voraciously at a later stage, they were writers of their time and of their class. What we can attribute to Enid Blyton, she gave so many of us the impetus to read for sheer pleasure.

I remember when my children were going through junior school in the '90s a series of books "Goosebumps" had the whole class in thrall to those. I don't think the teachers at the time thought they were very well written, and kept asking us as parents to direct them towards other books. That's pretty much what many of them wanted to read though. Anyway, along came Harry Potter and he turned a lot of heads, even my not so keen on reading son worked his way through the entire series. My grandchildren now love the Potters too! I think we need to acknowledge the importance of the writers who have at various times have been responsible in getting a whole generations reading.

Basgetti

BlueBelle

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

As a child, I felt they were poorly written. Also felt very uncomfortable that the baddies were always “foreign” or “gypsies”. Even as as 6/7/8 year old in the sixties, I knew that was wrong. As an adult, reading them to our children (someone bought them), even more so.

Allowed myself a wry smile as I watched various characters played by black and Asian actors. No, it wasn’t “the times”: many people didn’t hold her views, even then.

EB may have started many children off on their reading journeys. So has the creepy David Williams 🤷‍♀️

The adaptation by Simon Farnaby was excellent.

I beg to differ.

The "N" word was frequently used.

We had golliwogs as toys and the Robertson's Jam Golly stood proudly on the outside of their offices next to Catford Bus Station certainly until the 1970's. We all used to collect the golly stickers and badges.

The Black & White Minstrel Show was one of the most popular programmes on TV.

Television programmes depicting "funny racists" included Till Death Do Us Part, Love Thy Neighbour - while their writers claimed they were actually making fun of racists, they were there as prime time television with high viewing figures.

The Race Relations Act didn't become law until 1965 so before that landlords could exclude tenants on the grounds of their colour, their race or any other prejudicial grounds. As could employers.

So I would argue that she was very much "of her time".

Obviously now it would be completely out of order and when I read them to my children I missed bits out about smacking legs and the g… name but obviously when I was small I saw the g…. as a beloved toy, a doll and i had no understanding of it being a dreadful word. I grew up calling people with Downs a name starting with m and people with cerebral palsy were known as s….. but me with very favourite black doll tucked under my arm I m afraid it all went over my head. So definitely not as clued up as some of you Perhaps I m older

And yes coming from a mixed marriage I lived through the times of messages on the windows and I was turned away many times but it didn’t hit me in any way when Iwas a young child in the forties. I knew no different

If you were 6 in the sixties Basgetti you are much younger than me who was a child in the forties by the sixties I was WELL aware of racism

We ought not to judge yesterday by today’s standards.

Well put BlueBelle - I was a child of the early fifties - things were a bit different way back then in the dark ages!

I went with my daughter and 2 grandchildren, one of whom is 10 with ASD (possibly ADHD too) and one who is 7 with ADHD. For the most part they were riveted by the film but found some of the slower bits difficult to sit still through. The 10 year old laughed out loud in several places and kept looking at me with a sparkly grin so I think I can say he really enjoyed it. The younger one is used to listening to the Faraway Tree on her story device so she enjoyed it too.
I was disappointed in Saucepan Man's role and I think that Silky was the largest fairy I have ever seen but thought they'd done a really nice job of bringing everything up to date.

eazybee

^Read (very soon reluctantly, because they were awful) the books to our kids years ago.^

No they were not 'awful' books; they encouraged millions of children to read, because of their straightforward stories and page -turning ethos that made one read on to discover what happened next. A much- maligned author criticised for a limited use of vocabulary, when her books were a stepping-stone to the life-long pleasure of reading.

Totally agree with the quote above. I went to see the film and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I loved Noddy, Famous Five, Mallory Towers, Secret Seven and Father Christmas and Belinda but I really cannot remember The Magic Faraway Tree at all. If I see the film it will have to be on the tv, I hate the cinema these days, it's always too loud and that's just the film never mind people talking or food chomping. The last film I saw at the cinema was the first Downton Film and although I really enjoyed the film the cinema exeperience was not enjoyable, I came out with such a headache, much nicer in the comfort of my own home.

I was 3 when the Magic Faraway Tree was published, but I never read it. On the whole, I disliked Enid Blyton for the reasons others have mentioned. But I did like Mary Mouse, and her natural history books were marvellous.

I was born in 1940, and in my family at least racist language and attitudes were totally unacceptable. Enid Blyton used both.

My son read the Faraway Tree and enjoyed it. He intends to see the film. He’s 54!

All these enlightened children 😄 I never noticed any of it and neither did my own two, we just enjoyed the magical adventures.

Does anyone remember the series of bedtime stories by EB? Often full of pixies and other fairy tale creatures. They were for young children and I remember loving them

All these enlightened children 😄 I never noticed any of it and neither did my own two, we just enjoyed the magical adventures.

Me neither Oreo; we just loved the stories and never noticed any of the negativity that later generations condemned Enid Blyton for. I cannot agree that her books were "awful"; her remarkable ability was to engage generations of children in the sheer joy and excitement of reading. Her work was first published in the 1920s, a hundred years ago; to compare it to today's social mores is futile.

Cardamom I totally agree I only remember the joy I got out of reading under the bed covers at night and waking up early so I could read a chapter or two before I got up for school
She made reading a joy for me too and I never picked up on racism which is something I was so against, even as a young child perhaps I just wasn’t as aware as some on here

I am so pleased to read so much support for Enid Blyton .
She was one of my favourite authors , especially the Famous Five . I identified with George as I was a 'tomboy' ( whatever that meant 😄 ).
I loved her descriptions of picnics with 'lashings of ginger beer' . The absence of any adult which allowed the children to carry out their escapades in order to outwit the 'foreign baddies' was a joy .
I couldn't get enough of her books and they were read for extended periods under the bed covers with a torch or for too long in the toilet.
As an adult and a teacher I could never accept the disdain with which she was held by many other teachers .
I remember having an interview
for a teaching post in a local junior school - the head master ,
showing me around , pointed out proudly that there wasn't a single copy of an Enid Blyton in the library . He wasn't impressed by my comment that any book that encouraged children to read was fine in my opinion 🤔. I didn't get that particular post but it didn't change my mind .

Having loved the book as a child I took my grandaughter (and her dad who also remembered the book) to see it- the first time my GD had been to the cinema.

She was captivated by it! So was I- I couldn't find much to criticise at all. Yes,it was silly and the politcal incorrectness had been sanitised in a way that cancelled out the very mild threat in parts.

However I do think it was for the whole family in a way many films aren't anymore. It was all very safe and magical without beiung twee and maybe that's what we are all in need of of just now. Lots of us have been expressing the wonder of reading this unique story, and recreating that wonder for a short while was a big hit for me!

I will be seeing it again soon!

Oreo

All these enlightened children 😄 I never noticed any of it and neither did my own two, we just enjoyed the magical adventures.

I agree totally, I never noticed anything amiss and my children also loved the Faraway Tree. Yes, magical adventures indeed, and what child can resist those? Step up Harry Potter.

My granddaughter also loves EB and she perfectly understands that things have changed. Reading old books and seeing old films is an excellent way to teach them about the past, to explain why we don't use certain words now. She even knows why Fanny has become Fran.

Oreo

All these enlightened children 😄 I never noticed any of it and neither did my own two, we just enjoyed the magical adventures.

I must have been enlightened 😁

Was taken to see Black and White Minstrels by an aunt and uncle at around 6. Remember feeling deeply uncomfortable as I watched but couldn’t have told you why at the time.

Possibly because we lived in Brixton, my primary school was multi racial and most of my friends were black 🤷‍♀️

I instinctively knew from a young age that racism was very wrong.

I think the expression "overthinking" wasn't around when we were all young children escaping into our Enid Blyton's, oblivious to the critical analysis of her works that was to come down the line.

It was often the highlight of the long summer school holiday, a post card from the library telling me one of her books that I had ordered, or several, had come in ready to collect. For those days when there wasn't anything much to do, an afternoon in the garden with a book and some sherbet lemons so bad for the teeth sheer joy!

After the Faraway Tree I progressed to The Famous Five and how I loved them! I really wanted to have adventures like that, and we would look for clues on the way to and from school. If there was nothing going on we could always make something up. A person walking down the street could become a master criminal, and if he went into a shop that would be highly suspicious.

I was so pleased to see Great Western Railway adverts featuring the Famous Five, and they even kept them in the right period.
Five Get There First

This is how I remember Moonface and Saucepanman.