The old in the new: Paddington and the Secret Seven

Almost a catchphrase with me, the new and old intermingle in this life and this entry looks at some examples .

I tend not to write book reviews on this blog although you'll spot the odd one dotted about but while she didn't write much specifically for boys, one series I did enjoy as a boy first time around by Enid Blyton was the Secret 7 series that had 21 original stories featuring six children in a secret society investigating mysteries and a dog called Scamper.

There has been a trend rather like with prequels in the film industry to extend the scope of original titles through so-called continuation novels written to varying degrees in the style of the original author by people invited by the rights owners of the original authors works.

Pamela Butchart is a well know Scottish author of children's mysteries  and was asked to write two more stories in Enid's Secret 7 series. This came out in February of this year.

This one starts with a Travelling Theatre moving where the Secret 7 live and the children curious because no theatre has been operating here for ages, indeed the premises were boarded up but it transpires they to put on a opening performance as it brought back to life.
The six children are invited to take part in the performance by Mrs Bagnall but as they get involved in learning their lines and rehearsing, strange goings on occur with lights and sound systems playing up, trap downs coming open plus tales of ghosts and it soon becomes apparent someone is trying to sabotage the show.

This provides the mystery the six plus Scamper look into hindered as ever by group leader Peter's nosy sister Susie and her friend poking their noses in, they work out who is doing it, why and bring in adult help as events draw to a conclusion.

Pamela wisely keeps the twenty-first century out of it so we have no smartphones, internet, tracking devices and so on so in some respects it's more like the nineteen-seventies and eighties.

In terms of language it is a little more modern than Enid's own but in the main follows the kind of dialogue she would of used with just the odd term like "try out" which very modern in British English and perhaps too much reference to Scottish Tablet which actual is a caramelized fudge concoction made from condensed milk that much outside her home nation will be puzzled over.

Overall I'd give it a 8 out of 10 for fans of the Secret Seven as she's kept as true to it's roots as she possible can with just a nod toward a more equal role for Pam,Barbara and Janet.

I mentioned Blue Peter, the long running children's BBC Tv series in connection with my birthday and there is a reference in the earlier bit of this blog to the link between a native of deepest darkest Peru and that show,

Around the era I first watched the show, also transmitted in five minute episodes were a series of animated cartoons based on the Michael Bond stories that I and countless boys (and girls too) loved to watch at the time.

Many of us feel that they caught the feel of the books better having more subtle humour for instance  than the more recent live action movies and I recently got a two dvd set that has most of the episodes on it.

This set has all the episodes from the thirty that started January 5th 1976 and the later ones plus the tv specials that run for 21 minutes each including the last one from 1987 although it is lacking information on which ones come where but there is a excellent piece on Wikipedia that lists all, gives a short account including the transmission date that helps.


One new story in an old series I loved and a shiny new dvd of the original paddington bear cartoons are just thing for an eternal ten year old boy.

Digital photography 2

The last time I talked about the digital camera system in February, I just mentioned the bit that controls how the pictures are made and the two lenses that cover a wide range of focal lengths that cover taking pictures of mountains to birds to the odd cycling event
This said given some of my interests such as nature there are a few more specialized lenses that do help and it's those I'm talking about this week.
One thing to bear in mind is consumer cameras rather than the Pro models used by magazines and newspapers use a bigger full frame sensor to take the image off the lens compared with that of the smaller DX ones which means the focal length of any lens is effectively increased by a factor of 1.5 (a half again) on a regular model for amateurs like mine.
On a traditional film camera system a lens many of us typically has a focal length of 50mm that shows things very much as we'd see them with one eye shut and typically they gather more light in than most zoom lenses.
This isn't just good for taking pictures in dull conditions but what gives it that light gathering ability - its wide aperture-  also enables you to keep me of what is either side of your subject out of focus which can be more aesthetically pleasing.
It also comes with a hood to keep excess sun off the lens that can impair image quality.

This Nikon lens with an actual focal length of 35mm, thanks to the sensor becomes in effect a 52mm "standard" lens which makes it useful for taking pictures of meadowland where individual blades of grass can be given greater prominence.
As well, being a fixed focal length lens means it has less elements for the light to travel through which shows in better contrast and resolution.

Another type of lens that is useful is a Macro lens which isn't as confusingly some zoom lens call themselves the same because a true Macro lens gives at least 1:2 or half life sized reproduction and not the typical quarter life sized many telezooms offer.

This is a true Macro lens made by the independent lens manufacturer, Tamron in Japan that actually gives you life sized (1:1) reproductions which unlike the earlier version for Nikon cameras, has a built in motor for autofocus on more recent Nikon digital cameras that don't have a built in motor in the camera itself to do this.
Like the other lens this also is more efficient at light gathering having a maximum aperture of F2.8  which with its 90mm focal length increased to 135mm on my camera and very close focusing enables you to both get in close and blur the background of individual flowers or capture very small details.
It has a switchable focus range restricter to limit the area it focus on between 0.29 though 0.40 cm for close up work or 0.46 through infinity for quicker focusing where you can use it as faster medium telephoto lens compared with about F4.5 on the 70-300mm telezoom.
That traditionally is what we bought for our cameras and why I had the 135mm F2.8 one for  my Minolta X500 and XD7 film cameras.
You can use it to photograph tree branches, leaves and also for portraiture too.

These two lenses build on from the twin zooms allowing you more control over what you photograph and higher image quality which make for a simple lens system that covers all my needs.

Kicking a ball about

This weeks entry is almost a run on of last Friday's where a few things delayed have arrived connected to soccer .

Roy of the Rovers is something as a boy I grew up with, the story of one Roy Race of Melchester Rovers who became a player manager that started out in the Tiger comic which went through a number of changes and was later spun off into a comic in its own right.

Some of the comic strips have been republished in compilations for those who had parents who removed 'old' comics back in the day but loved the stories about the game on and off the field.

Roy has been rebooted to use a modern expression for this century having before made the odd appearance in the Match of the Day BBC tie magazine of the football show and more recently in the better adult soccer magazine When Saturday Comes.

He's currently enjoying a renaissance with featured comic stories in Kickaround (see later) and also in a number of new stories.

Kick off is the first of three projected graphic novels featuring our hero being published in November of 2018 with two more in March and June respectively by Rob Williams writing and Ben Willsher illustrating that start with Melchester Rovers languishing in bottom of League Two where a sixteen year old Roy Race who has natural talent and powerful left foot dreams of playing for them.

What are the odds Roy can push his way into the Rovers first team, bringing back the glory days of the past or will the on and off pitch pressures prove too much for this young prospect?
This is where the new Saga begins and for this boy it's everything I've been looking forward to,  a real boys gripping adventure.

The last time I mentioned Kickaround would of been November 2nd where I wrote about it, the shortage of any kind of soccer/association football comic/magazine of the sort I had when I was younger such as the comic Roy of the Rovers that was spun off from Tiger that as boys we devoured

There have been a few changes because of production based issues that feed in distribution meant we missed what would of been February's edition and as well anyone who have visited their local newsagent will of observed the fierce battle for rack space with lots of new magazines  plus part works vying for the slots which is ironic in age of downloaded  media.
The publishers  have decided to minimize any issues with deadlines and to avoid battles with cheap plastic tat festooned competitors like MOTD that just have pictures and a few lines of text, to make it subscription only with copies arriving in the post to your letter box.
This also means they can put more time and effort into that content setting a clear bar between them and other football based magazines not least the shortage of anything for junior aged readers that is really suitable.
As someone whose reading age is lowish with learning disabilities, I appreciate something with plenty of text that talks about the game I can understand and helps maintain and develop my reading abilities  so I had to set a subscription up to get March 22th's new edition.
That for me should include a copy of Scouted, a footballing piece of fiction about my footballing hero Roy of the Rovers!
Subscription link: Kickaround WSC Shop

Birthday edition

It was my birthday two days ago in the present into past life I live as this adult in law in all other respects a child it is not that surprising that parts of my birthday are just as you might of expected them to of been when I was younger by date of birth.
I still watch children's programs some different than I did back when I could sing along to "Remember you're a womble" and some that actually still run one of which as you know is my favourite all time program, Blue Peter. 

I might of mentioned I have a many of the books I was given from the late sixties up to the early 1990's for Christmas that I then bought myself but as anyone around that time knows, there were a number of years where they were not issued such as in 1986, 1990 and 1993 through 1998.
Typically they had accounts of the main features on the show, overseas trips with pictures and the 'makes' - things made from paper, card recycled bits and bobs not forgetting the sticky back plastic - of the previous 12 months.
That means some of things I remember by way of the 'makes' such as Tracy Island one of the 1990's featuring locally born Anthea Turner were never documented and as I don't have books 1 through 4 and from 28 onwards there are gaps.
This book with its forward from Valerie came out on the back of last years 60th anniversary covers many of the such as the classic Advent Crown and yes Tracy Island too!
It has suitably old-fashioned feel too it.
For some reason I didn't get that at Christmas so it kind of makes up for it.

The year 2008 that in this blog is only covered by some of my recently imported photography centred posts saw the 50th anniversary and the then recently sacked producer Richard Marson wrote a book giving an impression from what being inside the program making team of what making the show, the challenges of the live segments, filming and so on was like.
For someone like me this kind of book is of interest as the only show I can recall watching about making it was the November 4th 1974 Blue Peter show that explained camera work and the studio side.

Coming out during the same year, Biddy Baxter who played a big part in making the show what it was (and is) wrote an introduction to this book and selected the letters sent to the show by viewers.
Letters as the ten year old me recalls were a big thing about the show because it was how we interacted with it and was a main route by which you earned your badges so it reflects very much what we felt about the programs and our interests at the time.
It also has some letters from adults too as sometimes the show caused controversy like how in 1969 Peter Purves showed men caring for baby Daniel by being doing so and some adults actually thought he should of been doing an adventure instead with Valerie Singleton doing that as she was a woman!
Thank goodness as a society we've moved on from such attitudes!!!

I also had some money that will help pay for some bits for my new digital photography kit I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Chris the explorer

This week before a certain event is 'marked' in a few days time, I thought I'd post a few pictures I took during the period I was away exploring and what the heck being challenged in my uniform of white shirt with red tie, green v neck sweater, grey shorts and matching long socks.

Believe it or not I actually did a four mile round trip hike to this castle, walked up a storey along it, persevering along tight narrow stairwells with my disabilities and survived!

This was a pleasant view along a section of the same Castle Walls

I went along the Cardiff to Manchester line alighting at this railways station that originally had a booking hall but like many has been converted to unmanned operations with ticketing machines