The "Barney Mysteries"

Last week I looked back on a book and a dramatization from by boyhood and today we're going in a similar direction looking at works by an author that was a part of it.

The old adage "You can't but a good book down would seem to apply around these parts of late  as some more new to me books by Enid Blyton arrived recently to help keep my spirits up with the current Corona virus outbreak.

These copies are actually editions from the very early nineteen-seventies which while still in hardback form they have been cheapened by printing the frontispiece and spine direct to the jacket and missing off the rear of what would of been the back of the paper dust jacket the original hardbacks had.

 There are six novels in this series of mystery adventures that feature Rodger and Diana Lynton and their cousin Peter, orphaned, who goes under the name "Subby" in the series and his dog Laddie who are also joined by Barney an motherless circus boy who has been on a quest to find his absent father and who has a money called Miranda.

The "Barney Mysteries" is the title these usually are grouped under although some use "R Mysteries" with the "R" coming from the R in the names of all the titles.
The children visit sleepy villages and seaside towns that it transpires are riddled with intrigue and it's that they look into.

One of the strengths of this series is the stories are full of atmosphere and good humour, the strong characterization making for much more depth  than most of her work and more sophisticated language that made it the only series Enid herself recommended just for those of eleven years and upward.

I feel they are a great series for boys even if not 'boys own' because they have what keeps us reading them cover to cover.

Going back to an old favourite

After last weeks entry we are returning very much to the past  I recall .

This book by E Nesbit who also wrote The Railway Children held my attention which was unusual at the time 
Set in Edwardian England, four children discover a strange egg hidden in an old carpet from which hatches a talking phoenix. Further adventures are had when the carpet turns out to be magic.
The Phoenix is wise, wiser than the children but it becomes obvious he is also vain and at odds with the world as some of his acts cause concern to them and consternation to the grown ups.

It was dramatized in 1976 on  BBC Tv to popular acclaim and last year it was issued on dvd for the first time.

My Brother had the book, unusual for him to actual bother much with reading which I borrowed and I later bought a copy myself which is pictured with an illustraion from that tv version published by Puffin.
;

It's over with

Normal service will be resumed after tonight tea time when all this adulting is over and done with after the last two weekdays and I'll be glad to come in change to grey shorts and just be Chris_minor, adult but child me and let all that stress out playing with my new lego bits.

You see this stuff is hard, indeed the last time I did it I felt to pieces from the inside out even if on the outset that was more about being of service whereas this is a citizen role that while not impossible to get out of you would want to because you'd want to feel that if it came down it it ordinary people would look at a case in Court and form a judgement independently on something that could affect your personal and professional life.

There will be a period where especially on Tumblr it'll be a game of catch up only having the weekends and odd hour on a weekday to post over this period so I'll be taking it steady not over doing things.

Bye for now.

Some thoughts from Stevie Smith.

Do you want to be a real boy? 

Don’t give 50 people strings to hold,

To pull you in 50 different directions.

Don’t dance to the most stylish rhythm,

Or sing the everyone’s-doing-it song,

Or bathe in the praises of puppets,

Or win races you don’t want to run.

Don’t paint on one single expression,

Pretending joy, faking happiness, beaming confidence you don’t have.

Be imperfect. Because that’s what you are.

Because real boys are never perfect.

With their embarrassing moments,

With their hurtful mistakes,

Because real boys hurt people sometimes with their imperfections,

And they don’t rewrite it, or reframe it, or pretend it didn’t happen,

They feel it.


Do you want to be a real boy?

Listen to your own thoughts.

Not the should’s but the wants. 

What do you want?

How do you feel?

Listen.

Know the spinning wheels in your mind,

Know the cause of every spine tingle, every bubble of anger,

Every choked down tear, know your own self.

Do you want to be a real boy?

Be with people. Not to impress them,

Or to get something from them,

Or to impress someone else,

But to know them.

Because life is short and not worth a single moment if you’re nothing but a porcelain doll on a string.

I hope you’ll be a real boy -

Offering yourself to other real people - and even fake people,

People who need so badly to be real.

Because real boys help others cut their strings,

Wipe off their painted-on emotions,

Hear their own thoughts,

Break through the porcelain to the vulnerable skin beneath.

Do you want to be a real boy?

To me that sums up the choice I have and the one I have made to take my journey in boyhood with.

Birthday Edition

Another year as I don't get any older really and it happens to be my birthday even if presently elsewhere so I've had to pre-prepare this post.

Everybody who reads this blog knows I love and need lego to play with and this set from the Lego Educational range comprises of wheel parts like axles, tires plus the baseplates and connectors to attach them to your lego.

This at a stroke expands the range of things I can just make and play with.

One thing I had mentioned was the shortfall of traditional bricks in my Classic starter set and getting some white bricks and baseplates.

I got twenty-five type #3001 white 2 by 4 bricks to go with them.

I also got twenty-five type #3001 red coloured bricks as they're handy for building structures with.

As mentioned in February I had been updating some of my earlier Status Quo cd's and this one in the double deluxe series has the 1975 live EP which charted with Roll Over, Lay Down and a version of The Doors Roadside Blues added which my original lacks which was the home of the much mocked #1 single Down Down.

Thunder were a British blues influenced hard rock band I followed in the early to mid Nineteen Nineties the original mixture of lp and cd format albums disappeared a good many years ago so I was pleased to get this Greatest Hits set on two discs with some hard to find bonus material on a third disc. 
It has all their singles on it plus a few choice lp tracks too.

Finally a box set that has the first four Def Leppard albums, a live show from 1983, a rarities disc and the "Getcha Rocks Off" EP in 3 inch cd form that covers 1979-1987 quite well.
Def Leppard were a heavy metal band I loved during this era, probably mentioned it at some point, and this is just the ticket for me.