A reading road map

While we all await the outcome of talk around how we leave this near enough eleven months and three weeks of Covid restrictions which *may* be in batches of actions based on risk, numbers of cases and so on on I'm more focussed around what from all this I'm taking with me.

For me it's the resumption of those things that helped me with the difficulties around the time I was officially a boy and that today is including reading such as the comics and magazines that not just stimulate my imagination but help by giving me something more suitable to be immersed in, less driven crazy by all the grown up talk around covid in much the same way the terrorism I lived through was made the more bearable for child-like fun in comics and the tv. 

Enid Blyton gets a bad rap with social progressives for every ism and phobia but back then her books provided much the same world we could inhabit escaping everything around us while touching on situations we could learn about learning resilience from. 

You do need older editions with her books as many have bowlderized and almost rewritten to appease people who want to make the world and even its past in their image so not a  few of mine are from the last century and not this.

In that leaving covid behind, books such of hers will be read and re-read because the message of this period  to me has been boyhood is the answer to what I need to enjoy my life and the things that made me happy then.

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.

Fiction for boys

Boys and reading do have a bad press some of which may be down to the lack of encouragement in reading for pleasure especially in an age of instant electronic gratification but part of this I feel is actually the the lack of appreciation of what is boys love to read about.
The modern age has many pluses but one negative is the tendency to write notionally gender neutral stories that read more as stories for girls with lots of details around friendships, drama and relationships which is not something that instinctively does anything for you.
You like mysteries and adventures that hold you in suspense and even when they are, the political correct requirement to make the key characters female for gender empowerment   means there's nothing you can relate to.
One author whose work I loved as a boy and still love to read is Enid Blyton and at least in her world boys are really boys who do have gumption and who doesn't feel the need to write to an agenda.
Today I'm looking at a few I think are good for boys.

While being a mixed gender series, The Six Cousins series has  quite a bit for a boy looking at the lives of six boys and girls, three of whom has lost their home in a fire and three whose lives are affected by having them stay with them.
It's less a 'kitchen sink drama' thankfully as more an adventure looking at the different characters in the area such as shady poacher, a wondering philosopher the older boy lionizes who tunes out to be a thief  and the importance of working hard.
It looks too at a topic that is relevant today, how it is some boys seem to lack that spirit, more concerned with looks within the older boy being more namby-pandy and yet the one who initially was and clearly most effected by the fire finds meaning in life on the farm letting his inner maleness out.The role of a too soft Mum in the upbringing of three of the children and her own lack of adult maturity are explored too

Although aimed more at the eight year old reader, this is the story of Donald who can't really concentrate on academic things in school as he's always dreaming about a life with animals sometimes seeing himself as a naturalist, sometimes wanting to be a vet although his school reports are a concern for his father.
When is Grandma offers to get him a puppy for his birthday his excitement is shattered as at one his parent reject it and the story is of his attempt to secure the object of his fascination -that puppy.
Reading it again, his boyish nature and the longing for a pet really connected to me.

The Boy Next Door is an unusual novel in the extensive Enid Blyton catalogue in that while it is an adventure, the focus of it is a mystery around a boy, a ten year old American boy called Kit who on the outset we are told lost his father and was moved to England for his own protection as his father had left a huge amount of money to him when he's of age and is a target for kidnapping not least by his uncle.
Kit is meant to be hidden away in property miles from anywhere, free from being overlooked where he has a housemaid and a tutor but can be seen by Betty, Lucy and Robin who live next door here he's playing Cowboys and Indians with red indian* dress up attire on.
They didn't know of a boy next door nor did their Mummy.
The book looks at how even though he's not meant to be seen by a soul, he plays with them having adventures although though he's threatened with a spanking if does, how two people suddenly arrive nearby looking for him and ultimately how he foils a kidnapping with the boys and girls help. He also is reunited with his father!
We also learn the source of where he was to be found for the two looking to kidnap him was very much closer to home.
* Intuit or "First Nation" is the preferred term today in Canada.
As unfortunately with most of Enid's works since the 1990's the editors have been changing names of characters, removing unpolitically correct references and the like so to really enjoy these you need to find copies BEFORE 1990.
Dean's editions before this point are easy to find even if they lack all the original illustrations without breaking the bank and Armada paperbacks exist too which the Cousins series in my collection are part of.

For boys of a certain age, Roy Race meant a lot, following his adventures initially in Tiger and then in his own comic every week but as part of last years rebooting (rotten pun that I'll be given lines for later) two closely related but not identical series were reestablished one being the graphic novel which is more the comic strip approach on steroids and the other being actual fiction written by Tom Palmer.
Sensibly Roy has been put in twenty-first century Britain as a sixteen year old on the cusp of adulthood, left school for college while chasing a career that started from  schoolboy soccer thus topics such as the use (and misuse) of social media, living with a family with challenges are in as the backdrop to Roy's football on and off the pitch.
There is realistic dialogue between Roy, his team and family as Melchester Rovers, his side are in a make or break promotion race that if they failure to make league one might even see the teams owner selling up which isn't as far fetched as you might think seeing that almost happened in this region with Port Vale FC only weeks ago.
So it is crunch time for all.
The series oozes with teen boy spirit and is as a close to a boys own series we have in a world where pitches, statistics and balls are at the centre of your existence as it was for boys of my generation and I'm reliably informed the present too.

Staying dry but having fun

It has been a bit of damp week although I have been outside for exercise apart from observing the change in the season as we are moving more into Spring proper so I did do a bit of photography this week although it needed to be indoors.

This was one of those I took of a group of flowers illuminated by natural sunlight using the Tamron 90mm Macro lens using a wide aperture to keep a shallow depth of field between the group of flowers I wanted and the remainder.
That kind of control about how one controls a pictorial composition was why I wanted a digital system camera.
That wasn't the only wet day activity either.

While staying dry I recently bought a book by an author I loved during ones boyhood but had not read before in its first edition.
The Family at Red-Roofs is a family story about the Jackson's, four children between nine and seventeen and their mom and dad who living in cramped conditions were able to rent a bigger property that needed some work doing on it.
They acquire a domestic helper called Jennie and all seems well until their mother is taken will needing surgery and quiet respite just at the time gets a once in the lifetime offer to go to America to work for his company and has left.
Worse still it transpires a ship he was one was hit head one by another with few survivors so Jennie has more to deal with after receiving a letter from his company, the children's mother is too delicate to be told and in an age lacking social insurance, it appears they may become penniless. 
Molly and Peter have to find jobs as the oldest even though both before this tragic news of his assumed death would of been studying for careers in Teaching and being a Doctor respectively. Even Michael aged 11 does clock repairs to bring money in.
Molly's former school friend Prudence, a stuck up daughter of a monied family falls on hard times and so needs to stay with them that means for the first time in her life she actually has to work.
What really happened to the children's dad transpires: He was saved but was so traumatized by the incident, he'd forgotten who he was but as luck would have it a photograph of the four children of his floated and is publicized in the national press. 
Dad and children in time are reunited and mother recovers just in time so she didn't need to be told of his disappearance and presumed death.
The story is genuinely heartbreaking in places, the presumption all is going well from moving to a better house soon moves to that of the actual loss of a breadwinner parent and severe illness of their mother and of sacrificing potential careers to deal with pressing needs.
What is good about it is it shows the children maturing, showing resilience that they'll need as adults and upon his return after all, their father sees the fruit of his efforts fathering them in their ability to cope under pressure.

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.