14.Jun.2009 Sunday Salon: Enid Blyton
I watched Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie interview with First Tuesday Book Club and she mentioned how she grew up with books by Enid Blyton.
I did too!
The series I loved so much were The Famous Five, Malory Towers, and St. Clare’s. Oh and Noddy. Who doesn’t love Noddy?
I didn’t read the rest of her books for some reason. I don’t know why. It could be that they were just not out in Indonesia that time (where I spent my childhood and teenage years). I read all of them in Indonesian, not English (I read English books much much later in life).
For some reason I also didn’t read the original Famous Five by Enid Blyton. According to Wiki, Claude Voilier wrote the series in French after Blyton’s death in 1968 and those were the ones I read.
I never realized how old the books were! She was already dead before I was even born! But since the setting of the books were just so different with my everyday life and where I lived, it didn’t matter when it was written or in what time the characters live. They were in completely different world to me. In that case, the stories were timeless in my young eyes.
Chimamanda said that she used to imagine herself in The Famous Five, solving mysteries and going to dungeons. But the series that made me daydreamed was Malory Towers, staying in this high-class dormitory, having midnight adventures, and playing lacrosse. Really, it felt so cool :P
mee 