The Birth Year Reading Challenge is proving more difficult than I Imagined, and the fault is entirely mine! "I’m just going to pop out and find forty books written by Enid Blyton in 1948" sounded OK when I said it. That was three months ago and how many have I found? None, nil, nada, zero, not one! I've found plenty of reprints, oodles of paperbacks, and some hardbacks without dust jackets but that's not what I’m looking for. I'm trying to find hardback first editions with dust jackets. It's not a lot to ask is it? 😉 If I had heaps of cash I could probably buy most of them online, but I don't have that kind of money, and besides it would spoil the excitement.
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All eight books in the adventure series |
It's lucky I had two of the books on my shelves when I joined the challenge otherwise I would have nothing to write about. Today I'm going to share The Sea of Adventure, which is the second of the two books already on my shelf. The other one is Five Go Off to Camp which you can read about here.
There are eight books in The Adventure Series, and they all feature the same four children: Philip, Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann, along with several adults and a pet parrot by the name of Kiki.
In The Sea of Adventure Philip, Dinah, Jack and Lucy-Ann are
recovering from a nasty bout of measles when their mother is also taken ill. Unable
to look after the children she decides they must go on holiday. When the
planned trip falls through the four children are horribly disappointed.
However, that quickly changes when Bill Smugs turns up in the middle of the
night. Hearing that Bill needs to go into hiding for a while, they persuade him
to take them bird-watching in the remote islands north of Scotland. Naturally
enough the children stumble upon a sinister plot and when Bill disappears, the
children are left to try to find and out what is going on and also rescue Bill.
Enid Blyton never fails to pack excitement and mystery into
her stories, and once again I was not disappointed. You do have to suspend belief from time to
time. For instance, why would anyone allow four children to go off on holiday
with someone who needs to go into hiding? The children (and a parrot) provide a
good smoke screen for Bill, but it could all have ended disastrously! I read these books as a child and not once
did I consider how implausible some of the plots are. I’m older and maybe even
a little wiser now so I read from a different perspective, but it doesn’t spoil
my enjoyment.
Enid Blyton
The Sea of Adventure
1st Edition
Published by Macmillan in 1948
Hardback with Dust Jacket
Illustrations by Stuart Tresilian
321 pages
There are eight original books in the Adventure Series written between 1944 and 1955. They are: The Island of Adventure, The Castle of Adventure, The Valley of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure, The Mountain of Adventure, The Ship of Adventure, The Circus of Adventure and the River of Adventure. I’m lucky enough to have them all in
my collection.
According to Collecting Children’s Books (Diamond
Publishing Group - third edition 2007) Enid Byton is the most successful
British children’s author of the twentieth century. Born: Enid Mary Blyton in
London on 11th August 1897, and spent her childhood in the suburb of Beckenham.
After school, studied to be a kindergarten teacher, at the same time submitting
verses and stories to various magazines, including Teachers’ World. Her first
book, a volume of poems entitled Child Whispers, was published in 1922, and was
followed by The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies (1924), Sunny Stories for Little
Folk (1926), and countless other works. Best known for the ‘Famous Five' (1942 onwards),
and ‘Secret Seven’ (1949 onwards) series, and the phenomenally popular ‘Noddy’
books (1949 onwards). Died: 1968.
Have you ever set yourself an impossible
task? Would you keep going or admit
defeat?
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Terry and I had the pleasure of Meeting Willy Wine last week. Lots of you know Willie from the comments he leaves around the web, but if you are yet to make his acquaintance why not pay a visit to his blog. After a couple of cups of coffee and lots of laughter we said goodbye to Willie and went on to a Vintage Fair at the Corn Exchange in Blandford;
Needles to say I came home with a couple of vintage books which I will tell you about in a future post.
I just want to end by thanking Willie for the fun, and for this amazing card which I couldn’t wait to share with you all. Thanks Willie!