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Malory Towers / St. Clare's by Enid Blyton


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I absolutely loved these books as a girl. I read every single book Enid Blyton wrote. The Five Books were brilliant as were the Adventure Books. She was so good at capturing the imagination of children.

Just as an aside dare I ask if anyone every read the Girls Crystal as a child/girl? I know I am going back a long way, but just thought some of you might be old enough.:(

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I loved the Mallory Towers books! A friend of my mum's passed them onto me and I thought they were great. I was fascinated by such things as lacrosse and the midnight feasts - it all sounded such fun. I''ll still have the books packed away somewhere.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

As a kid, I literally devoured Enid Blyton's books, especially The Fives and Mallory Towers. I was so jealous of "Bill" having her horse, Thunder, at school with her I tried to con my parents into sending me off to boarding school along with my pony.

 

Then, as a young woman, I moved to the States and was disappointed to discover that Enid Blyton has never been published over here. So when my daughter was of an age to read her books, I had relatives send them over. This was in the days before (WAY before) the Amazon. And now my daughter has kids of her own and they're devouring The Fives, the Adventure series, and Mallory Towers because I keep buying them from Amazon.co.uk.

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Then, as a young woman, I moved to the States and was disappointed to discover that Enid Blyton has never been published over here.

 

Really? That surprised me. I suppose they are very English and quite dated now, but I thought all things British were very popular in the USA?

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I thought for sure her books would find a home over here (the U.S.) after the popularity of the HP books, but sadly, no. My daughter, and now her children, adore them and I can't wait for my granddaughter to be old enough for Mallory Towers. Another couple of years, and she'll be there.

 

When it comes to her kids' reading material, my daughter favours the oldies; Enid Blyton, when she can get her hands on them, along with Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Tin-Tin, and others from the 40s and 50s.

 

I don't remember Nancy Drew when growing up in England, but have to assume those books got published there after I left. I tried reading a couple, but didn't find them nearly as engaging as EB.

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I always assumed they were sort of classics around the world! At least I know that they are quite loved in Germany. I read my mums old editions of St. Clare's when I was about 10 and would happily re-read them. I was trying to find the English editions but they looked so weird :lol:

I really loved the old ones that my mum had, I think they also had pictures inside. The new editions I could find didn't :lol:

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I think I've still got a few of the Mallory Towers books somewhere, although at least one of them has a broken spine and pages falling out, if I remember rightly. I'm going to have to have a look for them, and see if I can get the missing ones and replacements for the one(s) that is falling apart, as I'd like to read them again.

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  • 4 years later...

I was reading a Lucy Dillon novel where children's books played a part and now I'm itching to re-read some Enid Blyton books. Malory Towers series was mentioned quite a few times and I started to wonder if I'd ever read them (the Finnish titles are a bit different from the English ones). I googled and was shocked that it's not a series of kids solving mysteries. I didn't even know Enid Blyton wrote non-mystery books! :o I've searched and searched and now I'm pretty positive that the MT series has never even been translated into Finnish :( A shame, especially after seeing how many of you have loved them and would happily re-read them.

 

Question: those of you who know my tastes more or less, do you think I would enjoy the books? There are no English copies at the library, I'm wondering if I should search if any libraries in other areas in Finland have them and I could place an order... Or whether I should buy the books.

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They're very dated, frankie, but are quite enjoyable, if a bit samey after a while.   There are always lots of these in our charity shops - if you'd like I could look for the first one for you and send it to you so you could try it?  :)

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