In October 2014, it was announced that the books will be adapted for the cinema for the first time and are being developed for a live action film version by Sam Mendes' production company, Neal Street Productions. [5] As of 2021 [update], the film was still listed as being "in development". [6] Television [ edit ] I have a newer version, so names have been changed from Jo, Bess and Fanny to Joe, Beth and Frannie. I have mixed feelings about the update. I understand why some people would object to Fanny in particular. It's the loss of Bessie that I find saddest as it was updated because Bess/Bessie has fallen out of fashion. While I like the name Beth too, I don't see the issue with an old-fashioned children's book maintaining an older style of name. Entire passages of the original have been rewritten to remove references to fighting. For instance, when the tree is taken over by Goblins in The Enchanted Wood, the Goblins were originally fought off, with descriptions of Mr. Watzisname 'pummelling them as if he were beating carpets' and the Saucepan Man throwing his saucepans at them. These have been replaced with cursory references to 'chasing'. The parents are much more 21st century than in the original, and they do have anxiety about what their children get up to.

Earlier this week during a coversation with KC 2.0, I was reminded of my favourite childhood novel EVER ! Although I remembered that Moonface loved toffee, I had forgotten about the amazing food they eat. I really want to try a Pop Biscuit! They sound so yummy! Enid has always been good at the written food porn! I've had to dig out the original creased, coverless versions of these books that I had as a child so my own kids can get the proper story. Five stars for those; two stars for the neutered rewrite. As for her writings, she wrote over 600 children's books, many of them being a staple of our generation. I grew up with the Famous Five (which had been converted into a TV series), and am familiar with Noddy. These are probably her most famous works, though it is interesting to note that she did churn out an awful lot of books using other characters and settings. It also appears that she got into the publishing industry through her first husband and after the divorce allegedly shut him out. Despite all that, it is very clear that she was a very successful author who has had a significant influence upon the literary culture of the English speaking world. A British institution almost in her own right, the famous children’s author Enid Blyton was well known for her fun, friendly and accessible family oriented literature. With many enduring characters such as Noddy, the Famous Five, and the Secret Seven, she was definitely an author of her time. The stories she wrote, though, have lived on throughout the years, seeing various different incarnations over time, whilst always remaining true to the spirit of the originals. One such series that she’s particularly well known for is that of her Faraway Tree series of novels, an enduring collection of novels that retain a timeless quality to this very day. Set in a fantastical land they told stories that worked alongside the illustrations of Georgina Hargreaves to tell a magical tale of childhood wonder and enchantment. Following the adventures of Jo, Bessie and Fanny, it sees the three children moving into a new home by an enchanted forest with a magical tree they climb, taking them off to far and distant lands of magic and wonder.

Reading a book aloud gives you a different outlook on a writer’s style, its rhythm and meter, vocabulary and narrative flourishes. Blyton’s work is an absolute pleasure to read aloud, with a wonderful flow and even though dated, the language is infectious – I found myself using Blyton-esque phrases in regular conversation, “oh, how absolutely tremendous!”, “that’s a simply marvellous idea!”, etc. This happy nostalgia is usually shot through the face when I go through the 'Blyton' section of the library though. I cannot seem to convince myself that it is ok that Enid Blyton's books have been changed to be 'politically correct' or for 'sensitivity considerations'.

They unlatched the gate and stood in the lane. they could see the trees in the wood, and hear them talking their strange tree-talk: ‘Wish-wisha-wisha-wisha!’ This story is the first story in the 'Magic Faraway Tree' series. It is actually not a single adventure but a collection of at least five different adventures that three children, Jo, Bessie, and Fanny, have after moving into the country. At the beginning of the book we are told that their father had got a job in the country, so they moved out to a cottage at the edge of an enchanted wood. We are not given much glimpse into the adult world here namely because not only is this a children's book, but we are looking at the world through the eyes of the children. The context that we can place this in though is that we are still in the Great Depression (there were not many jobs around) and the world was on the brink of war. However, to a child, many of these problems were far away, though they do come upon them occasionally. At one point in the story we are told that their father had lost a lot of money and they were struggling to make ends meet when all of the sudden the children return with the solution. Even after all these years, I still adore this book. It's filled with the kind of adventures you long for as a child, even adult me would love to climb the Faraway Tree! The first title of the main trilogy, The Enchanted Wood, was published in 1939, although the Faraway Tree and Moon-Face had already made a brief appearance in 1936 in The Yellow Fairy Book. A picture-strip book, Up the Faraway Tree, was published in 1951. That is not the only change. When Blyton wrote The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943) and The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946), she allowed her young characters to roam free.Rereading a childhood favourite can sometimes prove hazardous. Often, what so appealed to our younger selves we later find riddled with plot holes, become distanced from the young protagonists, or find them just generally unsuited for an adult readership. For this reason I had stayed away from my once beloved Enid Blyton, for so long. Enid Blyton turns out (according to Wikipedia) to be a rather strange woman and not somebody who one would expect to the a very successful author of children's books. However, the views of Wikipedia, and some of those who wrote about her, do tend to be somewhat tainted. This does not mean that Blyton was necessarily a person of high moral standing. It appears that she had two marriages, and at one stage, allegedly, was quite promiscuous. It also appeared that after her divorce she pretty much took her ex-husband to the cleaners. However, much of this was written by one of her daughters who did seem to have a chip on her shoulder. Mrs Wilson has form when it comes to updating literary classics. She previously wrote modern versions of Five Children and It and The Railway Children, the Edith Nesbit stories, and Susan Coolidge’s What Katy Did. In the first novel in the series, Jo, Bessie and Fanny (edited to Joe, Beth and Frannie in revised editions) move to live near a large forest, which the locals call "The Enchanted Wood". One day they go for a walk in the wood and discover it really is enchanted. They encounter a group of elves who have been robbed of important papers by a gnome. They chase the gnome and recover the papers, but the gnome himself escapes up a huge tree whose branches seem to reach into the clouds. This is the Faraway Tree.

Haven't I told you to brush your hair properly for meal-times?’ said Dame Slap, and she slapped the pixie hard. Twinkle burst into tears.The Enchanted Wood Series is very close to my heart. This was most definitely the first novel I read when I was about 7 or 8, and I was completely mesmerized by Joe, Bessie and Fannie and their adventures in the enchanted woods so much that I just COULD no keep this book down. Running for a total of four books, these were some of Blyton’s most enduring creations, one’s which stand the test of time to this very day. In the past there has been a television adaptation, with ten minute episodes of mini-adventures being aired in 1997. Plans to adapt it for the big-screen, though, are currently underway, as the director Sam Mendes has acquired the rights through his production company ‘Neal Street Productions’, with the intention of creating a major live-action film of the novels. The Faraway Tree is a series of popular novels for children by British author Enid Blyton. The titles in the series are The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951). When I started reading this, I felt I have read this already but then parts of it I couldn't remember. There is a character called Moonface which I was sure I have read about somewhere but then again I was equally sure I haven't in fact read this book.... And finally I figured out why this story and characters felt a bit familiar...It's because I have watched Enchanted Lands which is based on this book series. The premise is simple enough: a family from the city with three children (a boy and two girls) move out to the countryside. The children are told of an enchanted wood nearby and in that wood they discover a magic tree. Many magical folk live in the woods and up the tree, but at the very top of the tree is a ladder through the clouds to a magical land. The question is, which magical land will be through the clouds today? For it changes, quite regularly, you see. And you never know if the land through the clouds is nice or nasty – but you’re guaranteed an adventure!