And I'm so accustomed to reading "Mother" in Blyton books that "Mum" sounds terribly out of place - especially being the first word of the story! She has a talent for mimicking others, she accidentally mimics Mamzelle scolding Kathleen, which encourages Kathleen play tricks on her.

It's my fault because I had started originally with a 1973 edition but switched to an earlier one and then changed about a bit so the 2/- pocket money has now become 20 pence which is more easily digested these days — certainly in England and associated Territories. Her books have sold over 500 million copies and have been translated into more languages more often than any other children's author.As far as EB is concerned some publishers change hardly anything at all - again, in another thread we were talking about Smuggler Ben and the newest version published by Bloomsbury is exactly the same as the original wording. Comerscroft:] In Primary 1, my brother and his pals could expect the blackboard rubber across their bottoms. Enid was trying to become pregnant herself at that time, unsuccessfully, and "She tried to satisfy her maternal yearnings by seeing as much as she could of her young niece, Yvonne.

Naughty Elizabeth wants to put more than the allowable number of items on her chest-of-drawers and she doesn't want to share her tuck-box with the others and she decides that eight o'clock is decidedly too early to retire so she goes out for a swing instead but she comes up against a bossy boy who gives her an insight into yet another aspect of school-life. Elizabeth does not want to misbehave again, but someone tries to make sure that she does not forget her nickname of 'The Naughtiest Girl in the School'. If that is in fact the case, what a remarkable man Hanly must have been not to bear her any ill feeling that she didn't (presumably) offer to pay for her nephew to receive the same care her own daughter received.The main character is Elizabeth Allen, a very spoiled girl whose misbehaviour causes her governesses to leave. I did not have the courage to phone up all the Blytons and find Enid's brother like I wanted to because I was scared of my parents being angry about the phone bill and me phoning up strange people (I was very young). Elizabeth is shown round the large sunny classrooms, the well-equipped gym, and the lovely grounds which include the cricket fields, the tennis courts and the flower gardens.