Although Ellie is an avid reader, she likes to be read to before going to bed. At the moment we are reading a trilogy of St. Clare's books by Enid Blyton. They are full of jolly japes: midnight feasts, tricks played on the hapless French teacher, numerous tennis matches and practising for the school play.
What we didn't know is that one of the books was not written by Enid Blyton, but by a Pamela Cox who, quite recently, has added a couple of books to the St. Clare's set. No doubt she was a big fan of Enid Blyton and saw the opportunity to fill in some of the 'spaces' in the original series, where there is a big jump from third form to sixth form.
You may think that Enid Blyton would be a fairly easy author to copy: her style and her choice of language is quite simple. However, Ellie and I immediately spot that something is wrong.
Number 1 - one of the girls wears nail polish. Sorry - NO ONE in Enid Blyton books wears nail varnish. Even when the girls get to sixth form, they do not show an interest in boys, pop stars or fashion. Their focus is on winning a tennis match or concentrating on their studies.
Number 2 - at teatime one day, the girls sit down sit down to a salad. This is akin to blasphemy and an example of how politically correct we have become. Obviously modern girls cannot sit down to lashings of ginger beer, chocolate cake, cream buns, eclairs and ginger biscuits because that would be promoting bad eating habits and obesity. No! If you want to write like Enid Blyton, write like Enid Blyton. As she was, not as though she was born in the 21st century and at pains to make sure no one is offended, upset or marginalised. Please, no chia seeds, low fat milk or wholegrain bread. Get it right, will you, half the fun of these books is the description of the food. Now, pass the cream buns.
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