Last week I picked up an Enid Blyton book for the first time in more years than I care to admit to. I mentioned in my last post about the creative writing course that I’m taking and last weeks session was all about children’s literature. As part of this we were asked to revisit books from our childhood that had excited us and for me it had to be Enid’s Famous Five. There isn’t a particular one in the series that I have memories of, it’s just the excitement and adventure that ran through all of them. I think they were probably the first books that I read for myself and that sense of independence only added to the thrill at the time. It felt like my own little world
If you’ve never come across these books before they were a series based around four children – Julian, Dick, Anne & Georgina – and their dog Timmy. First published in 1942 and then annually until the early sixties each book contained an adventure that took place during the school holidays. Parents were always in the mix somewhere but they seemed to give their children the leeway to get involved in things that always had me hooked and desperate to know what was on the next page. Sometimes the adventures almost go a bit too much, in particular there was one story that saw some of the children get stuck in a cave. At the time of reading this my bed was against the wall and I know that for nights after I had to go to sleep facing out into the room ,as facing the wall reminded me of that scary cave.
One thing that only came to me last week on revisiting the books was just what an important part food played in them. We all know that children have big appetites but these seem to have been a particularly well fed bunch. I only flicked a few pages into Five Get Into Trouble and our heroes were sitting down to a meal of fresh bread rolls with anchovy paste, jam tarts, oranges, lime juice and cheese and lettuce sandwiches. What makes it all the more impressive is that this is a picnic packed up for them to take on a cycling trip. It’s an enticing selection now but when the book was published in 1949 at the hight of post war rationing it must have been absolutely mouthwatering. Food references then continue throughout the book. I’ve got it next to me as a write and just to prove a point a random opening has taken me to a scene where they’re enjoying bread and butter, hard boiled eggs and a jug of steaming cocoa. My favourite scene of all is when Anne decides that it must be awful to be a cow and only eat grass. Her reasoning being that they will never taste the delights of egg and lettuce sandwiches, ginger beer or chocolate eclairs. What I like is that Blyton is never just listing the foods that her characters eat, she’s taking you into the experience in a way that all good food writing does.
Cleary I’m not the only one to be struck by Famous Five food as I came across Jolly-Good-Food. A children’s cookbook by Allegra McEvedy that’s based on the food the Enid Blyton’s characters eat.
Perhaps I should buy myself a copy and write a Famous Five kitchen adventure.
David in the kitchen. 