Monday Musing .... on Tuesday ;)

I have pretty much worked out 'Monday Musing' is just an excuse for me (or Lela if she is inspired to as well) to write a post about whatever comes into my head. Consider this your warning! This post is waffley and really has no point :)

Today I don't have any inspirational quote. Nothing has sprung to mind and plus you might be sick of me philosophising by now! Today I am musing on my muse. I fell in love with history when I was about 6 or 7 and I took out a book from my school library on children in 'olden days'. It really was the olden days late nineteenth history I think from memory. Then a children's book followed on English history. The story I remember was of one of the boy kings and a whipping boy for when he got into trouble! (I can't remember which king it was now.) Followed by the story of the princes smothered in the tower.

A few years later, my mum gave me some Jean Plaidy books to read. I must have been about 10? Maybe even younger. I was hooked. After high school, I went on to study history at university (specialising in European and Australian history) and completed my Honours thesis on a topic about late nineteenth century England.

The point of this waffle isn't to point out how much I know. If anything it is me reflecting on how little I know. I am only too aware of how little I have really studied. I grew up reading not only a Enid Blyton, but a lot of other children's books from around that era. Many years of reading, fiction and non-fiction, has given me a mental image of what it is like. So, for those of you who bothered about reading my musing to the end, the question is, will I ever be ready for the shock of the reality? And is it really weird I have spent so much time studying places I have never been?

Cath xx

Monday Musing - Enid

I love to read and like so many people Enid Blyton gave me my first adventures into the wonderful world of books. So much so I remember being forced to consider that there were other authors out there that might be worth my attention! As a parent, I now love it when my children get excited about the same books I loved when I was their age. Many of these, of course, are Enid Blyton books. As these stories are one of the things that make England one of my dream destinations, I thought this was appropriate place to blog about her!



One of my friends suggested I watch the movie "Enid" starring Helen Bonham Carter.Helen Bonham Carter never would have been the person I would have imagined as Enid Blyton. She was brilliant as always. Although I wasn't expecting quite so much of the 'Red Queen' feel to come through.

Be warned! The movie is very much based on Enid Blyton's life and not on her books and is not a cozy ginger-beer drinking, midnight-feasting, adventure story complete with pixies and eccentric French mistress and a mystery to solve. The movie shows a different side to the still popular author and if you think it will alter your view of books don't watch it. However if you are enjoy biographies you will like this movie. It is important to note it is a movie based on true events and of course the writers have exercised poetic license.

While the insight into the private life of Enid Blyton might not have been one I was expecting, I love biographies and enjoyed the movie. And my love of her books has certainly not changed.