The past is a different country. They do things differently there.

[Ecneps]

Thumps head with clenched hand!
In order to remind self never ever, however tempted, to post on topics like this 
I've learned that lesson on ToT but obviously not yet on other boards ...
Ah well, I've learned my lesson ...
Mea culpa!
JAP

JAP, you've done it again   

Barbara

[ricky1]

Thumps head with clenched hand!
In order to remind self never ever, however tempted, to post on topics like this 
I've learned that lesson on ToT but obviously not yet on other boards ...
Ah well, I've learned my lesson ...
Mea culpa!
JAP

JAP, you've done it again   

Barbara

 

I was looking for that posting Barbara

[JAP]

Hi Barbara, I can only say - Will I never ever learn  
I'm off to write 100 lines ...
Or to stand in the corner ...
Or to push the proverbial peanut round the room with my nose ...

However, having once posted there's nothing to be lost in posting again (and ever again) as this thread will still come up on "New Replies" regardless ...

Hi Lizzie, If you Google for:
boys + liberty + bodice
or
boys + liberty + bodices
or whatever
you might be amused  

Here in Aus, Enid Blyton's books were actually banned from school libraries at one stage!  Perhaps they still are?  On principle I could never in my wildest dreams support book banning - but I was close to abandoning those principles when it came to Blyton.

As for today's children ...  Well, all my grandchildren have been overseas (4 of the 5 in countries where English was not the first language) but the now 18yo and the now 10yo seemed to me to be great readers whenever I caught up with them.  There are a couple of overseas tinies who are not yet up to reading age but the other one who (now) lives near me reads beautifully (and with great expression) at the age of 6.  I wouldn't say that he reads the sort of turgid books that I did at age 6; but I guess that's because I didn't have all the current distractions - the excitement of wonderful programs on TV or of infinite numbers of toys to build with great imagination and so on ...

Of course, books are yet another matter where the past was a different country.  It is difficult to believe the racism and religious bigotry in books that we older RootsChatters read in our childhood (forget about sexism - that comes far behind racism and religious bigotry).  Think of Rudyard Kipling. Think of Biggles. Think of John Buchan.  I looked at them recently and was utterly appalled.

ricky1, You've lost me - so be it 

Cheers,

JAP

[ricky1]

 

How did you girls get in them, they look like straight jackets, or were they to stop us young lads

JAP

You aint doing it right you need one of these




 

[JenB]

I suspect that, if they were ever on sale in Australia, it would have been too far back for even the oldest of us RootsChatters to remember ...

Well, I was at junior school in the late '50's and although I never wore a liberty bodice, I can very clearly remember seeing other girls in my class wearing them.

Jennifer

[chinakay]

Okay, I'll bite...why were Enid Blyton's books banned from school libraries? I used to have a few of them...

Cheers,
China

[Ecneps]

I worked in a public library at the time, and they were thought not to have a wide enough vocabulary I believe, as well as being what we'd now call non-pc; they weren't banned, but we were supposed to encourage children to choose other authors and we didn't buy any new Blyton editions
 

Barbara

[O1dgobbo]

Enid Blyton's books were written to a formula and in very simple English.  In my school they were grouped with comics as an unnecessary distraction from reading the great authors, who just happened to bore us silly and put us off reading.

Fortunately, my parents took the view that reading anything was a good thing for children and they were happy to buy me comics, Enid Blyton and Biggles.  I did even try John Buchan once but decided that I preferred Bulldog Drummond!

Gobbo

[indiapaleale]

How sad that Enid Blyton would be banned.....or even discouraged.

I grew up in a household where my mother and father believed that reading was a waste of time....i.e. If you have time to sit and read then you have time to:
Help your mother
Work in the garden
Clean your shoes
Iron your school blouse

I read in bed with a torch..under the covers....and held my breath if Ma or Dad came up the stairs.

Enid Blyton was one of my escapes from the real world....as was Biggles.

OK...so it isn't great literature.......But it is a wonderful pathway into the world of books.

Indi
(See my Book Club thread)