There's an interesting article in one of today's papers about the Famous Five's diet being very healthy - here .

I'm afraid I always preferred the idea of all the fancy bread twists and cakes and whipped cream in the CS books, or at least the high teas full of crumpets and cake eaten in Enid Blyton's Adventure books. Hard-boiled eggs and ginger beer seem very boring by comparison .

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

Gosh - that's so interesting Alison. I've added my bit to it, asking about comparisons between Elinor and EB.

That's interesting, because I swear in some of Blyton's books, the meals are composed solely of sugar and carbohydrates....

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"I -- I didn't think!" -- Carola Johnstone

I read that too and really wasn't convinced by the writer's argument - I'm sure I remember Dick being famous for eating a whole batch of macaroons in one go, for example. I've always loved EB's food, picnics in particular, but partly because they are so gorgeous - even if they do have lettuce they have lots of cake too .

I think that the point that I took from it was that it was a good, healthy meal in austerity, i.e. when you can only afford the basics. I was heartened by the included reference to creamy milk - clearly not just EBD!

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"His distinguished air, his handsome dark face, his composed attitude - for he stood perfectly still with one hand at his side - gave singular effect to the circumstance of his being without a hat." - 'Tales of Angria'

Well the milk probably made a change from dried milk powder, which doesn't really sound as good and idyllic in a jug.

The argument about it being more obtainable than Elizabeth David's cookery made me laugh. Much as Anne was the housewife character, I can't see her cooking gourmet food.

In fact one of the only books I can think of where they need to consult a cookery book, while camping, is Ransome's Picts and Martyrs, where Dorothy buys a cook book to learn how to cook a rabbit that they were given, and that is given a living from the land aspect.

Surely at school as well, like the CS, all the kids would have been far more rationed. No getting as much as you can eat from the local friendly farmer whilst camping.

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‘He has only half learnt the art of reading who has not added to it the even more refined accomplishments of skipping and of skimming.’
Arthur Balfour,“The pleasures of reading” (1905)

Pupils at Enid Blyton's schools always seem to arrive armed with huge tuck boxes . Not quite the same as going out for the day with an enormous picnic and them coming home for an enormous high tea, though ... and they never seem to go on school outings with picnics and visits to cake shops like the CS girls do.

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

I love that part of the Picts and the Martyrs. Especially where Dick is rather ill as he deals with the insides of the bunny. And it is so atmospheric as they sit there all night waiting for it to stew, the smells, the steam (and Nancy appearing out of the rain).

It also sounds nicer than the tins of spam and scrambled eggs from a mixed dish the Swallows seem to live on!

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If sparkly vampires are impaled on a wooden stake do they bleed glitter?

I can't really see EBD approving of tuck boxes as the food at the CS is always so delicious. Midnight feasts of course make children ill and are totally unnecessary for the same reason.

They are allowed to have sweets and things, though - they're just supposed to tell Matey so she can ration them out appropriately . And we know they have birthdays cakes on special occasions.

But yes, EB was a lot less concerned about her children's diets than EBD was!

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"I wish I had more to do. All I do is read books all day," said no librarian ever.
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There are a few instances of schoolchildren eating away from school -- at Whyteleafe, the children are allowed to go to the town in pairs (seniors may go alone) and visit the tea shop, sweet shop, cinema, spend their pocket money, etc. Same in St. Clare's. It seems a lot less formal than in the Chalet School, though, where the girls are rounded up and taken places in large groups (in the Swiss books at least).

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"I -- I didn't think!" -- Carola Johnstone

My first thought is he needs all that food! The Five are always hiking, biking, swimming, crawling through caves, helping their hosts paint a henhouse -- they must burn serious calories combined with the usual adolescent activities such as growing and developing.

EBD's youths see a cup of coffee with a featherbed of whipped cream and a creamcake as a lavish experience; Blyton's crew, grubby and hungry after biking around the countryside all day, polish off plates of ham, veal pie, salad, hard-boiled eggs, and fresh raspberries and ice cream. I'm trying to figure out how they'd react if those meals were switched.

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"I -- I didn't think!" -- Carola Johnstone

Good question! EB's characters are rather less focused on specifically sweet treats/cakes/pastries, it seems to me - they are as enthusiastic about bunches of fresh baby carrots, hard-boiled eggs, fresh bread or hams as they are about apple tarts, fruitcakes or icecream, and EB lavishes just as much description on savoury foods as on sweet ones. Not that EB ignores savoury foods entirely - there's the inevitable buttery potato balls and Kalbsbraten dish, as well as various regional delicacies on halfterm expeditions - but she's pretty sweet-focused in terms of what really gets her juices flowing as a writer about food.

Not sure how they'd react to a switch - it's a bit hard to imagine! The focus in the Famous Five books (where they are so often sitting down in farmhouses to groaning spreads) is often on the freshness of the food, which wouldn't always be possible in the CS universe, where the isolation and climate of some of the school locations would mean there was more focus on preserved foods...?