We might have confused some of you hip modern readers with the above headline. What the gubbins is this book thing we're talking about? You may have heard about one of these strange objects but aren't these strange creations just items that appear in museums and old fashioned buildings known as libraries?
These days, traditional print media is being replaced by glass and electronics courtesy of iPads and Kindles. All this basically means, is that, if posh people get in to fights, they can glass someone with an educational device.
However, in the olden days, Enid Blyton wrote things that ended up on ‘paper’. And she was rather successful. She was one of the most famous children?s storytellers who ever lived and she's estimated to have sold around 500 million books around the world. A new work entitled Mr Tumpy’s Caravan might provide a moment of nostalgia for those who read her works when growing up.
Blyton basically wrote short stories or children?s novels. Or, mystery detectives or tales of fantasy bollocks. Looking back at her work, especially the books from the Famous Five series, they?d probably be banned today under hyper sensitive political correctness.
Every holiday, a gang of happy go lucky children would visit their Aunt Fannies house and foil smugglers, kidnappers and Michael Jackson types.
However one character in particular called Georgina went in to constant strops because she wanted to boy. Not just dressing as a male, but to be known as someone called George. These days we assume that authors encouraging children to indulge in cross dressing or contemplating a sex change wouldn't go down well.
So what’s Mr Trumpy?s Crappyvan all about?
?Mr Tumpy’s Caravan follows the adventures of a caravan with feet and a mind of its own. Together with Mr Tumpy, his friends and a dog called Bun-Dorg, it crosses an ocean before facing a dog-headed dragon in an attempt to save a princess’s land. It was initially believed to have been a version of a picture book called Mr Tumpy and His Caravan, compiled using comic strips published in the London Evening Standard in the 1940s.?
However, there is still that problem of encouraging children to read. If the slightly weird sounding book was to be published, it wouldn't make much sense to a modern audience.
These days, the most reading children do is how to fire the mega attack death kill stun electric ray gun in the instruction guide in their latest PS3 game where they have to destroy zombie lackeys on their way to the office of the undead.
A mash-up for TV then?
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cleave says
This is simply wizard news! I’ve been a huge Blyton fan ever since reading “Digby the idle spade” at school