Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The return of jolly japes: Publishers admit defeat on plans to modernise Enid Blyton


Enid Blyton's Famous Five books are among the best read children's novels of all time
Enid Blyton's Famous Five books are among the best read children's novels of all time

For generations, it was the language of their childhood: Enid Blyton’s intrepid young adventurers outwitting the grown-ups with their amateur sleuthing and lashings of ginger beer.
Now, the jolly japes of the Famous Five will be officially back on the bookshelves, after publishers admitted an attempt to modernise Blyton’s language has failed.

Hachette Children’s Group is to revert to classic Enid Blyton texts, after a 2010 policy to update the language “proved very unpopular”.

At the time, they had insisted: “These days you don't talk of jolly japes to kids."

But after updating the Famous Five novels to swap little-used words to their modern-day equivalents, the publishers have now bowed to the wishes of long-standing fans to reinstate the language of the 1940s.

MORE

No comments: