I remember, as a child, I would simply love the adventure world of Enid Blyton novels. Apart from elves with ears shaped like long banana leaves, dwarfs with red button like noses, pixies with their golden magic dust, each of the adventures were in far-off lands that were also great treats for the senses.
Mouth watering description of exotic food and delicacies in Enid Blyton stories were such delightful treats! For Indian children reading Blyton, this was an added attraction in the lusciously descriptive plots.
Think of “lashings of hard-boiled eggs”, “enormous tureen(s) of new potatoes, all gleaming with melted butter, scattered with parsley”, “home-made salad cream”, “cream-cheese”, “fruit-cakes”, “drop-scones”, “pork-pies”, “soft-centred pop biscuits and toffee shocks”, “liquorice candy”, “barley sugars”, “tinned sardines in tomato sauce”, “pickled onions”, “pork pies”, “anchovy paste”, sausages, chocolates, jam tarts and eclairs and “lashings of ginger beer”! It sounded both delightful and foreign, and promised absolute delight to the taste-buds in our imagination.
For nine or ten year olds who had just started reading the author’s books, picturing inside their heads the meals that the gang of five cousins or the secret team of seven friends would have on their Sunday picnics or away on some trekking adventure to the hills, would be unforgettable treats.
I remember how I craved to see how scones or pork pies or apple-tarts looked like in particular. Not only is her descriptive style of writing fanciful to the child’s imagination, it is also evocative of curiosity.
On the birthday of Blyton on August 11, The Chabar at Oxford Bookstore launched a Blyton themed Breakfast – for two weeks (till August 26) – to recreate the world of charm amidst the British moors here in the heart of the once colonial capital of Kolkata.
Though the special treat lasts for two weeks, the day of her birthday also witnessed fun events with children and their parents taking part. The breakfast menu boasted of items like “Faraway Tree Toasties”, “Sea-Side Picnic Sandwich”, “Kirrin Island Tongue Sandwich”, “Aunt Fanny’s Special Homemade Lemonade”, “Mr Jumbo’s Chocolate Muffin” and a lot more.
There were puzzles and quizzes that the children could solve. For instance, a game of Hangman involved questions like “who is Georgina’s best friend?” – that required kids to be involved in the more popular adventure series by the author.
The one that was most enjoyable was the mystery room game modelled after the puzzles the children encountered in the adventures and the mysteries they cracked.
Beautifully decorated to create an ambiance of a lost world of juvenile joy and charm, the Chabar also arranged for a photo-booth with beautifully illustrated posters of Blyton’s most popular books for the kids and parents to take pictures.
One of the parents, Payel Mohta said, “I don’t see the same interest in today’s kids as we had in the author when we were children. So I introduced him to The Famous Five and The Secret Seven series.” Her son Shubham who won a quiz event said, “Peter from The Secret Seven is my favourite character. I like him because he comes up with all the interesting ideas”.