The return of jolly japes

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.

The policy, announced in trade magazine Bookseller, will see “mum and dad” returned to “mother and father”, “dresses” changed back to “frocks” and “Golly!” put back as the exclamation du jour.

The Enid Blyton Society welcomed the changes; with founder Tony Summerfield admitting he had found the 2010 idea that anyone could improve Blyton’s own language “staggering” and “almost conceited”.

Anne McNeil, senior publisher at Hachette, said the decision to undertake a “sensitive reworking” had been reversed after fans made their opinions clear.

“Essentially we were looking at dialogue and making sure it worked for a contemporary audience,” she said.
“It was a very subtle change and thoroughly researched but proved very unpopular.

We thought it was a necessary step but it wasn’t. So we are reverting to the extant classic text.”

"The core values of Enid Blyton remain as strong as they ever were. She believed in children..., their ability to hold true friendships, their sense of adventure and their integrity,” she said.

"With the Famous Five, if you add in a dose of the outdoors and brilliant problem solving plots, you can see why she is as important now, as ever.

Phrases like jolly japes have come into the canon of terminology used about Enid Blyton: a short hand for her wonderful sense of fun and humour," she added.

The plans currently extend to the ‘Famous Five’ series, which will have new cover illustrations by Laura Ellen Andersen to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication of ‘Five on Treasure Island’.

They will join a box set of editions with the much-loved original artwork, by Eileen Soper.

It is the not the first time the language of the novels has been tweaked.

In the 1990s, publishers took the decision to edit outdated and potentially offensive language from the books, with references to “queer” becoming “peculiar” or “odd” and a passing mention of a golliwog in ‘Five on Treasure Island’ removed.

The 2010 update saw more extensive changes to the language, including new references to jeans instead of shorts, ice-creams instead of ices and a threat of George deserving a “spanking” changed to “a good talking to”.

Other contentious topics were tweaked, with the gender stereotypes raised by George’s insistence on wanting to be a boy toned down.

While the original text sees Anne saying "You see— I do like pretty frocks— and I love my dolls— and you can't do that if you're a boy”, the 2010 edition erases the final clause.

Summerfield said he approved of the decision to reverse the language change, with senior members of the Enid Blyton Society consulted by Hachette earlier this year.

Of the 2010 editions, he said: “They were seriously altered. Six to eight-line paragraphs sometimes turned into one sentence.

“At the time, I said I was staggered that anything thinks that somebody is able to write a book better than one of the bestselling authors of the 20th century.

“It’s almost conceited that someone thought they could do a better job. So I think what they are doing now is sensible.”

The new ‘Famous Five’ paperbacks will be released in May.

Source: The Telegraph