About Me

(if you're really that interested)

I am a 27 year old married mother of two, and I work in administration in a small software company. I have never left my homeland of Australia (not yet, anyway), and I was born and bred in Victoria. I am currently living in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs.

I first came across Enid Blyton books as a six year old when my parents bought an old school house in a remote part of Victoria. The town had been deserted when the gold ran out (I think around the 1960s), and the school house was still intact—as if the children had gone out to play and never come back. The writing was still on the blackboard, the inkwells were full of dry ink, and there were old books in a huge book cupboard. Some of these were Enid Blyton's Secret Seven. I read them several times, and over the years compiled more and more of the older style cloth-cover books from the 50s and 60s, from op shops (they cost about 20 cents then, back in the 80s), including mostly Secret Seven and Five-Find Outers books. I also had one or two Famous Fives and, from memory, a Brer Rabbit, Tales of Toyland, and The Enchanted Wood. Not a huge collection, but I did love them. I must have read them all at least fifty times—living in such an isolated part of Victoria I was only able to go to school once a week and did home schooling the rest of the time. We had no TV and no other children to play with other than my brothers and sisters, so Blyton books were my escape into a place of mystery and excitement.

I kept re-reading these old favourites occasionally even into my early teens, especially when I was ill or upset. They became more of a calming influence after the stories had been read so many times the excitement of the plot had worn off. I finally gave them to my younger brother who also loved reading anything he could get his hands on. That was the last I saw of them. My mother decided one day that they were "just old books" and threw them away after I had moved out of home and married.

That was when I decided to replace the books I had lost. I scoured old bookstores and antique shops and replaced those books I had before, but by then I had the bug and wanted a more complete collection. I have since collected well over a hundred and fifty books and am still going. I have also found many others who feel the same way as me via internet forums—at least I know I'm not alone!

As I'm sure any Blyton enthusiast will agree, nothing can beat curling up with a cup of coffee and going off into the dreamworld of Blyton characters, where adventures and mysteries abound, bad guys always get caught, and children escape to faraway lands. What could be better?

This is completely off topic as far as Blyton goes, but there is no "me" without my belief in God. So it really does deserve a mention in my "About Me" page. If you're interested in knowing more about my faith and exactly what I believe, see My Personal Beliefs.

My collection of Enid Blyton books is now online! If you want to see it click here.

Please also visit Jewellery for Kidslink, my other pet project that I try to find time for when I'm not doing something Blytonish.

A listing of some of my favourite Enid Blyton things:

Series	The Five Find-Outer (Mystery) Series
Childhood Book	The Mystery of the Hidden House
Book as an Adult	The Valley of Adventure (disregarding nostalgia - I only read this as an adult)
Character	Fatty of course! (Nobody else comes close)
Internet Forum	The Yahoo Blyton Group
Websites	See the Best of Blyton on my Weblinks page

A listing of some of my favourite (non-blyton) things:

Colour	Purple
Flower	Purple Lilies
Food	Depends on the day/time/mood, but I can't live without bread, eggs and cheese!
Quote	"This is true religion: true religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom. Love thy neighbour is not a piece of advice, it’s a command. And that means a lot. That means a lot. That means that in the global village we’re going to have to start loving a whole lot more people, that’s what that means."	Bono (U2) NAACP acceptance speech, 2007
Dessert	Lemon Cheesecake
Bands	Holly Throsby, The Cat Empire, Missy Higgins, Sarah Blasko
Songs	Siente (Cat Empire) This Is How It Goes (Missy Higgins) Oh Honey (The Audreys) Zebra (The John Butler Trio)
Movie	Dirty Dancing