The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton
I can't remember how young I was when I read these three books but I know that they fired my imagination and made me want to read ever single fairytale out there.

Yes Blyton was racist, sexist, and twee but for a child growing up in rural Kent this was a world I understood.

I so desperately wanted there to be fairies and pixies in the woods at the bottom of my garden.

I wanted there to be a giant tree in which people lived, where you could climb to the top and find other fantastic lands.

I wanted magic to be real.

I wanted Moonface and Silky to be my friends. I wanted to eat Pop Biscuits and go down the Slippery-Slip.


Who am I kidding....I still do!
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:17, 17 replies)

And one of the girls is called Fanny
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:22, closed)

Yep
And a boy comes to stay with them in one of the books...he's called Dick.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:22, closed)

Yay!
All my friends look at me funny when I say I want to live in the faraway tree and have moonface as a friend!

Did you read the Wishing Chair as well?
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:23, closed)

What Colonel Dracula said
My mum used to read this to me in a simpler time. Wasn't Moon-Face addicted to toffee?
( DrPrunesquallor is determined to post more as of, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:28, closed)

When I have kids
I'm going to make sure they read Enid Blyton. It captures childhood innocence so well.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:37, closed)

yes yes yes
I still want this to be true.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:42, closed)

I read the Wishing Chair
as an adult - to my class of 5 year olds after we had finished the MFT.
It's good, but not as good as the Faraway Tree.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:44, closed)

i think
i still have the trilogy somewhere, ready to read to my little boy! i remember being terrified when they were in the land that kept moving around and they couldnt get back to the top of the tree, the land was begining to move away from the top and if it did theyd be stuck there for a hundred years, too much suspense for a 5 year old!
(pogo_it, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:56, closed)

Oh yeah
Crikey it's all coming flooding back, what an odd, warm feeling.
(Beasers, Thu 15 May 2008, 16:59, closed)

Some of the lands were terrifying
Like Dame Slap's school!

In the new updated copies (which are crap IMHO)she's become Dame Shout or Sharp - she just shouts at the naughty pixies.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

They need a bloody good slap. Anyone will tell you that.

The land of Take What You Want - that was good.


And even now I still ponder on the idea of fish flavoured ice creams - I think that happened in the land of Birthdays. I bet that's where Heston Blumenthal got his ideas from.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:00, closed)

.
Click! Legendary stories!
(CptCoatHanger performed his last back-street abortion on, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:08, closed)

Franny
Yeah. They also change the girl's name to Frannie too, just so it doesn't offend delicate little children. .

The Dame Slap/Snap thing annoyed me too. There's a scene where Moonface comes in and is crying, saying that he's just had a terrible... scolding. Just doesn't work.
(calamarain just invented dehydrated water, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:39, closed)

Love them too
(and I still read them!)
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 15 May 2008, 21:20, closed)

that was the first book
that I read over and over again. I kept it hidden in my wardrobe so nobody else could read it - oh the memories
(whiskas loved by 8 out of 10 cats, Tue 20 May 2008, 10:42, closed)