A peek into a Blyton larder

A cluster of marigolds peeks from a teapot sitting pretty on a red-and-white checked tablecloth. Outside, a weathered picket fence flanks the soft sands by a sparkling ocean. Children with a cane basket head to picnic in the cove below. And, all of a sudden, sitting by a seaside café in Galle, I’m reminded of a childhood ghost — Smuggler Ben — and how one Blytonian summer I joined him to sail the Cornwall coast in his leaky boat, feasting on lettuce and ham sandwiches.

News that noted filmmaker Sam Mendes’ company is bringing to the big screen  The Faraway Tree  series puts the spotlight back on British children’s writer Enid Blyton. As much as she ruled the imagination of generations with pixies and fairies, adventures and mysteries and boarding school tales, Blyton had to make way for books that depicted the depressing reality of our times — from war and abuse to alien invasions -READ MORE -http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/a-peek-into-a-blyton-larder/article8055651.ece