This almost ducked under our radar, but on sale now in all good newsagents and supermarkets is a one-shot magazine celebrating author Enid Blyton, published by DC Thomson.
The adventures of The Famous Five and the mysteries of The Secret Seven feature in This Is Enid Blyton, a one-off special magazine, celebrating the escapades of Enid Blyton’s best-loved characters.
This isn’t the first time Blyton’s characters have appeared on the UK new stand of course – we detailed several comics and magazines that featured her characters the Famous Five, including Look-In, just last year, and followed that up with artist John Ridgway‘s memories of working on Egmont’s Enid Blyton Adventure Magazine in the 1980s.
Aimed at children aged 7-12, the 36-page magazine includes engaging features, quizzes, recipes and puzzles, a Famous Five mini mag with writing tips, stories and a how to draw Timmy (the Famous Five dog) section.
The magazine comes with four free gifts including pencils, stickers, an extra puzzle magazine, and a full Secret Seven book.
DC Thomson Media acquired the magazine rights to from Katie Price, Licensing Director at Enid Blyton Entertainment, part of the Hachette Children’s Group.
Enid Blyton is one of the world’s bestselling children’s authors. Sales of her books are in excess of 500 million copies, and they have been translated into over 40 languages. In 2017, she was the UK’s 12th biggest-selling children’s author, selling a book every two minutes, and appeared in the top ten of Canon’s 2017 The 50 Greatest Storytellers of All Time poll.
Sian Dolan, Editor of This Is Enid Blyton, said, “With Enid Blyton’s books still being so popular, This Is Enid Blyton magazine offers a multi-generational appeal, providing quality reading time for adults and children to enjoy together.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with the team at Hachette Children’s Group to create a magazine celebrating Enid Blyton’s most popular child adventurers from The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.”
“Readers will love joining childhood favourites such as Julian and George, Peter and Janet – and, of course, dear old Timmy in this fantastic reimagining of some of Enid Blyton’s best-loved books.”
“Enid Blyton was the editor of a magazine called Sunny Stories for Little Folks from the mid-1920s and then published her very own magazine in 1953,” commented Katie Price, Licensing Director at Enid Blyton Entertainment, part of the Hachette Children’s Group.
“I’m sure she would have been delighted to see This is Enid Blyton on shelves in 2018. It really does show how timeless Enid Blyton’s stories are today.
“I would have loved to have had a magazine like when I was growing up, especially with a Secret Seven book as a cover mount!”
• This Is Enid Blyton is on sale now available from all good retailers and DC Thomson Shop for £4.99
• Read our feature on The Famous Five in comics here
• Read artist John Ridgway’s recollections of working on the Enid Blyton Adventure Magazine here
MORE ABOUT ENID BLYTON
• Official Site: www.enidblyton.co.uk | Famous Five Books
The Enid Blyton has a great listing of every Enid Blyton-related periodical here
- About the Author
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: downthetubes News, Magazines