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Mr Tumpy is alive and his caravan is kicking

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

Noddy, Enid Blyton's most famous creation, had the exclusive right to provide taxi services in Toytown ...

"Unknown Enid Blyton story found" is the startling headline of the Press Association release that stunned the world with news of the chance finding of an unpublished novel by the creator of Noddy, The Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Malory Towers and  a generation of unashamedly politically incorrect "we-read-Noddy-and-it-didn't-do-us-any-harm" adults -- the infamous Enid Blyton.  The media release explains:

"Mr Tumpy's Caravan, an 180-page fantasy story thought to have been unknown previously, was found among a collection of manuscripts auctioned in September. The Seven Stories children's book centre in Newcastle paid around £40,000 for the haul .... Archivist Hannah Green then discovered the unpublished work, which follows the adventures of a caravan with feet and mind of its own [The feet are a novelty. Anyone who has tried driving with a caravan in tow will already know that it has a mind of its own]. 

A spokeswoman for the centre said: "... It's a very clean manuscript with no spelling mistakes." [Merpel's not surprised. The Enid Blyton stories she's read also didn't have any spelling mistakes. Ms B knew her limitations and didn't risk using difficult words she might have got wrong]. The manuscript was initially believed to be a version of a picture book called Mr Tumpy and His Caravan, which was compiled using comic strips, but the Enid Blyton Society confirmed it appeared to be a completely different book. 

Imogen Smallwood, Blyton's youngest daughter, told BBC News: 

"It's a whole book, written with words, about a completely different Mr Tumpy and indeed a completely different caravan ...".

Enid Blyton died in November 1968, says the IPKat, so her works will remain copyright-protected in life-plus-70-years countries till the end of 2038. But what intrigues him is the close similarity between the two titles of two apparently entirely different stories.  Merpel's not surprised: she points out that William Shakespeare did exactly the same thing with his plays.  The storyline in Henry IV Part I is totally different from Henry IV Part II, but after a new sniffs of the old catnip you can hardly spot the difference at all ...

Full post as published by IPKat on February 22, 2011 (boomark / email).