If anyone actually pays attention to my profile, they wil notice that the above book by Enid Blyton is my favourite book ever. This is because it started my reading independently which led onto "To Kill A Mocking Bird" "Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice" and what not

Anyway, I have been wanting to buy a copy of this for ages as Bored Jr has been reading the Secret Seven books and I thought it would be great for him to read MGC (and I secretly wanted to re-read it)

Finally I was alerted to the possibility of buying "The Circus Trilogy" plus two other books in a collection for £20 from Amazon. I ordered them.

Now the reason I have had to wait so long is that "Mr Galliano's Circus" and the whole of the trilogy has been out of print for years.

Considering when it was written and the subject matter, I assumed this was possibly because there was possibly stereotyping of, maybe, gypsies or funfair folk as thieves or something.

I skim-read the book to make sure and, within three pages, was being introduced to one of characters' dogs who were called "Darky" and "Nigger"

I am wondering how I am going to get around this when I read it to Bored Jr.

I suppose "Darky" might be Ok if he is a dark-coloured dog but I can't go anywhere with the other

I don't know if I can even use the Huckleberry Finn argument here (another book I want to get for Marley)

How did you cover off the gollywogs during the Noddy phase?

A quick wiki search reveals that she was born just around the corner from EIM's current digs (354 Lordship Lane, Dulwich).

Bloody hell. Twenty books a year. She didn't muck about did she.

I loved that series too, innocent days.

How about:

"I've got you this great book, but one of the words in it isn't used any more because it isn't polite."

If reading aloud you could always do the "his dog's name is Ni(dong)" as in Blazing Saddles.

Marley only saw the recent Noddy series and all books were relatively recent and nasty-word-free

Oh forget it.

Oh go on, I am intrigued now

I made the same joke as Nogoalsnoglory but clumsier and less funny. Sorry about that.

Bored Of Discipline wrote:

QUOTE:
Marley only saw the recent Noddy series and all books were relatively recent and nasty-word-free

There's a recent Noddy series? Written by someone other than Enid Blyton, you mean?

Sorry, meant the TV series which were all written by Enid Blyton but rewritten by someone else

Great Moments in British Literature



apparently, the three main characters' names were "gollie", "woggie" and "nigger"

See also Rupert Visits Coon Island, which is right up there in my books with Paddington Joins the National Front