Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (1937) The Wishing-Chair Again (1950) More Wishing-Chair Stories (2000) | |
Author | Enid Blyton |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's fiction, fantasy |
Published in English | 1937–2000 |
No. of books | 3 |
The Wishing-Chair is a series of two novels by the English author Enid Blyton, and a third book published in 2000 compiled from Blyton's short stories. The three children's stories are as follows:
The first book, Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, has the distinction of being Enid Blyton's first full-length novel — although it is episodic in nature. A TV series was made in 1998 as part of Enid Blytons Enchanted Lands.
Mollie and Peter, searching for a birthday present for their mother, find a mysterious antiques shop which appears to be run by fairy folk. There, they find a magic Wishing-Chair with the power to grow wings and fly. After the chair rescues them from the shop, and gets them home, they decide to keep the chair in their playroom. On their first adventure, they rescue a pixie called Chinky (renamed to Binky in revised editions and Jigs in the TV series) [1] from a giant. The pixie comes to live in their playroom, and the remainder of the book concerns the adventures of the children, as the chair takes them, and Chinky to various magical places.
It's the first day of the summer holidays and Peter and Mollie are dying to go on more adventures with their Wishing-Chair. Peter inadvertently asks to go to the land of "Goodness-Knows-Where", but in the process of going there the Wishing-Chair is stolen. They eventually get it back and a few days later, the Wishing-Chair only grows three wings. They end up in the Land of Slipperies and when Peter offends one of them, they retaliate by chopping all the chair's wings off, so they get some ointment which grows the wings back.
On the next rainy day, they inadvertently grow wings on their toys and the toys end up at Mr Grim's school where mischievous brownies are sent. They befriend a brownie called Winks and successfully get Mr Grim to relinquish the toys. Winks takes up residence in Peter and Mollie's house and they take him on adventures, but on the last day of the holidays, he is sent back to Mr Grim's school for being too naughty.
In this final book, Mollie and Peter are home for the half-term holiday and Chinky (or Binky) and the Wishing-Chair are ready to fly away with them to magical lands. They visit the Land of Wishes, the Land of Scally-Wags and help Santa Claus deliver presents on Christmas Eve.
Published in 2000, the book is a compilation of stories made up from removed chapters of the previous books as well as material from Sunny Stories and Enid Blyton's Omnibus! [2]
An animated series, Enid Blyton's Enchanted Lands, based on stories from The Wishing Chair and The Faraway Tree series was broadcast in 1997 and 1998. A selection of episodes, "The Ho Ho Wizard", "The Grabbit Gnomes", "Poor Lost Jigs", "The Land of Dreams", "The Disappearing Islands", "The Magician's Party" and "The Chair Clowns About" were later released on VHS and DVD. The complete series was later released on VHS in 1999 on 2 separate tapes with 6 other episodes added which included: "The Invisible Chair", "The Great Escape", "The Snoogle", "The Slipperies", "The Land of Goodies" and "Mr Spells and the Wandering Castle". The voice cast were: Richard Pearce, Julia Harrison-Jones, Mark Channon, Nigel Pelgram, Adrienne Posta and David Holt. The series was made by the BBC and aired on CBBC on Choice.
The wishing-chair is briefly seen at the end of The Black Dossier by Alan Moore.
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The Secret Seven or Secret Seven Society is a fictional group of child detectives created by Enid Blyton and based on the publisher's children. They appear in one of several adolescent detective series which Blyton wrote.
The Faraway Tree is a series of popular novels for children by British author Enid Blyton. The titles in the series are The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951).
Noddy is an English character created by English children's author Enid Blyton. Noddy first appeared in a book series published between 1949 and 1963, illustrated by the Dutch artist Harmsen van der Beek from 1949 until his death in 1953, after which the work was continued by Peter Wienk. Television shows based on the character have run on British television since 1955.
Chorion Limited was a multinational media production company with offices in London, New York, and Sydney. The company produced TV shows and feature films, and was best known for its portfolio of entertainment brands. These included children's characters such as Paddington Bear, Peter Rabbit, The Mr. Men Show, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Olivia, Gaspard and Lisa and Noddy. The company also owned the rights to the Agatha Christie Estate, Raymond Chandler, and Georges Simenon.
The children's books of Enid Blyton were illustrated by a large number of artists, ranging from figures known for other work to humbler commercial artists, who in some cases were anonymous. Since the Blyton texts mainly used very simple language, the work of the illustrators was an important part of the appeal of many of the works.
Five Go Mad in Dorset was the first of three Five Go Mad specials from the long-running series of The Comic Strip Presents... television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4, and was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Bob Spiers. It was entirely filmed in Devon rather than Dorset.
The Book of Brownies is a book by Enid Blyton published in 1926.
This is a list of 762 books by Enid Blyton (1897–1968), an English children's writer who also wrote under the pseudonym of Mary Pollock. She was one of the most successful children's storytellers of the 20th century.
Toyland may refer to:
The Young Adventurers is a collection of books written by Enid Blyton, also known as The Riddle Series.
Dorothy Muriel Wheeler (1891–1966) was an English illustrator. She studied at the Blackheath School of Art, where her principal media were watercolour and ink. She designed children's book illustrations, postcards and comic strips.
The Adventurous Four is a series of two novels and one short story written by Enid Blyton. The stories revolve around twins Jill and Mary, their elder brother Tom and their fisher friend Andy. The characters are from World War II England while the stories were set in Scotland. The first book was published in 1941 during wartime.
Sunny Stories was a children's magazine published by George Newnes Ltd in the United Kingdom in the first half of the 20th century. It began as Sunny Stories for Little Folk in 1926 and was edited and written by Enid Blyton although she was only credited as the editor. Owing to Blyton's increasing popularity during the 1930s the magazine was renamed Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories in January 1937 and began serving as a vehicle for Blyton's books, which appeared as serials. Copies were sold for 2d.
The Old Thatch series is a book series by Enid Blyton. The first book, The Talking Teapot and Other Tales, appeared in 1934.
Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock was a British publishing editor, who served as a soldier in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the First World War and in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in the Second World War. Married three times, he was the first husband of Enid Blyton, and then Ida Pollock, both writers.
Peter Pan is a Disney media franchise based on J. M. Barrie's original 1904 play and 1911 novel, which officially commenced with the 1952 theatrical film Peter Pan. The spin-off film series Tinker Bell has continued this franchise into the 21st century.
George Newnes Ltd is a British publisher. The company was founded in 1891 by George Newnes (1851–1910), considered a founding father of popular journalism. Newnes published such magazines and periodicals as Tit-Bits, The Wide World Magazine, The Captain, The Strand Magazine, The Grand Magazine, John O'London's Weekly, Sunny Stories for Little Folk, Woman's Own, and the "Practical" line of magazines overseen by editor Frederick J. Camm. Long after the founder's death, Newnes was known for publishing ground-breaking consumer magazines such as Nova.
Rene Mable Neighbor Cloke was a British illustrator and watercolorist best known for her prolific output of artwork for children's books and greeting cards. Her work often displayed a whimsical quality, with frequent subjects being flora and fauna, pixies, fairies, sprites, and elves.
Minor editorial amendments have been made to the books over the years for sensitivity reasons, including in 2018 changing the name of the main pixie character to Binky.