Moonface's Story (The Magic Faraway Tree)

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Fanservice: Our heroes are captured by evil snowmen. Their solution is to stoke the fire in the room in which they're held prisoner. It gets so hot that Fanny wishes at one point that she could "take everything off". Cue the curiosity of young boy readers...

I feel quite fine and have a great feeling of self satisfaction, because I reread one of the best Children's books that I've read. Enid Blyton books don't have much depth, but the author knows about storytelling. How nice it is to know the English language, and come across such gems as The Faraway Tree trilogy. You know there are so many books out there that can make your head explode with new ideas, and take you to places you've never imagined before. I'll bet you can find a book that can really get your head spinning and make your brain go Topsy-Turvy. There are a few versions and recipes online already, but I’ve kinda gone my own way with it, of course the general outline of how this was done can really be done with any particular bun recipe that you want. I used a hot cross bun recipe, I really wanted that fluffy texture that’s not quite so sweet, with the subtle spiced flavours to have as a direct comparison to the burst of sweet sherbet from the inside. I just used a recipe from delightful adventures that I use all the time - I’ve never had it not work. I generally kind of tweak the recipe each time I make it by adding different things so the recipe below will be similar but not identical to theirs.

Saucepan joins up with them again in their next foray and as he's very prone to accidents there is a need to visit the Land of Magic to put right something that has happened to him. Poor old Saucepan Man — things go from bad to worse and the picture-panels with the couple of lines of script under them show us exactly what happens to the unfortunate individual. The picture-story moves on with visits to more lands and at one stage Moon-Face's little house is invaded by some horrible people from the Land of Quarrels. The next place to arrive above the Faraway Tree is Toyland which brings plenty of excitement and a little problem involving a couple of straying dolls. Eventually the book ends with a perfectly marvelous land where everyone indulges. Indulges in what? You will find out when you get hold of this fourth and last book in the Faraway Tree collection although there is further Faraway Tree adventure which isn't classed as a separate book not that it couldn't be in this day and age because even single Enid Blyton stories are appearing as mini-novels for young readers. Slightly averted with the Saucepan Man; his land moves on while he's visiting the Faraway Tree, but he's more than content to move in with Mr. Watizname. Took a Level in Badass: Evil goblins invade the Tree at one point, and everyone has to step up to the plate. Each fights according to their strength - Dame Washalot drenches them, the Angry Pixie lets his anger loose, Saucepan Man takes all his saucepans off and THROWS them as weapons (he's not recognized by the children when he appears without them later), Silky ties one up in her curtains, and Moon Face uses his slide (see below) as a trap to hold the subdued ones, with the lower door sealed shut. The lands at the top are sometimes extremely unpleasant – for example, the Land of Dame Slap (altered to Dame Snap in revised editions), an aggressive school teacher; and sometimes fantastically enjoyable - notably the Land of Birthdays, the Land of Goodies, the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of Do-As-You-Please. This story is the first story in the 'Magic Faraway Tree' series. It is actually not a single adventure but a collection of at least five different adventures that three children, Jo, Bessie, and Fanny, have after moving into the country. At the beginning of the book we are told that their father had got a job in the country, so they moved out to a cottage at the edge of an enchanted wood. We are not given much glimpse into the adult world here namely because not only is this a children's book, but we are looking at the world through the eyes of the children. The context that we can place this in though is that we are still in the Great Depression (there were not many jobs around) and the world was on the brink of war. However, to a child, many of these problems were far away, though they do come upon them occasionally. At one point in the story we are told that their father had lost a lot of money and they were struggling to make ends meet when all of the sudden the children return with the solution.

The premise is simple enough: a family from the city with three children (a boy and two girls) move out to the countryside. The children are told of an enchanted wood nearby and in that wood they discover a magic tree. Many magical folk live in the woods and up the tree, but at the very top of the tree is a ladder through the clouds to a magical land. The question is, which magical land will be through the clouds today? For it changes, quite regularly, you see. And you never know if the land through the clouds is nice or nasty – but you’re guaranteed an adventure! The tree is stuffed full of funny characters, like Mr. Watzisname, that's his actual name, because even he can't remember what he's called. Then there's Moon-Face, who has a big round face like the moon, with a huge smile on it. Excitedly, the children explore lands like the Land of Take-What-You-Want, the Land of Dame Slap, the Land of Topsy-Turvy, the Land of Spells, the Land of Goodies, the Land of Dreams and the glorious Land of Birthdays.notes: The first dustwrapper had a plain white spine with just the price in red on it. A red line drawing was added to the spine in January 1940 @ 4/- and it became plain white in March 1942 @ 5/- with the book reduced in size to 8¼ X 5¾. This was changed to a full-colour pictorial spine in November 1951 @ 7/-) Of course, the magical lands don't stay at the top of the tree for long, so you've got to know how to get home. In one story, when the children have rescued The Saucepan Man from a fortress, in the Land of Toys, they almost don't make it. Some of the worlds in the Faraway Tree shows up in another Blyton book, The Wishing Chair. Such as Topsy-Turvy Land and the Land of Goodies. So, I’m not sure they’ll make particularly gripping films, but I’ll probably be dragged to see them. Because, just like I did, my daughter loves them – even the Saucepan Man, whose bad hearing makes for endless (unbearable for an adult, hilarious for a child) jokes.

And then, then!, she allows one of them to SPEND THE NIGHT in parts unknown to her! Now times were different in 1943, but that one's just not on. No responsible adult has *ever* let a kid spend the night somewhere without knowing 1) where and 2) who and 3) when and how Sweetums will be going there and coming home.My other gripe is Saucepan Man. The children observe, "Saucepan was always very funny when he heard things wrong" -- I disagree. This joke was wearing thin in the first book. By this point I am rolling my eyes every time he hears wrong and causes yet another disaster. Still, in fairness, I do think I found this amusing when I was younger. I do have some bugbears, mostly that the 'pc-ifying' has seen it necessary to change some of the character names. Frankly I do not care if Fanny means something in one country that it doesn't mean in another - look at all the different meanings that we discovered 'Suri' had when someone decided to name their child that. Mostly though, Dame Snap should have stayed Dame Slap, it was far more accurate a name for her and made her even more horrifying! My class agreed when I told them about this. The conceptual idea of a Faraway Tree was expressed in the mid 1930's when Enid Blyton produced a book that featured two children who also climb a Faraway Tree in an Enchanted Wood. Their father has a cousin who lives in the tree and would you believe it — the cousin's name is Moonface (without a hyphen). Now if we want to pursue this it can all get a bit strange because in Enid Blyton's New Noddy Colour Strip Book Noddy visits The Man in the Moon and accompanies him on a trip to the Faraway Tree where Moon-Face lives. It turns out that Moon-Face is The Man in the Moon's cousin so one could question the genetic make-up of the extended family — but I think it's best that we leave it there. The children learn of other inhabitants. There's one chap who's forgotten his name, and there's a large owl and also a washer-woman who lives near the top. When I first read about this resident laundress I visualized her balancing on a broad branch with a kind of cauldron in which she did all her washing. The woman whose name is appropriately Dame Washalot would have possessed her own house in the tree-trunk and probably washed the clothes inside but how on earth would she get rid of the water? The children receive the answer to this question — particularly Bessie! The Faraway Tree Series written by the much beloved Enid Blyton was one of my favorite book series when I was a kid. In fact, I’d be wrong to say it was. The book still is, and will always be very close to my heart.

Soon they were all sitting on the broad branches outside Moon-Face’s house, eating Pop Biscuits and Google Buns. The buns were most peculiar. They each had a very large currant in the middle, and this was filled with sherbet. So when you got to the currant and bit it the sherbet frothed out and filled your mouth with fine bubbles that tasted delicious. The children got a real surprise when they bit their currants, and Moon-Face almost fell off the branch with laughing.”Another repeated (again and again and again and again) 'gag' is where the Old Saucepan Man miss-hears every second thing said to him. "Can I have that?" "A rat you say? Where? I don't see a rat!" And on it goes. How we ... laughed.