Pyramid Review
Lashings of Ginger Beer
Published by Beyond Belief Games
Written by Simon Washbourne
Illustrated by Allan Dotson, Burgess Sharrocks & Jay Forster
28-page saddle stitched black and white half-sized book; $6.00
Let us take you back half a century to a simpler age. An age when kids were happy with their lot. When a bicycle was something that you rode rather than a device for performing tricks upon. When music was listened to on a gramophone or on the Light Programme broadcast by the BBC rather than through a pair of earplugs. When England was a green and pleasant land, and not one bisected by three-lane motorways. When the railways ran on time and were yet to be blighted by the coming of the diesel engines that replaced the glory and romance of steam. This is a land known as Idyllic England, a pastoral country that never really was, but existed sometime after the war and before the arrival of rock 'n' roll.
Where it really existed is in the works of Enid Blyton a prolific English Children's author who created Noddy, The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, and others. It is easy to forget that in her day, Enid Blyton was as big as J.K. Rowling, but the adventures of her characters never involved anything quite as arcane. Their concerns were mainly enjoying the countryside, going for bicycle rides in the country, camping, and hearty meals. Along the way, of course, they fall into adventures, especially after spotting suspiciously nefarious adults doing strange things, perhaps villainous . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 26, 2003
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