A new Enid Blyton novel discovered

A manuscript of a previously unknown Enid Blyton novel has been discovered in a children's book centre.

Mr Tumpy's Caravan is a 180-page fantasy about a caravan with a mind of its own. The story features a princess in a foreign land, a dog-headed dragon and a pet dog called Bun-Dorg.

It was included in a collection of manuscripts auctioned by the Blyton family in September and bought by the Seven Stories centre in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Initially, staff believed it to be a version of a comic strip collection entitled Mr Tumpy and His Caravan, which was published in 1949. However, after consulting experts they realised that the characters and plot were entirely different, and only the name remained the same. The address on the typescript - ''Old Thatch, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire'' - dates it to early in Blyton's writing career, as she left there in 1938.

Tony Summerfield, of the Enid Blyton Society, said: ''This story had been sitting unnoticed in a pile of manuscripts, I guess in a bottom drawer, and I don't think anybody fully understood what it was. The chapter titles are pretty naive and I think this was a very early attempt at a novel, perhaps one that was sent to a publisher in the early 1930s and rejected. It is unique. I am certain there are no other Enid Blyton manuscripts sitting around.''

Seven Stories paid £40,000 ($65,000) for the archive, which includes draft copies of the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Noddy and Malory Towers stories. It was auctioned following the death of Blyton's elder daughter, Gillian Baverstock.

Blyton's younger daughter, Imogen Smallwood, told the BBC: ''There's always excitement when an unknown typescript is found of anybody's who is well-known. Because this wasn't even known about, it has to rank quite high.''

Blyton died in 1968 at the age of 71.
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The first time I celebrated Christmas was in 1968. I thought like Chinese New Year I would get the usual red packet (ang pow)instead to my surprise,I got a book titled "Five On A Treasure Island" written by Enid Blyton.

I finished reading the book within a day and got hook on the Famous Five. So every month I look forward for my pocket allowance to buy a Famous Five book.

So imagine my surprise that none of my children bother to read or found it interesting enough to finish reading a single book by Enid Blyton, though I have the whole series for their reading purpose. Children nowadays are too engross over Television and Computers.

So if you are like me whose first story book was written by Enid Blyton and have a collection, keep them for your grandchildren.