Social media reset time

 

It was announced on Monday Under 16's would be banned from social media sites including Tic Tok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, X, Youtube (although Youtube kids might be exempted), Snapchat and Reddit.

In addition 16-18 year olds who are children will be subject to a curfew limiting hours online, the exact means not being specified as yet with the measures expected to be in effect Spring 2027.

In broad terms I agree having seen how much social media drama has moved into with hardly a day going by with pupils (purr-lease no students) and teachers dealing with matters that can just be an extension of traditional bullying, sexual matters shared for maximum emotional devastation and incitements for the most idiotic death inducing stunts. It's a long cry from scrumping apples, no homework and name calling.

Just on Monday a teacher had a child turn up late for class as they were on social media to 3am. Just think about that  -they are in no state to learn -, one pupil interviewed revealed they did 14hours a week  and more even when phones were allowed in school, another admitted his mate had a devasting time on social media and it upset him to see it.

It isn't that any kind of restrictions will be totally perfect but we have reach a crisis that everybody in society working with children are struggling to deal with and I hate to say it some adults are scarely any better either seeing the zombified masses, backs bent staring into screens as young children they are supposed to walking with are ignored.  It is clearly very addictive too. 

From my perspective things are out of control.

The big screen

Sometimes you feel you were between ways of living not least as that boy as today it is rare for children to be taken a lot to the Cinema - in our day they were in town and city centres rather than vast retail and leisure parks out of town - as many opt to stream films on large screen televisions instead

The cinema is different for being a very much a social experience as collectively you all respond to the film, talk with others before and after it has ended with Ooms and Ah's, holding on to the plush fold down seat.

One thing there was were cinema clubs for younsgsters with discounts for Saturday matinee showings so it was the place to go with your mates armed with some money for the film and popcorn.

A thing that was starting to change when I was first introduced to the cinema watching classic Disney productions like The Aristocats was while we'd be put in our best, thankfully at that point in proper short trousers, later on children like adults stopped dressing up for that and the theatre wearing jeans or jogging bottoms.

Girls wore pretty skirts and dresses aided by their mums.

For a period that great christmas stocking filler, the Annual, might of contained one dedicated to the stars of the the big screen with features on the latest films and leading actors and actresses of the sort of films we watched.

And they were films back then, not Movies that was so so American and looked down upon.

There were rules about behaviour while there and if you joined a cinema club, specific ones that breaking could lead to you being banned from the club.

Sometimes I feel it is sad so many youngster don't get the buzz of a Saturday off whatching a film with their mates, being in a nother world for a few hours.

My schoolwork

Golly gosh it's already a warm start to the day as I type up this blog early on Tuesday morning having just about cracked the failure to get to sleep thing by leaving all the electrics downstairs overnight often charging up.

Everybody learns differently some more chalk and talk, others by actually doing the task although as many of recall school seldom showed any inclination to adjust teaching methods to suit what is known about learning preferring to do things as its always been done.

Chalk and talk with copius note taking just never works with me really not least I can't remember more than a few words at time and am rubbish at spelling not least for being dyslexic.

The odd time I took part in any kind of a school recreation with actual lessons, having to dress in uniform and that just undelined to me what was wrong about the education I had as it just wasn't the case they took any consideration of my innate limitations and preferred to see as naughty inattentive boy who need a sharp reminder rather than saving anything like that to pure laziness or bad manners.

Sometimes you wonder if those who run things have really moved on some forty or so years in our understanding of peoples disabilities?

Online becomes off

Here we go after a rough few days, catching up and all of that.

Last week saw an announcement I was rather pleased to read about that covers part of this district which I feel matters and that is concerning the use, some might say misuse, of the Smartphone  by boys and girls at school and beyond.

The first thing was once social media site decided to have special rules and settings for those sixteen and under that include settings only a parent can adjust by default to limit what can be seen  and ensure parents who often are the ones buying the phone and it's mobile connection are aware of what they're up to.

As we weren't allowed in Adult Magazine and Sex shops at fourteen and often our folks were told if we'd been seen up to no good I agree totally even if more could be done.

It's a start.

The other is some local Academy Schools are are on the list to ban phone from being used in school grounds beyond a very narrow exemption list such was where such a phone is used to monitor Blood Sugar levels for a diabetic.

They will be handed in on arrival given some children may need them in the Phonebox free era we are in if they become unwell or need to contact home or school urgently and handed back at the end of school.

That should stop the continous low level distruption in the classroom from phones "going off", sharing content, attempting to film teachers, fellow pupils and the 50+ alerts the modern childs during school time.

Just imagine it a recess where you have to talk or play rather than doing the socially isolated zombie thing staring into the phone not actually getting a break from work!

Where schools have tried this it has transformed things for the good although like any addiction (and sadly it IS) the "cold turkey" period can be bit rough .

As much as I'd of loved to had had the internet at high school for keeping in touch and researching things I'm glad I didn't feel obliged to spend every other minute at home and at school focussed on social media  just having a kick about or playing Chess at the club Andy and I run instead.

R.I.P. Brian Trueman

On Tuesday September 3rd, we lost Brian Truman, aged 92, who wrote Dangermouse, Count Duckula its spin off series, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Cockleshell Bay plus Chorlton and the Wheelies all of which were amongst our favourite cartoons growing up.

He also presented Children's Hour, Clitheroe Kid, Scene at 6.30, Granada Reports, Brass Tacks and the much missed Screen Test that mixed quizes on current children's films with features on making your own short films.

Of those shows, Danger Mouse, whose main characters were voiced by Only Fools and Horses star David Jason and Carry On star Terry Scott, was perhaps the most famous.

Jason played the fearless hero, self-titled the "world's greatest secret agent", while Scott starred as his hapless sidekick, Penfold.

Trueman contributed to 79 episodes of the original Danger Mouse series, according to his IMDb page.

The original show ran from 1981 to 1992 and was brought back by the BBC from 2015 to 2019.

He was also credited for writing 11 episodes of the cartoon Count Duckula, tht was a spin off from Danger Mouse which followed the adventures of a vegetarian vampire obsessed with fame and wealth.

Count Duckula aired from 6 September 1988 to 16 February 1993 across four series; in all, 65 episodes were made, each about 22 minutes long.

All have been released on DVD in the UK, while only the first series has been released in North America.

The Magic Ball, Jamie and the Magic Torch  and Chorlton & The Wheelies.

He will be sadly missed by many of us.

Paws and Posts

Couple of things really this week as I'm melting a bit in the heat.

First a friend recently aquired a kitten after a period of being catless and is getting grips with such things as wanting to spend time cupboards and bedrooms and dealing with a kitten that very much knows what its favourite brand of cat meat is and who makes, turning its nose up at anything that's sub par.

While none of my cats ever were adopted or cats for rehoming, I recall the hair tearing out moments around finding out what it did like and then dealing with things like the make going out of stock in our shops with the cat defiant to the last over what constitutes "good tasting" food.

The other thing is more forum centred and it is please don't take images of minors and by either photoshopping or adding commentary link them to things that whatever you may feel about the activity or interest are seen as very much kink or otherwise sexual in nature.

We do get a fair chunk of "lurkers" plus being totally open to the public anyone from "Plod" to an actual child being able to peep in so linking kiddies to kink really is a bad idea unless you seriously want to lose the forum and leave ME with knocks on the door interviewed under caution.

If we tell about what you posted, for heaven's sake do show some understand of WHY what you posted was not acceptable and ARE prepared to keep within the rules.

 

Early 1970

 Early 1970 or perhaps the transition between 1969 and 1970 is the earliest period I have clear childhood memories of from playing near the railway line at the back of our house and with the wood louse near the trees between our garden and the busy road we were told never to cross on our own.

There were comics like Sparky that my Nan who lived two houses away bought me and I'd watch with my brothers Crackajack, play school at weekends as by that point I was in Infants and Blue Peter on the hazy black and bluey-white tv that stuggled in our area a to get a good enough BBC 2.

Another show we tended to watch together and this continued for quite a period after we moved was Top Of The Pops which would be followed up on the radio on Sunday evening by the official chart rundown.

Musically it was a cross over as we had still hits from the likes of Herman's Hermits and the Dave Clark Five and the Beach Boys although a group with connections to the Beatles being on their label Badfinger had their first hit, Come And Get It that sounded very much like a Paul McCartney song.

Indeed it near lt fooled me.

There were two records by new artists that make lasting earworm memory with me the first being Love Grows by the Edison Lighthouse.

The other was The Same Old Feeling by Pickettywitch.

Observant eyes will have spotted they were both written Tony Macaulay but with different co writers.

Perhaps the biggest suprise from that year was as we moved into it Two Little Boys performed by Rolf Harris got to the number one spot a tale of long lived boyhood friendship and as we left that year into 1971 Grandad by Clive Dunn who we all new from Dad's Army, the WW2 Home Guard based comedy show on BBC1.

It too was a song with enduring theme and message and that was sharing past events and lessons he'd learned along the way, valuing what older people had to offer in society and how that can help us grow so perhaps this image of an older Top Of The Pops audience sat around listening to him isn't so surprising as that's what as younger boys and girls we did around our own.

Just imagine what the nations grandads felt about mini skirts and hot pants!

It also was the era of the open season with me and my many Cap guns playing cowboys and indians with the smell of burned mini capsules on a roll having been fired following me in fairly short short trousers.

Back then boys playing in the garden or your own street with silver cap guns was less an issue as was going around with a pen knife.

Perhaps inadvertantly my folks had discovered the secret of getting me more mallible???

Consequencies

This kind of conversation at school lunch is so relatable you know.

One kid I hung out with, would hatch a master plan involving deception of Adult Authority figures in our lives such as Teachers or parents in really quite glowing terms about the ease it could be done we all should be in on it.

For our part our minds and our bottoms recalled the spankings we'd had for previous possibly lesser infractions in vivid technocolor so we'd look at each other and say 'meh', 'that can't really work out, John'

That was the beauty of a spanking: You recall the feeling so strongly you never want to go back so it deters you from inappropriate behaviour without getting into really lengthy explinations into why you shouldn't.

You feel the Zolt flash through and that's it.

School reminisces

The "Tuck Shop" was a staple that I had to get used to as at my previous schools being day ones had less of a need and did not provide anything like that with midday meals for those who didn't do sandwiches being the limit.

The Tuck Shop was the place that if you wanted a snack such as crisps, a chocolate bar or soft drinks you would go when it was open at recess and was run under supervision by older children and at our school the School Council would set and review what was sold, with a budget set by the School who would buy the stock from a Cash and Carry supplier.

Stock and prices were clearly indicated to try to save time from the inevitable "and how much is..." and everyone using had to join the line waiting their turn, a great British trait.

Unlike this school, the area for meals was seperate.

Being a boarding school routines were different because you lived and slept school life and that meant you had Breakfast at school, usually cereals and toast and part from the midday meal, you had your "tea" around 5pm which tended to be such british children staples as SpogBog aka spaghetti bolognese, fish fingers, meatballs and cornish pasties before evening activities.

School dress from past decades

Children's clothes especially school wear from the past have  always fascinated me.

This is very much 1971, familiar to anyone who read the school based stories popular from that era whose illustrations would be like this such as pre 1970's Enid Blyton. and around six terms after joining the Infants myself

The simplicity of it is what strikes me with a jumper or cardigan over a top with tie even if it might of been elasticated for us with short short trousers for us and either a grey skirt or pinafore dress for girls.

I find it interesting two are wearing red  rather than grey.

What I normally wear is very much the modern version and targeted more toward Infant and Juniors reflecting the changed attitude that saw as we entered the seventies high school boys going straight to long trousers which I did and still loath with a passion

Getting on with it

Sometimes I wonder where so much of my attitudes and behaviour comes from but it came to me the other day that there were several episodes that shaped it.

One was the occasions when I was at home where in theory at least my younger brother was looking after me although if this chronological age thing had anything to do with it it would of been the other way around.

Ours was a house like a good many back then that had a coal fire in the front room although we did burn the odd bit of wood and that although it wasn't a proper log burner that having spent what seemed like ages getting it going with firelighters, tindling and coal, you needed to keep well lit until it was time for bed in order for us to stay all cozy playing or watching tv.

He always seemed put out to be this kind of situation, thinking somehow my being disabled cost home unspecified lost opportunities and for good measures had a number of crazy ideas of one tended to be someone just HAD to make it possible for him to spend his money and still get more.

Unfortunately he took to psychologically bullying me in attempts to make up the difference, thinking if he kept it up I'd hand over either my pocket money or holiday funds to him that day and if that wasn't enough he come back the next day for more.

Well this particular evening it must of turned toward Eight PM as it had gotten dark and Mom and Dad had gone to some event in our district leaving him in charge as my older brother was on older teen business that you know you didn't ask much about.

It wasn't long before he kept putting forward demands for handing over my money saying I didn't need it that week and he wanted it one after another never letting go to the point he'd really wound me up and I chucked that money right into the fire saying if was going to get it when my back was turned then that was it.

To a large extent as you get older, you put it out of your mind  because to a large extent  you need to to get on with the rest of your life and in any event you wouldn't like to give him that power over you that he felt entitled to.

Fairly recently I told Mum about this and she was dumfounded to hear about had gone on.

Families

Some days things just come crashing to you,  a bit of the past that jolts you as if a meteor struck you as you were just walking along the pavement.

It was really about some thoughts that I had with my second best friend at high school at the time, she faced a lot of physical challenges in her life but she had hours of time to try to understand me and we were chatting would of been early 1982 about tv and what we saw mattered to us.

You know, the kind of totally random teen stuff that actually in hindsight was really pretty significant for how I saw and felt.

Let me explain. On commercial tv there was a long running American tv show about family life across the decades called The Waltons that featured this extended family sharing lifes ups and down together in rural Virginia, and the head of the family John Walton Snr, operated a lumber mill and supplemented their income with a small-scale farming. They took in people and shared a lot as a family united, attending church on Sundays.

That's probably was much as I need to say for the purposes of this entry as I'm not writing a essay on the series or anything as it's what's in more modern parlance a "Slice of life" series seeing the family grow and change over time in accordance with events such as the Great Depression, WW2, the Great Society and Civil Rights  era and so on.

The thing Linda and I were discussing was Family: what it means to be in a family, our involvement or interaction if you like with with Mum and Dad, your immediate siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. The extent it is a 'unit' and all that.

We were also comparing and contrasting our own relationships  with our families to what we had been watching.

In a lot of ways she saw many parallels  between that of how she cared for them as much as they had to do quite a lot for her and the fictional family we saw.

I once said half joking to Denise one breaktime If it was like mine, then everybody would be off doing totally their own thing, with Mum trying to hold the thing together and me behind a chair on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

That may sound kinda melodramatic but there was and still is the lack of bonds between everybody, no real sense of feeling for one another, for me it wasn't a place of safety with one sibling who'd think nothing of verbally and financially abusing me which wasn't really helped by my being able to spot in seconds any outright lies he was telling to get more for himself as he felt hard done to and obliged to report it.

That's before you bring in Dad who'd explode at the slightest thing, throwing stuff across the room, propelling me in a chair into corners like trash, threatening to burn down the house.

You see, that's the big comparison  between what family was like for her and for me and to open about this really hurt.

This whole experience left a big legacy with me, not least a very strong feeling of longing, almost desperation to loved and cared for.

What I wanted so much was physical and emotional intimacy, a feeling beyond mere words of what it means to 'belong', to be bonded and have bonds that outlast their very beginnings, that provide emotional comfort promoting personal confidence and development.

A relationship that would teach me what I needed to know to get by with people, to be able contribute to it, helping me to stand on my own two feet as a grounded individual within the wider unit.

A wider unit that shared a common purpose, the raising of and looking after that family that was prepared discipline me in a loving, structured, affectionate way so fulfilled my role and expectations within it and our wider community.

I wanted to be...in the Waltons family.

On relationships and life

Relationships not least family ones have  played a negative part in my upbringing from distancing, not willing to get close to me or to encourage me to get closer, being more overly affectionate as well as a sense of suspicions between family members that just corroded any meaningful sense of trust and security I ever had.

Living in a world where you always watched your back, where telephone conversations were bugged, people lurked behind doors listening in  and mail read took its toll on me even to the point I was writing or drawing stuff about it in my teens on correspondence and never kept a formal diary in case it was read which it would.

What I long for as an adult little boy is the simple love and affection of a forever mother and father figure who will help me feel loved, wanted and secure so I can grow.
Is that too much to ask?

The value of being there

As this week gone two irreplaceable public figures who I knew personally have died, it's time to talk about what matters.

It always seemed to me the best moments were the unplanned, unscripted ones where you just gave something a shot for the heck of it, seeing how it might come out not that I'd suggest going out for overnight hiking trip without planning it and making a checklist.

No just things like taking a piece of paper and just getting down an idea in your head whither or not it's a drawing or words or making something using techniques you'd not previously used.

The other thing really is having done it, that feeling of satisfaction and the need we have to share it with people who care about us which might be making that phone call to say you won something or like the boy here, showing Mum his latest and greatest drawing.

I feel that being prepared to take time out of what you were doing and engage with people especially children when they've just achieved something really matters in encouraging them to work on their potential.

Does it matter if the washing up is a smidgen delayed for looking at and talking to him about that drawing, encouraging him in his exploration of art? 

Many have remarked the best way to learn about what's on a boys mind is through talking with him as he does things with you, not formal conversations in the front room.

Time spend with him like that is invaluable and the time these people made for me is time that made differences for the good.

On relationships and life

This wet week would of been a time I'd of been away so I have been thinking a little about what I get from that not least in the light of conversations at ASB and also my own forum.

Relationships not least family ones have  played a negative part in my upbringing from distancing, not willing to get close to me or to encourage me to get closer, being more overly affectionate as well as a sense of suspicious  between family members that just corroded any meaningful sense of trust and security I ever had.

Living in a world where you always watched your back, where telephone conversations were bugged, people lurked behind doors listening in  and mail read took its toll on me even to the point I was writing or drawing stuff about it in my teens on correspondence and never kept a formal diary in case it was read which it would.

That's one of differences now cos I do but it's more online journalling it may be such as with my main blog an account of a day out or interests related or more about my moods and emotions cos it helps me understanding them and helps to have some record I can refer to.

One of the things that has altered for me now is how it is I am expected to co-operate and behave with other people and that's been a thing that's talked about here so when I was away I was expected to help with things such as setting the table, washing up and generally helping out.

I am also expected now to help in the kitchen with making whatever we are going to eat even if some tasks may be done for me because I am expected to use my abilities to contribute whatever my disabilities may prevent.

If I do something wrong that I know I shouldn't like trying to cut things on the top of the sink where I'd either mark it or risk injuring myself which I did, then I was spanked there and then for it to ensure I learn from it which I was

What I longed for as an adult little boy is the simple love and affection of a forever mother and father figure who will help me feel loved, wanted and secure so I can grow.
Was that too much to ask?

Equally I have needed the space to deal with other episodes such as being being touched up by men in public spaces, frozen over, and effectively mute for so long over its effects on me.  

I think after thinking over how things have of been with time spent with one who does looks after me the answer has to be no because they are actively engaged in making me grow, feeling secure but at same time prepared to discipline me.

It was and is what I truly needed.

Mid teen regresive history

While out taking some exercise around the area I grew up in some thoughts around the past came very much into focus.

One indication of just how far the gap between myself and my peers had gotten by my mid to late teens was we were discussing one morning before registration a number of things such as what schools, not least our early schools were and what today we felt like doing  together where near enough all my friends were thinking more about parties and or maybe going to the movies and all I wanted to do was have a teddy bears picnic with them.

They thought that was a bit sweet but you know a bit odd too given they were all acting more like mini young men and well, I was still a Junior they looked after and they had more that older sibling authority over me although we were the same age seeing them as parental substitutes.

That's the strange reality with me and why 'ageplay' as term doesn't really describe what I do because it's just who I am 24/7 rather than a role I play for a brief period. A Junior.
That was something I forgot in my attempt after leaving school to get bye and what backfired a few years back so badly.

Remembrance Day

This week gone marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One with the signing of the Armistice and the order to cease all operations on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of 1918.
This was marked here in Great Britain by special Remembrance Sunday services in the capitals of the 'home countries' of the United Kingdom and in towns and cities across the land.
I have been directly involved in regular remembrance day services laying on wreaths as a member of an organization and those encounters lead to me being sat by leaders from scouting and girl guiding and members from cubs, brownies, scouts and guides as we waited to file out to lay them wreaths in order.
Like all of us members do wear their own poppy  on the uniform and usually afterward we all would place them around the cenotaph to show our respect to those who gave their  lives for our freedoms.
Their being there is also an indication of how service in scouting helps prepare young people for playing an active part in their communities.

Comic memories

After last weeks ouchie experiences my mind drifted back a bit to when it was my Gran was still about and not least comics cos she always bought me a comic every week I'd go visit here or if I couldn't they would be saved up until I could.
I didn't generally go much for superman hero type comics but more regular girl or mixed gender ones although I did read the cartoon strips in newspapers .
I also did buy cartoon books usually a yearly annual that collected the whole series on better quality paper and in hindsight it had to be said some of them did have spanking depicted in them because in that era it was just a social norm as it was for us too.

We'd just laugh our socks off at this whole situation envying Superman for his heat resistant can take anything behind.
I also at one time had a annual that had a multi page strip series about the a well to do mother struggling to control her teen daughter using the then contemporary pop psychology of just ignoring episodes as they were 'phases' you'd go through and grown out of which I suspect was a thinly disguised dig at Doctor Spock's child rearing guidance and his followers where she just tears up that guidance and takes her across her lap for a hairbrushing!
Actually this week I've been pretty good, helping out, not making messes and have managed to walk the furthest I've done for years without getting out of breath that helps with weekends as the meals tend to be bigger and more loaded with fats and that although this weekend I had some community magazines to deliver on foot plus a card for Mommy.
I'll just slowly work my way through the easter egg and chocolate concentrating on being good I think.

An Authentic Chris

Here at the dorm I've been rather busy dealing with the Blogsphere tm of this is one of a few in this family of blogs that go back to the mid 2000's that deal with different aspects of my life overlapping a little but with main focus which so reminds me of school Venn Diagrams that one was to draw neatly or be suitably admonished.

In someways then it's perhaps for the best this member is fairly recent as all the 'baby steps' in blogging happened before and had been learnt from so the same mistakes had not been repeated.

An often repeated comment I hear at various sites that sadly I'm less able than I'd like due to my physical disabilities is around the extent in a world where people do cultivate an image of themselves and their abilities to the point when one interacts with them either messaging or face to face even there's a gap between what you read and what you see with me I'm very much the same on any site, any kind of 'chat' and  when I've been privileged to spend time face to face with people for extended periods.

The word that comes to mind is "Authenticity", the extent to which one is true to yourself in harmony with your own spirit while respecting rules and social conventions that make life frictionless as we all know what to expect.

Thus while on one blog I do write more of joys of littles regressed life and here around emotions, attitudes and at times role of corporal punishment in my life neither denies what the other centred on and where all is intertwined, the one whole me.

What I write about is what I feel, what I have experienced and actually know routed in my life albeit my education, employment and learning more about coping with my actual needs rather than what may know second hand or the views of those who write about what they have read.

The one thing towering over all is a childhood that was very much routed in being in an actual boarding school for much of my education which went beyond of curriculum subjects but in moral character building and standards and one that understood you learn through consequences, believing strongly in disciplining you very much for ones own good.

What I have to say around this and as it applies in particular to corporal punishment  is very from having received it 'in loco parentis' several times each deserved and from that how that changed for the better those attitudes and behaviours first hand rather than any kind of role playing fantasy.

I know it works well with me as it did with most of my peers at the time not just in nipping our behaviour in the bud but also of deterrence of the class,  year group and ultimately whole school from acting on such impulses.

The benefits in terms of being able to study, to have your teacher just come in and start the lesson and carry on with everyone engaged rather than endless low level disruption might surprise present generations!

It is that I suspect the last person who commented picked up on in the broader sense in that I am the product of such an education and it shows in my work.
Thank you for your compliment.

The "Barney" Mysteries

The old adage "You can't but a good book down would seem to apply around these parts of late  as some more new to me books by Enid Blyton arrived recently.

These copies are actually editions from the very early nineteen-seventies where while still in hardback form they have been cheapened by printing the frontspiece and spine direct to the jacket and missing off the rear of what would of been the back of the paper dust jacket the original hardbacks had.

 There are six novels in this series of mystery adventures that feature Rodger and Diana Lynton and their cousin Peter, ophaned, who goes under the name "Subby" in the series and his dog Laddie who are also joined by Barney an motherless circus boy who has been on a quest to find his absent father and who has a money called Miranda.

The "Barney Mysteries" is the title these usually are grouped under although some use "R Mysteries" with the "R" coming from the R in the names of all the titles.

The children visit sleepy villages and seaside towns that it transpires are riddled with intregue and it's that they look into.

One of the strengths of this series is the stories are full of atmosphere and good humour, the strong characterization making for much more depth  than most of her work and more sophisticated language that made it the only series Enid herself recommended just for those of eleven years and upward.