tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post4288806664574661555..comments2024-03-07T11:39:09.758+11:00Comments on Will Type For Food: They Don't Write Books Like They Used To...TimThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-39496236296193686312012-02-02T14:30:15.976+11:002012-02-02T14:30:15.976+11:00@RG - parental politico -
Many thanks!! I've...@RG - parental politico - <br /><br />Many thanks!! I've been trying to remember the name 'Bottersnikes and gumbles' for about 15 years. I first flicked through it in a doctors waiting room and loved it. I figured I'd buy it later but I forgot the name and nobody knew it based on my description of the characters. A really fantastic imaginative book.<br /><br />Thanks again!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-56402552993266884072007-06-22T00:42:00.000+10:002007-06-22T00:42:00.000+10:00Ahhh, these take me back. I had totally forgotten ...Ahhh, these take me back. I had totally forgotten about Mrs Pepperpot. <BR/>I, too, liked the idea of eating the Pudding - if only to shut him up! And he changed flavours if you turned him halfway around....<BR/><BR/>I visited the house designed by Norman Lindsay in new south wales last year - strange and beautiful. I recommend it. <BR/><BR/>And now I have been reminded of the Bottersnikes and Gumbles, I think I need to read them again :D They used to squeeze themselves in jam tins! And then they rose en masse against the 'fasist state' by forming one GIANT GUMBLE!<BR/><BR/>I can also dimly recall visiting a 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie' garden and restaurant in Victoria many years ago. I don't know if it is still there - the main room was shaped like a giant gumnut.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-9728445047738795722007-06-20T13:46:00.000+10:002007-06-20T13:46:00.000+10:00ooooh I love collective nouns ... a procession of...ooooh I love collective nouns ... a procession of caterpillars etc.<BR/>so i did a search and got-<BR/>"<B>Australian Koala Foundation</B><BR/>There's no collective noun for a group of koalas moving around together because koalas don't move around in groups like dolphins or some birds <A HREF="https://www.savethekoala.com/koalasfaqs.html" REL="nofollow">Koala Facts</A> - Cached - Similar pages - <BR/><B>ABC Online Forum</B><BR/>We think, since koalas are solitary, there is no call for a collective noun - at most you would find only 3-4 in a group,"<BR/><BR/>The Blinky Bill drawings are just lovely. I feel sorry for modern kids - my 4 year old grandson has 176 games on his gameboy and lives in another State so I cannot be reading him storybooks to convert him<BR/>and yes 'rg-parent politico', the Banksia Men scared me too.Ann ODynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01159263330547329077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-78384480407359627702007-06-19T13:50:00.000+10:002007-06-19T13:50:00.000+10:00This has just been edited and reposted, here. Oh y...This has just been edited and reposted, <A HREF="http://sarsaparillablog.net/?p=568" REL="nofollow">here.</A> Oh yes, R G, I remember the Bottersnikes and the Gumbles all right!TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-76992745401583178072007-06-19T12:54:00.000+10:002007-06-19T12:54:00.000+10:00the banksia men used to scare the crap out of me s...the banksia men used to scare the crap out of me so never really got into snugglepot and cuddlepie. i still look at those seed pods with suspicion.<BR/><BR/>BUT what about bottersnikes and gumbles (by s.a. wakefiled)? gumbles were squishy things that resembled milk-bottle lollies, and bottersnikes were festy, warty, snarly looking green things that ate/chased the cheeky gumbles. LOVED those books.<BR/><BR/>magic pudding was the first 'grown up' book i read and again, was slightly scared by the surly nature of albert and was disconcerted by everyone eating him.<BR/><BR/>ah...memories.RG - parental politicohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13713789679696362900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-34281203708196004262007-06-17T09:36:00.000+10:002007-06-17T09:36:00.000+10:00Ah, jingoism at work! As for myself, copies of Bli...Ah, jingoism at work! As for myself, copies of Blinky Bill, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and The Magic Pudding were to be found amongst my families library. Blinky Bill was particularly interesting, as it existed in an old 1940s/50s edition that put together all the Blinky Bill books, with illustrations. <BR/><BR/>We also had a <A HREF="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tinka-bunyip-Brownie-Downing/dp/B0000CNGZM" REL="nofollow">Tinka and his Friends</A> book, something about an Aboriginal child called Tinka who was apparently friends with all the mystical spirits on an outback station. <BR/><BR/>The book also had a splendid ad for Violet Crumble on the back, depicting children running after a Bi-Plane scattering Violet Crumbles out the back!TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-20513970481866838792007-06-17T05:19:00.000+10:002007-06-17T05:19:00.000+10:00In 1980 or thereabouts Mickey Mouse was made King ...In 1980 or thereabouts Mickey Mouse was made King of Moomba. This generated a cry of protest from the Fitzroy left, who were horrified that such a gormless American rodent could be chosen for this important position. <BR/><BR/>Their alternative suggestion was Blinky Bill, who then was virtually forgotten by 90 per cent of Australians. It caused a big Blinky Bill revival, with republication of the books, and graffiti around Melbourne. One at the Burnley Railway Station read BLINKY BILL SHALL RISE! (this was right next to FIGHT GROWING FASIST STATE to which somebody had helpfully added, 'and misguided education?'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-54900950673454184392007-06-16T09:38:00.000+10:002007-06-16T09:38:00.000+10:00Actually, in the ones I mentioned the animal fanta...Actually, in the ones I mentioned the animal fantasy element is stronger than the idea of them coming home at the end of the day after getting into scrapes. I think they're all tramps in The Magic Pudding, for instance. <BR/><BR/>I think back in the 80s Australia was going through one of its temporary spasms of jingoism and so there were a lot of 'Magic Pudding' pantomimes and 'Dot and the Kangaroo' films on offer, especially to me as a school kid (dontcha love government indoctrination?) Maybe that accounted for the proliferation of May Gibbs/Dorothy Wall/Norman Lindsay texts on offer. <BR/><BR/>Yoram Gross did a Blinky Bill TV adaptation for a while, which was kind of amusing, but generally none of these kitsch-jingoistic adaptations have a patch on the original.TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-57671312522807927922007-06-16T09:31:00.000+10:002007-06-16T09:31:00.000+10:00I don't know, Steve, all of those books I mentione...I don't know, Steve, all of those books I mentioned there are pretty good examples of a well-established genre of animal/adventure stories, where every chapter you get a new adventure, usually ended by the adventurer coming home again and going to bed. (A similar structure is in Enid Blyton, for instance.) There are examples of that sort of thing from all over the world!<BR/><BR/>Anyway, they were just part of my reading habits. Good thing I didn't tell you about my fondness for <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Pepperpot" REL="nofollow">Mrs Pepperpot!</A>TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-29862871133636442032007-06-15T23:16:00.000+10:002007-06-15T23:16:00.000+10:00Tim, I sometimes suspect you are a re-incarnation ...Tim, I sometimes suspect you are a re-incarnation of some Aussie kid from the first third of the 20th century. Your tastes in childrens literature is so retro, and I say that as someone probably (I don't know) 20 years your senior.<BR/><BR/>I find, and have always found, Australian children's classics a complete bore. But then, I find most Australian literature and film not to my taste either. My reading as a child, if you are interested, ran to Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics (Carl Barks was great), real life space and science books, science fiction written for kids (there was a lot of it in the 1960's, including a series which had interplanetary adventures lauching from the spaceport at Woomera!)<BR/><BR/>From England, I read the occasion older Enid Blyton adventure book. (I can't remember if it was the group of five or four that I read most of.) There were a few "Just Williams" in there too. <BR/><BR/>But anything about talking koalas, kangaroos and puddings: just no interest whatsoever at any age.<BR/><BR/>Maybe I am re-incarnation of an American kid?Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04108945551064939734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-80579534257007132912007-06-15T21:00:00.000+10:002007-06-15T21:00:00.000+10:00I took my dad to see the movie of The Magic Puddin...I took my dad to see the movie of The Magic Pudding when it came out. It's his favourite children's book. I don't think I'd even read it until then though I'd been through the others in my childhood, repeatedly. <BR/><BR/>I'll take Freddy over the fob :pShelleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03417138778733226637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7529903.post-15129864664469118352007-06-15T20:40:00.000+10:002007-06-15T20:40:00.000+10:00Snugglepot and Cuddlepie is probably my first read...Snugglepot and Cuddlepie is probably my first reading memory. When I was very young my parents would leave my bedroom door open and the hallway light on while they were still up, and I distinctly remember picking up S&C and reading it to myself in the half-light. My parents have told me that once I started reading to myself in bed they basically gave up on telling me to turn my light out and go to sleep. As long as I was quiet and stayed in bed reading they didn't care how late I stayed up.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01361330734876130185noreply@blogger.com