DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

DECEMBER

Fri 3 John Kirkpatrick in Concert Fri 3 Artsreach event Bowjangles 8pm

Leigh Village Hall 7.30pm Chetnole Village Hall

Mon 6 Carol service & mince pies 7pm

Yetminster Methodist Church Tues 7 Coffee morning/bring&buy 10.30am–12 St Andrew’s Church, Leigh Tues 7 Yetminster Film Night Dream Horse 7pm Jubilee Hall, Yetminster Sun 12 Carol Service 6pm St Hippolytus Church, Ryme Sun 12 Carol Service 4.30pm St Andrew’s Church, Yetminster Wed 15 Carol Service 6pm St Michael’s Church, Beer Hackett Tues 14 Y&RGS Christmas Party 6.30pm Jubilee Hall, Yetminster Sat 18 Community breakfast 9-10.30am Glanvilles Wootton Village Hall Sun 19 Carol Service & refreshments 2.30pm Melbury Bubb Church Tues 21 Carol service, mulled wine, mince pies 6.30pm St Peter’s Church, Chetnole Fri 24 Carol service 6pm St Andrew’s Church, Leigh Wed 29 Y&R Walking Group Melbury Park 10.30am Meeting place

JANUARY 2022

Sun 2 Ryme New Year Walk Tues 4 Coffee morning/bring&buy 10.30am Caswell Farm, Ryme 10.30am–12 St Andrew’s Church, Leigh

Tues 4 Leigh Discussion club

7.30pm Leigh Village Hall Wed 5 Coffee and cake 10.00–11.30am Jubilee Hall, Yetminster Fri 14 Artsreach event Tim Kliphuis Trio 7.30pm Jubilee Hall, Yetminster Fri 28 Pop up Pub 7pm Leigh Village Hall Sat 29 New Year Party Hermitage Village Hall Sat 29 Y&R Walking Group 10.30am–12 Minterne Magna

FEBRUARY 2022

Tues 1 Coffee morning/bring&buy Wed 2 Coffee and cake Wed 9 YHS Stained Glass Fri 11 Charlie Read’s Race Night for St Andrew’s Church Leigh Fri 25 Pop up Pub Sat 26 Y&R Walking Group 10.30am–12 St Andrew’s Church, Leigh 10.00–11.30am Jubilee Hall, Yetminster 2.30pm Jubilee Hall, Yetminster Leigh Village Hall

7pm 2pm Leigh Village Hall meeting place tba

SAVE THE DATES – 2022

5 February Rectory Cream Teas 10.30am-4.30pm The Rectory, Holwell 11 February Race Night tbc Leigh Village Hall 14–29 May Dorset Art Weeks 2022 Chetnole Mill 26 June Batcombe Cream Teas 3.00–5.00pm Hilfield Friary

Please remember to email me before copy date at ja_palmer@btinternet.com with details if you would like a diary entry

Born in London in 1897, Enid Blyton never lived in Dorset, but many of her 600 books are set in fictional locations inspired by our county’s countryside.

She owned Manor Farm at Stourton Caundle, near Sturminster Newton, and visited Dorset frequently. Manor Farm was the settingfor the Famous Five book ‘Five on Finniston Farm’. In another book in the series ‘Five Fall into Adventure’, the children take a picnic down to the sea where there are rocks and pools, thought to be Kimmeridge Bay, one of the best places for rock-pooling in Dorset. A ‘dour grey-stone building’ described in the same book, is a reference to Clavell Tower, built in 1831 as a folly, now a holiday venue.

Corfe Castle is believed to have been the inspiration behind Kirrin Castle, first mentioned in ‘Five on a Treasure Island”. And Blue Pool, a flooded disused clay pit, now part of the Furzebrook Estate, features in ‘Five go off in a Caravan’. In ‘Five go toMystery Moor’, the location is thought to be based on Stoborough Heath, between the Blue Pool and Ridge. The Isle of Purbeck provided background for many of her characters and settings, including The Famous Five and Noddy. In Swanage she would stay at The Ship Inn (then the Ship Hotel), as well as the Grosvenor Hotel, and the Grand Hotel. 60 She would sign copies of her works in what became McColl’s, on Institute Road.

Other Dorset landmarks which appear under ficticious names in her books are Stair Hole, near Lulworth Cove, Studland, whose village policeman of the 1940s, Christopher Rone, inspired PC Plod in the Noddy stories and Brownsea Island, home, in Enid’s day, of the reclusive Mrs Bonham Christie. Hence ‘Keepaway Island’ in the book ‘Five have a Mystery to Solve.’

In recent years Blyton’s reputation has been clouded with her work re-evaluated as unchallenging and lacking in literary merit, and by accusations of racism, elitism and xenophobia. Views conflict even within her own family.Her younger daughter, Imogen, has a very different perception to that of her elder sister, Gillian, describing her mother as"arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind, and without a trace of maternal instinct”.One contemporary biography,‘The real Enid Blyton’, by Nadia Cohen, published in 2018, explores this darker side.

Despite this controversy, it is hard to argue with book sales of more than 600 million in 90 languages, with titles that continue to sell today.