The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair

This appears to have been written earlier than the Faraway Tree series and Blyton's style in this book seems to be quite different as well. Where the Faraway Tree had stories that covered multiple chapters the Wishing Chair has about one adventure per chapter with the exception of two, one takes up

Show More

two chapters and the grand finale takes up three. Also, where the adult world occasionally intruded into the world of the Faraway Tree, in that the fairies would come and visit the children in their home, this does not happen in the world of the Wishing Chair. A couple of the adventures do involve the adult world intruding, but they only involved an incident when the Wishing Chair was going to be sold, where it was then moved into the house, and the other one involved a missing ring. However, pretty much most of the adventures occur in the play room, and the faerie realm, which appears to be an extension of the play room.
I enjoyed the Faraway Tree quite a lot more: there were more children and there were also more companions with the children. The Wishing Chair only has two children, and a pixie friend which they rescued from the giant. As such there seemed to be a lack of community within the Wishing Chair adventures. Also unlike the Faraway Tree, which occurred in the Enchanted Forest, the adventures of the Wishing Chair occur in Fairyland, which can be reached from the bottom of the garden (or simply by jumping on the wishing chair).
Now, Fairyland being at the bottom of the garden is actually not new to Enid Blyton. This concept has been around for a lot longer, and I suspect comes out of the fairy tales of the 19th, or even 18th century. I suspect it is more of a 19th century phenomena, and would probably have been something that involves a more upper class society. I think of the old industrial housing complexes in London (you can still see quite a lot of them when you look out of the plane as it comes to land at Heathrow). The houses are terraced, however if you look out the back of these houses you will discover that the terraces seem to surround park like structures which are the backyards. Much of this has disappeared with the development of housing complexes, and I suspect that houses like those are more expensive these days.
While the adult world does occasionally intrude, I notice that the children are reminded a number of times that they are forbidden to mention anything about the pixie and Fairyland to the adults. This in a way makes me wonder if all of these adventures occur within the children's imagination. When the adults do intrude the magic is somehow taken away. When the Wishing Chair is taken inside (and the Wishing Chair has a personality of its own, it simply does not talk) it suddenly does not seem to want to fly away, and only does so again once it returns to the playroom.
Something I noticed in the last book of The Faraway Tree series, and particularly in this book, is that the father has vanished. There is no mention of a father in this particular story, only mother. While the Faraway Tree was written during and after the war, there is a good explanation as to why the father vanishes, however this is a pre-war book. Maybe the reason that there does not appear to be a father is because we are looking from the children's view point and most of their time is spent with their mother while father is off at work. However, the children are also clearly pre-school since not once are they mentioned going to school.
This is probably not surprising since school is not a place children tend to have adventures. It is more like a prison that they desire to escape from. We do have schools in the Faraway Tree stories, and it is not a pleasant place to go (it is run by Dame Smack-a-lot), and I guess this can be reflected in the attitudes of the children. However, I think that a good author can turn a school into a place of adventure, and I suspect that it has been done in the past (and even the present). I notice that as the children grow up into teenagers, school tends to present itself more to the forefront in their lives, however it is not a place of learning, but rather a place where they can socialise.

Show Less