The Adventures of the Wishing Chair

Product Information

I don't know how many times I read this book as a child but I loved it! I was forever trying to drag chairs out into the garden to use as my wishing chair, which enraged my mum on a daily basis one summer! I grew up on Enid Blyton books but I don't remember too much about this series other than the characters, rich kids Mollie and Peter who have their own playroom at the bottom of the garden, a houseproud mother and a servant called Jane. One day they visit an antique shop to buy a present for Mother and get involved in a strange adventure where they steal a flying Wishing Chair from the wizard shop owner and take it home. Each time the chair grows wings, it is time for a new adventure, and as a kid I just loved the different places and people that they met on their travels. In this final book, Mollie and Peter are home for the half-term holiday and Chinky (or Binky) and the Wishing-Chair are ready to fly away with them to magical lands. They visit the Land of Wishes, the Land of Scally-Wags and help Santa Claus deliver presents on Christmas Eve. Despite the very short chapters i rarely made it through one fully engaged. The flatness of the characters and mediocrity of the writing making it so hard to care. Literary beige. Like the Faraway Tree series, the theme of the Wishing-Chair tales revolves mainly around the various places the children visit but Mollie and Peter have an advantage because they can fly off to any exotic location they like rather than having to wait for a suitable land to appear on their doorstep. Over the ensuing days and weeks they visit many places and besides coming across some extraordinary characters and situations, they also court much danger. To clue you up a little here are some of the chapters — The Grabbit Gnomes, The Adventure Of The Green Enchanter, The Witch Kirri-Kirri, The Magician's Party, Witch Snippit, The Windy Wizard, Mr Twisty, Two Bad Children, The Horrid Quarrel, The Enchanter Clip-Clap, Big-Ears The Goblin, The Snoogle and there are many more. It can be gathered that the children together with Chinky meet up with plenty of Witches and Wizards which is what all good fairy-tales require. There are also magicians and many dubious and crafty people which is obvious when Mr Twisty appears on the scene. The chapter about the horrid quarrel concerns a morning when they are all a little bored with the rainy weather and become a little crotchety with each other resulting in Chinky getting up and leaving in a huff! The children expect him to return but he doesn't so as they have a wonderful way of getting to any place on earth (or in Fairyland), they get into the Wishing Chair and whiz off to find him. It turns out that their little friend has been captured by a great big bird belonging to an enchanter so the plot takes off into the stratosphere with four chapters devoted to a thrilling account of a dangerous quest. Moving on it can be pointed out that in this book the familiar name of "Big Ears" does not refer to Noddy's friend but to a furtive goblin whom they come up against although he is very small fry indeed when compared with the Snoogle — and what can a Snoogle be? This is another of the creative names that Enid Blyton thought up every now and again and I can tell you that a Snoogle is a very frightening and rather spooky entity and poses a severe threat to the children's and Chinky's safety! The trade name of "Meccano" is used in one chapter and it's noteworthy to the extent that one can reflect a little on the period during which the book was written.

Enid Blyton one of the worlds most translated authors and probably the largest selling children's author of all time. This book will provide you a dose of healthy nostalgia and remind most fans about the joys of earlier generations and the books. Enid Blyton is a legend and a brilliant story writer. Including a feature-length adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Adventures of The Wishing Chair, this Tonie is perfect for long journeys and chapter-by-chapter listening

The book version of a straight to dvd disney film. As mentally stimulating as an 'Adam Sandler' movie. Narrative horse-tranquilizer. Whenever you start to enjoy it you can actually feel a few more braincells commit hari-kari. Everytime someone praises this book a fairy dies...wait..wait.. i'm sure i've got a few more ;)... Do you want distinct characters, rich descriptive writing, emotional involvement and that mix of the fantastic and grounded that makes a story feel truly magical? Then you should look elsewhere because this book has NONE of that :P . The first book, Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, has the distinction of being Enid Blyton's first full-length novel — although it is episodic in nature. A TV series was made in 1998 as part of Enid Blytons Enchanted Lands.

In many cases it can be considered that the action in this story occurs within the children's imagination, and this is namely because they enter the fairy world through the play room. It all cases it seems that they will pass through the playroom before heading down to the bottom of the garden. Unlike the Enchanted Wood, there are multiple ways that the children can enter Fairy Land, but it is necessary in this story as the Wishing Chair is not always available to take them on adventures. In fact, at least twice in the story they have to go off after the Wishing Chair because it has either been stolen, or it has wondered off on its own and got itself into trouble. The Wishing-Chair is a series of two novels by the English author Enid Blyton, and a third book published in 2000 compiled from Blyton's short stories. The three children's stories are as follows: While visiting a giant's castle, Peter and Mollie rescue a pixie named Chinky. He comes to live in the playroom at the bottom of the children's garden, where they keep the wishing-chair, and he is able to alert them whenever the chair grows its wings and is ready to whisk them off on yet another fantastic adventure. There are so many possibilities for adventure and conflict in the Wishing-Chair setting that the children and Chinky do not really need a mischievous or silly outsider to accompany them on their travels although at least one makes an appearance — Thomas, but he doesn't get to go with Peter and Chinky when they whisk away in the chair to get help for his unpleasant-looking face! According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.

It's just- there is something so wonderfully imaginative about all of the places and people that are there in these books? The strange lands and the ridiculously quirky characters are a constant source of entertainment simply because they are so very weird. I mean yes, of course the conflicts are simplistic and the antagonists are not too bright but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here for the worldbuilding. Mollie and Peter, searching for a birthday present for their mother, find a mysterious antiques shop which appears to be run by fairy folk. There, they find a magic Wishing-Chair with the power to grow wings and fly. After the chair rescues them from the shop, and gets them home, they decide to keep the chair in their playroom. On their first adventure, they rescue a pixie called Chinky (renamed to Binky in revised editions and Jigs in the TV series) [1] from a giant. The pixie comes to live in their playroom, and the remainder of the book concerns the adventures of the children, as the chair takes them, and Chinky (later named Binky) to various magical places. Once again most of the action takes place between the playroom and Fairy Land, a land in which adults do not venture. It seems as if the playroom is the domain of the children, and the children do their best to spend as much time there as possible. It is a major difference from the Faraway Tree stories where mother knows what is going on, and even meets a number of the characters from the Enchanted Wood. While there is the ritual of jumping the ditch to get into the wood, it seems that the occupants of the wood can interact with the world of the adults. It is different here as the fairy world wants to remain hidden from the adult world. In this story though the discussion revolves around the Wishing Chair being taken to a museum and put on display. Throughout childhood I had the recurring image of a wonderful Titbit Dish. Every time you lift the lid there is a titbit there — a sausage, a bar of chocolate, an orange or even an ice-cream. Like all children I could never get as many sweets and goodies that I required and I used to think about that little dish which Peter owned. What a wonderful possession it would be — then at the end of this book he gives it away to a naughty brownie. What a waste of such a desirable item! Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.