Saturday Rave: Chimney Corner Stories by Enid Blyton.

I suppose this is the equivalent of admitting to having a vinyl  version of Two Little Boys, but this book was a present, okay? I was six. I was too young to know any better.

The fact that I still occasionally read some of the stories in it is...hm.

Oh all right, I must admit I admire Enid Blyton's short stories. She was brilliant at telling a deeply satisfying story in a small space.

She does proper plots, too. Take She Turned Up Her Nose, a tiny story about a snobbish doll from the Chimney Corner Stories. It's all there: the fatal flaw of character, the imagined invulnerability, the downfall, the recognition of error, and the happy ending.

There's a neat little anti-racist gag thrown in, too, (though I admit this generally isn't Blyton's strong suit).

In the nursery there lived a rather grand doll called Annabella Mary.

You just know from the very first line that Annabella Mary is riding for a fall.

Word To Use Today: doll. This word was invented in the 1500s, and probably started off as Doll, a pet form of the name Dorothy.