Eileen A. Sopher. “Merran Lake—”They Decided to Have a Picnic by the Lake,” In Enid Blyton. Five Go Off on a Caravan
Some of us forget that Enid Blyton is among the top ten best-selling fiction authors of all time. Many, however, remember the phrase “lashings of ginger beer,” associated with her picnics that seems to exist in her Famous Five novels.
The Famous Five drink “lashings of ginger beer” and lemonade, and as far as we know, nothing else. Their picnicking begins in Five Go Off to a Treasure Island (1942), but the sandwiches are unspecified: “The picnic was lovely. They had it on the top of a hill, in a sloping field that looked down into a sunny valley. Anne didn’t very much like a big brown cow who came up close and stared at her, but it went away when Daddy told it to. The children ate enormously, and Mother said that instead of having a tea-picnic at half-past four, they would have to go to a tea-house somewhere because they had eaten all the tea sandwiches as well as the lunch ones!”
However, menus get more specific in subsequent novels:
*Five Go Off in a Caravan (1946): The five have a simple fare of bread and butter, potted meat sandwiches, and tea.
*Five on Kirrin Island Again (1947): There are potted meat sandwiches.
*Five go Off to Camp (1948) has such variety as cucumber dipped in vinegar, spam and lettuce sandwiches, egg sandwiches, sardine sandwiches, gingerbread, ginger beer, and ripe plums. Timmy [the dog] had a bite from everyone, usually the last bite, and watched each sandwich.”
*Five Get into Trouble (1949): The hangry picnickers eat sausage meat sandwiches.
*Five Go to Mystery Moor (1954: There are sandwiches of egg and sardines, and tomato lettuce and ham.
*Five Go on a Hike Together (1951): The Five feast on sandwiches of cheese, pork, ham, egg, and cream cheese packed in grease-proof paper. Also, in 1951, Blyton published A Picnic with Enid Blyton.
*Five on a Secret Trail (1956): The final picnic features a simple ham sandwich.
See The Enid Blyton Society, http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/index.php; Blyton food given by Blyton fans blogged under the title “A Blyton Lunch” January 18, 2014; http://famousfivestyle.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/a-blyton-lunch/