Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton
File:Enid Blyton.jpg
Born	Enid Mary Blyton (1897-08-11)11 August 1897 East Dulwich, England
Died	28 November 1968(1968-11-28) (aged 71) Hampstead, England
Resting place	Golders Green Crematorium
Pen name	Mary Pollock
Occupation	Novelist, poet, teacher
Alma mater	Ipswich High School
Period	1922–68
Genre	Children's literature: adventure, mystery, fantasy
Notable works	The Famous Five, Secret Seven, Noddy
Notable awards	Boys' Club of America for The Island of Adventure
Spouse	Hugh Alexander Pollock (1924–42) Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters (1943–67)
Children	Gillian Baverstock Imogen Mary Smallwood
Relatives	Carey Blyton, Hanly Blyton
Signature
File:Enidblytonsig..jpg
Website
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk

Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer whose books have been among the world's bestsellers for children since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Blyton's books, which cover a broad range of genres from fantasy and mystery stories to nature books, are still enormously popular throughout the Commonwealth and across most of the globe, and have been translated into almost 90 languages. She is estimated to have written about 800 books over 40 years, but is best known for her Noddy, The Famous Five, and The Secret Seven series. Blyton's first book, Child Whispers, a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922, and she occasionally used the pseudonym Mary Pollock after marrying Major Hugh Alexander Pollock in 1924.

Following the high sales of Blyton's early novels such as Adventures of the Wishing Chair (1937) and The Enchanted Wood (1939) she became a phenomenal success in the 1940s and 1950s, and skilfully built a literary empire. She often produced as many as 40 books a year, and started many new series in addition to her prolific magazine and newspaper contributions. Blyton capitalised on her success by venturing into board games, puzzles, card games and other merchandise; Bestime released the first four jigsaw puzzles featuring her characters in 1948. In 1950 she established Darrell Waters Ltd. to look after her business affairs, named after her second husband Kenneth Darrell Waters, a London surgeon whom she had married in 1943.

Blyton's work became increasing controversial among literary critics, teachers and parents from the 1950s onwards, because of the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing and the themes of her books, particularly Noddy. A number of libraries and schools consequently banned her works, which had already been banned by the BBC since the 1930s for their perceived lack of literary merit. Her books have been criticised as being elitist, sexist, racist, and xenophobic, at odds with the more liberal environment emerging in contemporary post-war Britain, but they have nevertheless continued to be bestsellers since her death in 1968. In a 1982 survey Blyton was voted the most popular writer by 10,000 children in the 11 age group, and from 2000 to 2010, she was still listed as a Top Ten author, selling almost 8 million copies (worth £31.2 million) in the UK alone. In the 2008 Costa Book Awards, Blyton was voted Britain's best-loved author.

Chorion Limited owned and handled the intellectual properties and character brands of Blyton's estate after her death, but sold its assets following financial difficulties in 2012. Hachette UK acquired the world rights to much of her work in March 2013, including The Famous Five series. The story of Blyton's life was dramatised in a BBC film entitled Enid with Helena Bonham Carter in the title role, which first aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Four on 16 November 2009, and several adaptations of her books for stage, screen and television have been made.

Biography

Early life and education

Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 at 354 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London, England, the eldest of three children born to Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a salesman of cutlery, and his wife Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton (1874–1950). Her two younger brothers, Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–76), were born after the family had moved to a semi-detached villa at 95 Chaffinch Road in the nearby town of Beckenham. In November 1897 Blyton almost died from whooping cough, but was nursed back to health by her father, whom she adored. Thomas Blyton was instrumental in educating Enid on nature; Blyton stated in her autobiography that her father "loved flowers and birds and wild animals, and knew more about them than anyone I had ever met". He also passed on his interest in gardening, art, music, literature and the theatre to his daughter, and the two would often go on nature walks, much to the disapproval of her mother who showed little interest in her pursuits. In 1910 Blyton was baptised at Elm Road Baptist Church, and was devastated when her father left the family to live with another woman. Blyton and her mother did not have a good relationship; later in life Blyton claimed to others that her mother was dead, and ultimately did not attend either of her parents' funerals.

From 1907 to 1915, Blyton was educated at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham. She enjoyed physical activities and became school tennis champion and captain of lacrosse, although she was not so keen on all of the academic work, and in particular maths. But she excelled in writing, and in 1911 entered Arthur Mee's children's poetry competition; Mee offered to print her verses, encouraging her to produce more. In 1912 the family moved to 14 Elm Road in Beckenham.

Seckford Hall in Woodbridge, Suffolk, an inspiration to Blyton with its haunted room, secret passageway and sprawling gardens

Blyton's father taught her to play the piano, which she mastered well enough for him to believe that she might follow in his sister's footsteps and become a professional musician. Blyton considered enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music, but decided that she was best suited to being a writer. After finishing her last year in school in 1915, as head girl, Blyton moved out of the family home in 13 Westfield Road, to live with her friend Mary Attenborough at 34 Oakwood Avenue. She then left Beckenham and stayed with George and Emily Hart at Seckford Hall in Woodbridge in Suffolk, a house whose haunted room and secret passageway reportedly inspired her. At Woodbridge Congretational Church Blyton met teacher Ida Hunt, who taught full-time at Ipswich High School. Hunt invited her to move in with her on a farm near Woodbridge, and suggested that she train as a teacher. Blyton was introduced to the children at the kindergarten, and recognising her natural affinity with children enrolled in a National Froebel Union teacher-training course at the Ipswich school in September 1916. Blyton later professed that "my love of children is the whole foundation of all my work".

By 1917, Blyton had virtually ceased contact with her family. In March that year her first poems were published in Nash's Magazine. Despite the early success, Blyton had previously been rejected by publishers on many occasions which made her more determined to succeed, remarking that "it is partly the struggle that helps you so much, that gives you determination, character, self-reliance – all things that help in any profession or trade, and most certainly in writing". She completed her teacher training course in December 1918, and the following month obtained a teaching appointment at Bickley Park School, a small independent boys school in Bickley, Kent. Two months later, Blyton received a Teaching Certificate with Distinctions in Zoology and Principals of Education, 1st Class in Botany, Geography, Practice of Education, History of Education, Child Hygiene and Class Teaching and 2nd class in Literature and Elementary Mathematics. In 1920 Blyton moved to Southernhay on Hook Road in Surbiton, as nursery governess to the four boys of architect Horace Thompson and his wife Gertrude.

Early writing career

Blyton's home on Hook Road in Chessington from 1920–24

In 1920 Blyton moved to Chessington, where she lived on Hook Road for four years and began writing in her spare time. She met up with an old school friend Phyllis Chase, an illustrator, at a garden party that year, and the two decided to collaborate, with much success. On 19 February 1921 Blyton won the Saturday Westminster Review writing competition after submitting her On the Popular Fallacy that to the Pure All Things are Pure. Reputable publications such as The Londoner, Home Weekly and The Bystander began showing an interest in her works and publishing her short stories and poems.

Blyton's first book, Child Whispers, a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. That year she also began writing in annuals for both Cassell and George Newnes, and her first piece of writing was published in Teacher's World, "Peronei and his Pot of Glue". Her success was further boosted in 1923 when her poems were published alongside those of Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare and G. K. Chesterton in a special issue of Teachers World. As a result, Blyton was given her own column, "From My Window", and was a regular contributor to the publication for 23 years; her contributions ranged from ancient history and religious studies to nature and drama. Her educational texts were quite influential on teaching in the 1920s and 1930s. Her most sizable contributions include the 3-volume The Teacher's Treasury (1926), the 6-volume Modern Teaching (1928), the 10-volume Pictorial Knowledge, and the 4-volume Modern Teaching in the Infant School (1932).

Blyton's home "Old Thatch" near Bourne End, Buckinghamshire from 1929–38

In 1923 Blyton published Real Fairies: Poems and Responsive Singing Games. This was followed by The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies, Songs of Gladness and Sports and Games in 1924, and the Book of Brownies in 1926. On 28 August 1924 Blyton married Major Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971) at Bromley Register Office, without inviting her family. Pollock was editor of the book department in the publishing firm of George Newnes, which published two of her books that year, and it was he who requested Blyton to write a book about animals, The Zoo Book, which was completed in the month before they married. The couple initially lived at the 32 Beaufort Mansions flat in Chelsea, then in Elfin Cottage in Beckenham from February 1926, before moving to Old Thatch in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire (Peterswood in her books) in August 1929. Blyton began establishing a reputation as a children's writer that year when she began writing for the magazine Sunny Stories, which typically included the re-telling of legends, myths and stories and useful articles for children, and became very popular. She used the pseudonym Mary Pollock for a few titles (middle name plus first married name). On 21 July 1925, Blyton made her first contribution to The Morning Post and earned £1095.10s.2d for her work in that year.

Blyton's Sunny Stories for Little Folks was published in July 1926. In October of that year she was given a full-page interview in Teachers World, and also interviewed A. A. Milne, who had submitted an advance copy of Winnie the Pooh to her. In 1927 Blyton bought a typewriter, and published several books of plays including A Book of Little Plays and The Play's the Thing with illustrator Alfred Bestall, which at 25 shillings was the most expensive book of her career. She also wrote Silver and Gold and The Animal Book, and between December 1927 and August 1928 contributed to The Outline. In 1929 she published The Book Around Europe and Enid Blyton's Nature Lessons, described as a "floral fantasy in an Old English Garden". On 4 September Blyton was given her own children's page in Teachers World, in which she published a letter from her fox terrier dog Bobs.

Family and children's fantasy

Blyton gave birth to two children in the 1930s: Gillian Mary Baverstock (15 July 1931 – 24 June 2007) and Imogen Mary Smallwood (born 27 October 1935). She also developed an interest in writing tales related to ancient Greece, ancient Rome and other myths during this period. In 1930 she published The Knights of the Round Table, Tales of Ancient Greece and Tales of Robin Hood. In Tales of Ancient Greece Blyton retells 16 well-known ancient Greek myths, but uses the Latin rather than the Greek names of deities and invents conversations between the characters. On 5 February 1932 she completed her first full-length adult novel, The Caravan Goes On, but was unable initially to find a publisher. In October of the following year, however, Letters from Bobs was published and sold ten thousand copies in the first week alone.

In 1934, Blyton released The Adventures of Odysseus, Tales of the Ancient Greeks and Persians, Tales of the Romans, The Enid Blyton Poetry Book, The Strange Tale of Mr. Wumble and her "Round the Year" nature series. She and Pollock took a holiday at Seaview house on the Isle of Wight but she suffered a miscarriage before becoming pregnant with Imogen and giving birth to her in October the following year. Blyton hired Dorothy Gertrude Richards as a nanny after Imogen's birth; the two became close friends and Richards would join the family on holidays. In 1935 Blyton wrote The Children's Garden, reprinted in 1948 as Let's Garden and The Green Goblin Book, and the following year worked with illustrator Benjamin Rabier to publish The Famous Jimmy, containing more than 70 of Rabier's illustrations.

Blyton's first serial story and first full-length book, Adventures of the Wishing Chair, was published in 1937. Blyton's magazine was renamed Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories and reformatted in January 1937, when it began serving as a vehicle for Blyton's books, appearing as serials. It returned to its original title in 1942, and became a fortnightly publication. Blyton's first Naughty Amelia Jane story, about an anti-heroine based on a doll owned by her daughter Gillian, was published in the magazine on 29 January. In 1938 Blyton and her family moved to a house in Beaconsfield, named Green Hedges by Blyton's readers following a competition in her magazine. In September she released the first novels of two new book series, The Secret Island (five books) and The Circus Series (three books), the first of which was Mr Galliano's Circus. That year she also published her first Brer Rabbit books, Brer Rabbit and Heyo, Brer Rabbit!, the latter illustrated by Kathleen Nixon, who also illustrated Blyton's The Animal Book and others. Mr Meddle first appeared as a character on 30 December 1938 in Sunny Stories.

In May 1939 Blyton published The Enchanted Wood, the first book in the The Faraway Tree series based around a magic tree, influenced by Norse mythology that had fascinated her as a child. Like her The Wishing Chair series, these fantasy books of Blyton typically involve children being transported into a magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies, and other mythological creatures. In November Blyton released her first full-length unserialised book, the Boys' and Girls' Circus Book.

Commercial success and divorce

File:Enid blyton books.jpg

Books by Enid Blyton

In the 1940s Blyton not only exhibited how prolific she could be as an author, but demonstrated a "marketing, publicity and branding that was far ahead of its time", contributing to her major success during this period. Helena Bonham Carter, who played Blyton in the 2009 BBC film Enid, described Blyton as "a complete workaholic, an achievement junkie and an extremely canny businesswomen" who "knew how to brand herself, right down to the famous signature". Blyton produced stories covering a wide range of fictional genres, from fairy and tales and animal and nature stories to detective and mystery stories and circus stories, but she often "blurred the boundaries" within her own stories, and often encompassed a range of genres even in her short stories.

By 1939 Blyton's marriage to Pollock was troubled, and she began a series of affairs. In 1941 Blyton met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon with whom she began a relationship. The state of her marriage worsened after Pollock rejoined The Royal Scots Fusiliers and narrowly escaped death in an air raid, after which the couple argued until Pollock demanded a divorce. Pollock accused her of adultery and having a lesbian affair with one of her children's nannies after finding them locked in the bathroom together. During her divorce, Blyton blackmailed Pollock into taking full blame for the failure of the marriage, knowing that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image. She promised that if he admitted to charges of infidelity, she would allow him unlimited access to their daughters. However, after the divorce, Pollock was forbidden to contact his daughters, and Blyton ensured he was unable to find work in publishing afterwards. He began drinking heavily and was eventually forced to petition for bankruptcy in 1950. Blyton and Darrell Waters married at the City of Westminster Register Office on 20 October 1943, and she subsequently changed the surname of her two daughters to Darrell Waters. Blyton's second marriage was very happy and, as far as her public image was concerned, she moved smoothly into her role as a devoted doctor's wife, living with him and her two daughters at Green Hedges.

In November 1940 Blyton published her first two books under the pseudonym of Mary Pollock. That year she published The Children of Cherry Tree Farm and the first novel in the The Naughtiest Girl series, The Naughtiest Girl in the School, about the exploits of the mischievous schoolgirl Elizabeth Allen at the fictional Whyteleafe School. This novel was the first in her boarding school story genre of books, and was followed by The Naughtiest Girl Again (1942) and the first of her six novels of the St. Clare's series in 1941, The Twins at St. Clare's, about the two twins Patricia and Isabel O'Sullivan. In 1941, Blyton was asked to provide the text for the English version of Jean de Brunhoff's Babar. Blyton also showed an interest in writing biblical stories and produced retellings of Old Testament and New Testament stories. The Land of Far-Beyond (1942) is a Christian parable along the lines of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1698), with modern children as the central characters.

In September 1942 Hodder & Stoughton published Blyton's first Famous Five novel, Five on a Treasure Island, with illustrations by Eileen Soper. The success of the series resulted in the writing of 21 books between then and 1963. The characters of Julian, Dick, and Anne, George (Georgina), and Timothy the Dog became household names in Britain. The Enid Blyton Society writes of the way The Famous Five, "armed with maps, torches, packets of sandwiches and a plentiful supply of ginger-beer", would "spend their holidays hiking and biking, camping and exploring by themselves, invariably falling into adventure" in the novels. Matthew Grenby, author of Children's Literature, states that the five were involved with "unmasking hardened villains and solving serious crimes", although the novels were "hardly 'hard-boiled' thrillers". Georgina, a tomboy which Blyton described as "short-haired, freckled, sturdy, and snub-nosed" and "bold and daring, hot-tempered and loyal", was based on herself.

In 1943 Blyton published her first book in the "The Five Find-Outers" series, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage. Capitalizing on her success, with a loyal, ever-growing readership, she managed to produce a new edition to many of her new series such as The Famous Five, The Five Find-Outers and St. Clares each year in addition to many other novels, short stories and books. As ambitious as ever, Blyton continued to create new series of books, including Mary Mouse from 1942 onwards, The Adventure Series of eight novels from 1944 onwards, and the Malory Towers series of six books based around schoolgirl Darrell Rivers, the first of which was First Term at Malory Towers, published in 1946. The name of the school girl in Malory Towers is evidently derived from her second husband.

In May 1944 Blyton made her first contribution to the Sunday Graphic, to which she was a regular contributor until April 1950. In September 1944 she also began a 15-month stint contributing to the Sunday Mail. Following the bombing of her nanny Dorothy Richard's home during an air raid, Blyton invited her to move into Green Hedges. Following an argument, she left just two days later and terminated her employment and their friendship, and it wasn't until 10 years later that they patched up their differences. In September 1945 Blyton began contributing to Good Housekeeping, writing for the magazine until August 1948. That year Blyton suffered a miscarriage after a fall.

In March 1949, Blyton published The Rockingdown Mystery, the first of six in The Barney Mysteries series. On 21 May Blyton began contributing regularly to the Evening Standard, which lasted until December 1953. Enid Blyton's Noddy, about a little wooden boy from Toyland, first appeared in the Sunday Graphic on 5 June 1949, and in November of that year, the first of at least two dozen books, Noddy Goes to Toyland, was published. That same month, Brockhampton Press published Blyton's first novel of the The Secret Seven to cater to her younger readers with an easy reading alternative to the Famous Five. Fifteen books and several short stories were produced about a fictional group of child detectives who form the "Secret Seven Society" to fight crime; the last novel, Fun for the Secret Seven, was published in 1963.

By the end of the 1940s Blyton's works had become so popular that she was approached by numerous companies to expand her growing empire with games and jigsaws. In 1948 Bestime released the first four jigsaw puzzles featuring her characters, and the first Enid Blyton board game appeared, Journey Through Fairyland, created by BGL. In 1950 she established the company Darrell Waters Ltd to manage her affairs, and the first Enid Blyton card game appeared from Pepys, "Faraway Tree". By then time she had become a frequently collaborator with illustrator Eileen Sloper, who that year released books together such as The Astonishing Ladder and Other Stories, Five Fall into Adventure (the ninth book of The Famous Five), Jolly Little Jumbo, The Three Naughty Children and Other Stories, Tricky the Goblin and Other Stories, The Yellow Story Book, and others. Given her output however, Blyton was associated with many other illustrators, including Olive Openshaw of the Mary Mouse series, George Brook of The Secret Seven, Treyer Evans of The Five Find-Outers, and Dorothy Wheeler, who illustrated The Faraway Tree books and many of her nursery rhyme books.

The Noddy books were hugely popular in the 1950s, and became one of her most successful and best-known series. Blyton wrote 18 of the 24 known books of the series during the decade as the demand for the books increased. They were illustrated by Harmsen van der Beek; after his death in 1953 Peter Wienk became the chief illustrator of the series.

In 1951 Blyton and Darrell Waters acquired their own 18-hole golf course at Studland Bay in Dorset.

Charitable work

Blyton's characters of Noddy and Big Ears

Sunny Stories ceased production in February 1953, succeeded by Enid Blyton's Magazine. The first edition appeared on 18 March 1953, and the magazine ran until September 1959.

In 1954 Blyton was appointed chairman of the committee for the Shaftesbury Society Babies' Home in Beaconsfield. The Enid Blyton's Magazine Club formed on 21 July. The following year, Blyton began legal proceedings after rumours began to spread that she did not write her own books.

Later works

In the 1960s many of her series such as Noddy and The Famous Five continued to be successful, and by 1962, 26 million copies of Noddy had been published. Blyton wrapped up a several of her long-running series in 1963, publishing the last books of The Famous Five (Five Are Together Again) and The Secret Seven (Fun for the Secret Seven). She did however produce three Brer Rabbit books with illustrator Grace lodge, Brer Rabbit Again, Brer Rabbit Book, and Brer Rabbit's a Rascal. In October 1961, Blyton broke one of her strict rules by accepting a publisher's advance from Hamlyn for publishing The Big Enid Blyton Book. In 1962, many of Blyton's books were among the first to be published by Armada Books in paperback, to make them more affordable to children. After 1963, Blyton's books were generally short stories and easy reading books evidently intended at very young readers, including Learn to Count with Noddy and Learn to Tell Time with Noddy in 1965, and Stories for Bedtime and the Sunshine Picture Story Book collection in 1966. Her declining health and a declining readership among older children have been put forward as the principal reasons for this change in trend. Blyton published her last book in Noddy Library series, Noddy and the Aeroplane, in February 1964. In May 1965 Blyton published May – Mixed Bag, a song book with the music written by her nephew Carey, and in August she released her last full-length books, The Man Who Stopped to Help and The Boy Who Came Back.

By the early 1960s there was widespread criticism of her books on a number of grounds, and concerns continued in the following decades; in 1973 top children's literary critic Margery Fisher likened Blyton's books to "slow poison". Nevertheless, in an age marked by the invasion of American culture, Blyton's works continued to be considered by many as a "savoury" alternative to the likes of Disney and comics, which Blyton was able to exploit as criticism mounted.

Blyton's health began to deteriorate in 1957, when during a round of golf she started to complain of feeling faint and breathless, and by 1960 she was displaying clear signs of dementia. Her agent George Greenfield recalled that it was "unthinkable" for the "most famous and successful of children's authors with her enormous energy and computer-like memory" to be losing her mind and suffering from what is now known as Alzheimer's disease in her mid-sixties. Blyton's situation was worsened by her husband's declining health throughout the 1960s; he suffered from severe arthritis in his neck and hips, deafness, and became increasingly ill-tempered and erratic until his death on 15 September 1967.

Writing style

In a letter to psychologist Peter McKellar, Blyton describes her writing technique:

I shut my eyes for a few minutes, with my portable typewriter on my knee – I make my mind a blank and wait – and then, as clearly as I would see real children, my characters stand before me in my mind's eye ... The first sentence comes straight into my mind, I don't have to think of it – I don't have to think of anything.

Death and legacy

Blue plaque on Blyton's childhood home in Ondine Street, East Dulwich

During the months following her husband's death Blyton became increasingly ill. Afflicted by Alzheimer's, she was moved into a nursing home three months before her death. She died at the Greenways Nursing Home, London, on 28 November 1968, aged 71. A memorial service was held at St James's Church in Piccadilly, and she was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, where her ashes remain. Blyton's home, Green Hedges, was sold in an auction on 26 May 1971 and subsequently demolished in 1973. The area where Green Hedges once stood is now occupied by houses and a street named Blyton Close. An English Heritage blue plaque commemorates Blyton at Hook Road in Chessington, where she lived from 1920 to 1924.

Since her death and the publication of her daughter Imogen's 1989 autobiography, A Childhood at Green Hedges, Blyton has emerged as an emotionally immature, unstable and often malicious figure. Blyton's daughter Imogen considered her mother to be "arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind, and without a trace of maternal instinct. As a child, I viewed her as a rather strict authority. As an adult I pitied her." Blyton's eldest daughter, Gillian, did not have the same view of their mother; Imogen's biography of Blyton contains a foreword by Gillian to the effect that her memories of childhood with her mother were mainly happy ones.

The Enid Blyton Trust for Children was established in 1982 by Blyton's daughter Imogen, and in 1985 the trust established the National Library for the Handicapped Child. Enid Blyton's Adventure Magazine began publication in September 1985, and on 14 October 1992, the BBC began publishing Noddy Magazine, later releasing the Noddy CD-Rom in October 1996. In January 1992, Michael Rouse began publishing Green Hedges Magazine, and two months later, Richard Walker established the Blyton Book Collectors' Society.

The first Enid Blyton Day was held at Rickmansworth on 6 March 1993, and in October 1996, the Enid Blyton award, The Enid, was given to those who have made outstanding contributions towards children. The Enid Blyton Society was formed in early 1995, with the aim of providing "a focal point for collectors and enthusiasts of Enid Blyton" through its thrice-annual The Enid Blyton Society Journal, its annual Enid Blyton Day, and its website. On 16 December 1996, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about Blyton, Secret Lives. To celebrate her centenary in 1997, exhibitions were put on at the London Toy & Model Museum (now closed), Hereford and Worcester County Museum and Bromley Library, and on 9 September the Royal Mail issued Centenary stamps.

The London-based entertainment and retail company Trocadero plc purchased Blyton's Darrell Waters Ltd in 1995 for £14.6 million and established a subsidiary, Enid Blyton Ltd, to handle all intellectual properties, character brands and media in Blyton's works. The group changed its name to Chorion Limited in 1998, but following financial difficulties in 2012 sold its assets. Hachette UK acquired from Chorion world rights in the Blyton estate in March 2013, including The Famous Five series but excluding the rights to Noddy, which had been sold to DreamWorks Classics (formerly Classic Media, now a subsidiary of DreamWorks Animation) in 2012.

Enid Blyton's granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood, wrote a new Noddy book to celebrate the character's 60th birthday, 46 years after the last book was published. Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle (2009) was illustrated by Robert Tyndall, who had drawn the characters in the Noddy books since 1953. In February 2011, the manuscript of a previously unknown Blyton novel, Mr Tumpy's Caravan, was discovered in a collection of her papers that had been auctioned in 2010 following the death of her eldest child in 2007.

Blyton's books have sold more than 600 million copies. In a 1982 government survey, Enid Blyton was voted the most popular writer by 10,000 children in the 11 age group. She is also the world's fourth most translated author, behind Agatha Christie, Jules Verne and William Shakespeare. From 2000 to 2010, she was still listed as a Top Ten author, selling 7,910,758 copies (worth £31.2 million) in the UK alone. In 2003, The Magic Faraway Tree was voted no. 66 in the BBC's Big Read. In the 2008 Costa Book Awards, Blyton was voted Britain's best-loved author.

Critical backlash

Blyton's books are very much of their time, reflecting attitudes about the UK's class system, particularly those published in the 1950s, by which time her books were becoming increasingly controversial. Responding to claims that her moral views were "dependably predictable", Blyton commented that "most of you could write down perfectly correctly all the things that I believe in and stand for – you have found them in my books, and a writer's books are always a faithful reflection of himself". Many of her books were critically assessed by teachers and librarians, deemed unfit for children to read, and removed from syllabuses and public libraries. Some librarians felt that Blyton's restricted use of language, a conscious product of her teaching background, was prejudicial to an appreciation of more literary qualities. In a 1958 article in Encounter, Colin Welch remarked that it was "hard to see how a diet of Miss Blyton could help with the 11-plus or even with the Cambridge English Tripos". Welch reserved his harshest criticism for Blyton's Noddy series, describing Noddy as an "unnaturally priggish ... sanctimonious ... witless, spiritless, snivelling, sneaking doll." But although Blyton's works have been banned from more public libraries than those of any other author, there is no evidence that the popularity of her books ever suffered, and she remains very widely read.

From the 1930s to the 1950s the BBC had a de facto ban on dramatising Blyton's books for radio, considering her to be a "second-rater" whose work was without literary merit; Jean E. Sutcliffe of the BBC's schools broadcast department wrote of Blyton's ability to churn out "mediocre material", and that "Her capacity to do so, amounts to genius ... anyone else would have died of boredom long ago." It was not until 1954 that the BBC broadcast the first of Blyton's stories. Michael Rosen, the former Children's Laureate, said of the BBC's attitude towards Blyton "the quality of the writing itself was poor ... it was felt that there was a lot of snobbery and racism in the writing ... There is all sorts of stuff about oiks and lower orders." The children's author Anne Fine presented an overview of the concerns about Blyton's work and responses to them on BBC Radio 4 in November 2008, in which she noted the "drip, drip, drip of disapproval" associated with the books. Blyton's response to her critics was that she was uninterested in the views of anyone over the age of 12, and claimed that half the attacks on her work were motivated by jealousy and the rest came from "stupid people who don't know what they're talking about because they've never read any of my books".

Racism and xenophobia

Jamaica Kincaid considers the Noddy books to be "deeply racist" because of the blond children and the black doll golliwogg. Modern reprints replace golliwogg with teddy bears or goblins. In her 1944 novel The Island of Adventure, a black servant named Jo-Jo is depicted as an enemy of the British. Although he is portrayed as very intelligent, Jo-Jo is a spy for the Nazis and is particularly cruel to the children. Another example of alleged racism is "black as a nigger with soot", which appeared in Five Go off to Camp.

Accusations of xenophobia were also made. As George Greenfield observed, "Enid was very much part of that between-the-wars middle class which believed that foreigners were untrustworthy or funny or sometimes both". The publisher Macmillan conducted an internal assessment of Blyton's The Mystery That Never Was, submitted to them at the height of her fame in 1960. The review was carried out by author and books editor Phyllis Hartnoll, in whose view "There is a faint but unattractive touch of old-fashioned xenophobia in the author's attitude to the thieves; they are 'foreign' ... and this seems to be regarded as sufficient to explain their criminality." Macmillan rejected the manuscript, but it was published by HarperCollins in 1961, and again in 1965 and 1983.

Sexism

There have also been suggestions that Blyton's depictions of boys and girls are sexist. In a Guardian article published in 2005 Lucy Mangan proposed that The Famous Five series depicts a power struggle between Julian, Dick and George (Georgina), in which the female characters either act like boys or are heavily put upon, as when Dick lectures George: "it's really time you gave up thinking you're as good as a boy". Similar gender issues also surface in Five Have a Wonderful Time, in which Anne says "I don't expect boys to tidy up and cook and do things like that but George ought to because she's a girl".

Revisions to later editions

In an effort to address criticisms levelled at Blyton's work some later editions of her books were altered to reflect more modern attitudes towards issues such as race, gender, animal rights and the treatment of children. References to George's short hair making her look like a boy were cut in revisions to Five on a Hike Together, reflecting the idea that girls need not have long hair to be considered feminine or a normal girl. Similarly, Arabella Buckley in The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor originally wore slippers with swansdown trimmings, changed to "blue silk slippers" in editions published since the 1970s, out of deference to modern views on animal rights and animal welfare. The Faraway Tree's Dame Slap, who practised severe corporal punishment, was changed to Dame Snap who no longer did so, and references to characters in the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series being spanked, or being threatened with a spanking, were changed to their being scolded or threatened with a scolding. In the Five Find-Outers novel The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat, the gardener Tupping no longer behaves in a fierce and threatening manner towards eight-year-old Bets, no longer has a red and angry face and does not jerk Bets to her feet, or threaten to have her put in prison.

Selected works

Main article: Enid Blyton bibliography

Blyton wrote hundreds of books for young and older children: novels, story collections and some non-fiction. Notable book series include Noddy, The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Malory Towers, the St. Clare's series, The Wishing-Chair series, The Magic Faraway Tree series, The Five Find-Outers (also known as Enid Blyton's Mystery series), The Adventure Series, the Barney Mystery series, the Circus series, the Mistletoe Farm series, the Naughtiest Girl series, The Young Adventurers Series, The Adventurous Four Series, and The Secret Series.

Stage, film and TV adaptations

In 1954 Blyton adapted Noddy for the stage, and she produced the Noddy in Toyland pantomime in just two or three weeks. The production was put on at the 2660-seat Stoll Theatre in Kingsway, London at Christmas, under producer Bertie Meyer and stage director André van Gyseghem. Owing to its popularity, the pantomime ended up being performed for a further five or six years. Because it appealed primarily to very young children, two performances were put on in the afternoon rather than the evening; Blyton was delighted with how it was received by children in the audience, and attended the theatre three or four times a week.

A number of Blyton's other works have been adapted for stage, film and television. In 1955 a stage play was produced based on The Famous Five, and in January 1997 the King's Head Theatre produced The Famous Five Musical which toured the UK for six months to commemorate her centenary. On 21 November 1998, The Secret Seven Save the World was first performed at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff.

The Famous Five has been adapted for film and television several times: by the Children's Film Foundation in 1957 and 1964, Southern Television in 1978–79, and Zenith Productions in 1995–97. There have been several TV adaptations of Noddy since 1954, including one in the 1970s narrated by Richard Briers.

In 2012 The Famous Five was also adapted for the German film Fünf Freunde, directed by Mike Marzuk.

The story of Blyton's life was dramatised in a BBC film entitled Enid with Helena Bonham Carter in the title role, which first aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Four on 16 November 2009, followed by a documentary on Enid Blyton. Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson played Blyton's first husband, Hugh Pollock, and Blyton's second husband, Kenneth Darrell Waters, respectively.

See also

• Enid Blyton Society
• Enid Blyton's illustrators

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Baverstock, Gillian (1997), Enid Blyton, Evans Brothers, ISBN 978-0-237-51751-9
• Bluemel, Kristin (2009), Intermodernism: Literary Culture in Mid-twentieth-century Britain, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-3509-2
• Blyton, Enid (1952), The Story of my Life, Grafton, ISBN 978-0-246-12795-2
• Bouson, J. Brooks (2012), Jamaica Kincaid: Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-8292-6
• Brazouski, Antoinette; Klatt, Mary J. (1994), Children's Books on Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-313-28973-6
• Briggs, Julia; Butts, Dennis; Orville Grenby, Matthew (2008), Popular Children's Literature in Britain, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84014-242-6
• Cockin, Katharine; Morrison, Jago (2010), The Post-War British Literature Handbook, Continuum, ISBN 978-0-8264-9502-0
• Druce, Robert (1992), This Day our Daily Fictions: An Enquiry into the Multi-million Bestseller Status of Enid Blyton and Ian Fleming, Rodopi, ISBN 978-90-5183-401-7
• Edwards, Owen Dudley (2007), British Children's Fiction in the Second World War, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1651-0
• Greenfield, George (1995), A Smattering of Monsters: A Kind of Memoir, Camden House, ISBN 978-1-57113-071-6
• Grenby, Matthew (2008), Children's Literature, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2274-0
• Matthew, Colin (1999), Brief Lives: Twentieth-century Pen Portraits from the Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-280089-3
• Murray, Shannon (2010), "A Book for Boys and Girls: Or, Country Rhimes for Children: Bunyan and Literature for Children", in Dunan-Page, Anne (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Bunyan, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–134, ISBN 978-0-521-73308-3
• Stevens, Norman D. (1995), Postcards in the Library: Invaluable Visual Resources, Psychology Press, ISBN 978-1-56024-776-0
• Stoney, Barbara (2011) [2006], Enid Blyton: The Biography (Kindle ed.), History Press, ISBN 978-0-7524-6957-7
• Thompson, Mary Shine; Keenan, Celia (2006), Treasure Islands: Studies in Children's Literature, Four Courts Press, ISBN 978-1-85182-941-5
• Tucker, Nicholas (1990), The Child and the Book: A Psychological and Literary Exploration, CUP Archive, ISBN 978-0-521-39835-0
• Walt, Thomas Van der; Fairer-Wessels, Felicité; Inggs, Judith (2004), Change and Renewal in Children's Literature, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-275-98185-3

Further reading

• Greenfield, George (1998). Enid Blyton. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-1633-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
• Mullan, Bob (1987). The Enid Blyton Story. Boxtree. ISBN 978-1-85283-201-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
• Ray, Sheila G. Bannister (1982). The Blyton Phenomenon. Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-97441-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
• Smallwood, Imogen (1989). A Childhood at Green Hedges: A Fragment of Autobiography by Enid Blyton's Daughter. Methuen Young Books. ISBN 978-0-416-12632-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
• Stewart, Brian; Summerfield, Tony (1998). The Enid Blyton Dossier. Hawk Books. ISBN 978-1-899441-70-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
• Summerfield, Tony; Wright, Norman (1995). Sunny Stories 1942–1953: An Index. Norman Wright. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
• Willey, Mason (1993). Enid Blyton: A Bibliography of First Editions and Other Collectable Books: with Cross-referenced Publishers, Illustrators and Themes. Willey. ISBN 978-0-9521284-0-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)

External links

• Enidblyton.net
• Watch & Listen to BBC archive programmes about Enid Blyton
• Enid Blyton letters from the BBC archive
• Enid Blyton Collection
• Newsreel footage of Enid Blyton at home with her family, 1946
• Seven Stories' Enid Blyton Blog