Enid Blyton was an integral part of my rural Tasmanian childhood, as she was for most ‘Baby Boomers’ around the world.

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton (Wikipedia)

In later life we discovered that the prolific author entertained us at  great cost to her own children, but that’s another story.

My siblings and I read everything we could get our hands on, including all the children’s classics and  many of the adult books in our home (not always appropriate it has to be said 😎).  Nevertheless, we also adored the escapism of The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, and above all, The Faraway Tree books.

Mind you, I definitely don’t agree with Miss Blyton’s assertion that children stopped reading the classics;

Enid Blyton's views on children's reading/

Source – Brisbane Courier, Dec. 23 1950

She also said that to compete with other entertainment,  books had to be fast moving and ‘concise’. Her critics interpreted this as unchallenging. She did no editing after the first draft and wrote an astonishing 10,000 words a day.  😎

A LEAFY WORLD OF MAGIC IN ENGLAND AND TASMANIA

You may think that we  deliberately tried to reconstruct the cover of The Faraway Tree in the following photo, but no, it was sheer serendipity.  The three of us  loved climbing our own magical tree (a giant lucerne). In summer it was filled with humming  bees sipping the nectar of the flowers,  and the chirping of English sparrows.

ENID BLYTON – BELOVED BUT OFTEN BANNED

There was disapproval of  best selling Enid Blyton from the early days. The BBC rejected her offers to read  from her books on air in the 1930s. An internal memo at the time (1938)  read, ‘ My impression of her stories is that they might do for children’s hour, but certainly not for schools department [as] they haven’t much literary value.’  (BBC News Nov, 15 2009). The ban extended for 30 years.

In 1952 the South Australian Book Council declined to recommend her work during Book Week.    The woman in charge of the Children’s Library, Miss Cynthia  Paltridge, told reporter Bettyann Sullivan, ‘Her books are second rate and we have chosen only first-rate books. Although she is one of the greatest sellers, her books are not good enough to be recommended. There is no life in them, or style about her writing.‘   (New (Adelaide) Aug, 6 1952)

Miss Sullivan did not agree.

Of course there could be a negative associated with  including Blyton’s works within  a youngster’s  reading list…..total engrossment;

 

On a more serious note, Enid Blyton’s work has long been criticised for overtones of racism and xenophobia. In 1960 the publisher Macmillan rejected the manuscript for The Mystery That Never Was, ‘…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.’

In 2019 the Royal Mint cancelled plans to honour her with a commemorative coin citing sexism and racism for their decision.

Back in 1978 the ACT removed Enid Blyton’s books from their library shelves, as did many other towns and cities. One small Canberra resident complained bitterly. If Sir Robert Menzies had  still been in The Lodge  he may have agreed with the little girl. He once told the House of Representatives that Noddy had helped him out while he was  babysitting his grandchildren.

Enid Blyton and Noddy

Enid Blyton with Noddy

Some years ago my partner Rob and I owned a holiday home at Marlow, in Buckinghamshire. It was  not far from Bourne End and Blyton’s home, Old Thatch. It was a delightful stop when we were walking the Thames Path, and we included it in a resulting book;

Pauline Conolly at Old Thatch

Afternoon tea in the garden of Old Thatch (Photo by Rob Conolly).

 

Enid Blyton's Home, Old Thatch

Old Thatch (Photo by Rob Conolly)

 

Here is a comment left soon after I published this piece;

Enid Blyton; such a complex character, but someone whose books continue to delight children around the world.

NOTE  – It has  occurred to me that Australian children’s authors of the era such as  Nan Chauncy must have found it almost impossible to compete with Blyton.  That’s an observation, not a criticism.

NOTE – The response to this article was so overwhelming, that I have written a follow-up response. CLICK HERE.

FOR MORE ON OLD THATCH AND ITS GARDEN, CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

9 Comments
  1. I loved visiting Old Thatch at Bourne End, especially when Jackie Hawthorne owned it, because she restored it to it former glory.

  2. I will be forever grateful to Enid Blyton. It is because of her books that I’m the strong, resilient person I am today, and was able to do so well at school and university, and also during my working life. I lost my hearing a couple of months into primary school, and for the next 3 years the doctors said I was just pretending. So, I got picked on a lot at school, with kids calling me names behind my back, teachers making me stand in the corner for not responding to them, and so on and on. Enid’s books were my retreat from all this, and my way of becoming literate under my own steam. Thank you, Enid!

    • Pauline

      How wonderful that her books were such a positive force in your life. Thanks so much for sharing this.

  3. It is difficult to reconcile the joy, as children, derived from Enid Blyton’s books with the perhaps justified scrubbing from history. I say perhaps, because I very much doubt whether Ms. Blyton intended anything other than to bring joy to her readers. But such as the world now is, we have our precious memories to revert to.

  4. It reminds me of this period interview which illustrated Western Australian society as it was at the turn of the previous century, in the context of the lost SS Koombana. Again, no disrespect intended but certainly not embraced in the current climate of zero tolerance.

    https://koombanarevisited.blogspot.com/2023/07/an-interview-with-mr-bennetts-who-was.html

  5. I loved The Secret Seven – my siblings and I started our own club but we didn’t have nearly the adventures of the original seven. I loved the descriptions of the afternoon tea prepared for the club meetings!! More recently, I have been watching a BBC series ‘Mallory Towers” – another favourite of mine. Enid’s description of the school girls, teachers and situations was a wonderful escape to England for me.

    • Pauline

      Her books were part of my longing to visit England, and why we eventually bought a holiday home there. I’m sure I would love Mallory Towers.

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