In 1897 Enid Mary Blyton, was born in the flat above a shop in East Dulwich. By the time of her death at the age of 71 she had become one of the most popular children's authors of our time¹.

The Early Days

Blyton spent much of her childhood withdrawn into her own world and later based the character of George in the Famous Five books on herself at the age of around 12. As she was a talented musician her family were surprised when she chose to train as a teacher at Ipswich High School. She had little contact with her parents while she was training, as her father had by now started a family with another woman. She had never been close to her mother.

Between the publication of a poem, "Have You", at 26, and her death at the age of 71, Blyton published over 600 novels, poems, plays and short stories. She began by writing stories and poems for both adults' and children's magazines. By 1922 she had written enough children's poetry for an anthology entitled "Children's Whispers". She also had a regular column for Teachers' World magazine where she published plays and stories that could be used in lessons. She became the editor of "Sunny Stories" a short story magazine for children. This was followed by her first full length book "The Wishing Chair", about a chair that grows wings and whisks children away to magical lands.

In 1924 she married Hugh Pollock, an editor at her publishers, and in 1929 their first child Gillian was born followed by her second child Imogen in 1931. They soon moved to Green Hedges, a house that was to be associated with Blyton for the rest of her life. She would set many short stories there, often revolving around Bimbo and Topsy, the cat and dog. However shortly after her marriage her career began to take off.

Published in 1929 "The Secret Island" was Blyton's first full-length book for older children. It centred around four children who escape from living with their cruel Aunt and Uncle by going to live on an Island in the middle of a nearby lake.

The books and stories were amazingly successful at the time they were written. There are even tales of them being banned from libraries because they meant that children would no longer read the great works of fiction. However whilst her writing career began to take off her marriage was deteriorating and in 1941 Hugh Pollock moved out of Green Hedges. By 1943 she was divorced and remarried to a surgeon, Kenneth Darrell Waters. She died of what is now know an Alzheimer's disease in 1971.

Blyton used her seemingly idealic family life to promote her writings. In magazine interviews she spoke of how she was pleased to be working from home because she could spend time with her children. She wrote short stories staring the cat and the dog, with members of the family as background characters. Her house Green Hedges was one of the best know in the country, a letter addressed to "Green Hedges, England" would supposedly reach it's destination ²

Her carefully prepared public persona was of a benevolent mother who loved all children and animals. However her neighbours remember her complaining about the sound of children playing. Her daughter Imogen remembers her mother being distant and cold, and her stepfather foul tempered. However Gillian has happier memories, of a mother who always managed to make time for her and kind step father.

The Writing of Enid Blyton

Though she wrote activly from the late 1920's until the early 1960's the world in which the stories were set vaired little between the early and late books. The majority of the children who star in the books are middle class and usually pupils at boarding schools. The parents have well paying jobs which take them away on buisness a lot, leaving the children to dissapear on there own for weeks on end. They often they go on cycling holidays, nearly always without an adult, sometimes they go to camp or stay in a remote guest house. There are few references to televison, when it is present it is rarely watched. Holidays are rarely abroad usually spent in a undefined place in England. Sometimes people fall ill, there is little that can be done for them apart from quarentine and perhaps a long sea side hoilday. There is no Coca Cola or Fries, for a treat the children eat cake or a sunday roast and drink Ginger Beer. A central feature of these books in the large amounts of Ginger Beer and lashings of chocolate.

The children never have an romantic interest, however old they are, they never worry about their appearance and appear never to enter puberty. When girls in the school stories start worry about such things it is sorted out by the other pupils. Whatever problems befall the children there is always a certainty that they will be resolved, what's more resolved without any need for an adult to get involved.

It would be impossible to include a full list of books written by Enid Blyton. I attempt here to describe some of the most popular books.

Adventure Stories

Although the stories of the Famous Five and Secret Seven are the most well known, Blyton wrote many tales of children having fantastic adventures. These invariably revolve around a small group of children, often siblings or cousins, who regularly meet up, always in the country when on holiday from boarding schools. Their parents give them a remarkably free rein and often allow them to stay away from home for several days at a time. Each book in a series represents one school holiday, although sometimes there are so many books in a series that it would be impossible for a child to have that many school holidays. For example the series of 21 Famous Five books, assuming that they are having one adventure in each of the three holidays the adventures would take place over a seven year period: however in book 21 the children are only a year older than in the first book.

The actual adventures tend to involve a gang of some sort of criminals, (kidnappers smugglers thieves, occasionally spies) who usually take the children prisoner about two thirds along the book. They escape and victoriously report things to the grateful local police constable.

The Famous Five are perhaps the most popular adventure stories, the central characters revolve around two brothers Julian and Dick, their younger sister Anne and their cousin Georgina and her dog Timothy. Georgina is known as George most of the time and dresses as a boy to the extent that most people are non the wiser. Many readers wonder what happened to George when she grew up, some assume that she will become a lesbian others a transsexual. In 1995 Radio Four broadcast a fictional interview with George, where she had become a nurse, and though never married was definitely not a lesbian.

There have been several television adaptations of the series, some set in the fifties some modernised and a stage play. There has also been a satire "Five Go Mad In Dorset" performed by the "Comic Strip" which was broadcast on Channel Four in the 1980's, there's regular feasts of ham sandwichs and ginger beer, they cycle around making fun of the uneducated locals.

The Secret Seven series were nearly as big as the famours five, they consist of the adventures of seven not five children, who run their own secret society. The books are aimed at slightly younger children than the famous five, as they are not as long and the adventures rarly include going off on their own or being taken prisoner.

The Secret Seven is a formal society run by pre pubescent children, they have formal passwords and rules. In fact they are most organised than children of that age could relastically be. This feeling that children can do something makes the reader feel more empowered than if the society had derioted into bickering and "you can't play in my shed".

School Stories

These tend to follow the adventures of a female central character and her friends during a academic year at a boarding school. It is always either a girls school or a mixed school. The plots remain remarkably consistent. In the first book of the series the central character does not want to go away to school, and when they get there rebel as much as they can, however they become convinced of the virtues of the remarkable establishment and soon become a model student.

If there is a sequel this follows the adventures of the characters in a subsequent academic year, usually there will be a new girl who goes through the same process. They will also play a practical joke and have a midnight feast.

The two post popular series are "Malory Towers" and "St Claires", The former follows the adventures of Darrell Rivers ³ over six terms at the school Malory Towers.

Noddy Books

A large series of books aimed at younger children that follow the adventures of Noddy a small toy that nods and his friend Big Ears a gnome. They live in Toyland, a place where toys are alive. In the original books, they spend time getting into trouble with Golliwogs⁴. This led to the books being banned from some libraries in the 1980's, the Golliwogs were replaced with Goblins in the next reprint. Noddy spends most of his time with his great friend Big Ears, this character came under fire when the books were re printed for the US market, some said that his name should be changed to White Beard, and others that Noddy and Big Ears relationship was implidled homosexuality.

Magical Books

The most widely read of these are "The Wishing Chair" and "The Faraway Tree", they consist of a chair and a tree respectively that whisk children off to faraway lands, some good some not so good. There is also a cast of Elves, Goblins, Pixies and characters from fairy tales, which children will recognise from other books.

Short Stories

Blyton remained a regular contributor to magazines and was the editor of her own "Sunny Stories" for some years. These are republished on a regular basis in an almost endless amount of anthologies.

Circus Stories

Less well known than the other tales these consist of the adventures of a number of children who live on a circus over a season when the circus is travelling. A number of mishaps will keep the story alive, the elephant may fall ill, or there may be another rival circus. Either way the season is always a suscess in the end.

Farms and Nature

These books are also less well known than her other books, in fact there is only one well know series. "The Children Of Cherry Tree Farm" in which a group of siblings from London go and stay on a relatives farm the country. They learn many things about nature and farming methods. Then manage to convince their parents to leave London and buy a farm themselves, this becomes the setting for "The Children of Willow Farm" and "Adventures On Willow Farm".

However There are Other Reoccurring Themes Besides Ginger Beer

With the exception of the few books set in a circus the central characters in the majority of the books are middle class children who go to boarding school. Though they will befriend children from other backgrounds these children are nearly always in awe of them. There are however notable exceptions the series set in a circus contains no middle class children at all. The Mystery of series contains one central character Barney who lives with a vairety of circuses as he has no father and his mother has died⁵. Many teachers now think that children should have more examples of heros from backgrounds that they can relate too.

Children aged 7 - 10 the prime readers of Blyton's adventure stories, are now told tales of parents divorcing, children in care⁶, and life on a council estate. In the 1980's Enid Blyton's work was banned from Nottingham Library, amid allegations of it not being politically correct, a media furore started and many other libraries followed suite. Despite best efforts of many teachers many of todays children would rather read Enid Blyton than a worthy tale of parents divorcing on a council estate.

Racism

This charge is most often levelled at the Noddy books where the antiheros were originally Golliwogs. In the book "Here comes Noddy Again" Golliwogs entice Noddy into the woods under the premise of asking for help and the steal his car and clothes.

In the adventure stories that are set abroad, (mainly in the "Of Adventure series" foreign characters speak strangely and are never seen as intelligent. Claudine the French girl at St. Claires is derided for being vain and over emotional, continually worrying about getting a freckle, she is teased for carrying a compact mirror. Zerelda, an American girl who appears in "Third Year at Malory Towers" is derided for wearing make up, not liking sports, wanting to be a film star and there is an incident where she moved down into the year below because she is academically behind the English girls.

However, it is not just the foreign girls who are bullied by the heroine, there are many English girls who are made to feel excluded for missing their old school or not being any good at sports. There are also strange English characters in Adventure stories as well, usually poor abandoned children who befriend the heroes.

Sexism

This is most evident in the adventure books, where there is a group of girls and boys, the girls will be the ones who prepare the food and are protected from danger by the boys. The one exception to this rule is George in the Famous Five, who rejects her feminity entirely and to most onlookers, is seen as a boy. Julian and Dick, who laugh at her exploits as a strange phase she's going through. When they are faced with extremely dangerous situations, the boys will insist on going by themselves, though George often protests she will be left with Ann. As the famous five began when George was 12, this researcher spent much time as a child wondering why George never developed breasts.

The sexism in the school stories is not as evident, yet still present. There is very little mention of the girls future careers even when they are supposedly 18. Though we know that the talented painter will become an artist and the talented pianist a musician nothing is ever said of the future. Indeed Miss Grayling the Headmistress of Malory Towers once states that it is her mission to produce fine upstanding young ladies not excellent grades.

However the sexism, rascism and other attitudes were no different to other authors of the period. She was like almost every authour a product of the time she was writing in. In his book 'Enid Blyton and the Mystery of Children's Literature'Dr David Rudd claims Gollywogs do not represent black people in Noddy Books. He also claimed that modern children from ethic minority and disadvantaged backgrounds enjoy reading the books that are often classed as Racist and middle class, the world the children inhabit is so dramicaly different to the world they now live in that they see it as fantasy world.

Other Criticisms

Critics often point to her limited vocabulary, her immature style, fast paced, with very short sentences and little description. It is also said that she reused several stories and rarely had any original ideas. Though she did write a wider variety of stories than often assumed, when a concept was popular she carried on with it. For example the famous five series was original intended to be only six books long.

Blyton once said that criticism from people over the age of 12 didn't matter and it cannot be denied that with the under 12s the books still remain popular. The fact that children want escapism not true life tales can been seen in the sales figures for Harry Potter books. Despite the critism Blyton remains popular enough for the property company "Trocadero" to pay 13.5 million for the intellectual property rights to the Blyton estate.