A weaver of magical tales for children
Noddy creator enid Blyton was Born 125 years ago. Marion Mcmullen looks at the life of one of the world’s most prolific storytellers
ONCE upon a time an English teacher dreamed of making her name as a writer even though her early efforts were rejected countless times by publishers.
Enid Blyton was determined to succeed and 100 years ago her first book of poems called Child Whispers was published. It was only 24 pages long but it was the start of a career that eventually spanned 185 novels, 288 character books and more than 1,000 short stories.
She sometimes wrote up to 50 books a year and her most popular tales included Noddy, the Famous Five books, Malory Towers series, The Secret Seven and The Faraway Tree.
“My work in books, films and talks lies almost wholly with children, and I have very little time to give to grown-ups,” said Enid.
Her work encouraged generations of children to pick up a book and start reading and it is reckoned more than 600 million copies of her stories have been sold worldwide and translated into many different languages.
However, her life could have taken a very different route.
Enid was born 125 years ago on August 11, 1897, in East Dulwich and her parents originally imagined her future was in music as a concert pianist. Her father taught her to play the piano, but Enid’s drive to be a writer was too strong to ignore.
The first Famous Five adventure, Five On A Treasure Island, was published 80 years ago and began with the lines: “Mother, have you heard about our summer holidays yet?” asked Julian, at the breakfast-table. “Can we go to Polzeath as usual?” “I’m afraid not,” says his mother. “They are quite full up this year.”
With Cornwall off the cards, Julian, Dick and Anne’s parents packed them off to Aunt Fanny, Uncle Quentin and their “lonely” cousin Georgina, in Kirrin Bay.
Another 21 novels followed describing the adventures of the children and dog Timmy and the Famous Five series has been called the nation’s most loved children’s books of all time.
Enid also beat literary heavyweights Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters in 2008 to the title of Britain’s best loved author.
The late writer’s work has caused controversy though and English Heritage updated its online biography of her to recognise the criticism levelled against her work “for its racism, xenophobia and lack of literary merit”.
Comedian David Baddiel was among those to comment and tweeted: “Re Enid Blyton – racism, yes, xenophobia, yes, but ‘lack of literary merit’ about books that have sold 600 million copies just sounds weirdly snooty.”
The publishers of Enid Blyton’s Noddy books bowed to pressure groups in 1987 and agreed to expunge all ‘racism’ from them.
Bestselling children’s author and Tracy Beaker creator Dame Jacqueline Wilson stepped into the world of Enid Blyton with The Magic Faraway Tree: A New Adventure, a re-imagining of the story about three children who discover enchanted lands at the top of an enormous tree.
Dame Jacqueline revealed it was her favourite book as a child and said “I have the original book and the children get tremendously delighted with pink blancmange and roly-poly pudding.
“I personally still like these foods, but modern children would just stare blankly.”
The food-laden summer picnics provided plenty of humour for the Comedy Strip Presents spoofs in the 1980s. Channel 4 broadcast Five Go Mad In Dorset in 1982 featured on the station’s launch night with Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French,
Adrian Edmonson and Peter Richardson as the adventurous youngsters. They were responsible for the phrase “lashings of ginger beer” which has now become linked to the Famous Five books.
The nostalgia for Enid Blyton’s books has also led to grown-up comedy spin-offs with titles like Five On Brexit Island, Five Get On The Property Ladder, Five At The Office Christmas Party, Five Go Bump In The Night and Five Get Gran Online.
Noddy Goes To Toyland came out in 1949 and was turned into a stage show in 1962 with Enid attending the auditions at the Scala Theatre to choose London’s youngest leading man.
She watched scores of boys sing a song and recite a piece of dialogue before Carlo Cura from the Italia Conte School was picked for the lead part of Noddy for the Christmas run.
Both Noddy and Malory Towers have gone on to become TV favourites and, when she was not writing, editing or reading, Enid enjoyed gardening or playing golf.
She had two children, Gillian and Imogen, from her first marriage to Hugh Pollock and later married surgeon Kenneth Waters.
The storyteller, who passed away peacefully in her sleep in 1968 at the age of 71, said she would often receive 100 letters a day from children and tried to answer them all.
She wrote in her 1952 autobiography that even as a child she “liked making up stories better than I liked doing anything else”.