Enid Blyton, prolific children's author
Enid Blyton was a prolific British writer of children's stories. Though hugely popular with children, her works were often regarded with disapproval by adults. These days they are also condemned for being non PC.
Enid Mary Blyton was born in 1897. Her books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still widely read and have been translated into ninety languages.
She is best remembered today for her Noddy, Famous Five, Secret Seven, The Faraway Tree, and Malory Towers books, although she also wrote many others including whimsical tales of fairies, goblins and pixies, and books for younger children.
Though her family expected her to become a pianist, Enid Blyton knew that she wanted to be a children's writer. To this end, she took a teacher's training course, and then became a governess and teacher to get to know her audience.
Her own childhood had been blighted by the marital unhappiness of her parents, who seem to have had little in common. Blyton preferred her father and was devastated when he left the family to start a new life and family with another woman. Once she left home, Blyton cut all ties with her mother and younger brothers.
Blyton's first book, Child Whispers, a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922.
At her peak, Blyton sometimes wrote fifty books a year. Her writing was unplanned and she typed her stories as events unfolded before her.
In 1942 Blyton published the first novel in the Famous Five series, Five on a Treasure Island, with illustrations by Eileen Soper. Its popularity resulted in twenty-one books between then and 1963, and the characters of Julian, Dick, Anne, George (Georgina) and Timmy the dog became household names in Britain. Blyton based the character of Georgina, a tomboy she described as "short-haired, freckled, sturdy, and snub-nosed" and "bold and daring, hot-tempered and loyal", on herself.
Blyton felt a responsibility to provide her readers with a positive moral framework, and she encouraged them to support worthy causes.
Almost from the beginning of her success, Enid Blyton's output was decried by teachers and librarians as limited, repetitive and without literary merit. Many schools and libraries banned her work. The children's literary critic Margery Fisher likened Blyton's books to "slow poison", and Jean E. Sutcliffe of the BBC's schools broadcast department wrote of Blyton's ability to churn out "mediocre material", noting that "her capacity to do so amounts to genius ... anyone else would have died of boredom long ago". Despite this, Enid Blyton's stories continued to sell well, and still entertain millions of children to this day.
Enid Blyton died of Alzheimer's Disease in 1968. She married twice and had two daughters.
Further reading
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