My first idea for my next “Curl Up With…” in the series was to do a piece on my favourite childhood books but when I got to work listing my favourites, it appeared that a good 75% were by Enid Blyton. That being the case I decided that this wonderful author deserved her own post.
My favourite childhood author
Enid Blyton was (and still is) one of my favourite ever authors. I credit her with my love of, not just books, but with story-telling, Here is an author whose tales of adventure took me to worlds I wanted to inhabit; worlds of excitement and wonder and freedom and thrills.
Enid Mary Blyton was born on 11th August 1897 in London and wrote a staggering 800 books which were translated into 90 languages making her the 5th most translated author ever, just behind Shakespeare (for anyone who is interested the actual top 10 is: Walt Disney Productions, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Enid Blyton, Lenin, Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel, Hans Christian Andersen, and Stephen King).
Noddy
1949 cover
My love affair with Blytons books started with Noddy, the little wooden boy who lives in his own house in Toyland and drives around in a yellow taxi with his friends Big Ears, Bumpy Dog and Mr Wobbly Man. Hot on Noddy’s heals came The Magic Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair series – infact one of my earliest memories is my Dad reading The Magic Faraway Tree to me at bedtime; I can still remember the excitement of knowing that we were going to read another chapter and being desperate to know what happened next. I can still relive that memory of pure joy and excitement at inhabiting this world.
The Magic Faraway Tree
In the first novel in the series, Jo, Bessie, Dick and Fanny (although these days their names have been changed to Joe, Beth, Rick and Frannie!) move to live near a large wood. One day, they go for a walk in the wood and discover an enormous tree whose branches seem to reach into the clouds. This is the Faraway Tree.
When the children climb the Faraway Tree they discover it is inhabited by different magical creatures, including Moon-face, Silky the fairy, The Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot, Mr. Watzisname and the Angry Pixie. They befriend some of these creatures, in particular Moon-face and Silky. At the very top of the tree they discover a ladder which leads them to a magical land. The lands at the top are sometimes extremely unpleasant – for example the Land of Dame Slap, an aggressive schoolteacher – and sometimes fantastically enjoyable – notably, the Land of Birthdays, Land of Goodies and the Land of Take-What-You-Want.
Oh how I wanted to go!
The Famous Five
Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are brothers and sister. During their holidays, they are regularly sent to the seaside town of Kirrin to stay with their Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin, whose daughter, Georgina, is a tomboy who insists on being called George. George owns a large mongrel dog, Timmy, who is very much part of the group and a character in his own right. Timmy accompanies the four children on every adventure.
The stories always take place in the children’s school holidays when they return from their respective boarding schools. Every time they meet, they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book. Sometimes the scene is set close to George’s family home at Kirrin Cottage in Cornwall: “Kirrin Island“, a picturesque island owned by George and her family in Kirrin Bay, for example, presents many opportunities for adventure. George’s own home and various other houses the children visit or stay in are hundreds of years old, and often contain secret passages or smugglers‘ tunnels. In some books, the children go camping in the countryside, on a hike or holiday together elsewhere. The settings, however, are almost always rural and enable the children to discover the simple joys of cottages, islands, the English and Welsh countryside and sea shores, as well as the adventures, picnics, lemonade, bicycle trips, home-made food, and lashings of ginger beer.
Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known: in her later life, she admitted that the girl was herself.
The Mallory Towers and St Clare’s series
My absolute favourite series and I still really, really, really want to go to those schools! (Yes, even now!) I want to have midnight feasts with lashings of ginger beer and to have high tea after a game of lacrosse. I have lost count of how many times I have read both these series and just reminiscing now is making me want to read them all over again right now!
There are 6 books in each series and each one is a different school year at the boarding schools of Mallory Towers and St Clare’s respectively. Mallory Towers is set on the cliff tops in Cornwall and its main character is Darrell Rivers.
The cover of my book from back in the 70's
The main characters of St Clare’s are twins Isabel and Pat O’Sullivan. The characters in both series are fabulous – there are nice girls, horrible girls, tricks played on teachers, midnight feasts, arguments, runaways, but ultimately fun and adventures. I WANT TO GO THERE!!
Controversy
Blyton’s status as a bestselling author is in spite of disapproval of her works from various perspectives, which has led to altered reprints of the books and withdrawals or “bans” from libraries. In the 1990s, Chorion, the owners of Blyton’s works, edited her books to remove passages that were deemed racist or sexist.
The Famous Five come under fire for both, starting with tomboy George often struggling to make herself heard over her older male cousins: In Five on a Hike Together, Julian gives the order to George: “You may look like a boy and behave like a boy, but you’re a girl all the same. And like it or not, girls have got to be taken care of.” But perhaps more startling is the phrase “black as a nigger with soot” when Five Go Off to Camp. This is one of a number of phrases which ultimately rendered some of her books banned by libraries. These have now, obviously, been omitted from reprints along with name changes (there were rarther a lot of Dicks and Fanny’s in her originals).
Have you read any Enid Blyton?
Just writing this post had made me want to drag down all my Malory Towers books from the shelf and emmerse myself in a world of sunshine, fun and adventure once again. A huge part of me owes my love of the printed word to this lady and I can still vividly remember the joy I got from eagerly anticipating the next installment of her books at bedtime.
Do you have any fond memories of childhood favourites? Have you read any Enid Blyton and if so what do you think?
Oh my word, how I love Enid Blyton! You didn’t mention the Adventure series, which is my absolute favourite (closely followed by the Malory Towers books – I was desperate to go to boarding school, and begged my parents!) One of my enduring memories of primary school is being read The Island of Adventure chapter by chapter by our teacher Mr Newton. We always wanted more chapters that we had time for
Great post, Boof, and made me totally nostalgic!
Me too, Amanda, me too! I used to beg my parents to send me too! I SO wanted to swim in the pool with rocks and play tricks on the French teacher! I still do!!!!!
)
I never read her as a child, and reading your post makes me wonder how I managed to avoid it, given the sheer number of books. Maybe they weren’t popular in the US in the 1970s? I read the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, but I don’t know any of the books or characters you mentioned…interesting!
I don’t think she was as popular in the States, Heather. I have family in the US and went there when I was 10 (1981) and all the kids were reading Judy Blume (which we didn’t get in the UK then either).
Heather: I too grew up on Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and The Bobbsey Twins, being in Canada. They’re more the North American thing, I guess, and Blyton more English. Still, I did get a little Enid Blyton because of my mom, who loved the books herself. She was born and brought up in Malta which, as a previous English colony, had a lot of English influence. Mainly I read the Famous Five. I was totally in love with George, being a tomboy myself!
I have to say I’m really not a fan of the censoring and editing that goes on in these types of books. Name changing, to me, is ridiculous. And while things may be offensive nowadays, they didn’t carry the same meaning then, and that to me is partly what makes literature so interesting. The author wrote what they wrote, and it is odd that we should necessarily edit it. Why can’t we just acknowledge how things were in the past without getting our knickers in a twist? Censorship not only removes freedom of speech and the right to read what we like but also erases history and the progression of such. GRRR.
The good news is that banning books seems to encourage reading them all the more.
I must admit that I agree, Steph, that those types of comments were a sign of the times. I haven’t read Gone With The Wind yet but I have seen loads of remarks about how racist it is but surely this is important to leave it as it is because that’s how things were back then.
I discovered the Famous Five books when I was in my 20s! : ) What fun they were.
You’re never too old for Enid Blyton, are you?
One of the great joys of having children is re-reading their books. I think I enjoyed Mallory Towers even more as an adult.
Me too, Joanna. The more I think about it the more I want to read them again.
Thanks for this post! Great to see some childhood favorites back! I read several of the Famous Five (translated into Dutch) and the Mallory Towers series. Oh, wonderful to be at boarding school. We didn’t have boarding schools in the Netherlands (or so I thought), so no chances there for me (later my brother went to a very strict boarding school for 2 years – he didn’t have that much fun, actually!).
Ha ha, I’m sure that boarding schools were nothing like I imagined either. I think I would have been so disappointed if I’d actually gone to one and it was nothing like Malory Towers
I read her for far longer than I should have done really. I loved them all, Mallory towers, the farawat tree. I also remember those kids that ran away and lived on an Island, their parents were pilots and they thought they had died. Oh and that doll who was naughty Amelia Jane I think.
I brought the faraway books for my son (hes only 18 months and far too young for them) and I noticed the name changes. To be fair I did think the names Dick and Franny were quite funny when I read them.
I remember those, too, Jessica. There were so many of her books that I loved but didn’t have the time or room to post about.
I loved Amelia Jane and also The Naughtiest Girl at School series. Ahh, memories
Wonderful post!
I don’t think I ever read Enid Blyton as a kid, but I remember that distinctive signature for some reason. My niece is eight and an emerging reader (yay!) so maybe I’ll pick up one of these for her and I to read along together.
Yes, Sue, do it!! Honestly, I don’t even think these books date: what child doesn’t love adventure and fantasy?
Let me know if you do pick one up for her and what she thinks
I never realised that she was the author of Noddy! I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never read the books, but I’ve watched the television show a lot when I was younger.
I don’t think most people know that, Iris.
I think it’s definitely looking like the Brits read her more thought; wonder why she wasn’t as popular elsewhere.
i never really got blyton ,some five books we re okish
,all the best stu (sorry)
*fans face and gasps in horror* “okish”???????? Only joking, Stu, they’re not for everyone
I loved the St Clares series – boarding school seemed so appealing, probably why I went onto read most of the Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent Dyer! I also recall The Secret of Spiggy Holes – loved the title… Did you see the drama about Enid on BBC a few months ago with Helena Bonham Carter as Enid? I thought it was excellent.
I loved the Chalet School series too! Ahhh, more memories
Ooh, no I didn’t see the drama with Helena BC. I must check that out!
I see it’s not available to be seen on I Player any more but Amazon have it for £4.93! She is not portrayed in the most flattering light but I thought it was a very good dramatisation – anyone who produces that amount of books can’t have had too much spare time to do the “Mummy” things.
I never read any Enid Blyton but your amazing post made me very curious! I’m 24- that’s not really old, is it?
I think I’m going to give it a try, I’m still a child at heart
Lua, 24 is definitely not old!
As for Enid Blyton, I reckon you’re never too old anyway.
We’ve got a humongous Enid Blyton collection at home – all of those boos were read by my sisters and then by me and hopefully, one day, I’ll have a daughter I can then give the books to. I loved anything set in a boarding school and the famous Five were also high up on the list. Reading all this now makes me want to go back and read some of the books, bathe in nostalgia. Great post!
Me too Susi – my books are smiling at me from the shelves as I write this!
Oh boy yeah, I remember Enid Blyton! God, Noddy!! I used to watch it on tv as a kid. Wasn’t there some controversy over one of the characters being gay? That was probably just in the gay-crazy 90s when suddenly every beloved fictional character was “secretly gay”!
Funnily enough, I never really liked Blyton’s books all that much. I can’t remember exactly which ones I read. I remember watching the Famous Five on tv but only vaguely.
As for the racism etc., it’s like with Tin Tin isn’t it. I confess I always feel sad to hear of edits or banning. I know they’re written for children but can we not learn from the original texts? It’s a good opportunity to teach kids about historical context etc. instead of pretending that people never said these things (especially since they still do say these things!)
Love the post Boof. Wondefully inspiring as usual!
I agree, Shannon, especially with the sexist bits which actually weren’t sexist, it was just they way things were. I don’t think any child today would take that seriously.
The Magic Faraway Tree is one of my favourite children’s book! Brings back memories!
It was wonderful, wasn’t it Sakura? Such amazing stories.
The famous five is one of my most favourite book. i read it from matris.com.
I LOVED Enid Blyton – I read everything by her I could find in the library. The Faraway Tree stories and Wishing Chair stories were especial favourites but I also adored Malory Towers, and the Famous Five. I liked the Secret Seven but they were never as fun as the Famous Five. My sister has started collecting these for her boys and we are loving revisiting our childhoods when we read to them!
I love that this post is bringing back so many good memories for people
Yeah, i definitely prefered The Famous Five to The Secret Seven but that said, I loved all her books.
Your nephews have such fun to look forward to – can you imagine reading these books again for the firs time?
I grew up with” the famous five” or rather “le Club des Cinq” en Français since I did not read English as a child…I loved her books so much !!! I guess all my copies are still at my parent’s home in the attic somewhere.
I also was a huge fan of Alice (aka Nancy Drew) and “les Soeurs Parker” (???? in English ) by the same author.And “Fantômette “was my childhood role model as well, by George Chaulet but that’s very French and I doubt she is famous abroad.
Thanks for this wonderful post Boof, you made me want to read Enid’s biography so I got it off my shelves today and put it on my night stand !!!!
Le Club des Cinq! I love it!!!!
I loved Nancy Drew too – I used to write my own mystery stories at the age, I loved them so much.
I’ve never heard of Geaorge Chaulet though
[...] 3) Curl Up With….Enid Blyton [...]
When I was in some-single-digit-years-old, I had a serious crush on Julian. The end.
Also, Magic Faraway Tree!!! When I was 12, I wrote my first book. When I was 13, I realized I had just rewritten the Magic Faraway Tree, but with all the linguistic dexterity of a 12 year old.
Ha ha, I love it! I had a little crush on Julian too; he was the protecive one
I love that you also wrote books when you were that age. I used to too: I wrote my first series of books when I was about 13 and then I realised that I had rewritten Nancy Drew (just with a name change).
Hahaha. That’s amazing.
I’ve heard rumours, but I don’t know if they are true. I’ve heard that Blyton books became rather frowned upon in the UK – especially the Noddy books- because of the gollywogs? And maybe even depictions of the Roma. Is this true?
Yes, that is true about the gollywogs. We also used to collect gollywog badges from marmelade jars when we were kids but I have to say that I never thought of it as derogatory when I was growing up, it was just a name. Blyton came under fire in the 70′s & 80′s for sexism and racism and they have now changed certain names or phrases in her books.
Gollywogs! My dad had one when he was a little boy, he loved it. Years ago I actually found one in an op-shop and got it for him. They were more-or-less banned because they were seen as offensive (they look like “black face”, with the big red mouth). But how rude is it to only have white dolls?
Good to know. Thanks for the update.
@Shannon
I believe the reason golliwogs were banned was because of the word “wog”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wog
Etymology: perhaps short for golliwog
Date: circa 1929
chiefly British usually disparaging : a dark-skinned foreigner; especially : one from the Middle East or Far East
Ha ha – I’m well familiar with the term “wog”, we use it in Australia to mean person of Italian descent – the Italian-Aussies themselves are fond of the term. We use “woggie” as an adjective too.
That’s interesting background. I’ve often wondered where the word “wog” came from.
I just came over from leeswamme’s blog. I love Enid Blyton, or better, I loved her when I was a girl. Yes, St. Clare’s and the famous Five, awesome series, but my favourite one was the mystery series. I devoured those books and re-read them again and again.
Hi Rikki, I think I have read all mine a hundred times too. You can never get bored of them can you?
[...] Curl up with Enid Blyton [...]
I have read all of them and re-read them umpteen times.
Enid Blyton has fallen quite out of fashion of late. I guess the racism is because of her reference to golliwogs and stuff like that. I wouldn’t really term that as racist though, but that’s just me, I didn’t see anything overtly racist
Me too; I think she was just a product of her time that’s all.
Her books are genius in my opinion.
I have just started reading Enid Blyton books to my eldest daughter who is five and she is absolutely loving the faraway tree and all its characters as well as the famous five books. This is really bringing me back to my childhood where I read all of the above and formed the reader I am today.
Ps only just found your blog and am very excited to find someone on same wavelength who gets so much out of reading but without taking themseves too seriously.
Hi Emma, thanks for the lovely comment. To me, reading is for pleasure and entertainment not to be able to write a thesis on what the author may or may not have meant by something – it’s nice to know that there are others who feel the same.
I don’t have children but I can imagine how wonderful it would be to re-live the magic of the faraway tree books through the eyes of a child. My eldest neice is coming up for 8 and I can’t wait to get her the Mallory Towers series to read!! I think I’ll be more excited than she will
Enid Blyton is a wonderful author.i liked her ‘malory towers’.it is a good book with a lot of characters such as June,alicia,amanda,and my ftavourite darrel.i luv enid blyton&her book&.book whisperer’s post is WONDERFUL!!!!
Thank you Raeesa
All those names you mentioned bring back great memories for me too!