Enid Blyton

Enid Mary Blyton (East Dulwich, London; August 11, 1897-Hampstead, London; November 28, 1968) was an English writer who produced multiple works of children's literature, among which The series includes The Five, Secret, The Seven Secrets, Mystery and Malory Towers.

Thanks to his father, from an early age Blyton developed a love for nature, art, music, literature and theater. Although the publication of his first poems dates back to the mid-1910s, period in which she pursued a career in teaching that led her to maintain contact with children, her career as a writer was consolidated after the conclusion of the First World War in 1920. Her essay "On the Popular Fallacy that to the "Pure All Things are Pure" sparked the interest of other publications in his writing style, and in 1922 his first book, Child Whispers, was published.

His produced material, especially in the 1930s, which includes the series Old Thatch and Secreto as well as the novel The Enchanted Forest, led her to establish a status as a "prolific writer" that extended over the next three decades, in which Blyton wrote more than fifty books a year that enjoyed notable popularity, in addition to creating the character Noddy, whose success guaranteed him other series and spin-off publications, as well as film and television adaptations. Although his books are primarily about "adventures that take place in a world free of adults where children have an intoxicating level of autonomy," Some of her texts incorporate biblical narrative, Norse and Greek mythology, and descriptions of nature; in addition to being involved in the production of puzzles, cards and board games inspired by her stories.

Despite the success and popularity of her books, Blyton's private life was marked by controversial episodes that led her to be considered someone "cruel, persistent [...] arrogant, insecure and pretentious", while some of his publications have been subject to unfavorable criticism focused on their narrative simplicity and elements of racism, xenophobia and sexism, which led to the revision of the texts for their dissemination in contemporary editions. Broadly speaking, Blyton is considered one of the most popular British writers and her works have been translated into ninety languages, making her one of the authors with the largest number of translations of her material, comparable to Agatha Christie, Jules Verne and William Shakespeare. Likewise, her writing style has influenced other writers such as Denise Danks, Peter Hunt, Jacqueline Wilson and Adèle Geras.

Biography

Birth and family

Enid Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 in East Dulwich, south London. She was the eldest of three children of Thomas Carey Blyton (1870-1920), a cutlery salesman, and his wife Theresa Mary. —whose maiden name was Harrison; 1874-1950)—. Enid's younger brothers, Hanly (1899-1983) and Carey (1902-1976), were born when the family had already moved to a country house in Beckenham, a town that was then part of Kent County.

Enid almost died a few months after she was born due to contracting whooping cough, however, she was able to recover thanks to the care of her father, whom she adored. He instilled in her an interest in nature and « He loved flowers, birds, and wild animals, and knew more about them than anyone else he had ever met." He also passed on his interest in gardening, art, music, literature, and theater. The two of them often went on nature walks, which Theresa did not like since she did not share the same interest in her daughter's hobbies. Shortly after Enid turned thirteen years old, her father left the family to Going to live with another woman, a situation that left the young woman devastated. Because her relationship with her mother was not positive either, years later she decided not to attend the funeral of either of her parents.

1907-1920: Education and early years

Between 1907 and 1915, Blyton attended St. Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed physical activities and became a tennis champion and captain of the lacrosse team. Although academic subjects did not appeal as much to her, her writing skills were outstanding, and in 1911 she entered the children's poetry competition organized by Arthur Mee. He offered to print her stanzas and encouraged her to produce new material, similar to the motivation he gave her. Mabel Attenborough, aunt of Mary Potter—her friend at school—despite the fact that Theresa believed that her daughter's efforts were a "waste of time and money."

His father taught him to play the piano and he played it well enough for him to believe that he would follow in his sister's footsteps and become a professional musician. Although he considered enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she ultimately determined that her vocation was literature. After finishing her time at that school, in 1915 she left the family home to live with her friend Mary Attenborough, and later moved with George and Emily Hunt to Seckford Hall, in Woodbridge, Suffolk. At Woodbridge Congregational Church he met Ida Hunt, who was a teacher at Ipswich High School, and she suggested a career in teaching. After introducing him to the children, and taking into account his affinity with them, decided to enroll in a course at the National Froebel Foundation in September 1916. By then Enid's contact with her family was practically non-existent.

The continuous rejection of his manuscripts by various editors did not affect Blyton's enthusiasm: «It is, in part, the struggle that helps you so much, that gives you determination, character, autonomy; all the things that help in any profession or business, and certainly in writing," he once said. In March 1916 his first poems were published in Nash's Magazine. She completed her teacher training course in December 1918 and, the following month, gained a place at Bickley Park School, a small boys-only institution in Bickley, Kent. Two months later, she received her certificate with distinctions in zoology and principles of education, first class in botany, geography, practice and history of education, child hygiene and teaching, and second class in literature and elementary mathematics. In 1920 he moved to Southernhay, Surbiton, to practice as governess to the four children of the architect Horace Thompson and his wife Gertrude, with whom Blyton spent four years. Due to the lack of schools in the area, these children were joined by others from different neighborhoods, which gave rise to led to the establishment of a small school in the Thompson couple's home.

1920-1934: Early works

After the First World War, in 1920, Blyton moved to Cessington, where he began to dedicate his free time to writing. The following year, he won the competition organized by the Saturday Westminster Review with an essay titled "On the Popular Fallacy that to the Pure All Things are Pure" - trans., lit.: "On the popular fallacy that for the pure all things are pure." From then on, several Publications such as The Londoner, Home Weekly and The Bystander began to take an interest in his short stories and poems.

In 1922 his first book was published, a twenty-four-page collection of poems titled Child Whispers and illustrated by a friend of his from school, Phyllis Chase, with whom he had already collaborated on several of her previous publications. That same year Blyton began writing in yearbooks for the Cassell publishing house and for George Newnes, while Teachers' World undertook to bring to light his first writing, "Peronel and his Pot of Glue." His success increased in 1923 after the publication of his poems along with those of Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare and G. K. Chesterton in a special issue of that work. It is worth mentioning that his educational texts had a certain influence in the 1920s and 1930s, especially The Teacher's Treasury (1926), Modern Teaching (1928), Pictorial Knowledge (1930) and Modern Teaching in the Infant School (1932).

In mid-1923 he published Real Fairies, a collection of thirty-three poems, one of which had previously appeared in an edition of the magazine Punch. During For the rest of that decade, books such as The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies (1924) were distributed, which featured illustrations by Horace J. Knowles; Book of Brownies (1926); and several game books such as Book of Little Plays and The Play's the Thing (1927), the latter illustrated by Alfred Bestall. In August 1924 she married Hugh Alexander Pollock (1888-1971), a distinguished war hero who worked as an editor. The couple settled in Buckinghamshire, where they acquired a property, "Green Hedges", in Beaconsfield - the name of the property was chosen by its readers in a competition - and had two daughters: Gillian Mary (1931-2007) and Imogen Mary (b. 1935). They finally divorced in 1942 after Enid's affairs during the period in which Hugh was ill with pneumonia, and his reinstatement in the army as an instructor commander and advisor to Winston Churchill.

In general, Blyton's productions of the 1930s reflect a certain interest of the author in myths, particularly of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, some of which are The Knights of the Round Table, Tales of Ancient Greece and Tales of Robin Hood. In Tales of Ancient Greece, he took up sixteen classic stories of Greek myths although he replaced the Greek names of the deities by Latin terms, in addition to incorporating unpublished dialogues between the characters. These works were followed by The Adventures of Odysseus, Tales of the Ancient Greeks and Persians and Tales of the Romans, whose publications occurred in 1934.

1934-1948: Proliferation of series

In 1934 Blyton began her series of children's books Old Thatch with the volume The Talking Teapot and Other Tales. This series lasted until 1960 and would consist of twenty-eight copies, including Brer Rabbit Retold, also published in 1934 and inspired by the fables of Joel Chandler Harris. Three years later it began to distribute his first long serialized work, The Adventures of the Wishing Chair, which was followed by The Secret of the Island, a work with which He inaugurated his collection Secreto that would last until 1953 with a total of five books; El circo Galliano, the first of a trilogy that Blyton would conclude in 1942; and The Adventures of Amelia Jane, about a rag doll reminiscent of one that the writer had given to her daughter Gillian for her third birthday; all of the above first published in 1938. The Glasgow Herald cataloged The Secret of the Island as “a Robinson Crusoe-type adventure on an island [located] in a lake English.

In 1939 The Enchanted Forest was released, whose plot contains elements of Norse mythology that used to fascinate the author since she was a child. According to Gillian, the inspiration for This last work emerged "one day when I was thinking about a story and suddenly I was walking in the enchanted forest [of the book] and I found the tree. In her imagination, she climbed through its branches and met Moon Face, Mr. Cazuelas, the fairy Seditas and the rest of the characters. "I had everything I needed." As with the series The Wishing Chair, in these books the protagonists are children who are transported to a magical world where they meet fairies, elves, elves and other mythological creatures. It should be added that Boys' was also available that year. & Girls' Circus Book, the first full-length book whose distribution deviated from Blyton's characteristic serialization format.

By the 1940s Blyton was already considered a "prolific writer" whose success had been increased by "the marketing, advertising and branding [she used and] that were far ahead of her era." In 1940 she used the pseudonym "Mary Pollock" - derived from her middle name and her first married name - to publish two books, Three Boys and a Circus and The Boys by Kidillin, in addition to the rest of the publications of that year that did carry his real name, among which is included La revoltosa del Colegio —with which the collection began The naughty Elizabeth about the experiences of a girl at the fictitious Whyteleafe boarding school— Because the popularity of material signed by Mary Pollock was increasing and rumors arose of a possible subterfuge against her and her publisher, all publications under this pseudonym—including four more that were to be published in 1943—were reprinted under the author's real name. In 1941 Blyton gave rise to another pair of new series, The Four Adventurers and Santa Clara, and the following year Mary Mouse and the Dolls' House , starring a mouse who works as a maid in a doll's house after being exiled from her home. In total, ten thousand copies of this book were sold, the plot of which would be continued by Blyton until 1964, throughout twenty-three publications.

In 1942, The Five and the Treasure of the Island began to be distributed, the first book in the collection The Five, which is made up of twenty-one books and whose plot exposes the adventures of a group of children and their dog. The series enjoyed considerable popularity, especially in British territory, and according to the description of Matthew Grenby, author of Children's Literature: «[The characters of The Five ] they unmask robust villains and solve serious crimes. snub-nosed [...] bold, short-tempered and loyal." It is worth mentioning that, in October 1943, and after her divorce from Pollock, Enid remarried Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters (1892-1967), a surgeon with whom she had had a romantic relationship for a couple of years.

Interest in biblical narrative led Blyton to write some works such as The Land of Far-Beyond (1942), a Christian parable reminiscent of Pilgrim's Progress (1698); The Children's Life of Christ (1943), a collection of short stories in which the author reinterprets certain biblical passages about the life of Jesus Christ; Tales from the Bible (1944); and The Boy with the Loaves and Fishes (1948). /i>, with which the Mystery series began; and The Magic Faraway Tree, selected in 2003 as the "66th favorite book" of the English according to a survey carried out by the BBC. It should be noted that several of Blyton's publications from this time They are set on the beach and have maritime elements in the plot; for example, John Jolly by the Sea (1943), an illustrated book for young readers; The Secret of Cliff Castle and Smuggler Ben (1943), both under the pseudonym Mary Pollock; i> as The Five and the Island Treasure (1942), The Five Again on Kirrin Island (1947) and The Five Together to the sea (1953).

The success of his publications, which had a wide reader base, prompted Blyton to continue annually producing new stories from some of his series such as The Five, Mystery and Santa Clara, in addition to other novels, short stories and books. In 1946 she went on sale First Course in Malory Towers , the first copy of her collection Malory Towers , starring the student Darrell Rivers and which became notably popular with female audiences.

1949-1959: Noddy and Bom

In 1949 Blyton began a couple of new series: Barney Mysteries —with the book Rockingdown Mystery— and The Secret Seven — with The Seven Secret Club—. The latter is essentially about a pair of brothers and their group of friends who usually meet in a garden shed to discuss events related to their community. Two Years later, Blyton edited this series together with illustrator George Brook for adaptation and distribution in cartoon format in Mickey Mouse Weekly. It should be added that the French writer Evelyne Lallemand produced a dozen new copies of The Seven Secrets in the 1970s, whose translation into English was carried out by Anthea Bell between 1983 and 1987.

As part of an idea conceived by its publisher Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, and after a meeting between Blyton and the Dutch illustrator Harmsen van der Beek in 1949 - in which an interpreter was required - the book emerged Noddy Goes to Toyland, published at the end of that year and starring Noddy, a boy made of wood and originally from the fictional Toyland - or "land of toys" -. This character had previously appeared in the June 5, 1949, issue of Sunday Graphic. His experiences were spread across a dozen books that had notable popularity in the 1950s, and which became one of Blyton's most successful and well-known collections, in addition to giving rise to other series and publications derived from the main saga, such as Noddy's Library, Noddy's Garage of Books, Noddy's Castle of Books, Noddy's Toy Station of Books and Noddy& #39;s Shop of Books. Similarly, a television adaptation titled Noddy in Toyland was produced in the 1990s.

In the early 1950s Blyton produced more than fifty books a year, and established the company Darrell Waters Ltd., in charge of managing his businesses. Several of his publications of that decade consisted of continuations of some of his series, such as Malory Towers, The Five, Mary House, Adventure and The Seven Secrets, and copies that continued the exploits of Scamp the Terrier, whose first appearance dates back to The Adventures of Scamp (1943), and whose illustrations were by Pierre Probst. In 1956 Blyton created the character of Bom, a toy drummer dressed in a red coat and a helmet, who made his first appearance in TV Comic a In the middle of that year, accompanied by Noddy. Finally the author continued Bom's experiences in a new series of books, the first copy of which had illustrations by R. Paul-Hoye and went on sale that same year, in addition to a pair of annual collections made up of short stories, poems and images of the character.

1960-1968: Latest publications and death

Several of Blyton's publications continued to be successful in the 1960s; For example, by 1962, 26 million copies of Noddy's books had been sold, and the publisher Armada Books published several of his works in paperback format. The following year, in 1963, several of his most recent series concluded. long-lived films such as The Five and The Secret Seven, and produced three more books about Brer Rabbit, illustrated by Grace Lodge: Brer Rabbit Again, Brer Rabbit Book and Brer Rabbit's a Rascal.

Blyton's health began to deteriorate in 1957, when she reported feeling fatigued and short of breath during a game of golf, and three years later she showed the first signs of dementia. According to the opinion of her agent, George Greenfield, it was "unthinkable" that "the most famous and successful young adult author, with her enormous energy and computer-like memory" would be losing her cognitive functions and suffering from what is now known as Alzheimer's disease when she was just She was sixty years old. Likewise, her husband's health, who suffered from severe arthritis in the neck and hip as well as deafness, declined and worsened the situation for Blyton, as it led him to have a moody and erratic character until his death. in September 1967.

This situation, added to the decrease in sales by a more adult audience, meant that from 1963 Blyton's literary production was characterized by short stories and books aimed at even more children's segments, among which are Learn to Count with Noddy and Learn to Tell Time with Noddy (both 1965), and Stories for Bedtime and the collection Sunshine Picture Story Book (1966). The last issue of Noddy, Noddy and the Aeroplane, began printing in 1964, and in the middle of the following year the writer produced Mixed Bag, a book of songs in which his nephew Carey collaborated; as well as The Man Who Stopped to Help and The Boy Who Came Back.

After the death of her husband, Blyton's health worsened significantly and she had to be moved to a residence in Hampstead, north of London, where she would live during the last months of her life. She died on 28 November 1968, aged 71, and his funeral took place at Saint James' Church, Piccadilly. His remains were cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and placed inside his mausoleum. His house, Green Hedges, was put up for auction on 26 May 1971 and demolished in 1973, and since then the site has been occupied by houses and a street named Blyton Close in his honour. His other residences also contain objects alluding to his works to commemorate his legacy; for example, an English Heritage plaque was placed on Hook Road in Chessington, where he lived between 1920 and 1924, while a pair of metal figures of Noddy and Big Ears were installed in 2014 in Beaconsfield, where he lived between 1938 and 1968.

Private life and personality

While Blyton was married on more than one occasion, she strove to establish a public image of "an ideal family life full of benevolence, love and small animals"—she had several pets, including a cat and a dog named Bimbo and Topsy, respectively—. On August 28, 1924, Blyton married the military man Hugh Alexander Pollock (1888-1971), shortly after he divorced his first wife, with whom he had two children. It should be noted that Blyton wrote The Zoo Book at the suggestion of Pollock, who at that time was an editor at George Newnes' publishing firm and who would eventually collaborate with the writer. At first the marriage resided in a Chelsea flat until she moved to Elfin Cottage, Beckenham, where they lived between 1926 and 1929 before their move to Old Thatch in Bourne End - called Peterswood in her books. Enid's first daughter, Gillian Mary Baverstock, was born on July 15, 1931 and, after suffering a miscarriage in 1934, gave birth to a second daughter, Imogen, on October 27, 1935.

In 1938 the family moved to "Green Hedges", a house in Beaconsfield whose name came from a competition organized for the readers of their magazine. In the middle of that decade the marriage went through difficult times due to the infidelities of both: after becoming an alcoholic and joining the Home Guard during the Second World War, Pollock had an affair with Ida Crowe, a writer nineteen years younger than him whom he had met some time before, and to whom he offered the position of secretary in the Home Guard training center located at Denbies, a Gothic mansion belonging to Roland Calvert Cubitt. Furthermore, Blyton embarked on a series of love affairs, including a lesbian relationship with one of her daughters' nannies, and in 1941 she met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon with whom she began a relationship. Pollock and Blyton's marriage came to an end after Pollock discovered his wife's deception and, although he intended to lead to divorce proceedings, Blyton eventually persuaded him to publicly reveal his infidelity in exchange for allowing him to see his daughters after the separation. Although this was due to the writer's fear that her public image would be affected by the controversy, the truth is that Blyton not only deceived Pollock by preventing him from reuniting with his daughters, but also made sure that she had difficulty finding employment in the publishing field. The above reflects that Blyton could be cruel and persistent when she wanted to. Finally the wedding of Blyton and Darrell Waters, held in the city of Westminster on October 20 1943, resulted in the change of surname of the author's daughters. In early 1945 Blyton found out that she was pregnant, but, after suffering a fall, she had another abortion.

Far from the image she wanted to project, Blyton was "cold, distant and cruel" especially with her daughter Imogen, who at the time described her as someone "arrogant, insecure, pretentious and without a trace of maternal instinct [...] Her outlook on life was quite childish, and at times she could be as spiteful as a teenager. His apparent kindness towards children was even suspected, given that he often complained about the "terrible noise" made by the children who lived near Green Hedges. One of his hobbies was playing naked tennis, "a common practice in those days." then among those members of the middle classes of most dubious reputation. In the opinion of biographer Nadia Cohen: "Her private life was a riot of extramarital affairs, including a lesbian romance: summary betrayals and casual cruelty, a course of life much more suitable for a modern soap opera than his boarding school drama, Malory Towers». Since his death and with the publication of his daughter Imogen's autobiography in 1989, A Childhood at Green Hedges, she is seen as an emotionally immature, unstable and often malicious figure. Blyton's eldest daughter, Gillian, remembered her differently, however: as "a fair and loving mother.", as well as fascinating company." The writer's life was brought to the big screen in a BBC film titled Enid, which premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC Four on 16 November 2009. Her portrayer, Helena Bonham Carter, noted that Blyton was "a complete workaholic, an achievement junkie and an extremely astute businesswoman [who] knew how to sell herself as a brand, even with her famous signature.

Writing

Style and technique

In a letter to psychologist Peter McKellar, he described his technique as follows:

I close my eyes for a few minutes, with my writing machine on the knees. I leave my mind blank and hope. And then, as if I were seeing real children, the characters show themselves in front of me in my mind... The first sentence comes directly to me, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to think of anything.

Enid Blyton, about your technique

As he confessed to McKellar in another letter, for example, to write The River of Adventure—sixty thousand words—in five days, he had to listen to what he defined as his “submind.” as opposed to his "higher conscious mind." The fact that he disliked conducting research before embarking on writing a new book, coupled with the lack of variety in his life, made plagiarism virtually inevitable. from books she had read before, as well as her own. According to her daughter Gillian, Enid "never knew where her stories came from", but she often said that "they came from her mind's eye" in a way comparable to William Wordsworth and Charles Dickens. According to the writer herself, her inspiration came from "all the experiences she had lived, everything she had heard or read, and that had mostly already disappeared from her conscious memory," although she did not know the direction they would take. to follow the stories. In her autobiography she went into more detail about it: «If she tried to think or invent the entire book [from the beginning], she wouldn't be able to do it. On the one hand it would bore me and on the other it would lack the verve, the extraordinary touches and the surprising ideas that emanate from my imagination.

Her daily routine hardly changed significantly over time. With the typewriter on her knees and her favorite Moroccan shawl within reach, she began writing shortly after breakfast—in her opinion, the color red exerted an influence. "mental stimulation" on her—. After a brief break for lunch, she continued writing until five in the afternoon and by then she had written between six thousand and ten thousand words.

In contrast to Blyton's contemporary readers, who often see her works as a form of "escapism", the children's audience of that time "lived in a world shaped by the realities of post-war austerity" exerted by freedom without political restrictions. Bandon Robshaw, of The Independent, detailed that Blyton's literary universe is "packed with color and character [...and is] autonomous and internally consistent", where the figure of authority falls on the children while a strong distrust of adults is revealed. According to Gillian, Enid's stories are characterized by "the hook [as well as] the powerful plot, with many cliffhangers, a trick he learned after years of writing serial stories for children's magazines. There is always a moral framework in which (in the end) bravery and loyalty are rewarded." Additionally, Blyton argued that "love for children is the basis of my work."

An analysis by Victor Watson of the University of Cambridge suggests that Blyton's works reveal an "essential longing and potential linked to childhood", while the opening pages of The Mountain of Adventure present "a deeply attractive ideal of childhood." He argues that the writer's work differs from that of many other authors in its approach, and describes the narrative of The Five in the following way: «Like a powerful spotlight, it seeks to illuminate, explain, demystify. It takes readers on a roller coaster ride where the darkness always fades; everything disconcerting, arbitrary, evocative is ignored or explained.” She also points to the way she uses minimalist visual descriptions and introduces careless sentences to appeal to her younger readers.

In the mid-1950s, rumors spread that questioned Blyton's authorship of some of her books. The writer was distressed by this situation, so she asked her child readers to let her know if they knew anything about these rumors. Indeed, a mother informed her that a young librarian had mentioned the accusation during a parents' meeting at her daughter's school. Aware of this, in 1955 Blyton took legal action, and the librarian had to apologize to her in a public hearing at the beginning of the following year. However, rumors persisted and it was suggested that the author operated a "ghost writing company" to produce such a volume of works per year.

Themes

Blyton tackled a wide variety of concepts in her works, including fairy tales, animals, nature, detectives, and the circus, although she often mixed genres and "blurred literary boundaries." In An article published in The Author in 1958, noted that there are "a dozen or more types of children's stories" and that, although he had experienced them all, his favorites were those that had as their axis narrative to the family. It is suggested that Blyton's books "have a reputation for innocence to the point of banality, with their helpful clues, dogs and parochial adventures", which often include riddles.

Broadly speaking, most of Blyton's material is about "adventures [that] take place in an adult-free world where children have an intoxicating level of autonomy, from the seaside antics of the Famous Five to the Malory Towers dormitory escapades," which in turn incorporate "reflexive biases" of gender—for example, it is suggested that "the father is picky about his studies, the mother serves tea, and the tomboyish George would never be so "good as a real child." Other themes addressed by Blyton are friendship, justice, freedom, bullying, poverty, acceptance and concepts such as the search for lost cities or treasures in the Middle East or in Kirrin Island, which are usually accompanied by descriptive texts of the natural or city environments in which the different plots take place.

Some of his characters, who in certain cases lack heroism and "are not on the right side of justice", came from acquaintances; For example, Bill Smugs has traits of a guy he met in Swanage and who had the illusion of belonging to the Secret Service, so he expressly asked the writer to include him in one of her books. Similarly, George Kirrin's personality was inspired by that of a "short-haired, freckled, stout, snub-nosed" girl. She was bold, short-tempered and loyal. "She was grumpy", while Inspector Stephen Jennings influenced the creation of Jenks, whom he described as "broad and burly, kind, astute and trustworthy". The policeman Theophilus Goon is also considered to represent a parody of Pollock, his first husband.

Legacy

Between 1982 and 2011, the Enid Blyton Trust for Children charitable foundation remained operational, chaired by Imogen as its first president, and which in its almost three decades of existence contributed more than half a million pounds to children's institutions in the United Kingdom. Also in 1985 the National Library for Disabled Children was established, the same year in which the magazine Enid Blyton's Adventure Magazine began to be published. Seven years later, on October 14, 1992, the BBC released the first issue of Noddy Magazine, and at the end of 1996 a CD-ROM of the character was distributed.

The first "Enid Blyton Day" was celebrated in Rickmansworth on March 6, 1993, and from October 1996 The Enid award began to be presented to those who had made outstanding contributions to issues related to children. In 1995 the Enid Blyton Society was founded to act as a "focal point for collectors and enthusiasts" of the writer through its triannual publication, its annual day and its website, and the following year Channel 4 broadcast a documentary titled Secret Lives which is about the life of the author. To celebrate the centenary of her birth, in 1997, several exhibitions were organized in the country, and the Royal Mail issued a series of commemorative stamps.

Photograph of a shelf with several of Blyton's books.

Allegorical motor with the theme of Noddy in 2008.

London entertainment and distribution company Trocadero acquired Darell Waters Ltd in 1995 for GBP 14.6 million and formed a subsidiary, Enid Blyton Ltd, in charge of managing intellectual property, trademarks and media relations of all matters related to the writer's works. In 1998 the group changed its name to Chorion, but was forced to sell its assets in 2012 after a period of economic difficulties. Hachette acquired the worldwide rights to his works in March 2013; although this action guaranteed him the Five series, this was not the case with Noddy, whose rights had been sold in 2012 to DreamWorks Classics—currently a subsidiary of DreamWorks Animation—.

In 2009, Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle was published, written by Sophie Smallwood—Blyton's granddaughter—and illustrated by Robert Tyndall, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the character's creation and more 45 years after the publication of the last book in the series. At the end of the following year, the Seven Stories children's literature museum acquired several of Blyton's typescript manuscripts, becoming the largest public collector of her literary material. Among those manuscripts was the incomplete text of Mr Tumpy's Caravan.

A total of 10,000 children recognized Blyton as the most popular writer in a 1982 survey. It should be noted that her works have been translated into ninety languages, making her one of the authors with the greatest number of translations of his material, second only to Agatha Christie, Jules Verne and William Shakespeare. Between 2000 and 2010, almost eight million copies of his books were sold in the United Kingdom, translating into profits of GBP 31.2 million. The BBC included the novel The Magic Faraway Tree in its Big Read list in 2003, while at the 2008 Costa Book Awards the audience classified Blyton as the "most loved" writer in the British territory Over time, his works continue to be popular among children, especially in Commonwealth countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malta, New Zealand and Australia. In China they also enjoy some acceptance and They are "big with every generation." In March 2004 Chorion and the Chinese publisher Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press agreed to produce a Noddy animated television series.

Blyton's literature has influenced other writers such as Denise Danks, whose detective works revolve around Georgina Powers, who in turn is based on Georgina from The Five; Peter Hunt, especially with his work A Step off the Path (1985); Jacqueline Wilson with Double Act (1996); and Adèle Geras with her Egerton Hall trilogy (1990-92).

Critical reception

A. H. Thompson, who exhaustively analyzed attempts at censorship in public libraries in the United Kingdom, dedicated an entire chapter of his work to what he cataloged as "the Enid Blyton affair" and which in 1975 he detailed as follows: manner:

No other author has caused more controversy between librarians, literary critics, teachers and other pedagogues and parents in the last thirty years than Enid Blyton. What is it that the books of this tremendously popular writer for children have led to accusations of censorship against librarians from Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom?

One of the hypotheses suggests that the arguments used by the writer throughout her works were limited, repetitive, continually recycled, and not recommended for reading by children, which motivated her withdrawal from certain curricula and public libraries. In response to claims that his moral views were "predictable", Blyton argued that "most of you could easily make a list of all the things I believe in and stand for; They have found them in my books, and a writer's books are always a reliable reflection of himself."

Between the 1930s and 1950s, the BBC imposed a veto on the radio adaptation of Blyton's books, considering her someone "second class", whose work lacked literary merit. Criticism of children's literature Margery Fisher metaphorically described reading her books as a "slow poison", while Jean E. Sutcliffe of the BBC's school broadcasts department emphasized the author's ability to generate "mediocre material", noting that "his ability to do this is the stuff of a genius [...] Anyone else would have died of boredom a long time ago." Michael Rosen, recipient of the Children's Laureate between 2007 and 2009, He added in this regard: "I find myself faltering before the outbursts of snobbery and the alleged level of privilege of the children and families in his books." In turn, in November 2008 the youth author Anne Fine prepared a summary of the concerns about of Blyton's work and the responses given to them on BBC Radio 4; His analysis focused on the "trickle" of disapproval around the books. In response to criticism, Blyton always stated that he was not interested in the opinions of anyone over the age of 12, claiming that half of the attacks made against his work were motivated by envy, while the rest came from "stupid people who don't know what they're talking about because they've never read my books."

Although contemporary critics agreed in perceiving a decline in the literary quality of his works dating from the 1950s, a period in which the pace of production of his material increased, Blyton knew how to take advantage of the evaluations of what It was considered at the time "a saltier, English alternative" to the "invasion" that Britain was suffering from American culture in the form of "rock music, horror comics, television, teen culture, crime and Disney." In the opinion of British academic Nicholas Tucker, Blyton's works "have been banned from public libraries over the years in more cases than with any other author of children's or adult literature", although These attempts to decimate the popularity of the books seem to have enjoyed little success, since "they continue to be read a lot."

Simplicity

Some librarians deduced that Blyton's restricted use of language, a product of her career as a teacher, was detrimental to an appreciation of other literary qualities. In a scathing article published in Encounter In 1958, the journalist Colin Welch noted that it was "difficult for Miss Blyton's regime to help the eleven-plus or the Cambridge tripos," although he reserved his harshest criticism. for Noddy, whom he described as "a furtive doll, artificially pedantic [...] moralistic [...] stupid, lacking in spirit, crying".

The writer and educational psychologist Nicholas Tucker realized that the degree of predilection for Blyton's works usually depended on the age range of the readers. In his opinion, the writer's material incorporates an "encapsulated world for children that simply dissolves with age, leaving behind only the memories of emotion and a strong identification." In turn, Fred Inglis explained that the books by Blyton are technically easy to read and "simple in the emotional and cognitive aspect", and in his analysis he made reference to the psychologist Michael Woods, who believed that the author was different from the rest of the writers who produced works for children because it seemed that she did not She cared about offering them a world that did not correspond to reality. According to her statements: «I was a girl, I thought like a girl and I wrote like a girl [...] the primordial feeling is essentially pre-adolescent [...] Enid Blyton has no moral dilemmas [...] Inevitably, Enid Blyton was labeled a child hater. If true, such a revelation would not be a surprise to us, since, being a girl herself, the rest of the children cannot be anything other than rivals for her." Despite the above, Inglis highlighted the writer's devotion to the child audience that is reflected in his work and in a strong belief in the "representation of the crude moral diagrams and the strident fantasies of his readers." Although his books show a close bond with children, the truth was that Blyton considered children as an intrusion, in the opinion of her daughter Imogen, and "there was no room for intruders in a world that Blyton inhabited through her writing."

Racism, xenophobia and sexism

One of the first accusations of racism in Blyton's content came from an article published in The Guardian in 1966 by Lena Jager, whose criticism focused on Sambo, the black doll protagonist of The Little Black Doll who is forced to flee, since her owner and the rest of the toys hate her for her "ugly black face." At the end of the story, they welcome her back into their home after that his face remains clean during a rain. Additionally, Jamaica Kincaid said that the Noddy books are "deeply racist" for evidencing a contrast between their characters, particularly the golliwoggs. It should be added that Jo-Jo, from The Island of Adventure(1944), he is a very intelligent black servant, but cruel especially to children.

On the other hand, George Greenfield reiterated that certain content alludes to xenophobia when perceiving that "Enid was part of that middle class of the interwar period who believed that foreigners were unreliable, funny or both." Macmillan led an investigation in relation to The Mystery That Never Was, whose results were taken up by the editor Phyllis Hartnoll and in her analysis she concluded that "there is a slight, but unattractive touch of old-fashioned xenophobia in the attitude of the author towards the thieves; They are 'foreigners' [...] and this seems to be enough to explain their status as criminals." As a result of the above, Macmillan rejected the manuscript, which was then taken up by William Collins, responsible for its publication in 1961, 1965 and 1983.

There are also indications that certain descriptions of children are sexist. For example, in an article published in The Guardian in 2005, Lucy Mangan commented that the series of The Five represents a power struggle between Julian, Dick and George (Gorgina), in which the female characters either act like boys or are seen as inferior, as when Dick lectures George: "It's about time you Stop thinking you're as good as a boy. Accusations of racism, sexism and homophobia caused the Royal Mint to reject the proposal to print a Blyton commemorative coin at the end of 2016.

Review of later editions

In response to criticism, some of the more recent editions of Blyton's works contain modifications intended to reflect more liberal attitudes on issues such as race, gender, and the treatment of children. Thus, for example, contemporary versions of the Noddy series replace the golliwogs with teddy bears or elves. In the original edition of Here Comes Noddy Again, the golliwogs leave Noddy naked in the forest. This sequence changed in the 1986 revision, where it is explained that Noddy is only stripped of his hat and his shoes, although they return at the end of the story to apologize to him.

Another notable example occurred with The Faraway Tree, where one of the characters' penchant for corporal punishment had to be omitted, in addition to changing the names of several other characters. Likewise, the characters of Malory Towers and Santa Clara no longer receive blows or threats, but are reprimanded for their actions. Mentions where the characters mocked the short hair of Jorge in A Weekend of the Five were removed in contemporary revisions, to instead reflect the idea that girls do not need to have long hair to be considered feminine or normal. Likewise, The fragments in which Ana claimed that boys cannot wear pretty dresses nor like dolls were removed, and the names of the twins from The Adventurous Four were changed.

Hodder, the publisher holding the rights to the The Five series, announced in 2010 its intention to "subtly" update the language used in the books, rather than modifying the narrative. For example, the expression "school tunic" was changed to "uniform", and "mother and daddy" became "mom and dad", among others. The changes were subject to conflicting opinions; On the one hand, they were considered necessary to attract modern readers, but on the other, they were classified as unnecessary and condescending. However, Hachette, owner of Hodder, announced in 2016 the end of the revisions, considering that they were not having the expected success.

Adaptations in other media

Blyton required three weeks to produce the Christmas production Noddy in Toyland in 1954, which took place at the Kingsway nightclub in London. Thanks to its good reception, the show It ran for at least five more years, during which Blyton attended as a spectator on several occasions. Another notable adaptation of Noddy included a television program narrated by Richard Briers and broadcast in the 1970s. Meanwhile, in 1955 carried out a staging of The Five and, several decades later, in 1997 King's Head Theater carried out a musical tour about that same series throughout the United Kingdom. United, in accordance with the centenary of Blyton's birth. The following year, in November 1998, the play The Secret Seven Save the World was presented for the first time at the Sherman Theater in Cardiff.

Additionally, numerous film and television adaptations of The Five have been made, including Five on a Treasure Island (1957) and Five Have a Mystery to Solve(1964), by the Children's Film Foundation; the series The Famous Five (1978-79), from Southern Television; the program of the same name produced by Zenith Productions and broadcast in the mid-1990s; and the feature film Fünf Freunde (2011), directed by Mike Marzuk.

Between 1982 and 1983, two parodies of The Five were broadcast on Channel 4, by the British comedian group The Comic Strip: Five Go Mad in Dorset and Five Go Mad on Mescalin. A third production, Five Go to Rehab, was broadcast in 2012 through Sky UK.

Another literary collection by Blyton that has had film and television adaptations is The Faraway Tree. In 1997 the BBC began broadcasting the animated program The Enchanted Lands, and almost a couple of decades later, in October 2014, Hachette authorized the production of a live-action film. According to Marlene Johnson, head of the publisher's children's literary division: "Enid Blyton was a passionate advocate of children's stories, and The Magic Faraway Tree is a fantastic example of her creative imagination. ».

Works

Books

Some of its literary series, classified by theme, are the following:

Mystery and adventure

• The Five (21 novels)
• The Seven Secrets (15 novels)
• Secret Series (5 novels)
• Adventure series (8 novels)
• Mystery series (15 novels)
• Barney Series "R" (6 novels)
• The four adventurers (2 novels)

Internships

• Santa Clara (6 novels)
• Torres de Malory (6 novels)
• The naughty Elizabeth (3 novels)

Others

• Six cousins (2 novels)
• The farm (2 novels)
• Independent titles (17 novels)
• The Caravan Family (6 novels)

For younger children Blyton published other collections, including:

• Noddy
• Funny stories, like Tales to go to sleep.

Newspapers and magazines

Blyton cemented her reputation as a children's writer when she took over the editing of Sunny Stories in 1926, a magazine that often included tales of legends, myths, stories and other articles for children. That same year, was awarded a column inTeachers' World, titled "From my Window." Three years later, he began contributing a daily page to the magazine, in which he published letters from his fox terrier, named Bobs. They were so successful that, in 1933, they were collected in a book titled Letters from Bobs —Letters from Bobs—, which sold ten thousand copies in its first week. Her most notable piece was "Round the Year with Enid Blyton" - "Along the year with Enid Blyton" - which consisted of forty-eight articles dealing with aspects of natural history such as weather, life in ponds, and instructions for planting a school garden or making a bird feeder. She was also involved in other projects linked to nature, such as a monthly piece titled "Country Letter" that appeared in the magazine The Nature Lover in 1935.

Sunny Stories became known as Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories in January 1937, and served as a vehicle for the serialization of Blyton's books. The first story of the mischievous Amelia Jane, about an antiheroine inspired by her daughter Gillian's doll, was published in this magazine. She stopped contributing to its pages in 1952, and the magazine closed the following year, shortly before of the appearance of another titled Enid Blyton Magazine, written entirely by Blyton. The first issue went on sale on March 18, 1953 and its circulation continued until September 1959.

Noddy first appeared in the Sunday Graphic in 1949, the same year that Blyton did the first strip about the character for London's Evening Standard. Van der Beek was in charge of illustrating it until his death in 1953.

Puzzles and games

In the late 1940s, Blyton's interest in producing puzzles and games increased while she consolidated her success as a writer. As a result of their efforts, by the early 1960s around 150 manufacturing companies were producing Noddy-related merchandise. In 1948 Bestime distributed four puzzles of Blyton's characters, the same year as the first board game, Journey Through Fairyland, went on sale. A couple of years later the first card game, Faraway Tree, made its appearance, while in 1954 Bestime was responsible for producing a new series of puzzles inspired by The Secret Seven.

Between 1953 and 1955 Bestime distributed a pair of Noddy toys, the Little Noddy Car Game and the Little Noddy Leap Frog Game. Other similar products include the board game Little Noddy's Taxi Game, produced by Parker Brothers in 1956; the Plywood Noddy Jigsaws puzzle series; and some cards inspired by the character and illustrated by Robert Lee. In the 1970s and 1980s, Arrow Games was in charge of distributing Noddy puzzles, whose items continued to be produced until 1975, as did a series of Malory Towers puzzles. > in 1977, and a board game of The Five in 1979 —Famous Five Kirrin Island Treasure—. Stephen Thraves wrote eight interactive books of The Five, whose publication was borne by Hodder & Stoughton in the 1980s. The first book in this series, The Wreckers' Tower Gamewas available from October 1984.