Popular with young readers the world over, the hugely prolific, if politically incorrect, Enid Blyton was less admired by her own daughters. Now, 40 years after her death, yet another manuscript has turned up
TONGUE SANDWICHES? Check. Ruddy-cheeked adventures? Check. Readers, young and old, expressed everything from delight to mild curiosity this week when it was revealed that a new Enid Blyton book had been discovered. The 180-page manuscript was found by a charity that purchased a large archive of the author’s work last year.
Mr Tumpy’s Caravan
tells the story of an anthropomorphic caravan who befriends a dog, develops wanderlust and goes off on an adventure involving a dragon. So far, so Blyton, but not everything about the revered children’s writer was so straightforward.
Blyton was born in London in 1897 and was the only girl and eldest of three children. Her father was a salesman with a creative bent, and she was encouraged to take up music as a child. After he had an affair Blyton’s mother left him, moving out with the children. As a girl Enid was a talented pianist, but she trained as a teacher and tentatively began to write.
Her first book, a collection of poems, was published when she was 22. At 27 she married Maj Hugh Pollock, an editor of a book company that published two of her books. It was the start of a long and productive writing career.
Her first full-length children's adventure, The Secret Island,was published in 1938, the same year the first Brer Rabbit book appeared.
Blyton often worked in cycles, creating several books in a series. The first Famous Five book, Five on a Treasure Island, was published in 1942 and Blyton went on to write 21 of them, one a year until 1963. Featuring Julian, Anne, George, Dick, and Timmy the dog, they were staple reading for several generations. The books painted an idyllic picture of picnics in the English countryside made up of tongue and boiled eggs washed down with ginger beer, all discussed using vernacular quirks such as "golly gosh" and "old thing".
A year after the first Famous Five book Blyton created another bunch of juvenile mystery-solvers in the Five Find-outers. Led by Fatty, the group, with alarming predictability, always outwitted the local policeman Mr Goon, a brainless cop straight out of D’Unbelievables. Her two school series, set in St Clare’s and Mallory Towers, made every girl who read them wish she was at boarding school. Who didn’t want to raid the tuck shop and have gossiping sessions after lights out?
Noddy, appeared in 1949. The diminutive boy, aimed at younger readers, was a huge success and was made into a TV show in 1955.
The prolific author’s output was staggering. Even in the year she had her second child she managed to pen several stories and plays.
An underdeveloped womb (frequently explained as a psychological and physical response to her father leaving when she was 13) meant Blyton had trouble conceiving, and she suffered at least one miscarriage. After hormone injections, she gave birth to Gillian in 1931 and Imogen four years later.
As a writer, Blyton was adored by children and gave the impression of being a doting mother. As a person, the story was different. Her marriage to Pollock broke down after she had an affair. Fearing that adultery would ruin her reputation she coerced him into taking responsibility for their divorce. She married Kenneth Darrell Waters, a surgeon, in 1943 and effectively cut Pollock off, preventing him from seeing their children. Her youngest daughter, Imogen Smallwood, later wrote a biography of her mother, painting a picture at variance with her public persona. There were no bedtime stories, and both girls were essentially raised by nannies. In A Childhood at Green Hedges,Smallwood writes of her mother: "The truth is Enid Blyton was arrogant, insecure, pretentious and without a trace of maternal instinct. As a child I viewed her as a rather strict authority. As an adult I pitied her."
Her sister, Gillian, disputed this view of their mother, but admitted that Blyton played favourites, to Imogen’s disadvantage. Blyton’s relationship with her own mother had soured years before, and she didn’t attend her funeral.
The broadly negative view of Blyton was reinforced in a 2009 BBC adaptation of her life story, starring Helena Bonham Carter. The Beeb itself had rubbished Blyton years earlier, describing her as “very small beer” and never inviting her to guest on radio.
Controversies about her work are not a recent phenomenon. As far back as the 1950s some libraries took issue with her "restricted" language. More recently her books have faced accusations of being politically incorrect, from the racial stereotyping of gypsies as thieves to sexist suggestions that only girls should do housework. Some of her work has thus been updated: Mr Golly, from the Noddy books, has become Mr Sparks, while Dame Slap is called Dame Snap, who now scolds, rather than slaps, misbehaving children. Fanny and Dick, from the Faraway Tree stories, are now a jovial Frannie and Rick. Blyton's books were definitely of their time – just look at the titular implications of Enid Blyton's Gay Story Bookof 1946. But whether or not they are still relevant, they will continue to be widely read.
Having suffered from dementia in her final years, Blyton died in 1968, aged 71, a year after her husband. She wrote more than 750 books, and is the fifth most translated author worldwide. Altogether her work has sold in excess of 600 million copies, and she still sells eight million copies a year. This is a figure that will spike if Mr Tumpy's Caravanis published, an occasion worthy of cracking open the ginger beer.
Curriculum vitae
Who is she?Iconic children's author of scarily prolific output.
Why is she in the news?A previously undiscovered book, Mr Tumpy's Caravan, has been found.
Most appealing characteristic?She was responsible for getting generations of children reading.
Least appealing characteristic?Her old-fashioned attitudes to race and gender.
Most likely to say?"Golly gosh, old thing."
Least likely to say?"I'm the best mother in the world!"
