Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton was born in London, in a small flat above a shop in East Dulwich. She was the eldest of three children. Her father, Thomas Carey Blyton, had many talents: he painted in water colours, wrote poetry, learned to play piano, taught himself foreign languages, and was a photographer. After working as a cutlery salesman, he joined his two older brothers in the family 'mantle warehousing' business 121j92b of Fisher and Nephew. Theresa Mary Hamilton, Enid's mother, did not share her husband's interests, and she did not approve that Enid kept her nose in a book all the time. After Thomas started an affair with another woman, she moved with her children, Enid, Hanly, and Carey, to Beckenham. Thomas established a successful wholesale clothing business in the City of London. He took care of his children's private school fees and sent regularly money to support his family.

From her earliest childhood, Blyton had been schooled in the belief that she would eventually be a musician. However, she had also started to write and send stories, articles, and poems to various periodicals. Although her family thought, that most of her writing was a waste of time, she remained undaunted. Her first published poem, entitled 'Have You-?' - appeared in Nash's Magazine (1917). Blyton's first book, Child Whispers (1922), was a collection of verse. This twenty-four-page work was followed by Real Fairies: Poems (1923), Responsive Singing Games (1923), The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies (1924), Songs of Gladness (1924), The Zoo Book (1924), and other books published by J. Saville and Newnes.

Blyton, who was trained as a kindergarten teacher at Ipswich High School, opened her own infants' school. When the literary commitments increased, Blyton devoted herself entirely to writing. In 1926 Blyton took on the editing a new magazine for children, Sunny Stories. Her stories, plays, and songs for Teachers' World were received with enthusiasms. She also compiled a children's encyclopedia, but it was not until in the 1930s, when her stories started to attract a wider audience.

In 1924 Blyton married Hugh Pollock, an editor of the book department of George Newnes. When she visited a gynecologist, she was told that she had a much underdeveloped uterus, equivalent to that of a young girl. Enid and Hugh moved soon to Elfin Cottage, a newly built house in Shortlands Road, Beckenham, which Blyton eventually called her first "real home". In 1929 they moved to "Old Thatch", a large sixteenth-century cottage, close to the River Thames at Bourne End in Buckinghamshire. The house, that was to be associated with Blyton for the rest of her life, was Green Hedges. It was built of red brick with black and white half-timbered gables, and situated in Beaconsfield, a small town about twenty-five miles from London.

In the mid-1930s Blyton experienced a spiritual crisis, but she decided not to convert to Roman Catholicism, because she had felt it was "too constricting". Although she rarely attended church services, she saw that her two daughters were baptized into the Anglican faith and went to the local Sunday School. Blyton's first full-length children's adventure book, The Secret Island, was published in 1938. This fast-moving story, woven around familiar characters, led to such series as The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, the Adventure series, the Mystery series, and the 'Barney' Mystery books.

"'Cheer up! whispered Jack, from the gorse-bush, seeing her gloomy face. 'This is an adventure, you know.' 'I only like adventures afterwards,' said Lucy-Ann. 'I don't like them when they're happening. I didn't want this adventure at all. We didn't look for it, we just seemed to fall into the middle of it!' 'Well, never mind. It'll turn out all right, I expect,' said Jack comfortingly." (from The Castle of Adventure, 1946)

During World War II, when publishing was restricted, Blyton managed to get her works printed. In the following decades she ruled the field of juvenile literature. Blyton could write 10,000 words a day, which enabled her to keep up her prodigious output. In 1940 eleven books were published under her name, including The Secret of Spiggy Holes, which had appeared earlier in serial form in Sunny Stories, Twenty-Minute Tales and Tales of Betsy May, both collections of short stories, The Children of Cherry Tree Farm, and a story book annual for the News Chronicle. The remainder were brought out by George Newnes, who continued as Blyton's main publisher. Under the pseudonym Mary Pollock she wrote Three Boys and a Circus and Children of Kidillin.

Blyton's marriage ended in 1942. Next year she married Kenneth Darrell Waters, a middle-aged surgeon. An exploding shell at the Battle of Jutland during First World War had permanently impaired his hearing, but helped with a hearing aid, he could pick up Blyton's speech. He was also genuinely interested in her work and they shared many interests in common, including gardening. According to Duncan McClaren, Blyton ridiculed her first husband in the character of PC Goon, a bumbling policeman in the Mystery series.

In 1945 Blyton decided to wind up her column for Teachers' World. Seven years later she withdrew from Sunny Stories. In 1953 appeared the first edition of Enid Blyton Magazine. Regular news was given for sponsored clubs. The Famous Five Club originated through a series of book about the 'Famous Five'. After the publication of the first story in 1942 a new title followed each year. The main object of the magazine was to help the young spastic children and the special centre in London.

In 1949 appeared Little Noddy Goes to Toyland, a story of a little toy man, who always ends up in trouble and has to seek help from his Toyland friends. Its sales exceeded expectations. Other Noddy books of various sizes and types followed in rapid succession. The stories were illustrated by Van Der Beek who died suddenly in Holland in 1953. 'Noddy' became a household name, the subject of music hall jokes and sketches. and the series also produced a play and a film.

In the 1950s and 1960s Blyton was attacked by critics. Moreover, librarians imposed sanctions on her writings owing to the books' limited vocabulary. The main target for anti-Blytons was Noddy, "the most egocentric, joyless, snivelling and pious anti-hero in the history of British fiction", as he was once called. Rumours were spread, that she did not write all her own works. The "banning" did not last long and eventually Blyton's ability to encourage children to read was recognized generally. At the end of the 1990s, well over 300 Blyton titles were still in print, including editions of the Famous Five stories linked to the popular television serialization (1995) and modern adventure games, also based on the Famous Five series.

Enid Blyton Magazine was closed in 1959. In the early sixties the author found it increasingly difficult to concentrate to writing. Her husband died in 1967. During the months that followed, her own illness grew progressively worse. Blyton died in her sleep on November 28, 1968, in a Hampsted nursing home. Although her books have been criticized for racism, sexism, and snobbishness, they have always found new readers from new generations. "She was a child, she thought as a child and she wrote as a child," has the psychologist Michael Woods summarized the secret of her writing.

The first in the series, the reader is introduced to Phillip, Dina, Jack and Lucy-Ann (and of course Kiki) who escape from their holiday tutor to stay with Phillip and Dina's aunt and uncle in their tumbledown house on the coast. Here they meet Jo-jo, the servant, and later Bill Smugs, the secret agent posing as an ornithologist. The adventure progresses swiftly from a sailing trip to the island, a chase through abandoned mine workings, a narrow escape from the jaws of death to the final unmasking of the criminals. First rate.

This book, the first of the "..of Adventure" series still brings back wonderful memories of times when I ADORED books that I read, and spent whole summers immersed in an Enid Blyton parallel universe. Certainly "of its time" (ie not always politically correct), but a wonderful, wonderful adventure series. I treasure the old beat-up paperback copies I spent my allowance on...

The Island of Adventure is probably one of Enid Blyton's most thrilling adventures. Meant for slightly older teens (13 and above) this adventure novel has all the elements that make it an instant classic: four children, a sinister manservant in a decripit castle set in a gloriously rugged coastal region, a gloomy island where (apparently) bad "things" appear, and a mysterious stranger whose purpose is not revealed until the end of the story. What else would you want, as a kid?

Unlike most Enid Blyton books, this one doesn't start off with "known" characters. Even the initial chapters are quite different and well handled, although devoid of serious action. But once the pace picks up, the story is extremely gripping. A short summary:

Philip Mannering is working hard at his schoolmaster's house during the holidays (much to his dismay) and he longs to return to his home with his uncle and aunt who live at Craggy Tops, a castle-like abode on the coast. He gets acquainted with another student, Jack Trent, who has an adoring sister, Lucy-Ann and a pet parrot, Kiki. Soon they become fast friends. Unfortunately for Jack and Lucy-Ann, they cannot return to their uncle's house (their parents being dead) as he is injured and doesn't want the burden of their company. So Philip has to return home, he suggests they return with him to Craggy Tops instead! While this plan sounds great to Jack and Lucy-Ann, they are unsure whether their schoolmaster would agree. So they all leave without permission. But everything turns out all right as Jack's uncle apparently has no objection and Mr. Roy (the schoolmaster) is delighted to be rid of his unwilling guests and kindly offers to send Philip's uncle and aunt the money for their stay. Philip has a sister, Dinah, who is a bit of a firebrand and is delighted at the new arrivals at Craggy Tops. Their holidays begin with a lot of promise even though Aunt Polly (Philip's aunt) is not so keen on additional guests at first. But not everything is straightforward at Craggy Tops. Jo-Jo, the black manservant is a nuisance who loves to interfere with the children andtakes every opportunity to thwart their fun. However, the children manage to have fun despite all that. But when Jack sees signalling lights on the Island of Gloom one night and goes out to investigate, he is threatened by Jo-Jo! Philip assures him that Jo-Jo is "harmless" but Jack is not so sure. In the meantime, the children discover a stranger called Bill Smugs living in a makeshift hut nearby and to their delight, he is very friendly and obliging though secretive. Jack wants to go off sailing to the Island of Gloom to find birds, so he hatches a plan to use Jo-Jo's boat one day to get there along with Philip. But they discover far more than just birds on the dark, forbidding island! So what exactly is going on on the Isle of Gloom and who exactly is Bill Smugs? What is his job at Craggy Tops and who are the strange men working in secret in the Copper Mines? That's what the rest of the adventure is about.

I won't give away the rest of the story, but right through there is a sense of anticipation and thrill in this novel. Unlike some of the tamer Enid Blyton "adventures" featuring tame, blundering villains this one has some really sinister characters, Jo-Jo being the most sinister among them. Blyton excels in descriptive passages as well as in action sequences. The sense of danger is evident right through the story and the reader is drawn into it masterfully.