to feel uneasy about my son reading Enid Blyton books

What people have to realise, is that these books were written in non-PC times! Jane Austen is pretty un PC and full of snobbery but people just accept it as part of the era it was written in - should be the same for EB in my book.....no pun intended!!

golly, vera, one wouldn't find language like that in a Blyton, you chump!

Pax 'n' all that.

Here, here, Vera.

but this PC stuff is such a nause.

Anyone for lashings of ginger beer??

Lentils, can you please tell me what ranks you have infiltrated? Also why would there be shock horror at non white people on MN? Why are you assuming I am white?

You kind of prove my point by your shock horror comment and the fact people might be shocked by the fact not all mumsnetters are white??
As I pointed out in my post it is a black friend of mine who gets pissed off with the people pointing out what should offend him, ergo thinking he is too thick to know for himself what he finds offensive.

Now be a good girl and hop back in you Chelsea tractor to go pick up some more Dahl books.

spiffing, nikki!

I had many happy hours reading EB books as I child so am a big fan and I'm also very polite!

Oh, you do surprise, me NN.

and are the biggest eye-rollers

I have noticed that the rudest people on this thread today are the pro-enid ones

YABU. I don't get this [shock[ about EB, but then I still enjoy reading John Buchan and there's some seriously dodgy stuff in there.

well, josh, I am tempted to post a truly dreadful quote from an EB that I have got knocking round the house - but it is too cringeingly racist - far worse than anything that has been mentioned on here.
so EB will be filtered in our house.

If you think Enid Blyton and her characters are a problem, then God help you when you have teenagers to deal with!!

Nuts magazine is far more offensive imo

Very well said, Josh. I could not agree with you more.

Now all fark off and read 'The Magic Faraway Tree' to your kids.

And untwist yer knickers while you're at it

I am gobsmacked by this whole thread. Maybe I am an ostrich with my head in the sand, but these kind of issues just haven't occurred to me (maybe my kids aren't old enough yet to consider them).

But I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED EB books as a child. Even now, I call Calpol 'Get well quick' medicine (from the land of medicines at the top of the faraway tree which smelled of delicious plums and made Jo, Bessie and Fanny's mum instantly well).

I found Famous Five exhilirating and Malary Towers made me wish I went to boarding school. Living in South Africa, I thought England sounded so magical and now that I live here, when we go for walks in the country and I see hedegrows and stiles and we have picnics (with lashings of ginger beer) I feel as though I'm living in some kind of magical land - and I'm in my mid 30s.

How can books that create such an impression and encourage imagination and creative thinking be bad?

Personally, I think there are bigger things to worry about and I will certainly let my children read them and hopefully they'll enjoy them as much as I did.

I'm not sure that was helpful, Lentils.

Have only read first couple of points but my dd can't get enough of EB, I was the same as a child and TBH I'm considering myself very thick because I completely didn't get that Chinky was anything other than a fairytale name

Veraducksworthhandbagmaybe you should stop assuming that the people who are getting all worked up about the racist words are WHITE. There are some non-white folk on MNSHOCK HORROR--and still find the work chinky insulting and offensive! We have infiltrated your ranks!

Oh the Dahl band wagon of those wishing to look oh so wonderful and PC.

Have you ever noticed the type of people who get worked up about the racist words?
I have a black friend who is totally pissed off with these people, good white folk pointing out to the black man what words he should find offensive, cause as he puts it, "us black folks are too thick to work it out ourself s" it is as far as he is concerned a form of racism in itself.

You want to find the word offensive, you want to point it out as such when in fact it is just a word.

For the love of god, my children read books, all sorts of books and I am not going to tell them oh this is a bad word and this is a good one, they are just words, of cause I WOULD NEVER ALLOW MY CHILDREN TO USE RACIST WORDS TO SOMEONE. But I am not going to point out what words could e used in this way when to them its just a name in a book.

Grow up and stop insulting everyone

burn burn

Dr Who a few weeks ago, was set in 1913 in a public school. One of the main characters (Martha) is black and there were a few racist and derogatory remarks said to her due to her colour and sex. I explained the reason for the prejudice immediately to my ds. Then I went out of the room and he was watching alone. When I came back in he said,'Mummy, they don't believe that Martha is a doctor.' I asked him why and he said he thought it was because she's black. This led to us discussing this and also women's rights at that time. Had he not seen that, we would not have been able to discuss the issue so well. He really understood and took it on board, as he had an example that he was interested in.