When was Enid Blyton modernised?

[CherryValanc]

Not read a recent version (didn't' read many of them to my children) but I do know that a lot of them have been updated. I believe the racism and sexism edited out - and name changes been made.

But when did this happen? I mean the books I read in the 80s, were they the exact same as when written?

This question is inspired by a conversation with my oldest son - about bigotted attitudes in books - happen to bring the Enid Blyton's Adventure Series - I then read the synopsis on the internet - and it was mentioned about a character in Sea of Adventure and how racist the writing about the character was (description of his looks, and repeated mention of his skin colour) and that this had been edited it now. But it didn't say when these changes had been made.

I don't have any recollection of this character at all so can't remember if it had been changed in the books I read. (Mind you I don't recall much about the book full stop - bar the bit where they accidentally fell into a convenient so large it can fit a human puffin burrow when in need of a place to shelter.)

I suspect the editing happened the 90s - I also bet Peter in the Secret Seven is still a dick and Julian a patronising plonker and the other delightful character traits of the heroes are still there!

I remember reading Famous Five (either Treasure Island or Smuggler's Top, can't remember) around 8 or 9 and being shocked that in it they make friends with a black boy, who they nickname Sooty!! In fact I think it may have been one of the character's Dads who named him that. It was the first time I noticed the racism in her books (had read Noddy when toddler but that washed over me of course). That was in the 80s and we probably had an old copy.

She was a horrible person IRL apparently, local children hated her and I think the feeling was mutual!

Gatekeeper Those were the copies I had. They were my sister's.

Hmmm I read the editions where it was Dame slap still but think it is been modernised a lot. 1990s

I had a mixture of edited and unedited books when I read them in the 90s - in my Naughtiest Girl books the currency had been decimalised, which I found really weird as part of the charm for me was that the books were set 'in the old days'. Also, they'd been decimalised to 1970s values, so the characters were receiving 10p pocket money, which seemed laughably little to me. I had less of an idea how much you could actually buy with e.g. sixpence, so it was actually easier to understand the original editions when money was involved.

@BinkyBoinky

I remember reading Famous Five (either Treasure Island or Smuggler's Top, can't remember) around 8 or 9 and being shocked that in it they make friends with a black boy, who they nickname Sooty!! In fact I think it may have been one of the character's Dads who named him that. It was the first time I noticed the racism in her books (had read Noddy when toddler but that washed over me of course). That was in the 80s and we probably had an old copy.

She was a horrible person IRL apparently, local children hated her and I think the feeling was mutual!

Now I recall Five Go To Smugglers' Top fairly well. (Had a tape of it.) Sooty was in that, but I don't recall him being called Sooty because he was black. Thought it was his french surname and his dark eyes and hair.

Would have been early 80s. Could have go totally over my head though

I read all the famous five books to DS recently and I don’t remember a boy called sooty. They must have changed it in the version we read.
We’re reading the five find outers now which are now known as The Mystery series.

Just finished reading Smugglers Top with dd2. I was shocked by Sooty Lenoir as a name for black character. I stuck to the school stories & enchanted wood/wishing tree as a child.
Dd2 didn't even notice....

I loved the adventure books! Dinah was a bit sassy and I loved it. Especially the one with the puffins ?!!

@BinkyBoinky and @CherryValanc He was called Sooty (real name Pierre) because he was very dark-haired, and described as having a "brown face", and his surname was Lenoir. In a hideous TV version of the Famous Five in 1996, his name was changed to Pete (and Aunt Fanny to Frances).

Other small changes to the books were:

• Kit bags became rucksacks.
• Shillings became five pence.
• Spankings became tellings off.
• Julian no longer had a "stentorian" voice.

Mind you, Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was "politically corrected". In the first edition, the Oompa-Loompas were described as pygmy.

Sooty wasn’t black — his surname was Lenoir, from what I remember.

Enid Blyton’s black characters are either sinister, superstitious manservants who are always rolling their eyes in fear at ‘ghosties’, actual villains, or helpful ‘natives’. Or there was one black American paratrooper in (I think) The Mountain of Adventure who talked about himself in the third person, as ‘dis poor n**r.’

Presumably now edited out. I read a modern edition of The Island of Adventure recently with DS, and Jojo the angry black manservant had stopped being black. I think ‘big’ had been substituted for ‘black’ throughout.

And in a recent re-encounter with the Famous Five, I noticed that all the shorts had become jeans, and all the blazers had become anoraks.

I have a beautiful illustrated edition of the first faraway tree book that was published before some of the later changes. I read it to mine, editing parts as I went, and towards the end ds started to spot deviations from the text. It really stimulated his desire to read for himself!

I disliked the anti American racism in Five go to Finniston farm, and Five have a wonderful time.
Otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the Five books, less so the seven but ok. Five finedoubters were ok, as were the Adventure ones.

I recall a "right on" teacher saying how terrible to read about children whose background, social status and attitudes were so different from the lower middle class Scottish town she taught in- then gave us all books on a Nigerian village dealing with missionaries. (So like urban Ayrshire).

Don't recall Five go to Finniston Farm to recall that particular type of anti-ness. Ive no doubt it was there though as any character that wasn't English white and middle class didn't fare too well!

Seem to recall, even as a shelter young girl noticing that anyone not like the main characters had some sort of defect, such as being fat, stupid, spotty or unable to speak 'correctly'. It was like today's marker of the baddie in films having an English accent.

Other thing that I randomly recall is being strong and tall seems to be a characteristic of men or boys that were being wise and knowledgeable 😁

I remember a time when libraries wouldn't have her books as they were considered inferior. I loved her books and particularly enjoyed reading the Faraway books to Ds.I think we still had Dick and Fanny. A bit like JK Rowling who was also slated as having poor literary value.

What I loved about the books were learning things that were not of my life experience. I loved shillings, sixpences and slacks! I learnt new words I wouldn't have learned otherwise even though I had no idea how to say them. The Naughtiest Girl had a "chuffer".

What she did do is inspire generations of young readers who would then go on to be life-long readers. She wrote books she knew we would enjoy. I think my personal favourite was "Those Dreadful Children". 🙂