Who grew up reading Enid Blyton books?

[OldFred]

Just seen that The Magic Faraway Tree movie is to be released in the UK on 27 March 2026 🙂

I will hold judgement until I've seen it on it compares to the books but as a child, I devoured EB books.
I loved them all but TMFT holds a special place in my heart so fingers crossed!

I know EB books rightly so have had their fair share of criticism but (immigrant) childhood me just took them at face value, and as an adult and parent, my enduring love for them remains.
The Mini Old Freds have inherited all my copies and love them too.

What are your favourite EB books?
(Hoping to come across some I've not heard of!)

As opposed to Big Feelings Pixie?

Also, it’s only literally just occurred to me now — such is the power of the books themselves — but WTF was Brer Rabbit eating kippers and sausages anyway?!? Rabbits are herbivores and don’t eat meat or fish 😆🤣

Adored all her books esp Famous Five. Transferred me from North London to A magical place! ( guilty secret .still read them now and then as a 60 something!)Love watching them and MT on TV also .

What always amused me about that plotline through adult eyes is that Mary Lou goes to the post office at night in the middle of a storm (as you do) and doesn't return in time for tea, which is when everyone notices that she's missing. Gwen tells Daphne where she went and Daphne still waits for another full HALF HOUR before she goes out and finds her clinging onto the edge on the cliff. Somewhere she has presumably been for about 90 minutes in a howling storm.

And ML isn't one for swimming or engaging in a nice game of Lacrosse so for such a slip of a thing she must have muscles of steel.

Bloody adored them and they inspired me to become a writer myself.

Not sure if the film will disappoint!

It's all those midnight feasts with lashings of ginger beer and Cook's butter fruit cake 😉

Me particularly the enchanted wood which was the first book I ever read aged about 6 I think . My sister and I used to act it out , turned all the upstairs rooms into lands and used the stair bannister as a slippery slip . I bought them for my children but they weren’t keen .

Famous Five and Mallory Towers and I loved them.

I didn't read them as a child but my autistic child has insisted on listening to the audiobooks of the three magic faraway tree ones every bedtime on rotation for the last two years. I could probably recite them by now but they have brought so much joy to her (and some rest for me!)

I read some of the Secret Seven books and Malory Towers, but not any of the others. I moved away from Enid Blyton fairly quickly to pony-based stuff like Jill's Gymkhana and books by the Pullein-Thompson sisters.

I enjoyed St Clare's and Mallaory towers. FF and SS never did it for me. My favourite was Four In A Family, which I read and reread. Had to get it dried out after a 'rather unpleasant' (as EB would say) girl at school took it off me and threw it a puddle, saying it was rubbish.

I always associate Shadiw the Sheepdog with my dad, as it was his favourite growing up, and he always remembered it.

And not forgetting Moonface's Slippery slip 😳

I loved the famous five but could not get on with the Secret Seven. No idea why! Mallory towers and St Clare’s I enjoyed. Am I right in remembering they got removed from libraries or is that an urban myth?

I developed my lifelong love of reading due to enjoying Enid Blyton books on ( I’m in my 60s),especially the Famous Five books.
Julian was the one in charge, aged 12.
The Five regularly referred to previous summers’ adventures but they didn’t get any older.

reading Malory Towers as an adult is enlightening. The organised bullying, Darrell’s uncontrollable violence- giving Gwen a good slapping and throwing Sally across the room in a fit of temper…although it was probably deserved by Gwen I think Darrell would be lucky not to be expelled

I was so influenced by Darrell and the Mallory Towers books that aged 11, I was thrilled to be going to boarding school.
No need to tell you how disappointed I was. (Even though we did have midnight feasts. They were sort of allowed on the last night of term.)
It seems boarding school in the 60s had got a lot worse since the 40s...

I loved Enid Blyton, Famous five , secret seven etc, I would devour them. Some used to scare me a bit, when they went exploring old castles and things. The names didnt bother me, as a7/8 year old, Dick and Fanny were just names 🤣 I used to get one every birthday and Christmas. No woke nonsense, just electrifying stories for children 😁

@catontheironingboard someone on a similar thread pointed out that there would still have been rationing when many of her books were published or certainly a good memory of rationing. The food described would have seemed incredible to many readers.

Me. Loved them. TMFT is my favourite.

I loved the Twins At St Clare's series, plus Mallory Towers. Didn't get on with the Famous Five, but did like the Five Find-Outers and Dog series.

Magic Faraway Tree for sure. I remember just wishing so hard that such a tree existed that you could climb and go to another world, and so disappointed that it didn't and that they didn't stay for longer.

Thanks OP, 27 March is going in my diary 😂. I hope it's not totally butchered.

Also think there were quite a few tomboy characters in the books which I loved, I was always exploring as a kid.

@OldFred nobody else for ‘Hollow Tree House’? Loved that as a child and it’s also a favourite of my dd, who is now reading it her 7 yr old. Liked the adventure series too, pretty much anything written by EB. I liked the morality in her books, tell the truth, be helpful etc etc. I despised the Noddy books, but still have most of my EB books. She was a product of her time, given she was born in 1897!

Also loved Famous Five . Didn't really get into Mallory Towers. I'd moved onto Judy Blume and Point Horror. Then we started reading Rebecca in English and that stole my mind and heart.

Malory towers and st Clare’s books- I read, reread, reread, reread …

I love them and have already read all the Noddy books, Faraway tree and sequels, short story Famous Fives, Mistletoe Farm and Wishing Chair to my 4yo.

My favourites were the school ones and The Land of Far Beyond. And The Mystery of series with Fatty.