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!)

Was more Call if the wild and The Narnia stuff for me

Millicent Margaret Amanda
And 'Bunchy' (Violet Rosemary May)...

Another poster who remembers so much from the books, so vividly, but walks into a room and forgets why...

I liked the Adventure series most, followed by the Five and the Seven. It established my adult preferences as I still prefer thrillers and crime to other genre fiction. (I promise that I have read more widely.)

What were you allowed to read?

I am sure I have read more or less all of them-I remember the Family at Red Roofs but I can't remember any of what that was about, now? Can anyone enlighten me? They were banned from my primary school due to being old fashioned/inappropriate-I am in my early 40s.

Glad it’s not just me 🤣 I reckon I could pick up any Five Findouter books and remember who the culprit was but somehow still manage to walk around with my glasses on my head whilst looking for them!

I’ve still got my Milly-Molly-Mandy books 😀

Mrs Pepperpot, anyone? I sure she was EB

5 find outers
thr one with the boy from the circus? Barnaby?
Mr Gallianos circus - think there was 3 in the series
Wishing Chair and Chinky the fairy
Secret adventure series - they were for older children I think

A family of four move to Red Roofs as their father has a new job and can afford somewhere a bit bigger. He is then missing at sea and the four children work together to earn money as their mother is in hospital with shock. Molly, Michael - can’t remember the other two!

@climbintheback i’d never read anything like Call of the Wild - fantastic book, absolutely loved it

Does anyone remember Ballet shoes for Anna (or something like that) where kids were orphaned after an earthquake swallowed up a village with their parents still in it and they (naturally) were sent to stay with a stern uncle and aunt?

Found it!

And Ballet Shoes.

Oh yes, I can vaguely remember that one! I think it was about a family who moved into s beautiful new home (Red Rooves). The only other thing I can remember is the children wanting a dog, and the father forbidding a mongrel dog because he felt that, now that they had this very smart house, they needed a smart pedigree dog, so they got a black cocker spaniel puppy called Bundle, I think

Does anyone remember the Brownie book - three brownies called Hop, Skip and Jump? Also involved a character called The Saucepan Man, a Dragon Bird and if they were naughty the Brownies were sent off to The Spanker?

This was my bag - Mallory Towers and Claudine at St Claire's. Loved them.

And Little Friend Susan and Billy Blunt!
I also have our old books 😊
I love the illustrations which were done by the author.
Just so wonderful.

Mrs Pepperpot was by Norwegian author Alf Prøysen. I loved those and remember getting them from the library.

My favourite Enid Blytons were Cherrytree and Willow Farm, and Hollowtree House which I used to read as a comfort book well into my 20s when I was back at my parents'. Sadly the book eventually disappeared in a house move.

I'm not 100% convinced about the Faraway Tree film but I'm keeping an open mind as it's got Simon Farnaby (Ghosts, etc) behind it and I thought he did a good job with Paddington

Loved St Claire's - all that stuff about laying fires for the older girls, polishing their boots properly, tuck boxes from home, Alma Pudden (). I also loved Bimbo and Topsy

Me! Loved lived Enid Blyton. Remember Fatty? Imagine a character called that now!

Wasn’t his full name Frederick Arthur Trotter? (I’m not googling - want to see if I can remember)

Loved loved Enid Blyton books as a kid.

Oh yes, I adored them. The Five Find Outers and Dog series, Malory Towers, St Clare’s, the Naughtiest Girl, the Adventure series with Philip, Dinah, Jack and Lucy-Ann, the ‘R’ or Barney Mystery series, the Nature-lover’s series and the retellings of King Arthur and Robin Hood.

There was no greater treat than finding a new 20p Enid Blyton Red Dragon paperback from Woolworths in my mother’s grocery shopping bag.

I can remember a primary school teacher telling us she didn’t like EB because she “made people lazy”. This deeply puzzled me at the time. Mrs Long, you were wrong. EB was a cracking storyteller and she turned me into a lifelong reader. And my DC loved her too. Those falling apart Red Dragon Find Outers passed to DD and then DS, and they aren’t going anywhere.

Me also immigrant loved them - gifted to me by a neighbour and she nurtured my love of reading as my parents were illiterate.

I loved the Enid Blyton books. The Magic Faraway Tree were some of my favourites along with Malory Towers and the Famous Five. My Mum had some of them from her childhood so we read the same ones all the time, and borrowed the others from the library.

There was another set I really liked i think it was a mystery series? One was something with a Pantomime Cat in the title i think. The other one that I loved was they were staying somewhere in winter and I vaguely remember there was a burglar they were trying to catch? I can’t remember what it was called but loved it.