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Who grew up reading Enid Blyton books?

441 replies

OldFred · 21/11/2025 14:12

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!)

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
SerafinasGoose · 21/11/2025 18:02

38thparallel · 21/11/2025 17:51

Alongthetowpath · Today 14:31
I loved Malory Towers. My fave scene was where Mary Lou goes out in the rain to post a parcel for one of the other girls, think she was called Daphne or Deirdre or something

I can’t remember whether it was Malory Towers or St Clare’s but i remember a very enjoyable scene in which a teacher who is constantly mocking a girl for writing poetry tells the girls to write a poem for homework. Sure enough the teacher pours scorn on the aspiring poet’s efforts.
Only to be told that actually the poem she has handed in is by Matthew Arnold (I think - that may be wrong, but anyway by a well respected poet).

That's Anne-Marie Longden in Fifth Formers at St Clare's. She submits 'Despondency' by Arnold as her own work to test whether the sarcy English teacher really is able to judge good poetry. When she mocks her Anne-Marie knows she's a fraud, and shows her up in front of the entire class. I love that scene as well.

There's a similar one in Trebizon where Rebecca writes a poem whose first line is taken from Emily Dickinson. A senior, Elizabeth, comes across the poem and publishes it in the school journal as her own, whereupon the angry second formers publish the truth in their own little journal and distribute it to the whole school.

Elizabeth denies it and the crap is really hitting the fan when the two girls are hauled before the Principal and invited to 'complete' the poem. Elizabeth parrots the version she nicked from Rebecca; Rebecca quotes the Dickinson original. Culprit sussed! (And expelled - not just for plagiariasm but for letting the second years cop the blame).

I always loved that book. Poetry cheats - your sins will always find you out!

Thedogscollar · 21/11/2025 18:02

Chewbecca · 21/11/2025 14:20

Yes! My list is the same as yours. Loved them all.

Me too this is my list! I remember asking my Mum if I could go to St Clares or Mallory Towers. I was devastated when she told me they weren't real schools 😂 I absolutely loved these books.
I also read The Faraway Tree & The Famous Five. Nice memories.

dynamiccactus · 21/11/2025 18:03

DoubleYellows · 21/11/2025 14:47

I think it took me years to realise that The Valley of Adventure (where the four kids and Kiki get on the wrong plane, and end up in a valley in Austria with bomb damage, a cave behind a waterfall, and bad guys trying to find treasure) makes a lot more sense when you realise it was written in 1947, and that even though it only vaguely references a war, the idea of low-level former Nazis trying to find valuable artworks hidden in caves in a valley now cut off by a pass being bombed would have made a lot more sense to contemporary child readers.

The only book of hers I can think of set actually during the war is The Adventurous Four, and even that doesn’t mention Germany, just ‘the enemy’, and that enemy planes and submarines have ‘the sign of the crooked cross’ on them.

I was going to mention the Adventurous Four - I think they were actually quite good. I never read the Valley of Adventure, it does sound like the context would make a lot of sense to a 40s child! I think I read all the other "of Adventure" books but the racism in Island (and others) went right over my head at the time.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

OldFred · 21/11/2025 18:03

Radiator981 · 21/11/2025 17:25

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

@Radiator981 are you actually my sister?! Our parents were illiterate too but all three of their children became voracious book readers and learners.
We all went to university and have good careers.
Reading was my first love and I strongly believe it's the key to success.

OP posts:
SerafinasGoose · 21/11/2025 18:05

IAmKerplunk · 21/11/2025 17:58

I don’t like this snobby attitude towards certain books (setting aside the era they were written) They gave millions of children a love of reading and imagination - even today teachers say they aren’t fussed what kids are reading they just want them to find the love of reading.

Linguists and children's literature experts have analysed Blyton's books and found that the vocabulary isn't as limited as it's often said.

For sure, she isn't a metaphorical writer (compare her with the lovely, poetic prose of Wind in the Willows, for eg), a lot of her plots are regurgitated ad nauseam and there are some very nasty attitudes bubbling away in there: snobbery, bullying, racism, classicm, sexism. They're not 'literary', but they're not at all badly written, either.

dynamiccactus · 21/11/2025 18:07

SerafinasGoose · 21/11/2025 17:48

Literary crushes: Bill Smugs and Barney for me! The Adventure Series was brilliant but I also loved the Rilloby Fair Mystery, which had the mad story about the green hands gang that follows Snubby everywhere he goes.Some real humour in that one!

The five find outers were entertaining, too, but I'm one of the few to prefer St Clare's to Malory Towers. It's rougher around the edges and not as well strucutred, but it has more heart. MT is more like a military correctional facility with a very unbending, austere Head who seems to think the bullying that's rife in that place is a-okay (poor Gwen!) St Clare's isn't as much a place of beauty as MT, but it's much more human and has a head mistress who actually sees her students as people.

The Cherry Tree, Mistletoe and Willow Farm books were gorgeous. Blyton is at her best when writing about nature.

I have her book about animals which is really lovely and quite sad now when you think how denuded UK nature is. She talks about things like stoats and weasels as if they are very common.

And her "Book of the Year" with the smallest school ever but again some really good bits about wildlife.

MrsCarson · 21/11/2025 18:07

I had bookshelves full of EB books, given to me by the neighbour girl who was heading off to Uni when I was about 7 or 8. I devoured the lot. I always had my nose in a book and wander the house reading as I went.
My mother sent them all off to the local church jumble sale when I went off to college.

Radiator981 · 21/11/2025 18:08

OldFred · 21/11/2025 18:03

@Radiator981 are you actually my sister?! Our parents were illiterate too but all three of their children became voracious book readers and learners.
We all went to university and have good careers.
Reading was my first love and I strongly believe it's the key to success.

Ha ha @OldFredi don’t have a sister so no!

Our neighbour ‘took me in’ I didn’t speak a word of English until I went to school but she would read to me!

I ended up with a Redbrick uni degree and a great career and I love love love reading! So do my kids thankfully.

cobrakaieaglefang · 21/11/2025 18:09

Anyone else on Amazon looking up how much the sets are? 😂 DH would think I'm insane..😅

MargaretThursday · 21/11/2025 18:11

Anyone who thinks that EB writes repetitively and badly should read the Barney Story, The Rub-a-Dub Mystery.

Barney (for those who don't know) lived with his circus Mum. She ran away from his dad because she assumed he wouldn't want her, being a nice middle-class chap and her a circus girl.
When the series begins Barney's Mum has died, and he's always hopeful that he'll find his dad but he has almost no information about him, except I think he was also called Barney, if I remember rightly.
In The Rub-a-Dub Mystery, Barney is taken under the wing of a chap who says he might have an idea about his Dad. Of course he's thrilled and he's willing to go along with almost anything to help. So when he's told that his Dad is coming, and wants to meet him, he willingly takes the package to give him and goes to meet him.
But when he hands over the package, and tries to speak to the man who he believes is his Dad, the chap knows nothing about it, and he's brushed off, devastated and left.
Being Enid Blyton, naturally he does manage to meet his Dad, who is delighted to find him, but that's (almost literally) another story.

The writing is a little old-fashioned, as you'd expect for a book written in early 1950s, but it is very well written.

When people accuse her of racism/sexism etc look at the era in which it was written. What she was writing is no different from many other authors at the same time who haven't had those accusations and attempts, often badly to "update" the stories. Arthur Ransome, for example, the girls always do the cooking, and John tends to do the majority of the sailing for the Swallow.
One of the heroines in The Chalet School uses the term "working like a XXXX". I've never heard either of them being accused of being sexist/racist.
Jaqueline Wilson wrote a book about a girl being groomed by her teacher, as though it's a love story - there's no condemnation of the teacher. She wrote that in 2006 and it's still in print with no alterations.
So why does Enid Blyton get so much of the criticism when there are others that are similar?

I suspect one of the issues is that children reading them feel that it's today, about them and their friends - so they forget that they're written in history and judge them against today's standards.
And by today's standards, yes we do disagree with some of the standards they had 75 years ago. Just as in 75 years time our great-grandchildren will be recoiling in horror about what we think is very progressive currently, thinking that because their standards will have evolved too.
I'm sure they will judge us, just as our generation has judged history.

burblish · 21/11/2025 18:11

38thparallel · 21/11/2025 17:51

Alongthetowpath · Today 14:31
I loved Malory Towers. My fave scene was where Mary Lou goes out in the rain to post a parcel for one of the other girls, think she was called Daphne or Deirdre or something

I can’t remember whether it was Malory Towers or St Clare’s but i remember a very enjoyable scene in which a teacher who is constantly mocking a girl for writing poetry tells the girls to write a poem for homework. Sure enough the teacher pours scorn on the aspiring poet’s efforts.
Only to be told that actually the poem she has handed in is by Matthew Arnold (I think - that may be wrong, but anyway by a well respected poet).

I think that was "Fifth Formers of St Clare's" - the book that introduced us to the irrepressible Antoinette (Claudine's younger sister!)! The poem was "Despondency" by Matthew Arnold - I think the girl was Anne-Marie and the teacher was a new one called Deirdre Wilcox, who wanted to take Anne-Marie (who hero worshipped her, along with Alison) down a peg or two!

I loved EB books (another immigrant child here!), particularly "House at the Corner", the Mr Pinkwhistle books, all the Faraway Tree books, the Mistletoe Farm series, both the Circus series (the Galliano one, and the one with a little girl called Fenella who went to stay with her bear-trainer Uncle Ursie and Aunt Lou and was given lessons by Presto the conjurer), the Wishing Chair series and "Hollow Tree House". Does anyone else remember her Binkle and Flip stories about two rabbits, or "The Adventures of Pip" about a pixie called Pip?

LostHorizon1 · 21/11/2025 18:15

Itsnearlyxmas · 21/11/2025 14:20

I loved The Faraway Tree!!! & also the magic wishing chair.

Me too! x

soupyspoon · 21/11/2025 18:25

MargaretThursday · 21/11/2025 18:11

Anyone who thinks that EB writes repetitively and badly should read the Barney Story, The Rub-a-Dub Mystery.

Barney (for those who don't know) lived with his circus Mum. She ran away from his dad because she assumed he wouldn't want her, being a nice middle-class chap and her a circus girl.
When the series begins Barney's Mum has died, and he's always hopeful that he'll find his dad but he has almost no information about him, except I think he was also called Barney, if I remember rightly.
In The Rub-a-Dub Mystery, Barney is taken under the wing of a chap who says he might have an idea about his Dad. Of course he's thrilled and he's willing to go along with almost anything to help. So when he's told that his Dad is coming, and wants to meet him, he willingly takes the package to give him and goes to meet him.
But when he hands over the package, and tries to speak to the man who he believes is his Dad, the chap knows nothing about it, and he's brushed off, devastated and left.
Being Enid Blyton, naturally he does manage to meet his Dad, who is delighted to find him, but that's (almost literally) another story.

The writing is a little old-fashioned, as you'd expect for a book written in early 1950s, but it is very well written.

When people accuse her of racism/sexism etc look at the era in which it was written. What she was writing is no different from many other authors at the same time who haven't had those accusations and attempts, often badly to "update" the stories. Arthur Ransome, for example, the girls always do the cooking, and John tends to do the majority of the sailing for the Swallow.
One of the heroines in The Chalet School uses the term "working like a XXXX". I've never heard either of them being accused of being sexist/racist.
Jaqueline Wilson wrote a book about a girl being groomed by her teacher, as though it's a love story - there's no condemnation of the teacher. She wrote that in 2006 and it's still in print with no alterations.
So why does Enid Blyton get so much of the criticism when there are others that are similar?

I suspect one of the issues is that children reading them feel that it's today, about them and their friends - so they forget that they're written in history and judge them against today's standards.
And by today's standards, yes we do disagree with some of the standards they had 75 years ago. Just as in 75 years time our great-grandchildren will be recoiling in horror about what we think is very progressive currently, thinking that because their standards will have evolved too.
I'm sure they will judge us, just as our generation has judged history.

Such a good post.

I hate it when things are described as 'dated' as if they have no value

I loved EB books growing up, I was a prolific reader of all types of books and stories from a young age, very early reader, way ahead of my peers at school.

I loved them for what they were, I wasnt so self centred to consider they were about me or my peers or friends because the lifestyle was completely different, I lived in London, working class household. Didnt identify with any of the experiences of the characters in the books but recognises they were about someone else, someone different.

Loved the faraway tree books. I still think that trees go wisha wisha wisha.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 21/11/2025 18:48

I agree entirely with the fabulous post by @MargaretThursday and especially this part: And by today's standards, yes we do disagree with some of the standards they had 75 years ago. Just as in 75 years time our great-grandchildren will be recoiling in horror about what we think is very progressive currently, thinking that because their standards will have evolved too.
I'm sure they will judge us, just as our generation has judged history.

Happyher · 21/11/2025 18:51

I read all the famous five, secret seven, the mystery books, another series I can’t remember the name of, beer rabbit books and loads more - loved them all

SerafinasGoose · 21/11/2025 18:54

soupyspoon · 21/11/2025 18:25

Such a good post.

I hate it when things are described as 'dated' as if they have no value

I loved EB books growing up, I was a prolific reader of all types of books and stories from a young age, very early reader, way ahead of my peers at school.

I loved them for what they were, I wasnt so self centred to consider they were about me or my peers or friends because the lifestyle was completely different, I lived in London, working class household. Didnt identify with any of the experiences of the characters in the books but recognises they were about someone else, someone different.

Loved the faraway tree books. I still think that trees go wisha wisha wisha.

I agree: the suggestion that they are a bad influence is for the most part, I think, unfounded. I devoured Blyton as a child and absolutely loved her - it didn't turn me into a raving racist. I never banned my DC from reading her, either.

Children are well aware that 1940s books are of another time - I read Arthur Ransome and others with an awareness of that too. Albeit I think some of Blyton's views are pretty rigid and sometimes shocking even for her day, she seems to be the one more regularly taken out of context.

I'm sure 'Jack Trent' (along with David Attenborough) is partly responsible for my lifelong love of birds and other wildlife. The scene where he holes up in an old castle to photograph a golden eagle nestling, all on his own in the creepy old ruin, then gradually becomes aware that the birds and rabbits are not the only presence there with him, is one of my absolute favourites. Sent chills down my spine when he heard the kitchen pump clanking in the dead of night.

I think my childhood would have been much the poorer without her.

Idontknowhatnametochoose · 21/11/2025 18:56

Yes! Loved them all especially the boarding school books.

QueenClinomania · 21/11/2025 19:00

Oh yes, I loved them.
I avoid reading any of them now, I prefer my memories.

66babe · 21/11/2025 19:03

Yes loved my Famous Five especially..

Shelby1981 · 21/11/2025 19:08

I loved them and still do! The famous five were what got me into reading - I loved them and would read them over and over. Also liked the secret seven and the wishing tree, then a bit later st Clare’s and Malory towers (loved the bbc series)

the secret island was a particular favourite too and I’ve just re-read (age 44) all the “secret” series and now working my way through the “adventure” series (they’re about £3.50 each on world of books, buy 3 get 1 free)

Shelby1981 · 21/11/2025 19:09

I still wish I could find a secret passage somewhere in my house….

Ahwig · 21/11/2025 19:10

I was a huge huge fan and got my life long love of reading from reading those books. I read secret seven and famous five but really really loved the “mystery of “ books , St Claire’s, Mallory Towers and the more family oriented ones like , those dreadful children, the “ put em rights” and the family at red roofs. I still have them all in the loft as I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of them. My son will be pleased when he has to clear out all that.

Janboree · 21/11/2025 19:23

The five find outers - Fatty, Larry, Pip,Daisy, Bets and Buster the dog (Mystery of series) were my favourite EB books. I also liked the secret seven and the secret books but not so keen on the famous five.

MaggieBsBoat · 21/11/2025 19:26

Fleurdeville · 21/11/2025 16:46

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

Edited

Omg I used to laugh so hard at Mrs Pepperpot. They are by Otfried Preußler if memory serves. So wildly funny. My kids have them all now. Magic!

Illbethereinaminute · 21/11/2025 19:27

SilverPink · 21/11/2025 14:23

My absolute favourites, Magic Faraway Tree and Naughtiest Girl, then Mallory Towers as I got older.

Me too!! I still hold out hope that one day I'll stumble upon my own tree or have the same adventures the famous five did.

I think at 39 it's unlikely but there is always hope 🤞🤞

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