Enid Blyton - what's been edited out/changed??

[Distantview]

Have picked up a 2021 version of The Magic Faraway tree. I used to love this series as a child.

It has a disclaimer about being edited to meet modern standards.

Now I'm trying to work out what was in the original that would be offensive today - does anyone know?

Money changes I find infuriating. As a child I was generally reading copies that were a decade or two old from the charity shop. Sometimes they'd do things like update shillings to new pence, but not update the amount. So four shillings would become 20p. Which is just confusing because I knew four shillings was quite a lot, but 20p wouldn't go that far. Other books they'd update for inflation but as I was reading them twenty years later it didn't help!

I was fully aware that these were set in the 1950s and so I was quite happy with prices from the 50s. They made far more sense!

Changing names: we wouldn't say children are only able to identify with names that are more likely to be had by those of their own race, we'd say that representing diversity teaches them things. I was reading a period book, so I was fine that many of the young people had names that were old people names in my own time. And it's kind of nice when those old fashioned names that I've read in an Enid Blyton pop up as modern baby names.

Plus why deprive a child of a little snigger over the names Dick and Fanny? I laughed at them and carried on reading the book.

And yes, Darrell and co were far wealthier than my family. I still totally identified with her wanting to fit in at a new school and worrying about her schoolwork and all the normal things kids do. I hadn't really thought about the money until Mum explained that no, I wouldn't be able to go to boarding school however nice it sounded because there was no way we could afford it.

Certain racist terms and the like I feel differently about. I couldn't in all conscience imagine myself buying a friend's child (I'm childless) a book where the n word was casually thrown around like it was no big deal. And I'd be pretty annoyed if a modern version of a children's contained it with no warning.

Yep, the beginning of the book is so difficult to read now.

It might have been realistic in the situation, but I wasn't going to read to my child how a little girl was allowed to beat and insult Indian servants, and call them a whole range of offensive names. She even tries to hit her maid when she arrives in the UK , and I guess that's where the story starts to turn, but there's a lot of unsavoury stuff before that for a childrens book.

I've found my book, and it says she shook her. its 2016 edition.

The tv show is called 'The Slap' if you look it up on bbc iplayer.

One fan page says the book was a shake but its changed to a slap for tv...

So no idea now what the original book said! Actually we might have it somewhere....

Edit - just found the old version in a draw. She slaps her!

Pretty sure the slap is original. That's what it was in my 70s copies.

Another update I used to laugh at was the by then terribly dated seventies flares on the Famous Five TV show versions of the books. Just felt out of place to a child reading in the late eighties, who knew the books were not set in the seventies.

Yes I think people really underestimate the casual racism and antisemitism of their favorite books: Georgette Heyer, Dorithy Sayers, Agatha Christie were all full of racist and antisemitic phrases and characters. The assumed reader was white and assumed to share those prejudices. A new, wider, multi ethnic readership is not just offended but disgusted and hurt by this language and publishers want to increase readership not decrease it.

Ignoring the dog’s name in Mr Galliano’s Circus (my DD read over my shoulder when I was reading from a first edition, and asked why I’d read it like that when it began with N, not Tr), the racism was pretty awful in the Whatever of Adventure books. Newer editions have tried to mitigate this (off the top of my head an example of this is changing Jo-Jo to Joe in the Island of Adventure, and omitting the racist descriptions of him).

I did have a friend who read The Wishing Chair to her children, and called the pixie Chinny. She explained to her DC there was a silent K, and the pixie was called this because he had a big chin!.

There was no need for the snarky comment at the end I’ve already realised my mistake thanks

It's always good to challenge readers and spark curiosity rather than just dumb down to what they already know

This.

And on a different note, why change the language of a classic book? If you want modern, 2025 views, you need to read contemporary 2025 authors.

Every book is a child of it's time and readers need to be aware of that. It's great to teach children to become critical readers through these books.
Language and society evolves, the best way to record the change is through literature.

What is it now? Reusable bottles filled with artificially sweetened soft drinks?

Maybe they could introduce a new "teaching moment" where Darrell loses her shit with a tethered bottle top and accidentally takes out a dolphin.

Problems in the 'Magic Faraway Tree? '

The beginning of chapter 16..

Dick Gets Everyone Into Trouble

"When Jo and the others heard the angry voice behind them, they turned in surprise. Nobody but Dick knew what the angry little man was talking about. "Knocker?" said Jo, in astonishment. "What knocker? We haven't got your knocker." "That bad boy is eating my knocker!"

No sniggering at the back please.

I bet he fucken does

I remember an elf/pixie character called Chinky in one of her books.

🤣

My problem with all this bowdlerisation is that over time it makes the past look lovely and cuddly and feeds a more sinister narrative of "Why were black people fighting for their rights when they were so well treated ?" to be instilled from an early age.

It also gives the false impression we have advanced more than we really have. (If you think equality and inclusion are advances. I know not everyone here does)

I can't comment on the racial elements but I was working class and I didn't pick up on being any different to the children in the books. I just felt it was a story, a different time, different people. We all interpret things differently I suppose.

I dont think this is just a new thing though. When I was in last year of infants around 1980 I remember our class teacher reading aloud the Magic Faraway Tree including the name Frannie. I corrected her (in my 6 year old avid reader way!) that the name was wrong and should be Fanny. I got THE LOOK 😂

They have been updating them for years. I remember reading a 1970's version of The Naughtiest Girl in the School. In my sister's 1960's copy, Elizabeth wore black stockings at school. In the 1970's one, she wore white socks at school and pocket money was decimalised.

They changed the bit where Dame Slap (now Snap) visibly ‘gets off’ on being ‘belted’ by Dick (now Rick). That was an uncomfortably sexual scene

This is valid too. 'It's plenty too! Twenty pence a week!' In the Naughtiest Girl Series. Why? That's not plenty and never has been but four shillings in the appropriate era would have been. That said, I read those books in the 80s.

Nude tennis anyone ?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/naughty-enid-was-jolly-beastly-1.118366

Forgive my ignorance (I've read the books but forgotten a lot of details) what was the racial element of Jo-Jo to Joe?

I think it is that calling him Jo-Jo, which is a child's or even a pet's name, rather than Joe or even Jo was infantilising him or worse, quite apart from all the racist language used to describe him.

It really does feel like sometimes she was doing it on purpose, although I assume she wasn't.

Thank you
I did consider something such as that! But needed to ask in case it was some cultural connotation that I had missed. Kind of dehumanising a name I suppose.