Alison Uttley vs. Enid Blyton

[Queenoftheharpies]

I came across an article in the M.E.N yesterday about the publication of Alison Uttley's private diaries. Can't find the article but the diaries have been published in a book

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1900

Turns out she absolutely hated Enid Blyton and had some very choice words about Margery Fisher, the illustrator of the little grey rabbit books too.

Much more feisty than the books would lead you to believe.

Interesting stuff.

That sounds interesting. Alison Uttley intrigues me, I could never figure out how the author of A Traveller in Time and Little Grey Rabbit could be one and the same person. I love the former and loathe the latter.

How interesting! I love A Traveller in Time so much. What didn't she like about Enid Blyton - her as a person, or her books?

isn't there a semiautobiographical one by alison utterly, a country child or something.

relates the story of her having to walk to school and back, alone, aged 5, 5 miles each way.

enid blyton was a shit writer - maybe that was why she hatedher.

i love traveller in time as well.

Couldn't find the MEN article but it's also in the Graun:

www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/17/diaries-little-grey-rabbit-uttley

I loved A Traveller in Time
I must hunt it out
I would put in in my top 10 children's book shortlist

I liked reading EB, but the writing was crap
I am an adult reader as I was a child reader
Read some books really quickly like junk food, whilst other better written books I savour

I recently bought a second hand copy of The Country Child for dd when she's older. My mum read it to me whe i was young. I think it reminded her of her own country childhood.

What did she say about the illustrator of the little grey rabbit books?

AU and EB just do't compare. I only remember A Country Childhood, but it was more like Like Rise to Candleford than Five go on a Hike!

I heard a story about EB: As a child Biddy Baxter wrote a letter to Enid Blyton. She received a wonderful, friendly reply, so she wrote back. And received the same reply - it was a clever form letter. Biddy was devastated. Years later, when she became editor of Blue Peter, she instigated a detailed filing system tracking every single letter received from a child, to make sure that they always got a individual reply - no form letters.

Enid Blyton was banned from our house by my mum. Well, her books were anyway .

AU apparently said (from what I remember in the article) that Margery Fisher was a miserable old cow with cold eyes. The only exact quote I remember is "She is awful".

Children's authors do seem to have a propensity to be feck-ups in some way though. Look at Roald Dahl - a very strange man indeed.

Inspired by this thread I started reading A Traveller in Time to DD2 last night, as we had just finished Farmer Boy and there is no more Laura Ingalls Wilder to read.

Is she enjoying it LadyGlencora?

The first time I read it I loved it so much that when I finished it I went straight back to the beginning and read it all again. Have only done that with a very few books.

I think you can see the ruins of Wingfield from the Midland Main Line train.

Yes, she loves it, but she is a history nut. DD1 flatly refuses to read it, because she claims she doesn't like history.