Thoughts on Enid Blyton

[Lizita]

My and my sister were huge fans when we were young, but my mum always hated them, they are very un pc.

I have got a couple from the library for nostalgia's sake and it's so weird to read them again now! I always remember them as being pretty innocent stories, but I had forgotten how dramatic some of the adventures are (eg the Famous Five stuck in a cave with a man with a gun) and also how ridiculous some scenarios are (though I know it's partly cos they're so out of date now). Famous Five again - in the cave one of the boys went off to get the police and HE was leading the police (who were weilding guns too) back through the cave!! Made me chuckle.

I can sort of tolerate the sexism in them because it was the time Enid Blyton was living in. The classism is appalling though, and racism in a few, and all the stereotypes ! I hate to say I'm sure I was influenced a lot by her books (particularly the school ones) and I MUST have had a very odd view of what the world outside was like!
I must say I am so grateful to my mum for being so vehemently anti-Enid Blyton as i would've grown up completely unaware of the truth of it!

My favourites were the Famous Five, The Faraway Tree books, and The Wishing Chair. I also had a fondness for Malory Towers and St. Clare's - and the Naughtiest Girl in the School which I had completely forgotten about till I saw it in the library!

Have you read the one after she married? She also did one about her dh's childhood ('Farmer Boy').
Swoon! Almanzo was my first crush,especially when he called to pick her up with his new horses and buggy. He swept her up whilst they thundered past!

(I think someone in her family still churns stuff out,having patented her name which is a bit naff.)

yeah i read all of them! (although not the one about her dh's childhood)
you remember more than me though i have to say! but they were really fab... i used to long to live with them! lol

Message withdrawn

I re reda Little house series just a few months ago, and they are still wonderful. I told DD1 bits of them, she noe likes to play "Laura and Mary"!

bozza she's 5, I know that sounds a little young for some of these longer-form stories but she's truly bored with stuff which is supposed to be for her age group

Message withdrawn

I loved Enid Blyton as a child - her books were my escape from my parent's traumatic marriage.

However, re-reading them now is a shock as they are quite old fashioned in some cases and racism appears rife.

My favourite re-read was one of the "Mountain of Adventure" type ones where the children stayed on a Welsh farm. Evidently Enid Blyton had never visited Wales in her life as every sentence spoken by the farmer's wife began with "Look you" (and I do mean every sentence). It made rather bizarre reading and kept me amused for weeks after!

However, I can happily re-read the school stories, the short stories about pixies, elves, fairies etc. Ah! Happy memories.

I liked reading Enid Blyton's books. They were so typical English... I'm from the continent and no one goes to boarding school. It is just something you threaten naughty children with (I think there was 1 in my county for children with "behavioural problems"???).
Both my mum and I would watch Laura Ingells on tv, my mum probably more eager then me...

Yes,Aragon! As a Welsh kid reading that one,I remember thinking that noone I knew talked like that!

I loved Enid Blyton as a child, but that doesnt make them good education for children. I think that they do contain a lot of ideas that I innocently absorbed, but that I wouldnt want my children to grow up with.

for instance, Im anti-racist, but I will never be anything other than rebelling against the racism that I grew up with. Dx, on the other hand, grew up in a genuinely non-racist environment, and thats what I want for my children, so I am a bit iffy about EB. Banning anything is a bit doomed to failure though, so will definitely encourage my children to question what they read.

The Faraway Tree is one of my dd's all-time favourite books,she chose it herself from Ottakars and I don't censor any children's books my child wants to read.

The interesting thing about EB's books like the Famous Five etc are that they were written during the period of rationing etc and represented a total fantasy life even then.

I loved Enid Blyton too, but I think I grew out of them at about age 8-9. I loved Judy Blume and the Ramona stories (don't remember the author) and moved on to Sweet Valley High and Point Horror by age 10/11 (def. still in primary school. And does anyone remember the doll Amelia-Jane, I read those at Enid Blyton age too I think.

I did love SS and FF and the others but agree about them being un-PC, though that wouldn't prevent me letting my children read them as I think they do get you interested in reading.

by the way, Lizita, I loved the bit about arguing with your mum about how you learn a lot about morals from EB books. Sounds just like me at that age... I must have been a right old prig (EB word)

Cam, I checked the date the books were published because I was reflecting as I was reading it that EB always places emphasis on food! I used to love that she always describes exactly what the kids ate! And midnight feasts in the school stories...

I loved them as a child but DETEST reading them now to ds as an adult. I loved the Malory Towers, St Clares, Famous Five, Secret Seven but thank goodness for my poor mum read them to myself as a child. I so so detest reading them now, I think they're badly written but ds does seem to like them so who am I to stop him I guess.

read Amelia Jane to dd1 tonight and it is quite fun to read aloud (better than the blessed Wishing Chair anyway )

My sister and I absolutely dived on any Enid Blyton book we could find when we were kids.

During the school hols we would fight over who would be George for the day and our black labrador would have a name change to Timmy and breed change to a collie. We would take ourselves off for the day with a sandwich, boiled egg, packet of crisps and a bottle of Dandelion and Burdoch. We were in junior school and them were the days when you could go off all day and your mum not worry too much about you.

We also pleaded with my mum to send us to boarding school. Sis was Carolotta and I was Darryl.

I recently came across the books (now 37 yrs) and yes they are of a different age but I still loved reading them.

Will read them to DD and DS when they are old enough.

Ah - the "Faraway Tree". How often did I disappear up the tree to somewhere else? And the Angry Pixie, Silkie the Elf, Moonface, Saucepan Man. Hot and Cold sweets, Sherbert Buns, ice cream - oh Enid Blyton was good.

I loved Enid Blyton books with a fierce passion! I think I also turned out alright. She made me want to be a writer and a writer (of sorts) I am.
I also rather fancied being Anne and playing house in a gypsy caravan - like the bit in A Little Princess where she has a real fire in her room with a copper kettle hanging over the fire and a small cupboard containing a tea service and a cake. I dreamed of that - still do actually. As for not being realistic, well pah, I like the unrealistic quality. I read A Little Princess in a modern council flat but while I read it, I lived in a Victorian school. Enid Blyton had a similar transporting quality for a child. You can't judge by adult standards IMO.

I wrote a whole school story once, as a child I had millions of Chapter 1s (have recently thrown most of them away) so finishing that school story was a major achievement. It is a poor imitation of Enid Blyton, but an imitation nonetheless!

Yes Aloha, that's the whole point isn't it - the transporting to somewhere else (better?).

But that's the fascinating thing with EB, some people assume that she was writing about a real bygone age....

I used Enid Blyton to escape from my childhood. Everything she wrote abut was just so foreign and exciting, and unlike real life. And that was the appeal.

I used to long to taste ginger beer ( yuck ) and eat a slab of chocolate, or have a midnight feast, or sleep on bracken (which I think is another word for ferns). I still enjoy reading my favourites, the Six Cousins ones, and The Family at Red Roofs.

I am still a die-hard Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, and have had to replace all the little house books twice, as i re-read them so frequently. For any other fans, there is a book called the Little House Sampler, with articles Laura wrote for a local paper, and some stories by Rose.

I am also the owner of The Little House Cookbook, which I was disappointed to find didn't feature recipes from the books, but does have a great Brownie recipe.

I loved them, and still do. I'm now reading them with my children, and they're still every bit as magical. They are a bit dated (to say the least!) but the stories are wonderful.

Zaphod - another BIG Laura Ingalls Wilder fan here. I can't wait til DD (and DS if he's interested) is old enough for me to pass on all my LIW books to

ok, i am such a "little house" fan i'm afraid i can't not be a smarta and point out that it's laura's sister mary* who goes blind. and you will find 2 museums - in de smet, s. dakota where the ingalls family settled and in mansfield, missouri where laura and manly eventually made their home - not that i have been to either one. but have read the whole series many times!

eb - not sure. loved her books as a child, but remember enough about them to be pretty sure i want to steer ds and dd clear. having said that, never read "wishing chair" or "faraway tree" - so might be tempted to have another look at those.