Enid

[Frenchie]

Good biopic of E. Blyton on BBC4. Anyone watched it last night?! What an evil woman though!

[Adrian]

What an evil woman though!

Did we not already know that from her output?

[Frenchie]

What an evil woman though!

Did we not already know that from her output?

You mean 750 books, 23 per year on some years?!

Poor kids; I mean her own.

[Chris S]

I was brought up on Famous Five and Secret Seven.

It's amazing how many creative people turn out to be top of the line loony tunes in real life.

[Wowbagger]

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An interesting piece about Blyton.

[Frenchie]

I was really shocked by the film. I am somewhat glad I never got into her books and am quite tempted to leave outside our home now.

[Wascally Weasel]

Always better for children to read rubbish than watch rubbish in my view.  There are a lot of criticisms that can be laid at EB's door, but it's not actually all bad - when it's bad, it's beyond awful, when it isn't it's...ok, or at least was if you were the age group it was aimed at in the rough time frames it was origninally published in.

I think it depends a lot whether you read them as a developing reader - if you did they were ok.  They weren't books that you would generally keep reading though.

For the record, I do actually hate her works but know that there are others that still like them.

I read her books avidly for a short period but can't revisit them at all, unlike authors like Dahl, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner and John Christopher.

[her_welshness]

I grew up reading everything I could of Enid Blytons, including the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mallory Towers but the abiding books of hers for me were the Far Away Tree series, where the kids that climbed the tree would be whisked away to different lands and adventures. I would not dismiss her books entirely.

It was a shock to hear later, in a separate documentary, that she would banish her own children upstairs whilst she would invite other kids to play with her. I would not say that she was entirely evil, but that she had extremely difficulty accepting reality.

[LEE]

What was wrong with her books?

I read all the Famous 5 and Secret 7 as a kid.

[clarion]

Blyton was a crap writer that churned out snide, reactionary, ungrammatical, nonsensical garbage.

I hated everything of hers I had to read.  And soon found better authors (it's not exactly hard )

[onb]

Blyton was a crap writer that churned out snide, reactionary, ungrammatical, nonsensical garbage.

I hated everything of hers I had to read.  And soon found better authors (it's not exactly hard )

I was brought up on a diet of Secret Seven and Famous Five but Im impressed by the fact you realised Blyton was all the above ,as at the age I was reading Blyton I wouldnt have known what they meant.We didnt have garbage as a kid in Yorkshire we had rubbish.

[clarion]

Blyton was a crap writer that churned out snide, reactionary, ungrammatical, nonsensical garbage.

I hated everything of hers I had to read.  And soon found better authors (it's not exactly hard )

I was brought up on a diet of Secret Seven and Famous Five but Im impressed by the fact you realised Blyton was all the above ,as at the age I was reading Blyton I wouldnt have known what they meant.

Not the words I would have used myself at the time, but, thanks to a kind mentor in the person of an elderly literary chap (the father of one of my parents' friends), I did have precocious reading habits.  I first read Crime & Punishment at nine (didn't understand it all, but knew it was quite exciting)

We didnt have garbage as a kid in Yorkshire we had rubbish.

Absolutely right.  I stand corrected.

[Recursived]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/comic-strip-presents/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

yet.

[LEE]

Blyton was a crap writer that churned out snide, reactionary, ungrammatical, nonsensical garbage.

I hated everything of hers I had to read.  And soon found better authors (it's not exactly hard )

I thought they were quite exciting and I expect they are partly responsible for encouraging a love of books amongst my generation.

Nobody has told me why they are so bad yet.  I haven't read one since 1971 so I can't remember.

[mattc]

I grew up reading everything I could of Enid Blytons, including the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mallory Towers but the abiding books of hers for me were the Far Away Tree series, where the kids that climbed the tree would be whisked away to different lands and adventures. I would not dismiss her books entirely.

I only really read the FarAway Tree books - brilliant stuff.

I remember at the time thinking the Mallory Towers books were like a different language - I may not have realised they were all Blyton books, so I probably wasn't very old.

Considering the age group these things are aimed at, I find the criticisms rather odd.

[onb]

Both my kids are avid readers ,I would have much preferred them to read SS or FF than be glued to the tv all day.

[nicknack]

The only author I can remember reading when I was ickle (late 50s early 60s) was Blyton. I'm sure I enjoyed the Famous 5 and the Adventure (? or something like that - memory is not what it was) series. It wasn't until someone bought me a science fiction book (something about a Lost Planet by Mc somebody) that I read anything else.

<edit> Google is my friend - it was Return to the Lost Planet by Angus MacVicar. After that I only read sf in my teens.

[Julian]

I read Imogen Smallwood's autobiography (Blyton's younger daughter, who wrote the damning account of Enid Blyton as Bad Mother.)

Her main criticisms were that

a) her mother never visited the nursery and left them in the care of nannies / governesses
b) she was sent away to boarding school quite young
c) Enid Blyton was an enthusiast for corporal punishment for misbehaviour

Anyone who's ever read the books will already be aware of (c) since it features heavily in pretty much all of them, and none of it seemed particularly at odds with autobiographies of other people born in 1935.  Her sister Gillian wrote a counter-book saying that they had a perfectly normal upbringing for the times, and that she remembers her childhood as a happy one with a loving mother. 

It was a shock to hear later, in a separate documentary, that she would banish her own children upstairs whilst she would invite other kids to play with her.

That's not a claim that's made even in Imogen Smallwood's book, so I would treat it with caution.

[Really Ancien]

I thought all the fuss was about Noddy and especially the Golliwogs.

Damon.

[clarion]

Well, there's a bit of that.  I first encountered Noddy in the late 60s.  Dr Seuss was also available.  No contest.

[LEE]

I first encountered Noddy in the late 60s. 

Pre- Slade?

[LEE]

c) Enid Blyton was an enthusiast for corporal punishment for misbehaviour

Lashings of Lemonade ?

[clarion]

I first encountered Noddy in the late 60s. 

Pre- Slade?

Pre- Ambrose Slade!