The Real Enid Blyton

The Real Enid Blyton

by Nadia Cohen

Pub Date 30 Oct 2022

Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History

Biographies & Memoirs. |. History. |. Nonfiction (Adult)

I am reviewing a copy of The Real Enid Blyton through Pen & Sword and Netgalley:

Enid Blyton was the most profiling Children’s author in history. She was a remarkable woman who wrote hundreds of books in a career spanning forty years, even her razor sharp mind could never have predicted her enormous global audience. Now, fifty years after her death, Enid remains a phenomenon, with sales outstripping every rival.

Both parents and teachers lobbied against Enid’s books, complaining they were simplistic, repetitive and littered with sexist and snobbish undertones. Blatant racist slurs were particularly shockingly; foreign and working class characters were treated with a distain that horrifies modern readers. But regardless of the criticism, Enid worked until she could not physically write another word, famously producing thousands of words a day hunched over her manual typewriter.

Enid imagined a more remarkable innocent world, where children roamed unsupervised, and problems were solved with midnight feasts or glorious picnics with lashings of ginger beer. Smugglers, thieves, spies and…