Author of the week: Enid Blyton

Hi people!

So I'm back with a new idea. Don't know whether it is good or bad- your replies will decide that.

Each week, we shall pick up any famous author and discuss his/her work, our favourite books amongst the one he/she has written, his/her style and so on, also on the impact of his/her books on us. Basically dissect out the writer and his/her works.

So for the first week, I am choosing someone whose books almost everyone must have read as a child (I think)

And that is Enid Blyton!!!

Okay I remember the one thing we always used to wonder as children -- is Enid Blyton a he or a she? (Internet had not gained so much prominence in India at that time, unlike today when everyone has a laptop at their own homes, and even 2-3 laptops within a family. Having a computer was considered a big thing when I was 10-12 years old.)

But now we all know that Enid Blyton is a she (yay!!) and she has written a large number of books which are difficult to be missed. Every child must have read at least one of her books.

Her books have also been made into television series, like Make Way for Noddy

The Famous five In India we had Hip Hip Hurray which was a khichdi of St.Claire's series and Malory Towers series. (although the serial makers never gave credit or mentioned it)

Enid Blyton is rightly called 'the queen of storytellers , cos she wrote books for children aged 5 years as well as for those aged 15 years!

So what are you waiting for people? Lets start discussing about this very famous author. And if you have not read her books, pick one up and read it now. Some of them are interesting enough to be read even after you grow up.

u know my fav books of her were the famous five,the adventure series and amelia jane..she was one very very naughty doll..i loved her..and the parrot,kiki in adventure series,one of my favourite animal characters..she was delightful wid her mimicry..esp "kiki in a well" and her train engine noise..

She was my FAVORITE author . niks i LOVE u for startng this post .

I will make an admission . I STILL read her , munching an apple like I did when I was in school .

Her Books :

A Book of Naughty Children [ part one two and three]

Famous Five , Seven

The Naughtiest girl in school [ Elizabeth at Whyteleaf School]

Billy Bob tales

Tales of Betsy May

Malory Towers series and St Clares series [ Malory Towers was my fav coz Darrel Rivers was exactly how I was in school ]

The Circus books

Her Wishing Tree Books

Her Mr Pink Whistle Books

Her Mr Meddle Books

Infact .............her entire conjuring of Fairyland .........I don't believe ANY author cud make Fairyland come alive the way she did . JK rowling is greatly over hyped , a pity those techno effects were not used to show Enid Blytons Fairyland .

Then her TOY books . TOYland Tales , Amelia Jane ...............

She described

Children

Fairy stories

Toy stories .

No TV , cell , nothing .Yet DELIGHTFUL .

Silly US does NOT keep Brit publications but their own publications in library and let me tell u , they r not fit to sit near Enid Blytons feet .

ANYONE knows of sites where I can order Enid Blyton books for my kids plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz tell me

No one understood a childs mind better than her . And its so tragic that she died in senility .

anu rulz wrote:

u know my fav books of her were the famous five,the adventure series and amelia jane..she was one very very naughty doll..i loved her..and the parrot,kiki in adventure series,one of my favourite animal characters..she was delightful wid her mimicry..esp "kiki in a well" and her train engine noise..

I haven't read this Kiki one... but I loved famous five and Amelia Jane toh was all time favourite. When I read it, I said to my Mom that I also want to make a collection of toys and teddies like this one. (I had lots of dolls) and my Mom helped me in that. Till date they are in good condition. I used to imagine what they would be discussing about me like the toys in that story discussed amongst themselves. I really liked Amelia Jane, the naugty long-legged doll. You could love her, hate her but never ignore her.

There was one particular story in which Amelia jane watches children skate and desires to do it as well, but since she didn't have skates, she wets soap and ties them to her feet and skates here and there. I tried that one in the bathroom too.

And there was one more when Amelia makes different things out of plasticine, chairs and tables and stuff. I tried a lot to get such plasticine so that I could make such stuff for my dollhouse too. I think the book really rankled one's imagination.

I liked Noddy too in the toy series. And when the cartoon series came up on TV I started loving it more mera

Enid Blyton is one of my most favourite authors too. I loved all her books and I read them in the natural progression- started with three o clock tales that my sis used to get from library, (i started reading quiet early) followed it up with those fairy stories and then came Noddy and Amelia Jane. Then all those adventure stories like Famous Five and Secret Seven. The concept of Secret Seven and having a club house of your own was very exciting. The tales were never very difficult to understand or complicated unlike Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys (which I started reading later). They were right according to the age group.

The most exciting thing about the Gundi Gang was that I felt we were like the secret seven.

But my all time favourite books were the St. Claire series, the Malory Tower Series and the Farm series (I forgot the name of the farm- was it Finniston farm-- but yeah it was a story of two brothers, one who lives in village and runs a farm house and other who works in city. Once fire breaks out in city brothers house whose children are pampered and spoilt and so his family comes to live in the family in the village where the children are responsible but complete clods and how chaos breaks out from both sides.)

I feel that these books influenced my current writing style, conceptualisation of FF etc. There was somewhere a message in each situation in the story. And there was no perfect character as such- Darrell Rivers had an infamous temper which she struggled to control, while her friend Sally, although a wonderful person and very mature had a jealous streak. Same with the O sullivan twins in St. Claires- they were stuck up and improved later on. From the teachers to the students to the matrons, no one was a perfect chocolate character, they all were humans who faced bad situations at times, made mistakes sometimes, introspected, improved.

Remember Gwedoline in the Malory Towers??? She was a proud girl and very spoilt, and quite clearly the 'villain' if you can call it that way, making life difficult for other girls at the boarding school. but finally when calamity fell in the end, she realised that she had wasted the best years of her school life, cos she hadn't become strong and mature to face circumstances unlike her other friends. The letter she writes to her friends in the last part was sad as well as hopeful. Enid Blyton handled each character properly, no character was punished too much, keepin in mind that they were all children, and ultimately all tracks ended with positivity for every character. The bits of philosophy were given in such a subtle manner, they never seemed preachy at all. She really knew how to make her characters connect with the reader. At the end of each book, (in these series wala books) one felt that he/she had learned something substantial.

ya malory towers was another amazing schooltime series..like u said,hip hip hurray pretty much was like it..
the parrot,kiki is in the Adventure series..it starts wid the "island of adventure" where the characters all meet and continues thru 8-9 books as far as i remember..there are 4 children who are two pairs of siblings..one guy loves birds (kiki is his permanent pet in the series) and the other guy is magic wid animals,his pets change in every book coz he picks up new ones in each..wen u have the time,do give thm a read..they are delightful books..
noddy was educational altogether..small bt essential life lessons in every story..and the idea of toyland was a perfect place for imagination..like the wobblers..i still have a smile on my face wen i imagine the family crossing the road in their wobbly style..

anu rulz wrote:

ya malory towers was another amazing schooltime series..like u said,hip hip hurray pretty much was like it..
the parrot,kiki is in the Adventure series..it starts wid the "island of adventure" where the characters all meet and continues thru 8-9 books as far as i remember..there are 4 children who are two pairs of siblings..one guy loves birds (kiki is his permanent pet in the series) and the other guy is magic wid animals,his pets change in every book coz he picks up new ones in each..wen i have the time,do give thm a read..they are delightful books..
noddy was educational altogether..small bt essential life lessons in every story..and the idea of toyland was a perfect place for imagination..like the wobblers..i still have a smile on my face wen i imagine the family crossing the road in their wobbly style..

Oh yeah the wobbly man! He was so weird and yet so nice.

I don't know from where she could think of such interesting characters and names. It was fun! I used to think how wobbly man would have slept.. ahahhaa!

wobbly man wud be wobbling himself to sleep.. ya its a funny thought tht had never entered my mind..

The more I read Enid Blyton , the more I get convinced that she was a genius , with that extra sensitivity to children that no counselor in the world wud have .

She read a child's mind so well .

Its not just Kiki . Niks and anu , if u note , in every children series theres an animal with a personality of its own . Buster the dog , Timmy ..........George's dog , The monkey in the circus series , Kiki the parrot ........She understood and loved animals so WELL . The relationship between the child and the animal was so effectively sketched .

Another speciality ........always a tomboy girl in a group . One who wud be equal to the grit of boys ............George in Famous five , or Jane in Finniston Farm .
Cropped hair , loving animals , good at sports with a temper problem wud be Enid Blyton's favorite tomboy . How i LOVED em .

Sports wud be encouraged in her books . Lacrosse , swimming , tennis..........She INSISTED one shud develop a love for sports

Infact ALL that is needed for a healthy development in a child was given in her books . Animals , sports , morals , and a good story that guided u subtly as u read it .

Not to mention the excellent grammar and English . Ones English wud improve by reading her books.

Like niks said , my writing style is GREATLY influenced by her .

I read some books were taken off the shelf coz it was felt she was outdated . I was like HUH ???? Her books r evergreens , they can NEVER be outdated . Yea right , take them off and substitute them with books like WALTER THE FARTING DOG in which the dog does only one thing ..........it FARTS . And that my dears was supposed to be CHILDREN"S LITERATURE .

kools,i have never read ant the farting dog,bt if tht is how children's books are today,i pity thm for missing the sheer magic of Maam Blyton..she is to kids what Agatha Christie is to mysteries and sleuthing..u can see how every whodunnit writer bases his/her story as she used to do..same wid Enid Blyton..even now wen i get sum book of hers frm sum circulating library,my dad borrows it to give it a read..she is THT amazing..outdated????
another name kids used to swear by was Mr.Anant Pai (atleast Indian kids)..wen i was a kid,i used to read every thing i cud get my hands on, and wen we wud be travelling by train,i wud stand in frnt of the railway "wheeler book stall" and not leave till ma or papa bought sumthn for me,and invariably wud finish it BEFORE the train arrived,and thn poor parents of mine wud request the seller to let me exchange it wid sum other book.. now i wonder what kids read..these authors' written works are all timeless..

Anu looks like we r twins

Enid blyton , Agatha Christie and Anant Pai r my ALL TIME favorites ...........I grew up reading them . They r QUALITY fiction .

Walter the Farting dog was litearally about how a dog farts . American libraries DONt have Enid Blyton books they promote their own publications which I find faaltu .

The Farm books by blyton were a TREAT . Willow tree Farm , Cherry tree farm , Finniston farm ............Ultimate books .

kools,there is this young Indian author called Samit Basu..he has written a trilogy which is one of the best subtle comedies/spoof i have read in recent times..its got a fantastic screenplay all thruout and has referances to everything frm the mahabharata to alice in wonderland to harry potter to current affairs..the first book was my favourite..its called SIMOQUIN PROPHECIES..the others are MANTICORE SECRETS and UNWABA REVELATIONS..the names of the characters are anagrams of mythic characters..and the story rocks!!the hero aint a hero,the villain is not the villain..the centre of the world is apparently "kol-the big mango" (kol being kolkatta and big mango frm the big apple of NY) the book has vanars,dwarves,kings,rishis,everything..i wud recommend it totally..

Ok anu I will look it up Promise , since our tastes seem to match

btw has anyone read Tom Brown's schooldays ? I had . Old England Rugby schooling . Boarding school life .

na kools,i havent read tht..will look for it soon..rt now am waiting for the latest rick riordan book to come out..tho i like his greek myth books a lot, and this one is the egyptian series..bt i like his story-telling style..the humour is damn good..esp in the percy series,wen hermes and his twin snakes come in..

Viram it was The Five Find Outers and Buster the Dog.............it was better than Famous Five series even .

.
Fatty was my favorite

So was George with her fierce love for Timmy

Malory Towers was my preference over Saint Clares . I read both but MT was my super fav .

And Finniston farm . Jane and Ricjhard with the horse Lordly One . Read it ? Do read it .

I am so embarrased to even post on this topic.

I grew up reading Famous Five, Secret Seven and other Enid Blyton books and LOVED her as an author but for hte life of me cannot remember the names of the characters or the story plots as well as you guys do. All my memories of books from the last two decades are clouded by visuals of the cover page of Johanna Lindsey and then later John Grisham and his legal entrapments.





Nik: amazing topic. Wll try to refresh my memories before I show my face on this thread again.

@Hope:

Oh come on Hope.. why are you getting embarassed? even I do not remember many of the character names of the Enid Blyton books I've read... I've read so many but remember the names of only a few... there was one about a family which had two daughters and a twins, and I can't remember its name... it was the family which lived in a cottage on the river.. something like that... see even I can't remember....

Sab chalta hai.. at least we remember the cute things of childhood by thinking of our books na?

I liked Darrell Rivers a lot- somewhere I feel that I'm a combination of Sally and Darell... one character I really really liked was Claudine at St. Claires's-- goodness- she was a good girl and so naughty- used to punish bad people in any weird way- she had her way all the time and did whatever she wanted, and yet people loved her lots... and I loved her too!

One more character was some French teacher in Malory Towers- who was fat and round and used 'abominable' word in every line and had bad English... suspiciously Enid Blyton used another similar character in St. Claire's series who was Claudine's Aunt-- maybe she did not think at that time that her books would get so famous that people would read ALL the books and eventually figure out the similarities.

koolsadhu1000 wrote:

She was my FAVORITE author . niks i LOVE u for startng this post .


Malory Towers series and St Clares series [ Malory Towers was my fav coz Darrel Rivers was exactly how I was in school ]

i love enid blyton as well.. but this is crazy.. i LOVED LOVED LOVED malory towers. i read that series so many times. i still have the books and i read them.

i havent read many of her books, just famous five, malory towers but i loved her style of writing. in her website there is a page of what happened next to the malory tower girls and pamela cox wrote a series on Felicity.

koolsadhu1000 wrote:

tiya darling can u post thelink plz? i am DYING to read what happened to Felicity and June [ Alicia's cousin]

Btw Im ordering Malory Towers .Just reading this thread made me nostalgic . Im gonna read it in my own , very own ALONE time . The Kools who was 12 will be revived for an afternoon .

Louisa Alcott wrote Little Men as a sequel to Little women and we understood what haappened to Joe , Meg , Amy and Larry when they grew up . Why oh why did Enid Blyton not write a series on Felicity , June and the other generation ?

well this the link to say what happened to darell and the gang:
http://www.enidblyton.net/malory-towers/what-happened-next.html

and story of felicity is written by Pamela Cox and the book is called 'new term at malory towers'
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=2209&title=New+Term+at+Malory+Towers

Thanks so much tiya !