Children's detective Enid Blyton. The Unacknowledged Queen of Fantasy (Enid Mary Blyton)
Enid Mary Blyton was born on August 11, 1897, in London, the eldest of three children of Thomas Carey Blyton, a cutlery merchant, and Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton. A few months after her birth, Enid almost died of whooping cough, but her father, whom she simply adored, nursed her home. It was Thomas who sparked her interest in nature. In her autobiography, Blyton wrote that he "loved flowers, birds and wild animals and knew more about them than anyone."
In addition, Enid’s father instilled his interest in gardening, music, literature and theater, and with him the future writer loved to walk in nature. Teresa was practically not interested in her daughter’s hobbies. Blyton experienced a real shock shortly after her thirteenth birthday when her father left the family for another woman.
From 1907 to 1915, Blyton studied at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed playing sports. Other disciplines were not so easy, but success in writing was obvious. In 1911, she participated in a children's poetry competition. Her mother considered the development of Enid's writing abilities to be "a waste of time and money", but Mabel Attenborough, the aunt of one of Enid's friends, came to the aid of the talented girl.
Having practically lost contact with her family, Blyton threw herself headlong into writing and prepared to become a teacher. Repeatedly, her first works were rejected by publishers, which only gave her confidence to continue what she started. She wrote: “It is partly the struggle that helps you so much, which gives you determination, self-confidence and builds character. All this helps in any profession or craft and, of course, in writing.” In March 1916, her first poems were published in Nash's Magazine.
Her first published book, Child Whispers, was a 24-page collection of poetry. This significant event took place in 1922. Blyton covered a variety of topics, including education and science, interpreted biblical narratives, and wrote in a variety of genres, including fantasy and detective fiction. Blyton's most memorable character is Noddy, a wooden boy with a blue cap on his head with bells. This character appears in stories for children who are still learning to read. Her series of children's detective books, The Fab Five, also remains popular. At first, Enid prepared no more than eight stories for release, but commercial success helped extend the adventures of the Fab Five to 21 books. Among Blyton's other works, the Secret Seven series also occupies a prominent place.
Having made good money from her early novels, such as 1937's The Adventures of the Magic Chair, Blyton continued to build her literary empire, sometimes publishing 50 books a year, not counting her published works in newspapers and magazines. She wrote without any plans or ideas, largely drawing the plot from her subconscious. Blyton simply transferred to paper the stories that unfolded in her rich imagination. Because of such speed and volume of work, rumors spread that Edith was using a whole army of literary blacks, but she persistently denied rumors that others were working for her.
In a letter to psychologist Peter McKellar, she describes her technique as follows: "I close my eyes for a few minutes, holding my portable typewriter on my knee. I leave my mind blank and wait. And then I begin to see as clearly as if the real ones were in front of me." children are my characters from my imagination... The first sentence comes straight from my head, and I don’t have to think about it, I don’t have to think about anything.”
Over time, Blyton's work caused more and more controversy in the circles of literary critics, teachers and parents. Some libraries and schools have refused her works. From 1930 to 1950, the BBC, citing the “lack of literary merit” in Blyton’s works, did not broadcast projects based on the writer’s books. Her books have been called elitist, sexist, racist and xenophobic. Blyton did not belong to “the more liberal environment” emerging in post-war Britain, but after her death in 1968 her books continued to be bestsellers.
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Writer Nicholas Tucker notes that Blyton created "an isolated world for young readers that simply dissolved with age, leaving only memories of emotional excitement and strong identification with the characters." Fred Inglis believes that Blyton's books are formally easy to read, as well as easy to understand and digest. He notes that psychologist Michael Woods believed that Blyton "was a child, thought like a child and wrote like a child... Enid Blyton had no moral dilemmas." Imogen, Enid's daughter, stated that her mother "loved to enter into relationships with children through her books," but real children were always troublemakers, which is why such "intruders" had a place only in the world depicted by the writer's imagination.
Enid felt she had a responsibility to help her readers determine where moral boundaries began and ended, and because of this she encouraged her audience to become involved in socially significant causes. In particular, she created or supported community clubs and organized or helped create animal and children's fundraising campaigns for charities.
Blyton's life story is depicted in the 2009 BBC film Enid, where she is played by Helena Bonham Carter.
This fall marks forty years since the British writer Enid Mary Blyton passed away. According to UNESCO, she is one of the five most translated authors in the world. Only Walt Disney, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne and Vladimir Lenin were able to beat it. And she herself was far ahead of such literary geniuses as William Shakespeare.
Moreover, quite recently, a public opinion poll in the writer’s homeland confirmed her reputation:
The annual circulation of Enid Blyton's works, even forty years after her death, is more than eight million copies.
At the same time they translated into 27 foreign languages with a total circulation of more than 400 million copies.
And the company “Trocadero PLC” not long ago bought all the rights to publish Blyton’s works for $13 million.
And this despite the fact that Enid Mary Blyton was only children's writer and told her little readers light, funny stories.
On the way to glory
Enid's childhood
Enid Mary Blyton
Enid Mary Blyton born August 11, 1897 in a London suburb in the family of a poor knife dealer.
There were two more boys in the family - Carrie and Hanley, but the daughter was my father's favorite Thomas Blyton.
They were very similar externally - dark hair, big brown eyes - and internally. Both loved music, theater, books, and walks in nature.
When little Enid became seriously ill and the doctors were powerless, it was her father who came out and put her back on her feet.
But the girl had a more complex relationship with her mother, Teresa Mary.
The beautiful, stately woman was a housewife by nature; she did not understand her daughter’s passion for literature and music, and she also did not approve of “aimless” walks with her father in the countryside.
But the foundations of the future writer’s character and views were laid by her father.
Together they played Indians and fearless scouts, pyramid explorers, robbers and policemen.
Besides, Thomas gave his daughter a huge number of books. Among her favorites were Andersen, Carroll, the myths of Ancient Greece, as well as children's encyclopedias.
In 1907, Enid Blyton became a pupil of St Christopher's for girls in Buckenham. Studying was quite easy (except that there were difficulties with mathematics).
She participated in school plays and led the tennis and track teams.
It was at school that Enid began writing her first stories. and even published a handwritten magazine with her friends.
However, in 1910, the girl’s happy, carefree life was shattered.
Scandals broke out more and more often in the family: it turned out that My father had been with another woman for a long time, and in the end he simply left for her.
In provincial Beckenham, this could be an eternal shame for the whole family. And Teresa Mary forced her children to tell others that dad just went on a business trip for a while.
For Enid, who adored her father, this was a real tragedy. She poured out her despair on paper, creating many stories, poems and even poems.
And only the support of her school friends kept the girl from giving up writing forever.
Teresa Mary believed that her daughter should continue education and become a music teacher. However, Enid was sure that a different future awaited her.
She wanted to get to know children better because she dreamed of writing children's books, and therefore decided to become a school teacher.
At the peak of glory - during life and after death
On the teacher's bench
Enid Mary Blyton
It was at this time the young girl finally broke up with her mother, who did not want to know anything about her dreams and desires.
At the same time, she was unable to restore her former warm relationship with her father.
They saw each other occasionally in his London office, but by this time Thomas already had three small children with his new wife, and there was almost no time left for his eldest daughter.
Meanwhile, Enid turned out to be a very resourceful and energetic teacher.
She worked for a year at a boys' primary school in Kent, and then got a job as a governess in one of the local families, which had four sons at once.
Her lessons were so exciting that gradually other godchildren began to be brought to her. This is how Enid herself called “my experimental school.”
This period was one of the happiest in her life also because her first work was finally accepted for publication and appeared in one of the British almanacs.
Her life was darkened only by the news of her father's unexpected death and the scandals that accompanied this sad event.
He died of a heart attack in the house of his common-law wife, but Teresa Mary’s pathological desire to hide her breakup with her husband forced relatives to come up with another version - that Thomas allegedly died while fishing.
Enid was so tired of family conflicts that she refused to go to the funeral of her once adored father.
Enid continued to teach and wrote extensively at the same time.
In the 20s, success finally came to her. Her stories and articles not only appeared in magazines and almanacs, but were also published as separate thin books.
First marriage and first successes
Enid Mary Blyton
In 1924, Enid married the book editor of the publishing company, George Nevnes.
Her husband's name was Hugh Alexander Pollock, and, ironically, he had to divorce his first wife in order to marry Enid.
Their wedding was quiet - without friends, relatives and magnificent dresses. Newlyweds settled in a small apartment in Chelsea, only occasionally visiting the old Blyton house.
Hugh fully supported his wife’s hobby and took upon himself many of the troubles related to relations with publishing houses.
By the way, it's him taught Enid to use a typewriter. Before that, she wrote all her works with a regular pen.
In 1929, the family moved to an old 16th-century house in Buckinghamshire, which was once a hotel.
The couple preached an open social lifestyle, participated in all the activities of the local community, walked a lot, played sports and even went on a sea cruise to Madeira and the Canary Islands.
Therefore, in the house of adult Enid there were animals in abundance - cats, dogs, hedgehogs, turtles, pigeons, chickens, ducks and many others.
One of her most famous pets was the fox terrier Bob.
For a long time, Enid even wrote special stories for children’s magazines on behalf of this dog under the heading “Letters from Bob.”
They were so wildly popular that Enid continued to write them even after Bob had died.
Meanwhile in the 30s, Enid gave birth to two daughters and continued her writing career with renewed vigor.
Work took up all her time. There were no more joint family walks and games.
She could spare only an hour after the traditional cup of tea for her youngest daughter or pick up her eldest from school.
And Hugh, who was not so busy and deprived of his wife's fame, gradually fell into depression. He found the most traditional treatment for this illness - alcohol.
He drank secretly from his wife in a nook under the stairs and became increasingly distant from his increasingly popular wife. In addition, Enid also had to take on all the household chores.
So, it was she who, in August 1938, was engaged in the search for a new, more spacious house and the hassle of moving.
Second marriage and blossoming career
Enid Mary Blyton
The outbreak of war led the family to a final break.
Hugh went to Scotland to train new recruits, and Enid met someone close to her in the spring of 1941.
It was surgeon Kenneth Fraser who became her second husband. He was also divorced and childless in his first marriage.
Enid decisively cut her first husband out of her life, as she once did with her mother.
Despite the fact that during the divorce she promised Hugh not to interfere with his communication with his daughters, she very quickly forgot about her promises.
Since 1942, the girls practically did not see their father, and Enid herself never mentioned his existence anywhere, simply pretending that it never existed.
Even in her autobiography, “The Story of My Life,” there is no mention of Hugh, as if Enid gave birth to the girls from the holy spirit.
However, life in the second marriage was not cloudless either. Kenneth Fraser almost lost his hearing during one of the bombings, deafness interfered with communication and social life.
Besides In the spring of 1945, after falling down the stairs, the pregnant Enid suffered a miscarriage. This was their firstborn, a long-awaited boy.
However, the family spent their time quietly and happily in Dorset, where Enid’s literary earnings were used to buy a golf course and a farm.
It was at this time that Enid wrote her best books. She earns so much that in 1950 creates his own company, Darrell Waters Ltd., to manage finances.
In addition, she begins to publish her own magazines, around which special clubs of admirers of certain of her characters are created.
Enid Blyton is a famous writer who wrote her works only for a children's audience. The writer’s books are still famous among readers today for their plots and kind characters.
Biography of the writer
The writer's father ran his own business, which produced steel knives. Enid Blyton was the oldest among all the children: the young writer had two more younger brothers.
After the birth of the boys, the Blyton family moved to a small provincial town, which was located near East Dulwich.
At Enid Blyton's school, all sciences were easy, except mathematics. This is probably what influenced the choice of a future career as a writer.
First steps in creativity
Among the works that came from Enid's pen, one can name several large series of books that are connected by common main characters. These book series are intended for different age groups of readers. Enid Blyton devoted her life mainly to writing works for children.
If we talk about Enid Blyton’s books, it is important to note that the writer’s works have been translated into almost all languages of the world. If we talk about the number of publications, then, based on reliable sources, we can say that Enid almost caught up with Shakespeare and far surpassed Lenin.
The most famous and popular are those works of the writer in which little heroes find themselves in extraordinary stories. Huge secrets arose before the children, which they revealed without the help of adults. Among these books, Enid Blyton’s “The Fab Five” series is especially popular, where the four main characters and the dog are always at the very epicenter of adventure.
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that the main genre for the writer was adventure children's literature. You can often find elements of fantasy, which represented magical adventures.
Even today, the writer’s books remain very popular in her homeland. Many children are still brought up on her books, training their imagination with the help of her works.
"The Fab Five"
The series begins with Enid Blyton's book The Secret of Treasure Island. The adventures that the main characters find themselves in are captivating and make you marvel at the children’s resourcefulness. Today, this children's book series is considered one of the best-selling in the whole world, including in Russia.
The plot of the book series
Two brothers and a sister often come to visit their cousin on vacation. Every time the children come to visit, unforgettable adventures await them. The kids are faced with various mysteries, which they have always managed to successfully solve without the help of the police or parents. The talents of the guys often help law enforcement agencies in catching various criminals - scammers, thieves and many others. Each reader is waiting for unforgettable adventures that can distract from everyday problems.
The series consists of twenty-one books, which differ in their plot content. It’s amazing how developed the writer’s imagination was. This book series has been translated into ninety languages of the world, including Chinese, Finnish, and Norwegian. This series has become one of the most famous of all the works of the wonderful writer.
In 1971, the book series was continued by another author, Claude Voilier. Already in 2004, the cycle continued under the leadership of a German writer, but until now it has not been translated or published.
Main characters of the series
Georgina is a girl who would really like to be like a boy, so everyone calls her George. A very wayward child who does not listen to adults at all.
Dick is a boy with a wonderful sense of humor. The young man has a very gentle character. Dick is the same age as Georgina.
Julian is the oldest among all the guys. A strong boy who reasons very well. Thanks to his intelligence, he became a leader in the company.
Ann is the youngest in the whole company. Because of his age, he often creates problems for his comrades. A very timid girl who tries to avoid any adventures.
Timothy is a loyal dog who has become a member of the team in solving various cases.
August 11 would have been the 120th birthday of Enid Mary Blyton, a famous British writer who worked in the genre of children's and youth literature.
The English-speaking world has been reading her books since the late 1930s, and in the ranking of the most translated authors for 2008, she takes an honorable sixth place, behind books based on Disney cartoons, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, Vladimir Lenin and William Shakespeare.
Enid Mary Blyton was born on August 11, 1897, in London, in the family of a small clerk, passionate about drawing, photography and music, and was the eldest of three children of Thomas Carey Blyton, a cutlery merchant, and Teresa Mary Harrison Blyton. A few months after her birth, Enid almost died of whooping cough, but her father, whom she simply adored, nursed her home. It was Thomas who sparked her interest in nature. In her autobiography, Blyton wrote that he "loved flowers, birds and wild animals and knew more about them than anyone."
In addition, Enid’s father instilled his interest in gardening, music, literature and theater, and with him the future writer loved to walk in nature. Teresa was practically not interested in her daughter’s hobbies. Thomas Carey Blyton later turned out to be a successful businessman and managed to pay for all his three children to attend private schools. From 1907 to 1915, Blyton studied at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed playing sports. Other disciplines were not so easy, but success in writing was obvious; she was destined for a career as a pianist, but she became a teacher. Blyton experienced a real shock shortly after her thirteenth birthday when her father left the family for another woman.
Having practically lost contact with her family, Blyton threw herself headlong into writing and prepared to become a teacher. Moreover, in the mid-1920s she opened her own elementary school. However, Blyton did not remain its director for long: she had already gotten married, tried her hand at writing (starting, however, with a collection of poems in 1922) and founded her own children's magazine, Sunny Stories. He won a small but loyal audience, which ensured Blyton's real popularity a few years later.
Blyton covered a variety of topics, including education and science, interpreted biblical narratives, and wrote in a variety of genres, including fantasy and detective fiction.
Blyton's most memorable character is Noddy, a wooden boy with a blue cap on his head with bells, much like Pinocchio as a baby. This character appears in stories for children who are still learning to read.
Her series of children's detective books, The Fab Five, also remains popular. So, in 1942, one of Blyton’s most famous books was published: “Five on Treasure Island.” The heroes of the story are two brothers and a sister from a wealthy family, their cousin Georgina, who wants to be a boy, and a dog. All conceivable children's problems fit into this simple structure: relationships between relatives from different walks of life, between boys and girls, parents and children, teachers and students, and so on. It is not surprising that there were 21 books in the Fab Five series. Korney Chukovsky wrote about one of Enid Blyton’s books (article “Thrillers and Chillers”):
“... Enid Blyton surpassed everyone. In the role of an experienced detective, she brought out an unusually smart eight-year-old girl, whose intelligence surpassed famous detectives and regularly leaves the professional policeman Goon in the cold. This book appeared in the English publishing house “Dragon” (“Dragon”), which publishes detective stories for small children from 6 to 8 years old (“Blue Dragon”) and from 8 to 12 years old (“Red Dragon”).”
The Secret Seven, another children's company with a dog among the characters, took over 15 detective stories from Blyton.
Although secrets and treasures work flawlessly in children's books, Enid Blyton did not limit herself to detective stories: she also wrote magical stories, for example, about a miracle tree that threw heroes into fairy-tale lands, scary and wonderful. She had two popular non-fairy tale series about boarding schools: Malory Towers and Saint Clair. In the first there is one main character, in the second there are two, but they are twin sisters. She also wrote pedagogical stories, like “Mistletoe Farm,” in which city and village children learned to live together. By the way, this collision was not at all invented by Blyton: hundreds and thousands of small English townspeople were evacuated at the beginning of the war to villages inland, and more than one British children's writer noted this.
Writer Nicholas Tucker notes that Blyton created "an isolated world for young readers, and this world simply dissolved with age, leaving only memories of emotional excitement and strong identification with the characters." Imogen, Enid's daughter, said that her mother "loved to enter into relationships with children through her books," but real children were always troublemakers, which is why such "intruders" had a place only in the world depicted by the writer's imagination.
Enid felt she had a responsibility to help her readers determine where moral boundaries began and ended, and because of this she encouraged her audience to become involved in socially significant causes. In particular, she created or supported community clubs and organized or helped create animal and children's fundraising campaigns for charities.
Blyton's life story is depicted in the 2009 BBC film Enid, in which she is played by Helena Bonham Carter.
Exactly how many books Blyton wrote during her life (she died at the age of 71 in 1968) is unknown: estimates range from 700 to 800 titles. The total circulation of her stories amounts to tens of millions of copies; The Magnificent Five alone is reprinted in millions of copies annually.
Now Blyton's heirs, who own the rights to republish her texts, are going to release twenty new sequels to her most popular series. It is unknown who will write the stories, but is it really that important? After all, Enid Blyton did not come up with a genre, but an idea: her adventure stories are a replacement for grandmothers’ and parents’ evening fairy tales. They may be monotonous and sketchy, but children don’t get bored with them until they stop being children. By the way, English adults still call Blyton their favorite writer.
The writer's books were and still remain extremely popular in Great Britain and in many other countries of the world, including Russia.
The Fab Five series:
The Mystery of Treasure Island (1942)
Mystery of the Gems (1943)
The Mystery of the Old Dungeon (1944)
The Mystery of Smuggler's Top (1945)
The Mystery of the Traveling Circus (1946)
Mystery of the Secret Laboratory (1947)
Mystery of the Phantom Train (1948)
The Mystery of Owl Hill (1949)
The Mystery of the Red-Headed Snatcher (1950)
The Mystery of the Dismal Lake (1951)
The Mystery of the Ruined Castle (1952)
The Mystery of the Coastal Cliffs (1953)
The Mystery of the Gypsy Camp (1954)
The Mystery of the Silver Limousine (1955)
The Mystery of the Tangled Trail (1956)
The Mystery of Billicock Hill (1957)
The Mystery of the Glowing Mountain (1958)
The Mystery of the Underground Corridor (1960)
The Mystery of the Underwater Cave (1961)
The Mystery of the Golden Statues (1962)
The Mystery of the Golden Watch (1963)
Series “Five Young Detectives and a Faithful Dog”:
Mystery of the Burnt Cottage (1943)
The Mystery of the Missing Cat (1944)
Mystery of the Secret Room (1945)
The Mystery of the Planted Letters (1946)
The Mystery of the Missing Necklace (1947)
The Mystery of the Forest House (1948)
The Mystery of the Mime Cat (1949)
The Mystery of the Invisible Thief (1950)
The Mystery of the Vanishing Prince (1951)
The Mystery of the Strange Package (1952)
The Mistletoe Cottage Mystery (1953)
The Mystery of Tully-Ho Cottage (1954)
The Mystery of the Man with the Scar (1956)
The Mystery of the Cryptic Messages (1957)
The Mystery of the Ancient Tower (1961)
Series "Secret Seven":
Secret Seven (1949)
The Adventures of the Secret Seven (1950)
The success of The Secret Seven (1951)
The Secret Seven are on the trail (1952)
Keep it up, Secret Seven! (1953)
Good luck, Secret Seven! (1954)
Complete victory of the "Secret Seven" (1955)
Three cheers for the Secret Seven! (1956)
Secrets of the Secret Seven (1957)
Riddle for The Secret Seven (1958)
The Secret Seven Set Off Fireworks (1959)
Good old "Secret Seven" (1960)
Series “Four Friends and Kiki the Parrot”:
The Mystery of the Dead Island (1944)
The Secret of the Eagle's Nest (1946)
Treasure Valley Mystery (1947)
