A window into Enid Blyton's (very untidy) private life

aruna · Apr 4, 2010

BBC4's Enid was shown last weekend and it was quite an eye-opener. Of course, I'd heard the rumours that she was quite a nasty piece of work but didn't really want to believe it. The film put paid to any illusions I might have had. Apparently one of her daughters worked closely with the filmmakers and she really was horrible to her own daughters, but childlike and loving to other people's children -- she loved her fans, and if I'd met her as a child I'd no doubt have adored her!
she was played by Helena Bonham Carter, one of my favourite actresses, and here's an interview with her (Carter).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8280061.stm

shaldna · Apr 4, 2010

I can't watch anything with Helena Bonham Carter in it. But Enid Blyton is a fascinating person. I knew she was a horrible mother, which suprised me,.

aadams73 · Apr 4, 2010

Wow, I'd like to see this. I'd heard the rumors about her personality, but I never let it color my love for her books. I read the Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair books until they were in tatters. Do not ask me how many hours I spent looking at my parents' dining room chairs looking for wings.

Marian Perera · Apr 4, 2010

aadams73 said:
Wow, I'd like to see this. I'd heard the rumors about her personality, but I never let it color my love for her books.

Same here, except with me it was the Malory Towers, St Clare's and Naughtiest Girl books.

Toothpaste · Apr 4, 2010

I caught that film while I was in the UK last week. It was really interesting, but I felt so bad for my friend with whom I was watching it. I'd heard the rumours about Enid Blyton, but she hadn't and had wanted to watch the movie because she adored her. My poor friend was truly heartbroken watching the movie, it was a little sad.

It was a pretty good movie actually, and the performances across the board quite solid. What got to me most was the tag at the end: Enid Blyton wrote 750 books.

I think I need to get back to my writing now . . .

aruna · Apr 4, 2010

Queen of Swords said:
Same here, except with me it was the Malory Towers, St Clare's and Naughtiest Girl books.

for me it was ALL of them, starting with Noddy through Faraway tree and Famous Five to Mallory Towers.

Toothpaste said:
I caught that film while I was in the UK last week. It was really interesting, but I felt so bad for my friend with whom I was watching it. I'd heard the rumours about Enid Blyton, but she hadn't and had wanted to watch the movie because she adored her. My poor friend was truly heartbroken watching the movie, it was a little sad.

It was a pretty good movie actually, and the performances across the board quite solid. What got to me most was the tag at the end: Enid Blyton wrote 750 books.

I think I need to get back to my writing now . . .

10000 words a day. :e2paperba

aruna · Apr 4, 2010

It's interesting that she said that only the opinions of children count. I adored her books, but I know for a fact that if I'd read them as an adult, then or now, I'd find them atrocious. At my boarding school they were actually banned. I just didn't get it at the time. Now I do.

Cyia · Apr 4, 2010

aruna said:
It's interesting that she said that only the opinions of children count. I adored her books, but I know for a fact that if I'd read them as an adult, then or now, I'd find them atrocious. At my boarding school they were actually banned. I just didn't get it at the time. Now I do.

It's weird, I'd never even heard of Enid Blyton until last year when an on-line friend mentioned that she'd read them as a child. The conversation started after an online article about how elementary aged kids growing up in India were more likely to write stories about white kids with Anglicanized names than they were to use stories about people who looked like themselves because it was all they were exposed to in school.

Her opinion was pretty much the same as aruna's. Hindsight totally changed her opinion of them.

Toothpaste · Apr 4, 2010

I guess I have a fierce loyalty to the books I read as a kid. I was obsessed with her Adventure series. But see here's the thing, even reading them as a child in the 80s I recognised the sexism and racism, mostly down from the period in which they were written. They were still extremely compelling adventures and a huge influence on my own adventure books (get rid of the adults, put kids in truly life or death situations up against adult villains). I think it's interesting that schools would ban these books. I was smart enough as a kid (as most kids are) to realise that what I was reading had offensive elements to it, what's more it sparked several conversations with my parents (especially about the sexism which I was particularly drawn to). But I'm glad I wasn't deprived of those books, they were so important to me, and I still have them on my shelf today.

aruna · Apr 4, 2010

Cyia said:
The conversation started after an online article about how elementary aged kids growing up in India were more likely to write stories about white kids with Anglicanized names than they were to use stories about people who looked like themselves because it was all they were exposed to in school.
.

That was exactly. I didn't grow up in India but in Guyana, where there were few white people. But the stories I wrote at the time were all about white children in England.

Toothpaste said:
I guess I have a fierce loyalty to the books I read as a kid. I was obsessed with her Adventure series.

Me too me too! Barney and co!Those were my favourites, as well as the Five Find-Outers and Dog!

They were still extremely compelling adventures and a huge influence on my own adventure books

That was it. They drew you in completely. I was in a different world when I read those books. They gave me my love for reading.

I was smart enough as a kid (as most kids are) to realise that what I was reading had offensive elements to it, what's more it sparked several conversations with my parents (especially about the sexism which I was particularly drawn to). But I'm glad I wasn't deprived of those books, they were so important to me, and I still have them on my shelf today

]

Ditto. I will never forget the shock I got in one of trhe Famous Five books. Anne was awakened in the night by a oerfectly frightful Face at the Window. The next day she said to Julian "Oh, Julian, what if it were a BLACK man!"
The shock for me was great. What difference does i bloody make? I thought.

Stormhawk · Apr 4, 2010

Holy, um, wow...I never knew any of this, and I was brought up on a steady diet of her books as a kid (I think they were some of the first novels I read by myself).

Consider my eyes opened. -_- (Plus, I'll watch nearly anything with Helena Bonham Carter in it).

Wordwrestler · Apr 4, 2010

Yeah, I've never heard of this author or any of the titles mentioned. Perhaps her books didn't have much of a presence in the US?

scarletpeaches · Apr 4, 2010

I saw this weeks ago - couple of months in fact. This must have been a repeat.

Anyway - I'm amazed there are people who hadn't heard of Enid Blyton before now.

I grew up reading her books. Absolutely devoured them, especially the Famous Five, Mallory Towers (hey; just realised - the FMC of my novella is called Mallory. Subliminal?) and St Clare's books.

My God, the sexism and racism is...overpowering, looking back. George wanting to be a boy, Anne wanting to go on adventures, Dick and Julian saying she had to stay at home because she was "Just a girl."

I always knew she was a terrible mother. That sort of dichotomy struck me as normal when I was a kid. My own mother was a complete bitch to me, an utter tyrant...but outside the home? Nice as pie. Even favoured other kids over her own daughter, so...meh. That side of things was perfectly normal as far as I was concerned. That's how mothers behave, right?

aruna · Apr 5, 2010

scarletpeaches said:
That's how mothers behave, right?

Oh SP you make me want to cry. No, that's not how mothers behave. Those are not mothers at all. But you know that, don't you?

What I find fascinating is that this is not someone who didn't know what nasty behaviour is. Her books, especially the Mallory Towers and St Clare;s series', are full of beastly schoolgirls who get a comeuppance from the nice girls, who have to be taught a lesson. She knew very well what spiteful behaviour and lying was. She was always moralising; her books are full of author intrusion. Was she so narcissistic and blind that she could not see it in herself, or did she see it and could not help herself? What really went on in that mind of hers? A fascinating subject for a biography.

scarletpeaches · Apr 5, 2010

Well yes, I know that NOW...but back then, the Blyton thing was my template for motherhood.

As the saying goes, "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

I've witnessed my own mother swear up and down that black was white just for the sake of winning an argument. She accused other people of being selfish, thieves or hypocrites...judging them by her standards. A monumental case of the pot calling the kettle black.

So I well know how Blyton could have been the same way.

Perhaps I can bring my own experience into the matter by theorising - she liked the adoration of children, the fanmail, the "You're a lovely person." But with her own children, there was dependence on their part, responsibility on hers. And she didn't want that. She was a selfish woman, and wanted sex from men and praise from children. Her writing got her that. Her children, a natural consequence of the aforementioned sex, were a drain on her limited emotional resources and a distraction from time spent on the more important things in her life, like...narcissism.

Whoa. Deep.

scarletpeaches · Apr 5, 2010

Plus, the tea party thing rang true for me, because I've experienced this very thing. My mother invited others of my age to things like the cinema, or the park...and she was seen as a friendly woman who didn't mind taking other mothers' kids out for the day.

And she left her own daughter at home, so...another parallel. Not to turn this into a "Look at me!" sob story, but I can understand why Blyton did what she did. That's not to excuse it, no way...but having experienced a similar upbringing as her children, I can well believe such things go on. They don't surprise me at all.

aruna · Apr 5, 2010

You'd make a great biographer for her!

Cyia · Apr 5, 2010

Actually that behavior is a hallmark of abusers. The outer appearance is camouflage designed to make sure no one ever takes a look at the homelife, and works doubly well for them because a sullen or reserved child of their own makes the child look like they're ungrateful for the "saint" they've got as a parent.

scarletpeaches · Apr 5, 2010

I find it very strange that books written by an abuser brought so much comfort to an abused child.

That's either twisted, or poetic justice.

Phaeal · Apr 5, 2010

At 10,000 words a day and 750 books, how did she even find time to have children?

shaldna · Apr 5, 2010

It makes me wonder if people who treat their kids that way even realise that they are doing it

scarletpeaches · Apr 5, 2010

Perhaps. Again, bringing my own experience into it, and I quote: "You're my daughter; I can do whatever the hell I like to you."

But to anyone else, such 'mothers' would play the saint. I've seen it happen time and again.

aruna · Apr 6, 2010

But she wasn't only horrible to the kids. She was a beast to her first husband, as well. Didn't she realise that people TALK? That one way or the other her golden reputation as perfect mother would tarnish and the truth come out?

scarletpeaches · Apr 6, 2010

I think she relied too much on his reputation as a gent - and she knew he loved his daughters, so used them as bait, or whatever the word is. She basically blackmailed him into putting up with whatever she saw fit to dish out, then took his children away anyway.

shaldna · Apr 6, 2010

God this converation made me run to give my daughter a hug.

A window into Enid Blyton's (very untidy) private life

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