E is for Enid Blyton

I hope you all enjoyed Easter Sunday. Sunday is a rest day for the blogging challenge but today I go back to books and an author who I have always admired. I have read many of her books from her collections to her single stories. This author was a huge part of my life and her books provided me with escapism through some tough times. 

So today E is for......

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton - Author Find more information about the lady at the Enid Blyton Society

I don’t know if there is anyone today that hasn't heard of Enid Blyton or at the very least have read just one of her books. I cut my teeth as it were on The Enchanted Wood series and then moved onto Malory Towers. I never read The Famous Five or Secret Seven choosing to read The Five Find Outers and Dog mystery series instead.

Now of course if you were to read an Enid Blyton book you would find that names have been changed lest they offend us. As a child I saw no humour in the names Dick or Fanny even as a teenager I was sensible enough to know that at the time these books were written these names were normal. I never understood why anyone felt the need to change the names.

The books I remember from being very young were the books The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree and The Folk of The Faraway Tree where a group of children (Jo, Bessie, Fanny and cousin Dick) climbed a magic tree making friends with fairy folk and visiting different lands. The characters Moonface, Silky the fairy and Dame Slap stuck with me right through to adult hood. Jo, Bessie and Fanny visited almost daily and had tea with Moonface who owned a slide called the Slippery Slip that allowed you to sit on a cushion and slide to the bottom of the tree.

The children's names were changed in modern reprints from Jo to Joe, Bessie to Beth, Fanny to Frannie and Dick to Rick. Dame Slap became Dame Snap who no longer beat her naughty pixie students, but shouted at them instead!

These books are probably the first books I read alone and I will still sit quite happily reading them. In fact Hubby bought me the trilogy for Christmas.

The Enchanted Wood

The next set I read was Malory Towers. The school was on a cliff with a swimming pool cut out of rock and of course like every girl I wanted to go there. I didn't write to the publisher (which I still remember as being Methuen) and ask if I could attend, because I wasn't that silly to think it was real! Well maybe just a little!

These books follow the heroine Darrell Rivers who begins her First Term at Malory Towers. She is the daughter of a Doctor and his wife. Darrell befriends the mischievous Alicia Johns and immediately falls behind in her studies. Alicia has a sharp brain and can play the fool but still continue with her studies. Darrell has a terrible temper (inherited from her Father we are told) and loses it throughout the series. Sometimes for good reason like when the spiteful Gwendoline Mary Lacey is holding the timid Mary Lou’s head under the water. Darrell sees red and shakes Gwendoline roughly getting herself into trouble with the calm Headmistress Miss Grayling who Darrell hates disappointing.

Darrell eventually finds a best friend in Sally Hope and is hero worshipped by the timid Mary Lou. The books go through 6 years of the school and end with Darrell and Sally heading for St Andrew’s University leaving Felicity (Darrell’s younger and louder sister) to carry on the traditions they have set.

First Term at Malory Towers

The Five Find Outers and Dog were a group of mystery solvers in a small village named Peterswood. There was the ring leader the aptly named Fatty (Frederick Algernon Trotterville) with his dog Buster, Larry (Laurence Daykin) and his sister Daisy (Margaret Daykin), Pip (Philip Hilton) and his sister Bets (Elizabeth Hilton).

Larry was the original leader of the gang, but passes this mantle eventually to Fatty after having to admit that Fatty’s art of being able to disguise himself so even his own parents don’t recognise him, the way he can escape from a locked room or use invisible ink warrants the title of leader.

Theophilis Goon also known as Mr Goon or “Clear Orf” (as he yells this at the children all the time) is the gang’s nemesis. He is the local Bobby who never seems to be able to solve any of the mysteries in the village before the children. The children have an ally in Inspector Jenks who to the chagrin of PC Goon wants Fatty to become a policeman when he is older. The children often confide in Inspector Jenks as he listens to them and takes their information seriously unlike Goon who will not listen and just yells “Gah” when frustrated.

There is a series of 15 books and my favourite is The Mystery of Tally Ho Cottage. A glamorous couple the Lorenzo’s leave Tally Ho House suddenly after a famous painting goes missing from a gallery. The Larkins who live in the cottage within the grounds are a scruffy pair who are left to care for the Lorenzo’s poodle Poppet.

Through a series of clues and Fatty disguising himself as Bob Larkin and an Indian boy the gang solve the mystery of the stolen painting and the missing Lorenzo’s. I could probably still read it now and enjoy it even though I know the ending.

The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage

So if you haven’t  already grab an Enid Blyton book, curl up, get comfy and have a read. There really is something for everyone!


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