How Enid Blyton Inspired Me (Without Me Even Realising It)
Today I’m celebrating the birthday of one of my all-time favourite authors. Enid Mary Blyton was born on 11th August 1897, in East Dulwich, England. She married twice and had two children - daughters Imogen and Gillian - to her first husband, Hugh. She died in Hampstead on 28th November 1968.
During her lifetime she wrote prolifically, creating multiple worlds for her avid readers to explore. In the years since her death there has been much controversy about her books. They were very much a product of her time and the original stories are often considered unsuitable for children to read. In recent years many of her books have been updated, with controversial passages removed and the stories modernised for contemporary readers.
I’ve never read these versions. The Blyton books on my shelves are the originals that I had as a child. I loved them all. Even so, I can understand the concerns. Although I honestly don’t believe they affected the way I felt about the world and the people in it, I wouldn’t want any child to read a book and feel hurt or upset at an unkind depiction of someone just like them. If bringing the books in line with modern thinking can prevent that I’m all for it.
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I do think, though, that dressing the Famous Five in jeans and giving them pound coins to spend is a bit sad. It’s interesting to learn how people lived back then. Reading about children in grey flannel shorts spending shillings and sixpences was always fascinating to me (actually, I vaguely remember shillings and sixpences myself!) and I loved seeing what life was like in the forties and fifties. It never put me off the stories. Some things, I feel, should be left alone.
I was born when Enid Blyton was still alive, although she died when I was very young. The very first book I ever owned was a Noddy book. It was given to me by the lady who lived next door. She was moving away to Leeds (a foreign land to me!) and wanted to give me a goodbye gift. I can still remember opening the parcel and staring in wonder at this beautiful, brightly colourful book.
I was hooked.
After that, my Christmas presents each year always included three brand-new hardback Enid Blyton books. I would spend my pocket money on the cheap paperback editions that were stacked on a rack in the newsagent’s round the corner. I eagerly bought In the Fifth at Malory Towers because I loved the depiction of a lacrosse match on the cover, even though I had no idea what lacrosse was and I hadn’t read the first four books in the series. (I soon rectified that and have the entire series on my bookshelves to this day.)
The cover that caught my eye!
Brer Rabbit, Mr Pinkwhistle, Mr Twiddle, Naughty Amelia Jane, Bimbo and Topsy… These soon gave way to the Secret Seven, the Adventurous Four, the Five Find-Outers, and of course, the Famous Five.
There were farm stories, school stories, circus stories, adventure stories, short stories, mystery stories, retellings of myths and legends and even of Bible stories. I loved them all. I can honestly say there wasn’t one that I didn’t enjoy.
I always knew Enid Blyton’s books made me an avid reader. What I came to realise was that they also inspired me to become a writer. I wanted to write stories like hers. I wanted to create adventures and mysteries of my own.
I was about seven or eight when I wrote my first ‘book’ and it was all about a ballet school, even though I knew nothing about life at a boarding school and even less about ballet. That was inspired by a story I’d read in a children’s comic. I wanted to continue the story myself rather than wait a whole week for the next edition! But with Enid Blyton’s books on my little bookshelf my ideas began to expand. I wanted to live on a farm! I wanted to sail a boat! I wanted to find an island, a ruined castle, solve mysteries, join a circus…
And when I look back, I can clearly see that I learned a lot from her books. Written for young children they may have been, but her storytelling was incredible. She had a way of speaking to children that had us enthralled. Not only that but she taught us valuable information without making us feel that we were being lectured. She knew a lot about the countryside, about farming, about flowers and animals and birds. She explained the Greek myths and stories about Jesus in a way that made them easy to understand.
I will always, always be grateful to Enid Blyton because I honestly believe she set me on the path I still walk today. She made me love stories. She made me a reader. She made me a writer. She made me love mystery and adventure and the countryside and even horses! Yes, I owe my love of horses to her, too, because I’d never read anything about them until I picked up one of her books and suddenly… Well, I was in love.
One of my favourite family stories
When I think about my own stories I can see the roots of Enid Blyton books in so many of them. Some of my favourites of her books were the family stories. The Family at Red-Roofs, Those Dreadful Children, The Children at Green Meadows, House-at-the-Corner (loved that shy Lizzie wanted to be a writer!), the Six Cousins duology… I loved all these books and became fascinated with stories woven around the family dynamic. I have so many family dynamics in my own series now, especially in The Other Half and The Witches of Castle Clair series, but also in the Kearton Bay, Skimmerdale, and Tuppenny Bridge books, and now in Kelsea Sands.
Her farm stories fascinated me. Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm and Six Cousins Again, The Children of Willow Farm, The Children of Cherry Tree Farm - all influenced for sure my own fictional farms: Wildflower Farm in the Skimmerdale books; Whisperwood Farm in Kearton Bay; Rowan Farm in the Ghosts of Rowan Vale (run just as it would have been back in Enid Blyton’s heyday); and even Folly Farm in the Bramblewick books.
Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm was where I first read about children who had ponies. They actually rode their ponies to school! I was enchanted by this and my imagination soon got whirring. The illustrations of the ponies had me hooked. I begged my mum to buy me Secret Seven Mystery, Five Go to Mystery Moor and Third Year at Malory Towers simply because they had ponies on the cover! That was when I ventured into the world of pony books - but that’s a whole other story!
I have been a lover of horses and ponies (and donkeys) ever since and have to confess that I sneak them into just about every series I’ve written - Kearton Bay, Skimmerdale, Bramblewick, The Other Half, Tuppenny Bridge and Kelsea Sands all have an equine or two within the pages of at least one of the books in the series. I even managed to get a horse on the cover of Fresh Starts at Folly Farm, Once Upon a Long Ago, and Coming Home to Tuppenny Bridge, which was, without doubt, a dream come true!
Not the cover I had as a child but at least there’s a pony!
Horses and mist - two of my favourite bookish things!
I’ve said before how much I love castles and islands. They really get my imagination whirring. But when you think of the books I read by Enid Blyton it’s not surprising!
Related Reading: The Irresistible Pull of Magic and Mystery
The Island of Adventure, The Secret Island, Five on a Treasure Island, Five on Kirrin Island Again, The Secret of Moon Castle, The Castle of Adventure… These, I have no doubt, inspired Peloryon Island and Clair Castle in my Witches of Castle Clair series, and made me want to feature Scarborough Castle in Once Upon a Long Ago, as well as numerous mentions of Helmston Castle in my Kearton Bay, Moorland Heroes and Bramblewick books.
Yes, Helmston was inspired by a real town - Helmsley in North Yorkshire. And Castle Clair was inspired by the real town of Knaresborough. But their ruined castles were what drew me to them in the first place. In my mind I’ve always wanted to find Kirrin Castle - simple as that.
And Kirrin Island… What child wouldn’t be enchanted by the idea of having their very own island with all its intriguing possibilities? I have no doubt that it was in the back of my mind when I created Peloryon Island off the Cornish coast in my Castle Clair books. I was living out my childhood fantasy for sure!
I’ve written another post about how Enid’s magical and mythological stories - for example, The Book of Fairies, Tales of Long Ago, Tales of Brave Adventure - stirred my imagination and began my love of magic and mystery. It was Enid’s retelling of the King Arthur stories that introduced me to the mythological Once and Future King and without her Tales of Long Ago maybe there would never have been The Witches of Castle Clair!
I loved her mystery stories - the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Adventurous Four, Five Find-Outers - and I think I have a bit of a mystery in most, if not all, my books. I especially indulged my inner Enid Blyton in Once Upon a Long Ago. That book had it all for me. A stately home with loads of history. Legend of a lost treasure. A ruined castle. And best of all, a secret passage! I’ve been thrilled to bits at the thought of secret passages ever since I read Five Go to Smuggler’s Top! Finally, I got to live out my childhood dream.
An old house by the coast with a secret passage!
An old house by the coast with a secret passage!
I was reading an article about Enid Blyton the other day, and someone had remarked how often twins appear in her books. I hadn’t really thought about it, but the writer listed the following: The O’Sullivan Twins in the St Clare(!) school stories; Mike and Nora in The Secret series; Jill and Mary in The Adventurous Four; the twins in Those Dreadful Children; twins Jack and Jane in the Mistletoe Farm books; Guy and Harry in Five On a Secret Trail; Harry and Harriet in Five Go to Finniston Farm; The Twins Series (John and Janet). That’s a lot of twins!
Then I realised something and began to think about my own books: Pandora and Oliver, and Michael and Hannah in the Kearton Bay series; Scarlet and Jed in the Skimmerdale books; The Pennyfeather sisters in Tuppenny Bridge; Keely and Harley in The Witches of Castle Clair; Ada and Hallie in Kelsea Sands.
Have I even absorbed that from Enid Blyton?
Who knows. But what I do know is that I am so very grateful to the lovely neighbour who gave me my very first Enid Blyton book, and to my mum and dad who encouraged me to read, took me to the library, bought me Enid Blyton books for Christmas, and later gave me pocket money so I could buy my own. I was so lucky.
I will never feel anything but affection and gratitude to Enid Blyton, who transformed my childhood into a wonderland, full of adventure and mystery and animals and secrets - and lashings of ginger beer!
Happy birthday and thank you, Enid Blyton, from a true fan.
Were you an Enid Blyton fan? Do you still have any of her books? Which were your favourites? Maybe it’s time to take them off the shelves, dust them down, and relive the adventures - just for a little while.
Have a great week!
