(When Mollie and Peter go to buy their mother a birthday p...)
When Mollie and Peter go to buy their mother a birthday present, they discover the most extraordinary thing: a chair that can fly and grant wishes! The Wishing-Chair takes them on some marvelous adventures.
(The Enchanted Wood is the first magical story in the Fara...)
The Enchanted Wood is the first magical story in the Faraway Tree series by the world's best-loved children's author, Enid Blyton. When Joe, Beth and Frannie move to a new home, an Enchanted Wood is on their doorstep. And when they discover the Faraway Tree, that is the beginning of many magical adventures! Join them and their friends Moonface, Saucepan Man and Silky the fairy as they discover which new land is at the top of the Faraway Tree.
(Enid Blyton's Amelia Jane is big, bad and the world's nau...)
Enid Blyton's Amelia Jane is big, bad and the world's naughtiest toy. Look out! Amelia snips the tail off pink rabbit, squirts Tom the soldier with water and gets up to mischief at the beach. The other toys try to teach the terror of the toy cupboard to be well-behaved, but will they succeed?
(During the war thousands of children were evacuated to th...)
During the war thousands of children were evacuated to the more remote and less targeted places around Britain. The bombing by the Third Reich devastated key areas of the country amongst which included Birmingham, Coventry, Plymouth, Manchester and especially London. It was common sense to evacuate the young people away from the action instead of having to make up beds on the platforms and the escalators of the underground railways.
(The Greyling's Treasure has been lost for many, many year...)
The Greyling's Treasure has been lost for many, many years. But Jeffrey, Susan, and John Greyling find an old map of where the treasure is hidden when they are staying with their grandparents. So they decide they must find the hidden treasure and keep it in the family before their grandparents sell the family home to Mr. Potts, whom the children nickname - Mr. Pots of Money! But Mr. Potts is also interested in finding the Greyling's Treasure, and so it is a race against time of who will find the treasure first. Mr. Pots of Money or the children, who want to save their family home.
(The third story commences with Captain and Mrs. Arnold se...)
The third story commences with Captain and Mrs. Arnold setting off on another long haul flight, this time to Africa. The four children are allowed leave of absence from their schools to see them off, though Prince Paul, who since meeting the children has been sent to the same school as Mike and Jack are not allowed to accompany them.
(The Twins Make Up Their Minds One sunny summer afternoon ...)
The Twins Make Up Their Minds One sunny summer afternoon four girls sat on the grass by a tenths-court, drinking lemonade. Their rackets lay beside them, and the six white balls were scattered over the court. Two of the girls were twins... Isabel and Patricia O'Sullivan were so alike that only a few people could tell which was Pat and which was Isabel. Both girls had dark brown wavy hair, deep blue eyes, and a merry smile, and the Irish lilt in their voices was very pleasant to hear. The twins were staying for two weeks with friends of theirs, Mary and Frances Waters. The four girls were talking, and Pat was frowning as she spoke.
(The Children of Willow Farm opens with the four brothers ...)
The Children of Willow Farm opens with the four brothers and sisters leaving their tall London house in order to move to Willow Farm, not far from Cherry Tree Farm. The children are eager to be involved in the work of the farm.
(The naughtiest girl in the school is back, and this term ...)
The naughtiest girl in the school is back, and this term she's trying to be good. But someone wants to spoil things for her, and they're not going to let her forget how she got her nickname.
(When Joe, Beth, and Frannie move to the countryside, they...)
When Joe, Beth, and Frannie move to the countryside, they discover that their new house lies next to the Enchanted Wood! And in that wood, lives the Magic Faraway Tree. This is no ordinary tree - it is home to more magical lands full of elves, pixies, talking creatures, and wonderful adventures than the children ever imagined possible!
(Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and Timmy the dog are on anot...)
Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and Timmy the dog are on another adventure. George is wondering who has been on his island, and what is locked in a hidden trunk on Kirrin Island? The Famous Five is on the trail of smugglers coupled with a chilling scream in the air. This story remains fresh and exciting as these young kids stumble over secret maps, spies and suspense.
(The first thrilling installment in Enid Blyton's Adventur...)
The first thrilling installment in Enid Blyton's Adventure series For Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, Jack, and Kiki the parrot, the summer holidays in Cornwall are everything they'd hoped for, until they begin to realize that something very sinister is taking place on the mysterious Isle of Gloom - where a dangerous adventure awaits them in the abandoned copper mines and secret tunnels beneath the sea.
(A valuable Siamese cat is stolen. The Five Find-Outers (a...)
A valuable Siamese cat is stolen. The Five Find-Outers (and Buster the Scottie) set out to find the thief. Exciting things happen in this, the second story in Enid Blyton's most popular 'Mystery' Series.
(An adventure for the Five Find-Outers and their dog. Fatt...)
An adventure for the Five Find-Outers and their dog. Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bets, and Buster are looking for mysteries during the Christmas holidays when Pip discovers a fully furnished room at the top of an otherwise empty house.
(The second exciting installment in Enid Blyton's Adventur...)
The second exciting installment in Enid Blyton's Adventure series Why is everyone so afraid of the castle on the hill, and what dark secrets lurk inside its walls? Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, Jack, and Kiki the parrot are on holiday in the countryside, staying on the side of Castle Hill. When flashing lights are seen in a distant tower, they decide to investigate - and discover a very sinister plot concealed within its hidden rooms and gloomy underground passages.
(Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitem...)
Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton's most popular series. In book five, the Famous Five go on a caravan holiday. When they stumble across a circus troupe, the gang are thrilled. But some of the circus people have more sinister plans than just clowning around... This edition features the original cover art and inside illustrations by Eileen Soper.
(Connie is stuck up and bossy, so when she comes to visit,...)
Connie is stuck up and bossy, so when she comes to visit, Joe, Beth, and Frannie are fed up. But they won't let her stop them having fun with their magical friends. Together they climb to the top of the Faraway Tree & visit the wonderful places there.
(Tom, Jill, Mary, and their best friend, fisher-boy Andy, ...)
Tom, Jill, Mary, and their best friend, fisher-boy Andy, are off on another smashing holiday trip in Andy's boat - a trip along the rugged Scottish coast to a lonely cliff where they can watch birds and camp for a night. However, things at the lonely cliff are not as they seem, and the mysterious happenings soon throw the four into another thrilling adventure.
(When the Famous Five go camping, in the company of Julian...)
When the Famous Five go camping, in the company of Julian and Dick's eccentric school-teacher: Mr. Luffy, surely they can't fall into adventure, in the quiet and lonely moorland that surrounds them? But, of course, somehow, they manage too, and find themselves on the trail of Spook Trains that appear, out of nowhere, in the dead of the night! Accompanied by their new friend, from a local farm: Jock, they venture out into the night, to investigate the extraordinary appearance of these peculiar trains, only to expose themselves to some of the most dangerous criminals they have faced, yet.
(In book eight, the Famous Five need to find their friend ...)
In book eight, the Famous Five need to find their friend Dick who, mistaken for somebody else, has been kidnapped. But when the gang finally track him down to a lonely, abandoned house, they too are seized and held captive.
(Darrell and her friends are excited this term, as it is t...)
Darrell and her friends are excited this term, as it is the fifth form pantomime, which is written, acted and produced entirely by the girls themselves. But things don't go as smoothly as everyone wants them to with Moira giving out her orders, to the girls rehearsing on stage. Then there is someone who is sending out anonymous letters, which makes everyone uncomfortable.
(A visit from pompous Great-uncle Robert, a travelling fai...)
A visit from pompous Great-uncle Robert, a travelling fair, the intriguing story of the Green Hands Gang and mysterious thefts in the night all combine to make a second wonderful mystery for Roger, Diana, Snubby and Barney the circus boy. How on earth does a thief manage to get through locked doors and windows with bars to steal valuable papers? The four children, along with Loony the dog and Miranda the monkey are determined to find out.
(Enid Blyton's much-loved classic series, packed full of a...)
Enid Blyton's much-loved classic series, packed full of adventure and mystery. All aboard for a quiet cruise among the Greek Islands! But when Philip's pet monkey breaks a birthday present, Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, and Jack are plunged into an exciting quest to find the lost treasure of the Andra - with some ruthless villains hot on their trail. First published in 1950, this edition contains the original text and is unillustrated.
(Who would deliberately lure somebody on to treacherous ro...)
Who would deliberately lure somebody on to treacherous rocks on the Cornish coast? Somebody is flashing lights from the old tower on stormy nights - and the Famous Five sense danger. But can they solve this mystery safely?
(The three children love animals but haven't any of their ...)
The three children love animals but haven't any of their own - until they are given a secret to look after. Then other problem pets begin to arrive. Soon Green Meadows turns into an animal home, and Francis, Clare, and Sam are having adventures more exciting than they thought possible.
(Enid Blyton's much-loved classic series, packed full of a...)
Enid Blyton's much-loved classic series, packed full of adventure and mystery. A river cruise through ancient desert lands will be an adventure in itself, think Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann and Jack. An adventure it certainly is, especially when Bill disappears and the children, along with Kiki the parrot, are trapped beneath a forgotten temple where no one has set foot for 7,000 years.
(Drawn from the text of the Gospel, an easy-to-understand ...)
Drawn from the text of the Gospel, an easy-to-understand retelling of the life of Jesus spans from his extraordinary birth at Bethlehem to his amazing resurrection.
(It's holiday time at Billycock Hill and the Famous Five m...)
It's holiday time at Billycock Hill and the Famous Five make a new friend - a real pilot! But when he disappears with top-secret equipment, the Five begin to wonder if their new friend could be a spy, or worse, a traitor. Whatever his motives, the gang feels duty-bound to investigate... This edition features the original cover art and inside illustrations by Eileen Soper.
(Jack has a wonderful telescope that once belonged to his ...)
Jack has a wonderful telescope that once belonged to his uncle and which he says the Seven can all use. But when Janet focused the telescope onto the big hill where the ruins of Torling Castle stood, she suddenly saw all the jackdaws being disturbed and then she saw a man's head lookout from one of the windows in the ruined tower. The Seven decide to investigate the mystery, and are soon in the middle of an adventure, which ends with them having to be rescued by Peter's father, Matt the shepherd and their gardener!
(Adventure awaits, Julian, Dick, George, Anne, and Timothy...)
Adventure awaits, Julian, Dick, George, Anne, and Timothy when they are asked to stay at Hill Cottage, in the company of Wilfred: an unusual boy, with a gift for communicating with animals. Not far from the shore, lies Whispering Island – a place which seems to be riddled with eerie secrets and legends, involving some strange gleaming statues, and armed men on the island! Can the Five piece together the mystery and uncover the secrets that surround Whispering Island?
(Reunited with Tinker, who featured in an earlier adventur...)
Reunited with Tinker, who featured in an earlier adventure: the Famous Five are invited to camp out in a field close to his house (in which Professor Hayling, Tinker's father who is a scientist lives). When a Circus arrives and sets up camp, close by – the Famous Five are contented with the mild excitement of watching the Circus folk's antics, and getting to know them, but then – real commotion strikes when a tower in the grounds of Professor Hayling's house – is robbed. Can the Five track down the culprit? And what has the mystery got to do with Kirrin Island?
(When George is kept awake in the middle of the night by t...)
When George is kept awake in the middle of the night by toothache, she notices a light on the supposedly empty Kirrin Island. While George is at the dentist, Julian, Dick and Anne decide to investigate and strange things start happening ... can the Famous Five solve this mystery?
(The Seven are desperate to help Tolly and his sick horse,...)
The Seven are desperate to help Tolly and his sick horse, Brownie. But where can they hide an old man and his horse? And can they protect Brownie from thieves?
Enid Blyton was a British writer of children's books. She produced more than 800 books that have enjoyed popular success in many parts of the world and have sold over 400 million copies. Her works cover a wide range of topics, including mistery, education, history, religion, and fantasy.
Background
Enid Blyton was born on August 11, 1897, at 354 Lordship Lane, London. She was the oldest of the three children of Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a cutlery salesman, and his wife Theresa Mary. Enid's love for writing had surfaced from the beginning of her childhood. Although her mother never approved of her writing and thought it was a mere waste of time her father encouraged his daughter to take part in all such activities.
Education
Enid began her schooldays at a small school run by two sisters in a house called Tresco, almost opposite the Blyton home. In 1907 Enid Blyton became a pupil at St. Christopher's School for Girls in Beckenham. She was not a boarder, like so many of the characters in her books, but a day-girl. Intelligent, popular and full of fun, she threw herself wholeheartedly into school life. During her time at St. Christopher's she organized concerts, played practical jokes, became tennis champion and captain of the lacrosse team, and was awarded prizes in various subjects, especially English composition. In her final two years, she was appointed Head Girl.
Outside school she and two of her friends, Mary Attenborough and Mirabel Davis, created a magazine called Dab, for which Enid wrote short stories. The title of the magazine was formed from the initials of the contributors' surnames.
Blyton abandoned her early studies in music to train as a schoolteacher at the Ipswich High School from 1916 to 1918.
Blyton wrote hundreds of books for young and older children: novels, story collections, and some non-fiction. An estimate puts her total book publication at around 800 titles, in addition to decades of magazine writing. It is said that at one point in her career, she regularly produced 10,000 words a day.
The early 1920s saw her career take off, with the publication of Child Whispers (1922) and Real Fairies: Poems (1923). By 1925, Blyton was writing an average of four to five thousand words daily, not only for her books for children but also for educational journals and the Morning Post, a London newspaper. Among her magazine efforts was her work for the popular Sunny Stories for Little Folks, which she also edited from 1926 to 1952.
The publication of Adventures of the Wishing Chair in 1937 and its subsequent popularity cemented the style of fantasy that Blyton employed in her works during this period. The fantasy was simplistic and humorous, markedly different from the complex and more accomplished work of J.R.R. Tolkien, her contemporary whose own novel, The Hobbit, was published the same year.
Also notable was The Secret Island, published the following year. Like Adventures of the Wishing Chair, the book was released after first appearing in Sunny Stories. The Secret Island belonged to another genre that Blyton dominated - that of the adventure story. Sequels followed, with The Secret of Spiggy Holes in 1940, and The Secret Mountain published in 1941.
During World War II, most other writers were dormant, as restrictions on paper limited the literary output, but the popularity of Blyton’s work meant that she could continue to be published. For a few titles, she began using the pseudonym, Mary Pollock, combining her middle name and her first married name. Even without the Blyton stamp, these works were just as successful. Her wartime contributions also included patriotic advice in her magazine columns. Even in her 1941 book, The Adventurous Four, Blyton employed strong patriotic themes and featured the uncovering of a German submarine base.
Blyton also made contributions to the girl’s school story genre, with The Naughtiest Girl in the School (1940) and its sequels. The second book of the series, The Twins at St. Clare’s (1941) was even serialized as a Japanese animated cartoon on television in 1991.
Blyton’s most famous series, The Famous Five, was introduced in 1942. The Five was made up of a familiar team of boys and girls. They included Julian, the rather condescending leader; Dick, often the one in Julian’s shadow; the tomboy George, whose real name was Georgina; Anne, George’s opposite - the stereotypically weak, inferior girl; and Timmy the dog.
By the late 1940s, Blyton was at the height of her dominance of popular fiction, continuing to produce book after book for more than twenty publishers in Britain. In 1949, she was commissioned by David White of the Sampson Low publishing house to write stories to be used with the artwork of Harmsen Van der Beek. This venture led to one of her most successful series, the Noddy books, which despite their popularity are the most critically derided of Blyton’s books. Critics have found fault with Noddy, who, as the title character, has few redeeming qualities. Noddy language has become a term used to describe banal idiocy. Blyton’s tendency to project attitudes that have since been labeled as racist is also apparent in the Noddy books, in which black and bad are equated.
Indeed Blyton's books are very much of their time, particularly those written in the 1950s. They present Britain's class system - that is to say, rough versus decent. Many of Blyton's children's books similarly popularized negative stereotypes regarding gender, race, and class.
(A valuable Siamese cat is stolen. The Five Find-Outers (a...)
1944
Religion
In the mid-1930s, Blyton had an experience of a spiritual crisis, but she decided against converting to Roman Catholicism from the Church of England because she had felt it was too constricting. Although she rarely attended church services, she saw that her two daughters were baptized into the Anglican faith and went to the local Sunday School.
Between 1948 and 1960, Blyton produced more than 40 different religious storybooks including The Enid Blyton Bible Stories, which included a series of 14 books on the New Testament and 14 on the Old Testament. In 1953, Blyton wrote two prayers for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Views
Blyton’s books feature clearly delineated good and bad characters and have exciting plots that illustrate traditional moral lessons. Her vocabulary and prose style are simple and highly accessible to beginning readers. Blyton came under some criticism for her stereotyped characters and simplistic viewpoint, but her remarkable popularity with young readers has remained undiminished, and new editions of her books continue to appear.
However, Blyton has encountered criticism for her reductive, simplistic plots as much as for her now taboo portrayal of gender and racial stereotypes, and publishers have aimed to give some of Blyton a modern makeover with reprints of some of her works. Modern reprints of some books have had changes made to alter those details that could be viewed as offensive. This response from the publishers has itself drawn criticism from those adults who view it as tampering with an important piece of the history of children's literature.
Quotations:
"If you can't look after something in your care, you have no right to keep it."
"Leave something for someone but don't leave someone for something."
"he best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better."
"You're trying to escape from your difficulties, and there never is any escape from difficulties, never. They have to be faced and fought."
"Hatred is so much easier to win than love - and so much harder to get rid of."
"There's a rainbow around every corner is a well known saying and is supposed to make negative people positive."
"I think people make their own faces, as they grow."
Membership
The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton gathered such a following that readers asked Blyton if they might form a fan club. She agreed, on condition that it serves a useful purpose, and suggested that it could raise funds for the Shaftesbury Society Babies' Homed in Beaconsfield, on whose committee she had served since 1948. The club was established in 1952, and provided funds for equipping a Famous Five Ward at the home, a paddling pool, sunroom, summer house, playground, birthday and Christmas celebrations, and visits to the pantomime. By the late 1950s, Blyton's clubs had a membership of 500,000 and raised £35,000 in the six years of the Enid Blyton Magazine's run.
Famous Five Club
Personality
Enid Blyton typed out her stories while sitting in her study or in the garden, her typewriter perched on her knees. She did not learn to touch-type but used her two forefingers, still managing to type with speed and accuracy.
Enid explains in The Story of My Life that she did not plan a work of fiction before starting to write it. Often, she had no clear idea where the plot was heading. Instead, she simply allowed the story to unfold in her mind as she typed, relying on her fertile imagination rather than on conscious invention. She compared the process of viewing "a private cinema screen inside my head... and what I see, I write down." In a letter to Peter McKellar on 26th February 1953, she added: "But it's a 3-dimensional screen, complete with sound, smell and taste - and feeling!"
Enid Blyton was involved in different sports activities. Her love of tennis included playing naked, with nude tennis "a common practice in those days among the more louche members of the middle classes."
Physical Characteristics:
By 1960 Blyton was displaying signs of dementia. Her agent George Greenfield recalled that it was "unthinkable" for the "most famous and successful of children's authors with her enormous energy and computer-like memory" to be losing her mind and suffering from what is now known as Alzheimer's disease in her mid-sixties.
Quotes from others about the person
“No single author has caused more controversy among librarians, literary critics, teachers, and other educationalists and parents during the last thirty years, than Enid Blyton. How is it that the books of this tremendously popular writer for children should have given rise to accusations of censorship against librarians in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom?“ - A.H. Thompson
Interests
music
Sport & Clubs
tennis
Connections
On 28th August 1924, Enid Blyton married Hugh Alexander Pollock, who was an editor of the book department for the publishing firm George Newnes. The two of them had met when Enid was commissioned by Newnes to write a children's book about London Zoo - The Zoo Book (1924). The wedding, at Bromley Register Office, was a quiet occasion, with no member of either Enid's or Hugh's family attending the ceremony. The couple honeymooned in Jersey and Enid was later to base Kirrin in the Famous Five books on an island, castle and village they visited there.
Enid and Hugh had trouble starting a family but eventually, on July 15, 1931, their elder daughter Gillian was born. After a miscarriage in 1934, they went on to have another daughter, Imogen, who was born on October 27, 1935.
In 1942, Blyton and Pollock divorced; the following year, Blyton met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters (1892-1967), a London surgeon, with whom she had been friends. They married on October 20, 1943.