Enid Blyton (1897–1968)’s bestselling adventure stories thrilled generations of readers but, like so many working mothers today, Blyton struggled to juggle her career as a writer with caring for her own children. In 1950 the author told her editor at Macmillan Publishing that she wanted to write another book for them. But her correspondence limited her, and the trappings of fame, including making public appearances for fans, restricted her writing.
![]()
The best bookshops across the nation had some of their shelves devoted to Blyton books! The Macmillan letters, written from 1940-60, were placed in the British Library. Now the letters have been analysed by Andrew Maunder for his new book Enid Blyton: A Literary Life (Palgrave, 2021). You can read a review, even before the book arrives in Australia.
Blyton became famous with mini-series that included my absolute favourite childhood books: Famous Five (written from 1942-63), Noddy (1949-63), Secret Seven (1947-57) and The Faraway Tree (1939-51), totalling 400+ titles. This was an age of innocence in which children searched for secret passages and treasures, with sandwiches in bags. When this very prolific author died at 71, her total sales had topped 600 mil!!
The author was rightly commemorated with a plaque from the English Heritage Organisation outside her former home in Chessington S.W London.
![]()
Years after her death, English Heritage acknowledged the racism, xenophobia and sexism in Blyton’s writing. As one of Britain’s most cherished children’s authors, whose books are among the most translated in the world, Blyton has been condemned by this important cultural foundation in the latest episode of Britain’s divisive culture wars.
![]()
![]()
As I would have expected, responses on social media have been polarised, with people arguing whether it was fair or not to judge Blyton by modern standards. Especially, as author Matt Haig said, because not everyone shared Enid Blyton’s values back in her time! In the end I had to agree with The Independent: "nostalgia for Enid Blyton does not grant her a free pass for her bigotry".
Enid Blyton working from home on her typewriter
Independent
The author was rightly commemorated with a plaque from the English Heritage Organisation outside her former home in Chessington S.W London.
English Heritage blue plaque
on front of Enid Blyton's home
Years after her death, English Heritage acknowledged the racism, xenophobia and sexism in Blyton’s writing. As one of Britain’s most cherished children’s authors, whose books are among the most translated in the world, Blyton has been condemned by this important cultural foundation in the latest episode of Britain’s divisive culture wars.
Back in 1975, AH Thompson already understood the problem when he compiled a broad overview of censorship efforts in the UK's public libraries, dedicating an entire chapter to The Enid Blyton Affair. Her wrote of her: no single author has caused more controversy among librarians, teachers academics and parents in the last 30 years, than Enid Blyton.
Jamaica Kincaid called Noddy books very racist because of the blonde children and black golliwogs. In Blyton's novel The Island of Adventure (1944), a very intelligent, black servant Jo-Jo was particularly cruel to the children. And English Heritage pointed to a 1966 Guardian article by Lena Jeger that showed the racism of Blyton’s The Little Black Doll (1966). Sambo the doll was ostracised by his owner for its ugly black face and ran away! In discussing possible moves to restrict publications inciting racial hatred, Jeger noted that magic rain washed Sambo’s face clean; he could be welcomed back home now with a pink face.
Her xenophobia was problematic in the inter-war era when many middle class people believed that foreigners were largely untrustworthy. The publisher Macmillan conducted an internal assessment of Blyton's The Mystery That Never Was, submitted for publication in 1960. The review found there was a vaguely unattractive, old-fashioned xenophobia in the author's attitude to thieves; they were foreigners thus criminal. Macmillan rejected her manuscript, but it was published anyway by Collins in 1961, 1965 and 1983!
Jamaica Kincaid called Noddy books very racist because of the blonde children and black golliwogs. In Blyton's novel The Island of Adventure (1944), a very intelligent, black servant Jo-Jo was particularly cruel to the children. And English Heritage pointed to a 1966 Guardian article by Lena Jeger that showed the racism of Blyton’s The Little Black Doll (1966). Sambo the doll was ostracised by his owner for its ugly black face and ran away! In discussing possible moves to restrict publications inciting racial hatred, Jeger noted that magic rain washed Sambo’s face clean; he could be welcomed back home now with a pink face.
Her xenophobia was problematic in the inter-war era when many middle class people believed that foreigners were largely untrustworthy. The publisher Macmillan conducted an internal assessment of Blyton's The Mystery That Never Was, submitted for publication in 1960. The review found there was a vaguely unattractive, old-fashioned xenophobia in the author's attitude to thieves; they were foreigners thus criminal. Macmillan rejected her manuscript, but it was published anyway by Collins in 1961, 1965 and 1983!
The Famous Five series
Blyton's depictions of boys and girls were considered by many critics to be sexist. Guardian writer Lucy Mangan proposed in 2005 that The Famous Five series depicted a power struggle between Julian, Dick and Georgina, in which the female characters either acted like boys or were ridiculed to for thinking they were as good as boys.
In 2019 The Royal Mint planned to unveil a 50-pence coin commemorating Enid Blyton. But the plan was rejected because the Mint believed that featuring her on the coin would result in a backlash against the author’s racist, sexist and homophobic views.
3 choices were available to modern publishers.
In 2019 The Royal Mint planned to unveil a 50-pence coin commemorating Enid Blyton. But the plan was rejected because the Mint believed that featuring her on the coin would result in a backlash against the author’s racist, sexist and homophobic views.
3 choices were available to modern publishers.
1] They could ignore the old unacceptable values because Blyton had been hugely popular; in any case, noone knew about sexism and racism back in 1939-63.
2] They could refuse to republish books with unacceptable values as no C21st children should be exposed to xenophobia etc. Or
3] modern publication of her old books could cleanse Blyton’s worst offences.
Some changes WERE made. In Here Comes Noddy Again (1951), the black golliwogs who stole Noddy's car and dumped him naked in the Dark Wood were replaced by goblins in the 1986 revision. They stripped Noddy only of his shoes and hat, and returned late in the story to apologise.
Some changes WERE made. In Here Comes Noddy Again (1951), the black golliwogs who stole Noddy's car and dumped him naked in the Dark Wood were replaced by goblins in the 1986 revision. They stripped Noddy only of his shoes and hat, and returned late in the story to apologise.
Enid Blyton, husband Kenneth Waters, daughters Imogen and Gillian
at their home in Beaconsfield in 1949.
Guardian
As I would have expected, responses on social media have been polarised, with people arguing whether it was fair or not to judge Blyton by modern standards. Especially, as author Matt Haig said, because not everyone shared Enid Blyton’s values back in her time! In the end I had to agree with The Independent: "nostalgia for Enid Blyton does not grant her a free pass for her bigotry".