Enid Mary Blyton was an English children’s writer whose books have been among the world’s best-sellers since the 1930s. She wrote on a wide range of topics including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. Her work became increasingly controversial among literary critics, teachers and parents from the 1950s onwards, because of the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing.
About Enid Blyton in brief
Enid Mary Blyton was an English children’s writer whose books have been among the world’s best-sellers since the 1930s. She wrote on a wide range of topics including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. She is best remembered today for her Noddy, Famous Five, Secret Seven, and Malory Towers. Her work became increasingly controversial among literary critics, teachers and parents from the 1950s onwards, because of the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing. She felt she had a responsibility to provide her readers with a strong moral framework, so she encouraged them to support worthy causes. The story of her life was dramatised in a BBC film entitled Enid, featuring Helena Bonham Carter in the title role and first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Four in 2009. There have also been several adaptations of her books for stage, screen and television. Her books are still enormously popular, and have been translated into 90 languages. As of June 2018, Blton is in the 4th place for the most translated author. Her first book, Child Whispers, a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Following the commercial success of her early novels such as Adventures of the Wishing-Chair and The Enchanted Wood, Blieston went on to build a literary empire. Her writing was unplanned and sprang largely from her unconscious mind: she typed her stories as events unfolded before her. The sheer volume of her work and the speed with which it was produced led to rumours that she employed an army of ghost writers, a charge she vigorously denied.
Enid and her mother did not have a good relationship, and she did not attend either of her parents’ funerals. She was not so keen on all the academic subjects but excelled in writing, and in 1911 she entered Arthur Mee’s children’s poetry competition. From 1907 to 1915 she attended St Christopher’s School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed physical activities and became school tennis champion and captain of lacrosse. Her father taught her to play the piano which she mastered well enough for him to believe that she might follow in his footsteps and become a professional musician. After finishing school in 1915, she moved out of the family home to live with her friend Mary Attenborough, before going to stay with George and Emily Hunt at Seckford Hall in Suffolk. A few months after her birth Enid almost died from whooping cough, but was nursed back to health by her father, whom she adored. He also passed on his interest in gardening, art, music, literature and the theatre, and the pair often went on nature walks, much to the disapproval of Enid’s mother, who showed little interest in her daughter’s pursuits. Enid was devastated when he left the family shortly after her thirteenth birthday to live with another woman. The BBC had refused to broadcast her works, which the BBC had refusal to broadcast from the 30s until the 1950’s because they were perceived to lack literary merit.
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This page is based on the article Enid Blyton published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
