Asked by the late David Boyle, who used to do freelance shifts on the newspaper's comment desk, I once wrote a piece on children's loss of freedom and its implications for children's literature for the Guardian website. David later told me that it had nearly made the printed newspaper.
In it, as any good Malcolm Saville fan would, I took the opportunity to take a few pot shots at Enid Blyton:
Her characters were wooden, her plots slapdash and her settings – generic ruined castles and spooky old houses – were like a Hollywood set; look round the back and you could see the struts holding up the painted hardboard.
And
Blyton was not helped by the illustrator of her most popular series. The Famous Five were made to resemble enthusiastic members of the Hitler Youth. Julian, in particular, looked capable of ordering the burning of the entire village if the tea he and his chums were offered did not come up to scratch.
Fair comment, I'm sure you will agree.
I recently discovered that this article was the subject of a pained thread on The Enid Blyton Society's forum:
I find it very sad when an opinion article on a pertinent topic loses itself in the author's own posturing and point-scoring.
I stand by the conclusion of my Guardian article:
While we wait for the spirit of the children's adventure story to seep back into modern society, those of us who grew up on Malcolm Saville's books will remain convinced of his superiority, no matter what Enid Blyton fans say.
One day we will challenge them to a picnic and drink them under the table with ginger beer.
Having glanced at the late Ms Blyton's biography, may I diffidently suggest that had she still been alive in 2024 she might even have voted Lib Dem in that corner of 'Middle England' she existed in. Smart bit of work to have an affair with a publisher though.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, when I was a child in the late forties/early fifties, we didn't have much else available to read. I don't feel particularly damaged by the experience and I still ended up as a radical Young Liberal in the sixties..
I will admit to being unfair to her for comic effect. I don't think she was much of a writer, but she made children happy. There are worse epitaphs.
DeleteFollowing up my earlier comment, I agree with your judgement, Jonathan. A few years ago we had Michael Morpurgo up at St Andrews University to talk about his novel War Horse to a packed audience of kids . They 9the kids) were thrilled and Mr Morpurgo had a wonderful way of communicating with them. Wish we'd had that in my day.... Biggles & Blyton was a bit limited.
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