BLYTON, Enid

First editions of Enid Blyton's books can be seen below.

"I don't really understand myself how my imagination works. It is a thing completely beyond my control..."

One of England's most popular and prolific children's authors, Blyton wrote scores of books for children, from the early 1920's through to the 1960's.

Enid Mary Blyton was born in East Dulwich on August 11th, 1897. In 1911 she entered her first poem to Arthur Mee's Children's Poetry Competition and was thrilled to receive a response from Mee encouraging her to write more.

Her writing career began in earnest in 1922 when her contributions appeared in Teacher's World and her first book Child Whispers was published. 1924 saw the publication of A Book Of Fairies, Blyton's first full book of short stories. For the following five decades Blyton's literary output was astounding, holding children of all ages enraptured.

Among her most popular series are adventures stories such as "The Famous Five ", "The Magic Faraway Tree" and "The Adventure Books". Generations of young girls have longed to attend boarding school after devouring the adventures of girls at Malory Towers, Whyteleaf and St. Clares. Blyton had two daughters, Gillian and Imogen and as the girls grew up Enid Blyton wrote stories that appealed to children of her daughters’ age. She would test out plots and ideas on the girls and ask them to proof read the books. Her own children’s favourite stories would usually prove to be those most popular with other young readers. Many of Enid Blyton’s stories were based on her own or her daughter’s experiences, with school stories featuring snapshots of daily life gleaned from Gillian and Imogen , “games of hockey, lacrosse and tennis, the little spites and deceits of school life, the loyalty and generosities of friendship”.

Other creations include Noddy for younger readers; comic characters Mr. Pink-Whistle and Mr. Twiddle; The Adventures of the Wishing Chair and educational books based on bible stories or retelling traditional myths and legends.