Peter Costello
The Land of Far Beyond, The First Christmas and other Stories, Noah’s Ark and other Stories from the Old Testament
by Enid Blyton (Hodder Children’s Books, £10.99 each)
One has to feel some sympathy with the ghost of Enid Blyton if she were to return to see what has been done to her children’s books, or at least to their titles and covers.
Last autumn a writer named Bruno Vincent (no, I don’t know who he is either) issued a series of books which pastiche her famous series with title such as Five Go Gluten Free, Five on Brexit Island, Five Give up the Booze — an Irish equivalent would be The Turf Cutter’s Donkey Goes Gambling.
These were issued by a once-admired publisher (Quercus), following the earlier trend for the much loved Ladybird Books to be vamped up as Ladybird Books for Adults.
These have been described as “a publishing phenomenon” – by which is meant a quick cash-making stunt which is aimed at rather mindless readers who want to trash their own youthful reading. The publishers will ride this venture as hard as they can until it collapses, in a few months.
The original Famous Five series and Ladybird books were an immense aid in laying the foundation of full adult literacy among many socially deprived children.
So this stunt amounts to kicking away the ladder by which others might mount to literacy. Being over smart about your own childhood is very unbecoming. Perhaps I am losing my sense of humour, but I find this whole idea not simply stupid, but actually depraved.
So much credit to Hodder Children’s Books for bringing back into print some of Enid Blyton own titles in very fine little hard back editions. All three are religious in theme – The Land Beyond is a juvenile version of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
In her day, Miss Blyton was a phenomenally well-selling children’s writer with a stupendous output – she could write up to 10,000 words a day. There cannot have been a house with both books and children that did not have some of her books: 600 million copies sold in 90 languages – can there be anyone who reads who has not read at least one of her books.
She was said, of course, to be sexist, racist, xenophobic, and elitist, and worst of all middle class. But though, she was a boon to parents, and a joy to children, she was, poor lady, abhorred by teachers, librarians, and mind improvers generally. For years she was banned by the BBC.
Popularity
Her very popularity seemed to add to her literary crimes in the eyes of such people – which was odd as she had been herself when young a well qualified and effective Froebel teacher with a love of nature.
These texts were published back in the 1940s, and have been reprinted since. But their reissue now suggests that the feisty, if often troubled, Miss Blyton has achieved something akin to the status of a classic.
So much for all those bien pensants who so roundly abused her. She was naturally enough a lady who thought children should know right from wrong, have some idea of moral values, and have a jolly good time too – largely without those always interfering bossy-boot parents.
In this era of over protected infants, where even university students have to be preserved from the slightest thing that might distress them, her books are just the stuff to give the troops.