Article: Why I read Blyton to my Children, by Suzy Howlett

[Suzy]

I thought this might be of interest to some of you. I wrote it (and published a different version in an education magazine recently) because some friends and colleagues challenged my lifelong love of Blyton stories. I know I am preaching to the converted here, but what do you think? Do you ever have to defend your love of Blyton? I am expanding it into an article for a wider readership – more soon.

Why I Read Blyton Adventures to my Children.

OK – some of you aren’t going to like this – but I devoured the adventure and school stories of Enid Blyton as a child, and also read them to my own children as they grew up in the 1990s. This is not PC, and most of us know why. I am a feminist, a writer, a teacher, and I work in Equalities where my job often involves challenging racist behaviour. How do I reconcile that one?

We don’t (or most of us don’t) decry comfort blankets for children who like them. They provide security and pleasure, and eventually children venture out without them. In the same way, I never worried about my children enjoying some jolly and straightforward escapism with some big dollops of self-reliant children thrown in, and indeed I helped them along the way with plenty of reading aloud, rather as a few chocolates make it into the balanced diet. To use the never-did-me-any-harm old chestnut, I read the stuff avidly and didn’t turn into a xenophobic Stepford Wife. I read (and still read) Jane Austen avidly, too, but don’t feel the urge to wear bonnets and do a bit of embroidery in the parlour (well, not often).

Blyton books have spurred generations of children to read, and I recently witnessed a group of perfectly ordinary seven-year-olds discussing their favourite Famous Five adventures while laughing at the silliness of the boys’ attitudes to what girls should and shouldn’t do. They were really saying that the joke was on Julian because, whatever he thought, George did her own thing anyway. Yes, the writing is simple and not exactly bursting with literary merit, and yes, the attitudes to gender, class and ethnicity sometimes reflect the awful prejudices of the time (as does Shakespeare). Enid Blyton was born in 1897, after all. You have to get on and look that one in the eye, and talk about it (as you put the comfort blanket in the washing machine). But these Year 3 children could see that the books are retro - no jeans, name changes and decimal currency updates required. They understood perfectly well that things have changed.

A light-touch conversation about class snobbery and racist stereotypes is definitely a very good thing – and a great opportunity – though not when you (or they) are at a gripping part of the story. Passages about “gypsies” are a great chance to discuss prejudice and bigotry. But keep it for later reflection unless the children express an interest along the way. It’s all about the stories, after all. Actually, I wonder whether Anne, with her love of cooking and tidying up, is arguably less of a stereotype than some of the pink and glittery fashion-peg characters pushed at girls today. She and George, who is clearly intended to be an admirable heroine, represent two different ways you can be who you want to (though it is a pity George feels she has to be seen as a boy to do what she wants). I wanted to be a bit of both when I was small, and the Famous Five adventures let me indulge that. The girls in the Malory Towers school series are ambitious for a full spectrum of careers, and also a full spectrum of what it might mean to be a girl, all of which appear to be celebrated. Their snobbish class-consciousness is another matter, though it never gets quite as awful as that shown in The Put ‘Em Rights (okay, okay, I liked that one too, at the time) or The Six Bad Boys (thrilling, despite its berating of working mothers who practically drive their sons to Borstal through their lack of housework and proper cooking).

When I was a child in the late 1960s, gulping down every Blyton adventure I could get my hands on, some libraries and schools, though not mine, banned them. I do understand why, I really do. But, and here’s the thing, here they still are - moving fast and laying it all out like a bridge between comics and more grown-up adventures – still being enjoyed by children who are as unlikely to sniff a carefree, adult-free adventure as they are to receive the sort of toy chemistry set containing real plutonium (yes!) which their counterparts in the 50s might have played with. You and I can list a hundred wonderful children’s books out there – books which will challenge, stimulate, delight, provoke and comfort. Quite right, too. Bring them on, please. But let’s not over-think this and find yet another thing to worry about. Can we make a place for the comfort blanket to sneak in, with its easy pleasure, even if it is looking a little suspect around the edges now? I think we can. What about you?

[sixret]

Welcome Suzy! And thank you for sharing it with us.

[Daisy]

That is a really interesting piece of writing Suzy and one which I and most people who frequent this website, would agree with wholeheartedly. I don't think I personally have had to justify my continued interest and love of Blyton but I do know one or two for whom the pleasure is a guilty secret - at least from some who they feel would be highly critical. Thank you very much for sharing your article - and I hope it can be seen by as wide a range of people as possible.

[sixret]

Thank you for letting us know, Ilsa! And I agree with you.

[Rob Houghton]

Brilliantly written piece, and I agree with all of it. I consider myself lucky to be of the generation for whom reading Enid Blyton books was not taboo. During my childhood in the 1970's, many of my school friends read Enid Blyton, and weren't ashamed to admit it. When I mention collecting her books now, people of a certain generation tend to go all doughy-eyed and a big nostalgic smile spreads across their face. I'm certainly not ashamed to admit I still read Enid Blyton - and I still would encourage kids to read her books if I had kids of the right age around me.

[Anita Bensoussane]

An interesting article, Suzy. Thanks for sharing it with us. I was more than happy for my children (now in their late teens/early twenties) to read older books alongside modern ones as I think it's good for youngsters to gain an understanding (while enjoying a cracking story) of the fact that language, attitudes and social norms change over time.

[Suzy]

Thanks to all who have replied. Delighted to hear all your views, and glad to share mine!

[pete9012S]

A nice article - thank you.

I knew as a child that I should be seen to 'outgrow' or be 'too old' to keep reading Enid Blyton by observers a few years before it actually happened.

I resolved then that reading Enid Blyton was a lifestyle choice - the way I was going to live my life.
I threw a few curve balls to onlookers by reading Agatha Christie books from the age of eight or nine too, but my whole life has been devoted to reading and living an Enid Blyton lifestyle, which I still do aged fifty.

People ask me if I still read Enid Blyton and I say of course I do - don't you, she's great!

A couple of friends have come out of the closet because I'm so open about it and have said that actually they secretly still read her books too.

I read what I like, whether it's high brow, low brow or even eye brow!

I feel the same about music too.
My personal musical mantra is to listen to what you personally like - check new things out if you want and don't be afraid if you like Abba, The Brotherhood Of Man or even Enrico Palazzo - it's not a crime.

Over and out.

Pete

[Rob Houghton]

I read what I like, whether it's high brow, low brow or even eye brow!

I feel the same about music too.
My personal musical mantra is to listen to what you personally like - check new things out if you want and don't be afraid if you like Abba, The Brotherhood Of Man or even Enrico Palazzo - it's not a crime.

Over and out.

Pete

I agree! I admit there was a time, when I was about 14, when I stopped reading Enid Blyton, and felt myself 'too old' for her books - and I think I maybe didn't read an Enid Blyton book until I was about 22 - in fact, during that time, I hardly read any books, except Daphne DuMaurier and a few books I had to read for English O and A Levels.

But now, as an adult, I don't care who knows that I read Enid Blyton - and generally, when I tell people I love Enid Blyton, they express their own love for her, and have sometimes borrowed books from me to read!

Music-wise, I always followed my own path, too. As a teenager I listened to 1930's bands, musicals, film musicals, and singers such as Doris Day, Deanna Durbin, Fred Astaire, Dick Powell and Howard Keel. I liked some chart music, but was never really into it, and I'm still not. I like the Beatles, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Abba, and a few others - but my main love is still the music of the 1930's - 1950's.

[Courtenay]

Yes, thanks so much for sharing with us, Suzy — like others here, I agree with everything you've written!

Just one thing I wonder about is the reference to racist stereotypes — it might be an opportunity to go a little further into that like you do in talking about Anne and George and gender stereotypes (love your point about Anne being less of a stereotype than some of what we see today). Enid's manner of writing about people of other races/colours/cultures is often not very sensitive by today's standards, but how much of it is genuinely racist? There's really a lot of nuance in there, which perhaps a longer version of the article could explore.

As for defending my love of Blyton, I'm thankful I generally don't have to — everyone in my family still loves Enid Blyton books as well, and most other people, if I tell them I'm a member of the Enid Blyton Society, light up in their eyes as they tell me how much they always loved the Famous Five or the Faraway Tree! And if they do think I'm stupid or somehow subversive for liking Enid Blyton as an adult, well, let them.

Again, thanks for the great article and I'd love to read the expanded version in future!

[Suzy]

Good idea, Courtenay - I will look into expanding that part of the article. I was always very thrilled by the "Adventure" series, but I recall uncomfortable feelings about the servant (JoJo?) in the first book. I will have to re-read a few things and see what I make of them now. There is lots for families to discuss together, think about, and learn from, which is good!
Thanks, too, to Pete, Rob, Anita, Sixret and Daisy for the thoughtful comments.
Perhaps you would like to read my book "Return to Kirrin" one day? It is written with great affection!

[Rob Houghton]

Jo-Jo is interesting. He is the ONLY black villain Enid ever had - and he has now been whitened, so that none of Enid's villains are black. He was also one of the most powerful and ruthless of Enid's villains, and very clever, using white people's preconceptions about him being naive and uneducated as a cover for his villainous deeds. I'm presuming this is what people objected to, but as the only black villain in any of her books, its a shame he has been 'whitened'.

[Suzy]

I will definitely re-visit The Island of Adventure and see what I make of it now! There are subtler things going on, of course, but we can use them as discussion points and historical differences to learn about when reading with children. My two - a boy and a girl - grew up loving the Blyton adventures, and are now both strongly feminist and anti-racist young adults. We know the stories are period pieces, and can love them as such!
I am very interested in members of the Enid Blyton Society who are from India. I have written a short piece about the popularity of the stories among Indian children over the last 60 years, and why the books were so loved, and would love to hear more from those who were those children themselves.

[Courtenay]

I was just going to say much what Rob has said about Jo-Jo. It is a bit irritating to modern sensibilities how Enid persistently calls him "the black man" or else refers to his skin colour almost every time he gets a mention, but not so surprising when you look at it in the context of her time — in 1944 a black person would have been an unusual sight to probably most people in Britain. As for him being a villain, as Rob says, it becomes clear as the story goes on that Jo-Jo is deliberately playing on the fact that most (white) people assume he's a bit strange and a bit simple, so they shrug off any odd behaviour from him, when in fact he is a dangerous criminal mastermind. And then of course, just because Enid happened to create a black villain, doesn't mean she was intending to suggest that ALL black people are criminals!

Mind you, in another book in the same series, The Mountain of Adventure — the one with the most unusual plot, a sort of Flash Gordon-style '40s sci-fi for kids — I would say Enid does genuinely slip into standard racist stereotypes of that time, like a black American man who speaks pidgin English and calls himself "poor nigger" and Japanese villains who say things like "they much bitee, you be caleful!" (Not to mention Welsh people who are simple-minded peasants and end their every sentence with "look you, whateffer!" ) That's one of the very few instances I can think of where Enid's portrayal of other ethnicities REALLY goes over the line into something inexcusable. But it's certainly not how she usually wrote.

I haven't read one of her other books, The Secret Mountain, which I'm aware was excluded from the most recent reprinting of the "Secret" series — presumably because it's set in Africa and was seen as too ridden with bad racial stereotypes — but I know others here who have read it have said that's an unfair judgment. Maybe someone could explain further?

[pete9012S]

Perhaps you would like to read my book "Return to Kirrin" one day? It is written with great affection!

Would love to read that as long as you get it to me in a nondescript brown paper bag with a false dustjacket on that says 'The Musings Of Proust' on the cover in case anyone sees me reading it!