More flak for Enid

[Kate Mary]

Has anyone seen this article in the Daily Mail today?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... otter.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

David Walliams is a hit with Susan Hill but I take exception to her comments on Enid's style, and Heidi is NOT dreary, it was one of my favourite books.

[Fiona1986]

They have neither psychological depth nor subtlety, they are naughty but never wicked, enjoy adult-free larks but are never seriously at odds with either their parents or teachers, who in turn may be stern and unfair but are never disgusting or abusive.

George's rallying against the world of the patriarchy and female roles in that world.

The Arnold children's treatment by their aunt and uncle, and similarly, the Frosts by their aunt (Hollow Tree House).

Just two off the top of my head.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, and what about the various spiteful and vindictive girls in the school stories such as Gwendoline, Erica, Prudence and Elsie?

Disgusting parents would include Mrs. Kent (The Six Bad Boys) and Rose Longfield (the Six Cousins books).

It seems funny to me to see Susan Hill describing Enid Blyton's writing as "dull" and Heidi as "dreary". I've read a number of Susan Hill's novels and, although they're strong on atmosphere and have some intriguing elements, the plots tend to be slow-moving and fall flat, with the endings being either utterly predictable or frustratingly inconclusive. Enid Blyton and Johanna Spyri are much better when it comes to constructing narratives with pace, punch and pay-off.

[Courtenay]

And how many currently popular children's authors will end up having over 700 books to their name, will have many titles still in print 70 or even 80 years after first publication, and will have sold over 600 million copies and counting?? Seriously, I reckon with at least some of Enid's critics, professional jealousy has something to do with it. (And I absolutely love Heidi too.)

[Rob Houghton]

I only had to see it was in The Daily Fail to know I wouldn't bother reading it. Best thing to do is tear it up and hang it in the outside toilet...

[Jack400]

Careful, such paper could cause a blockage...
I wonder whether her item was, basically, just a vehicle to promote Walliams/ the Daily Mail so a need to knock other authors. So easy to boost one by knocking others.

[timv]

As usual, I reckon that the reviewer has only read (or can only remember) the main EB series, not the less well known books where character is developed more carefully and at greater leisure - and logically Enid could afford time to think about character in detail as the main plot was less dominant. She was writing what the audience wanted as much as David Walliams does - and in the Famous Five books the readers were interested in a fast-paced plot, not the interactions or development of those involved. Ditto the Five Find Outers books regarding the development and resolution of a mystery, which Enid does as cleverly as Agatha Christie (also carped at by critics ) and (for a younger age group) the Secret Seven. As Anita highlighted, the Arnolds' uncle and aunt and the abusive aunt in Hollow Tree House are classic unrepentant 'baddie' adults (in the line from the Murdstones in Dickens' David Copperfield). Jack's guardian in Secret Island and the elderly Mr Trent in Island of Adventure (both never seen) are extremely neglectful too, though probably neither wanted their charges to live with them anyway, and their victims accurately reflect the situations of many children in the 1930s and 1940s whose parents had died in the Depression or the War.

In Three Boys and a Circus there's the 'well-meaning but emotionally lacking' institutional bureaucrat Mr Harris, head of the orphanage, who hunts for the runaway Dick (who's fled rather than obey the rules and give away his 'illegal' pet dog Bouncer) but won't bend the rules to let him keep his pet - and 'baddie' lout Larry's guardian (father or stepfather?) who sent L to work for Mr Ravelini at the circus to get rid of him. Larry doesn't like the job and plays up, then takes out his anger on Dick and the performing dogs - and when Dick catches Larry trying to frame him and L faces the sack, L would rather live on the road as a tramp than go home and be beaten again, as he tells Dick.

As for adult characters developing as opposed to being 'one dimensional' and static, there's of course Aunt Lou in Come To The Circus (on the brink of a breakdown due to grief and much more relaxed once she admits it and 'moves on'). Rose Longfield is an interesting case, as she only forces herself to abandon her self-indulgent laziness and start to help on the farm when she fails to emotionally blackmail her children into abandoning Holly Farm and returning to 'town' with her and faces having to leave on her own. Rose is weak and selfish rather than wicked, and Enid also explores family heredity in this by having her daughter Melisande 'reforming'' and working hard at Mistletoe Farm under sensible Aunt Linnie's influence but slipping back once she's living with her mother again. Noticeably, her siblings Cyril and Roderick do not listen to Rose - who's upset as Roderick used to be her adoring 'pet' and accuses Linnie of luring them away from her.

[jrw]

So that's what happened to Sulky Susan.