Where exactly was Green Hedges? Right at the heart of Enid Blyton's writing. But let's be more specific...
As Imogen tells us in
A Childhood at Green Hedges, the Biggs family moved into Upton Leigh in 1943 or 1944 (see page 76 of that book). Upton Leigh, as this valuable thread tells us, being the house immediately to the north of Green Hedges on the Penn Road.
Of the four Biggs children, two have names with subtle Blytonian associations: Diana (any connection with Dinah of the Adventure series?) and Bet (related at all to the Find-Outers Bets?). Imogen tells us that in later life Diana recalled Enid as follows: "She was incredibly vibrant, an absolutely vital person. Everyone else in the room sort of faded. It was just this incredible personality sitting on the settee." I can believe it. Though, as Imogen says, it implies that Enid felt at ease with, and appreciated by, these neighbours.
Soon after the Biggs arrived at Upton leigh, it was agreed by the adults that a gap could be cut in the hedge separating it from Green Hedges, so that the six children could play together more easily. Then, in July 1944, the superb one-off novel called
The Boy Next Door was published, which surely feeds off this gap in the hedge business (chapters called ''The Hole Under The Fence' and 'Through the Hole at Midnight').
The Biggs child that Imogen was friendliest with was called Keith, who she wondered if she was in love with by the summer of 1944. Meanwhile Enid had dropped the 'e' and the 'h' from his name in order to get 'Kit', the name of the boy next door. Eh?
Mind games!
Well, Enid tossed off prize crosswords at the weekend, she wasn't going to stop manipulating letters as well as words whenever she felt like it.
Interestingly, one of the other main motifs of that book is a houseboat on a river. So it's possible that Enid's agile mind was flicking - and fictionalising - from Green Hedges in Beaconsfield to the Thames at Bourne End, ideal for the discreet parking of house boats, three miles away, where she'd previously lived.
Remember that this was a very busy time for Enid. In 1942 she'd published the first Famous Five book, and in 1943 the second Famous Five and the first Find-Outers. In 1944, she was already going great guns with the 3rd FF, the 2nd F-O and the 1st 'Adventure'. But what was happening next door to Green Hedges may have seemed like an irrestible input. So we get the one-off
The Boy Next Door as well as forceful and fluent continuations of the main series. Plus all the rest of her efforts in that special year.
Re
A Story Part at Green Hedges. Anita mentions that Grace Lodge met Enid and some children in Swanage in order to do a few sketches. I suppose she could just as easily have put together a book called
A Story-Party at Kirrin. But, no, the collection is as much about the act of story-telling as anything else. So it's appropriate that the book was called what it was, acknowledging the place of Green Hedges. And with Grace Lodge going to the trouble of drawing Enid and the children from life, I can't believe that she wouldn't have asked to come to Green Hedges for the afternoon to do the principle drawing:
Grace: "Can I come to Green Hedges for the afternoon?"
Enid: "Of course, darling. You shall have tea brought to your sketch pad. And if you want me, I'll either be in my study, banging away at the typewriter, or on the swing seat, desperately trying to keep up with what I'm seeing and hearing courtesy of my own private cinema screen, or down by my little pond communing with the birds and the fishes."
Grace: "Now that's what I call a story-party."
Enid: "I'm so glad you understand."