Philip Pullman is not a Blyton fan, it seems...

[Ian Regan]

"The characters are two-dimensional and the stories are mechanically recovered, like mechanically recovered meat. There's no lasting quality in it whatsoever.

"There's no pleasure in reading Enid Blyton's style. There's no sense of delight or joy in the language.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7591648.stm" target="_blank

Saucer of milk for Mr. Pullman?

[Belly]

Philip Pullman talks about Swallows and Amazons and Tom's Midnight Garden as being 'better'. I may be wrong but are Enid Blyton books not generally aimed at younger readers? Certainly, I came to Enid Bltyon first aged around 6-8 years old before moving on to the books he mentions. Swallow and Amazons was a bit too 'difficult' for me to enjoy at that sort of age.

Enid Blyton got me reading and ignited a sense of adventure in me that has never left, even now! Gillian Baverstock once said she was delighted that her mother's books often got children reading, eventually progressing to other authors with a love of literature in their hearts (or something like that) . I went on to study literature, so it worked for me .

I wonder how much Enid Blyton Philip Pullman has actually read? The Pantomine Cat? The Secret Island? The Adventure series? I doubt he is familiar with these.

I wonder if he realises Enid started life out as teacher as he did?

Great explanation of why Enid's books have stood the test of time in the article!

[Tony Summerfield]

I was interviewed for half an hour for my meagre contribution here, but he didn't tell me he was also talking to Philip Pullman!

Incidentally I said that Andy was 14 and not the quoted 13! I also gave as an example of a ridiculous change - the fact that in 1937 in Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, the children go into an antique shop with 3 shillings to buy a birthday present for their mother. In today's editions they walk in with 35p - how good a present is Mum going to get I wonder!

[Pippa-Stef]

Why do they always spell Malory Towers with two l's?

[Kitty]

The thing is, when EB is at her best, yes, she may still come across as rather stylised - but also very stylish, economical, with expert timing. She reminds me of ACD, Christie, Wodehouse in that regard - yes, I know people might find that horrendous (especially with the last-named) - but I still feel it. And her humour! I think she's one of the funniest writers of the 20th century when she's on her game. There are FFO scenes that leave me crying with laughter every time. I know that introducing children to reading is a great accomplishment, but her best books are a far superior accomplishment to even that!

Thought Tony came over marvelously in that article - as ever.

I'm still a Pullman fan - but safe to say I disagree with him here

[Kitty]

Also, why do people insist on grouping all post-nursery children's literature into one catch-all. It is infuriating! There'd probably be an amusing academic thesis in comparing Camus with Greene, but nobody writing a sensible article would use one to denigrate the other. But fair game here. Oh well, grr arg, as the monster at the end of Buffy used to say.

[Anita Bensoussane]

...why do people insist on grouping all post-nursery children's literature into one catch-all. It is infuriating!

Yes, that struck me too.

Pullman's own writing (I've only read his "His Dark Materials" trilogy) is far more sophisticated than Enid Blyton's but it is aimed at a rather older readership (or at least that series appears to be.) He weaves complex themes into his work relating to philosophy, theology, physics, etc, much of which I'm sure would have gone completely over my head if I'd been able to read those books as a child. There are also sexual references, though not graphic. The third title in the series, The Amber Spyglass, seems particularly adult - not all books about children are necessarily for children, whereas Enid Blyton's most certainly were even though many of us still enjoy them as adults.

I disagree with Philip Pullman when he says, "There's no pleasure in reading Enid Blyton's style. There's no sense of delight or joy in the language." Enid Blyton often uses onomatopoeia, alliteration and rhyme in her work and writes with clarity and fluidity. When I read her books, I sense that she enjoyed playing with language - her sentences are wonderfully rhythmic and she is skilled at writing natural-sounding dialogue even if her vocabularly isn't the most varied. Then there's the economy of expression, the humour and the expert timing, as Kitty pointed out.

Michael Rosen's views are more considered than Pullman's but his comment that, "In her stories about girls, like Amelia Jane and Mallory Towers, she explores the rivalries and jealousies of children and the ways in which they can be quite unpleasant to each other," suggests that he hasn't actually read the Amelia Jane books, which are not "about girls" but about a rag doll and other toys!

Good to see the link to this website, and to learn that Enid Blyton is "the sixth most popular author worldwide."

Anita

[Tony Summerfield]

The third title in the series, The Amber Spyglass, seems particularly adult - not all books about children are necessarily for children, whereas Enid Blyton's most certainly were even though many of us still enjoy them as adults.

Anita

I thought The Subtle Knife was a really good read, but I found The Amber Spyglass really heavy going. It had so many different complex threads going at the same time that I can't see how it could possibly have appealed to children - I nearly abandoned it on several occasions. I couldn't help feeling that after the success of the first two books, this was Philip Pullman saying, "You ain't seen nothing yet!" and then going out of his way to show everyone how terribly clever he was. I hope his books are still selling as well forty years after his death, as the 'rubbish' writer Enid Blyton.

[dsr]

I'd never, EVER, read a book to admire the style of writing. I read books for the story, essentially, and although obviously style of writing clearly is a good thing, it's no usae if the writer can't tell a good story. Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy ran out of steam half way through the second book, in my opinion, and I wasn't even interested enough to finish the third. (Compare Harry Potter - he went downhill after book 3, but not so far downhill that I stopped reading.) I much preferred the Sally Lockhart trilogy plus its spin-off (Sally barely appears in the Tin Princess) - perhaps he's started to take himself a bit too seriously - it's as if he's stopped writing stories and decided he's going to write Literature.

EB never lost track of why she was writing - to entertain the paying customers. A bit of moralising perhaps, a bit of teaching children the right way to go and Britain's place in the Empire maybe, but if she didn't entertain the children, she would have been just wasting paper.

[lizarfau]

Philip Pullman always seems to be griping about other authors - he had a big "Why C.S. Lewis isn't worth reading" thing going a couple of years ago. I find all his sniping very off-putting and tend not to buy his books for that reason (though I do have a couple, but they seem more 'adult' than most other children's books). He doesn't seem to have a gracious bone in his body.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I have never read any of his books, I'm afraid. Nor have I heard of him. But if he's not a Blyton fan, then I'm not really missing much am I.

[Petermax]

Philip Pullman always seems to be griping about other authors.

Surely the wisest people about are those that keep their silence. Mr Pullman's criticism of his fellow authors has simply rebounded upon him. For the record, I enjoyed His Dark Materials Trilogy, but felt that book three, The Amber Spyglass had stretched its production values somewhat. Has anyone actually counted how many new characters made an appearance? Certainly more than the first two books put together.

J K Rowling also made the same mistake with the last four Harry Potters which make War and Peace look as slim as a Ladybird book! At least the Enid Blyton books are of a consistant length and look quite uniform sat on a bookshelf. Compare that to a line of JK Rowling Potter books of wildly varying diameters!

[Tony Summerfield]

J K Rowling also made the same mistake with the last four Harry Potters which make War and Peace look as slim as a Ladybird book! At least the Enid Blyton books are of a consistant length and look quite uniform sat on a bookshelf. Compare that to a line of JK Rowling Potter books of wildly varing diameters!

I suggested to someone that if she had had a good editor they could have cut the books in half and they looked aghast! Sacrilege!

[Boodi]

Don't know whether I am way off topic here (apologies if I am), but I just wanted to say that while I really enjoyed the first three Harry Potter books and could not put them down, I found the later books in the series very hard going indeed and I did not finish the last two. Somehow they failed to hold my attention, and I felt that I had better things to do (and read) than waste my time struggling through them. My main objection was that the plot was dreadfully complex and complicated and I found a great many things difficult to understand (perhaps my IQ level is a bit low), plus the general mood became darker, more threatening and sinister as the series progressed. Anyway, I have never been tempted to re-read JK Rowling's Harry Potter (perhaps I will in time), while I have re-read many of Enid's books on a fairly regular basis, which would seem to indicate some sort of "lasting quality".

By the way, what is mechanically recovered meat? The term means absolutely nothing to me!

[Anita Bensoussane]

By the way, what is mechanically recovered meat? The term means absolutely nothing to me!

Mechanically-recovered meat consists of the meat residue which is left on the bones of an animal after the main cuts of meat have been removed. Machinery is used to blast and scrape it off the bones and it is used in meat products like sausages and burgers.

Anita