Which book was Enid's Murder Of Roger Ackroyd?

[db105]

However, as they seem to base these stats on £-value, I personally don't think it can be a true reflection of the number of books sold, which to me is the only way to determine the popularity of an author. When Enid's books were first published they cost only a matter of pence compared to when J K Rowlings were first published and cost several pounds and books by, say Jamie Oliver, would likely cost a lot more per book than one by Enid Blyton, or maybe even JKR.

Well, obviously if you are going to compare money made on different times, you need to compare money adjusted by inflation. Comparing money without adjustment is worthless.

Comparing number of books sold can also have problems, particularly now that we have ebooks. Should 0.99£ ebooks count the same as 9.99£ ones? Should a 10-pages short story count the same as a novel?

[db105]

I'm guessing it's because the identity of the murderer comes as a shock if you haven't read it before.

Yes, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is so famous because of the remarkable plot twist at the end. Otherwise it would be a normal Poirot novel. The same could be said of Murder on the Orient Express and of The ABC Murders. Also also of And Then There Were None, which is usually cited as the beat Agatha Christie novel.

Christie was really good at plotting and misdirecting, but many of her most famous novels have very surprising twists.

[Boatbuilder]

However, as they seem to base these stats on £-value, I personally don't think it can be a true reflection of the number of books sold, which to me is the only way to determine the popularity of an author. When Enid's books were first published they cost only a matter of pence compared to when J K Rowlings were first published and cost several pounds and books by, say Jamie Oliver, would likely cost a lot more per book than one by Enid Blyton, or maybe even JKR.

Well, obviously if you are going to compare money made on different times, you need to compare money adjusted by inflation. Comparing money without adjustment is worthless.

Comparing number of books sold can also have problems, particularly now that we have ebooks. Should 0.99£ ebooks count the same as 9.99£ ones? Should a 10-pages short story count the same as a novel?

Yes, there are so many factors involved as you say db105, so I suppose it's a bit of a minefield in compiling such statistics. I don't see why an e-book sold shouldn't count in the number of books sold. Counting a 10-page short story may be a different matter, but how do they decide where to draw the line. I know I have seen what I thought looked like interesting books in e-book format on Amazon and when I have read the details noticed that it may have been only 20 pages or so and haven't been prepared to pay the asking price of maybe £2.99 for that number of pages.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I don't know whether any particular book can be picked out as pivotal, though the Famous Five appear to have struck a chord with many youngsters. As Courtenay says, Enid Blyton initially became well-known as a children's writer through the letters, articles, stories and poems she wrote for magazines like Teachers World. In one of her entries for Ladies' Year Book 1929, featured in the current Journal (number 68), Enid refers proudly to the fact that her husband Hugh Pollock was introduced as "Enid Blyton's husband" at a press dinner.

Maybe Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, her first full-length novel? That's a change of paradigm that allowed her to become much more popular.

Sheila Ray (in The Blyton Phenomenon, 1982) mistakenly states that Adventures of the Wishing-Chair was Enid Blyton's first full-length novel, but it wasn't published until 1937. The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies, mentioned by Pete, was actually Enid's first full-length novel and was published much earlier, in 1926. It was the first "chapter book" I read as a small child and I found it thrilling. I felt bereft when I got to the last few pages as I wanted it to go on forever.

Maybe one of the Noddy books could be Enid Blyton's biggest selling book worldwide - how that would surely make Anita's day!

I spotted a French Noddy book in a secondhand bookshop today but didn't buy it, though the title raised a smile - Oui-Oui à la Plage!

The Independent has made a list for World Book Day: 10 best children's books by Enid Blyton

I won't tell you what their number one choice was, but the ten books are varied and show Enid's range;

World Book Day: 10 best children's books by Enid Blyton

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 10566.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting Pete. I'll have to compare those choices with my own when I have the time.

[Wolfgang]

Maybe one of the Noddy books could be Enid Blyton's biggest selling book worldwide - how that would surely make Anita's day!

I spotted a French Noddy book in a secondhand bookshop today but didn't buy it, though the title raised a smile - Oui-Oui à la Plage!

That's one book I have in my "library", Anita. Do you want to borrow it ?

[Courtenay]

Will she say "Oui-Oui" to that proposal??

[Anita Bensoussane]

I think I'll have to pour (cold? ) water on that proposal!

[Courtenay]

Out of your Noddy and Big-Ears teapot? (Seriously, I've got a spare one if you want it... )

[pete9012S]

Getting back to the books:

Enid Blyton (1897–1968) was one of the twentieth century’s most prolific children’s authors and the creator of the Famous Five series. As a child Blyton was noted for her gift of storytelling, and in 1922 she published her first book, a collection of poems called Child Whispers. At the time she was working as a teacher, and she became a popular contributor of poems and short stories to Teachers World magazine.

By 1924 Blyton was making a steady income from her writing, and two years later she began editing the children’s magazine Sunny Stories (the title was changed to Enid Blyton’s Sunny Stories in 1937), in which many of her books would were serialised. The first full-length book published in this way was The Wishing Chair in 1937, followed by The Secret Island (1938), in which four children live like Robinson Crusoe on an island in a lake, The Enchanted Wood (1939), which introduced the Faraway Tree, and her first boarding school story, The Naughtiest Girl in the School (1940).

“These early books illustrate the wide range of genres in which Blyton wrote and represent some of her best work” (ODNB), but it was the Famous Five that would become her most popular creation. The children made their debut in Five on a Treasure Island in 1942 and would star in an additional twenty books that were adapted for radio, theatre, and television and translated into numerous languages. In 1949 The Secret Seven became the first book in a similar series catering to younger readers, and in the same year Blyton created for toddlers the character Noddy, who first appeared in Little Noddy Goes to Toyland..

https://www.peterharrington.co.uk/authors/b/enid-blyton" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So perhaps one of The Famous Five books is her biggest selling book?

[Rob Houghton]

I wonder who actually has the mindset to look at an EB book for £4,250 and think 'hey - I'll pop that into my 'basket' along with a couple of others!' certainly not me anyway!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that Five on a Treasure Island had sold more copies than any other Enid Blyton book. It's the first title of a series that is/has been incredibly popular globally, and it's been through numerous editions in the UK. The Faraway Tree titles have no doubt done wonderfully well too.

Out of your Noddy and Big-Ears teapot? (Seriously, I've got a spare one if you want it... )

I'm still waiting to be invited to your tea-party!

[Courtenay]

I wonder who actually has the mindset to look at an EB book for £4,250 and think 'hey - I'll pop that into my 'basket' along with a couple of others!' certainly not me anyway!

Hey, all the others on his website are a steal by comparison.

Seriously, though, I would probably go for Five on a Treasure Island as the book (if there really is just a single one) that "made" Enid Blyton. She was famous and popular already, but the Famous Five books are her best known and almost certainly the most widely read and reprinted and translated around the world, and the first in the series is a brilliant start to it and one of the most highly rated among fans to this day. If she'd finished her writing career in 1942 and never written the first Famous Five book or anything else she wrote after that, well, she had already produced plenty of high quality children's books (most memorably the Faraway Tree series, Galliano's Circus and the first Wishing-Chair book), but I wonder if they would have gone on and on selling and stayed in print for over 70 years if she hadn't thought up the Famous Five and turned them into her biggest-ever success, making sure her name will be remembered and associated with much-loved children's books forever? We'll never know, of course, but it's interesting to speculate.

I'm still waiting to be invited to your tea-party!

You and all other Society members are welcome to come over any time, so long as you give me at least a few minutes' notice so I can put the kettle on!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Goodo! It's lucky you've bought umpteen cups and teapots as the whole lot of us will be there in five!

[Courtenay]

Too bad I'm away from home at the moment. (And don't forget the cups are only about 2 inches tall, so you won't be getting very much tea...)

[pete9012S]

Again, a bit of digging reveals - Five On A Treasure Island and The Famous Five books do seem to have been enormous sellers for Enid:

Blyton intended to write only six or eight books in the series, but owing to their high sales and immense commercial success she went on to write twenty-one full-length Famous Five novels, as well as a number of other series in similar style following groups of children discovering crime on holiday in the countryside.[1] By the end of 1953 more than six million copies had been sold. Today, more than two million copies of the books are sold each year, making them one of the best-selling series for children ever written, with sales totalling over a hundred million.[2] All the novels have been adapted for television, and several have been adapted as films in various countries.

Blyton's publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, first used the term "The Famous Five" in 1951, after nine books in the series had been published. Before this, the series was referred to as The 'Fives' Books.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Five_(novel_series" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Pretty impressive sales figures even by the early 1950's.