Which Enid Blyton character would you like to have married?

[Irene Malory Towers]

For me Fatty, but there are plenty of other good contenders, Barney, Bill, Julian even Snubby,
If I were male (and heterosexual) then I would choose Darrell or Irene (my namesake) or Belinda although you would be worried she would be drawing sneaky caricatures of you and posting them on social media. I find the girls in the adventurous stories rather colourless compared to the boys with the exception of George, The girls in the school stories have more rounded and interesting characters.

[Bertie]

This is a tricky one as I've only really read the mystery / adventure stories (over and over again!), so only have a limited number of female characters to choose from and, as Irene says, many of them are rather colourless.

I identified a lot with George in the early FF books - her love for Timmy, happy to be alone rather than in a crowd, not liking any fakeness in people, etc. But I would imagine she'd be a difficult person to be married to. Same with the fiery Diana in the Adventure series. Conversely, characters like Anne, Lucy-Ann, Daisy are rather colourless. Bets has some character, but it feels even weirder picking the youngest of all!

That leaves Diana from the Barney R's as a reasonably decent, all round character. But she's a bit bland as well. So I guess I've worked my way back round to George - but more as the Enid Blyton female I'd like to be friends with, rather than deal with her as a fiery wife!

[Boodi 2]

That is something I never really thought about, but having considered the matter now I came to the conclusion that of the various male characters in the books the two that I would choose as a potential husband/partner are oddly enough Dick (FF) because he is very kind and reliable and Jack Longfield because of his interest in animals and the fact that I would like to live at Mistletoe Farm! While I love reading about Fatty, Barney and Snubby I feel that they might be too overpowering as a husband/partner!!! I also like Ern Goon but am not sure that I could cope with his family!!!!

[Splodj]

I could be Zoe Markham's Splodjsie.

I hope marrying a Blyton character comes with the service of all those cooks, maids and servants!

[Bertie]

Oh yeah, good call about Zoe Markham!

I was focusing on the regulars of the series that I read and forgot all about considering the one off characters.

[IceMaiden]

Definitely Bill. I have a thing for a smart, dashing, clever, sophisticated yet mysterious man who lives a dangerously exciting life and turns up all knight in shining armour at just the right moment

[Irene Malory Towers]

I confess ignorance as to Zoe Markham. Please enlighten me. Yes the girls are not so fleshed out so to speak. They tend to be more black and white - either fiery like George and Diana - or girly ones like Lucy-Ann or Anne. You have to go the girls schools stories to get more in depth characters. For me Fatty is the overwhelming winner - he has it all - humour, generosity, loads of talents and is generally nice. He could even disguise himself every week in case you get bored of his appearance ! What a guy. And Mr Goon would be the one I would not like to marry.

[Bertie]

I confess ignorance as to Zoe Markham. Please enlighten me.

Zoe Markham was in The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat. She was the young woman who was friendly with Boysie (the pantomime Cat) and who Goon thought had committed the crime because of the handkerchief with 'Z' sown on it.

[Debbie]

T Conversely, characters like Anne, Lucy-Ann, Daisy are rather colourless. Bets has some character, but it feels even weirder picking the youngest of all!

That leaves Diana from the Barney R's as a reasonably decent, all round character. But she's a bit bland as well.

I wouldn't describe any of those as colourless or bland.

Anne and Lucy-Ann are quite similar. They're both the youngest of the group, and less interested in adventures and more interested in enjoying being with their family.
However they are different, in that Lucy-Ann is more into the adventures, and I suspect if she'd been the older and Jack the younger, then she'd have been more into getting on with the adventure. She is a bit inclined to cling to Jack, but that is natural as they've been all to each other for so long. We don't hear how their parents died, but it could have been during the war, and the children just informed later. That's going to make her cling more onto the family she has left, in the same way it's made Jack more independent.
Anne is more into playing house, and doing the cooking and that sort of thing. She doesn't do it "because she's a girl". She does it because she enjoys it. If it was a boy enjoying woodworking then they'd be praised for that. Why shouldn't Anne enjoy cooking and "home skills"? We know she's academic, more than the rest of "the Five" and does well at school too.
Both of them are brave. They keep going into the adventure if they need to to protect their "family", even though they're scared. That's true bravery.

Daisy we see a very different side because they don't do the going off on their own without family in the same way. She's often motherly towards Bets, but also quite independent of the boys. She doesn't need the approval of Larry in the way that Lucy-Ann needs Jack's approval, nor does she need the reassurance that they're in control of the situation in the way Anne does. She does get left out sometimes when "the boys" go to do something, but I think there's two reasons why she doesn't make a fuss as George would have done. Firstly, she recognises that Bets is too young so if she insists on going then Bets is the only one left out. So she's prepared to put her feelings second to help Bets. Secondly Larry and Pip are better friends with each other than she is with them. They may even be at the same boarding school-they seem to have the same holidays anyway! So she knows that she is the third one in that group, and chooses not to push herself in.

Diana is quite different. She's really the one who is friends with Barney, wanting to meet up with him etc and as much into the adventure as the other two. If you have just her and Roger, then often she's the one making the decisions and choosing what to do.

[Bertie]

That's certainly a positive - and generous - interpretation of those characters, Debbie.

I used 'colourless' because I was agreeing with Irene in her OP. Personally, I do find the likes of Anne, Lucy Ann and Daisy quite boring characters. That's not to say they don't serve a role in their series - all the characters can't be like the likes of George, Fatty or Snubby. You need some quieter, 'straight' characters for balance. I just generally find them a bit duller compared to the more fiery or witty ones, that's all.

[Irene Malory Towers]

HI firstly thanks for the information on Zoe Markham, of course, I remember now and she sounded great. Really interesting to read your comments on the female lead characters Debbie and I do see what you mean. I was rather scathing of them. I think I feel/felt like that as compared to the males in the stories they appear they seem rather colourless. In most if not all of the adventure stories the males lead the way - and generally save the day too apart from the exception of George. So for instance, Jack and Philip have the dominating roles in the adventure stories, Andy does in the Adventurous 4, Julian and George (exception) in FF, Fatty in FFO's, Jack and Mike in Secret Series and in fact the Secret Forest and Secret of Moon Castle the girls don't appear in the main adventure part at all, Barney books - Barney and Snubby and even Secret Seven Peter and Jack lead the way. I don't actually think EB was sexist though, that was more the context of her time. But in the school stories which mainly featured females, they really come into their own and are much more fully fleshed out characters.

[Courtenay]

When it comes to female characters who have some real, well, character, and who do get to have adventures on their own and save the day, Lotta from the Galliano's Circus series definitely springs to mind. She's the Blyton character I would most like to be, hence my avatar! But the only Blyton character I have ever thought of in marriage terms is definitely Bill Smugs / Cunningham. Sorry, IceMaiden, we'll have to fight it out. (Although I think I had something of a Bets-style attachment to Inspector Jenks when I was little.)

[John Pickup]

Miss Pepper. She'd keep me on the straight and narrow. Nobody else can.

I would have gone for Susie from the Secret Seven books but her and me together would have been explosive to say the least.

[pete9012S]

Miss Pepper, now there's a curveball I did not see coming - good in the sack
race and very tolerant. Good choice John.

Glad you left me Susie as she is my dream girl. Intelligent, quirky, strong minded and a great body
of work in outwitting the very slightly bossy, domineering and overbearing Peter..

[Fiona1986]

Excellent line breaks there, Pete

My initial thought was Julian - but he might be a bit of a tiresome husband if he'd expect me to take over from Anne/his mother/Aunt Fanny in the cooking and cleaning department.

So I might be safer going with Dick! Although he's a bit useless in the kitchen at least he tries. Plus he has a bit more of a sense of humour.