Enid Blyton, at the Heart of Every Childhood

Enid Blyton or Enid Mary Blyton was an english children’s book writer. She was born in Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, South London on 11 August 1897. She was the first child of Thomas Carey Blyton and Theresa Mary Hamilton.


Enid started school when she was ten years old, and became a popular student in school. With Mirabel Davies and Mary Attenborough, Enid made a magazine called "Dab", where Mirabel made a poems, Mary made the illustrations, and Enid made short stories.

Enid Mary Blyton. Source

Since childhood, Enid really likes to read. She liked Lewis Carroll’s "Alice In Wonderland", Louisa Alcott’s "Little Women", George Macdonald’s "The Princess and the Goblin", and R.N. Ballantyne’s "The Coral Island".

But, after Enid’s parents divorced, the condition is obviously made Enid feel devastated. That’s why she often writes, "his father did not pay attention to his family", "his father went away", "his father died", and other similar phrases in her stories.

Then Enid and her siblings were brought to Elm Road 14 in Beckenham, Kent. Overwhelmed with sadness, Enid begins to write and sent a number of her poems and stories mass media. Unfortunately it was always rejected. Nevertheless, at the age of fourteen, Enid won a poetry writing contest. At that time she received praise from Arthur Mee, a writer who encouraged her to continue writing.

When she get a chance to enroll in the Guildhall School of Music, Enid denied. Although it was her father's dream, Enid felt the writing path was her way of life.

Enid's relationship with her mother was not as good as Enid's relationship with her father. Instead, Enid found the ideal mother figure in Mabel Attenborough, the aunt of her schoolmate. Aunt Mabel encourages Enid to continue writing stories and poetry.

Still confused to continue her schooling, Enid is advised to take a vacation to the Hunt family farm in Suffolk and meet Ida Hunt who invites her to involved in teaching children. It was Ida who suggested Enid to go to the teacher's school. Finally, in September 1916, Enid was educated as a kindergarten teacher at Ipswich High School.

Althought, Enid had to stop writing fiction that she liked. But she never stopped to write poetry In fact, her poem titled “Have You” was published in Nash's Magazine in 1917. She was even more active writing.

Enid's poem titled "Have You". Source

After graduating in 1918, Enid became a child's private teacher. She is very liked, especially her fairy tale. Seeing the reaction of the students to the story and tale, Enid ventured to submit her work to the magazine. "Teachers` World" became a place to accommodate the works of Enid, even the editor of the magazine raised Enid to become a permanent writer with her own column named From My Window.

Since the book of poetry collection, "Child Whisper", distributed in 1922, Enid's career as a writer is growing. Subsequent books followed, every book was published by J. Saville & Newnes.

While in the publication of J. Saville & Newnes, Enid met Major Hugh Alexander Pollock, and fell in love. They finally married on 28 August 1924, and lived in Elfin Cottage, di Shortlands Road, Beckenham, Kent.

Enid's first husband, Hugh Alexander Pollock. Source

After her first child, Gillian, was born, Enid who still kept her obsession to write adult novels, began writing "The Caravan Goes On". However, her work was denied by publishers so she returned in writing children's stories.

Enid success make it inadequate that she often got drunk, and damaged her relationship with her husband. In 1942, Pollock divorced Enid with a record still allowed to meet their two daughters. Then Enid married Kenneth Darrell Waters, a surgeon, a year after the divorce.

Enid and her husband, Kenneth Darrel Waters. Source

In 1942 also, the famous series "Famous Five" began to be written. She writes the story of Julian, Dick, George, Ann, and a dog named Timmy every year. She wrote 21 titles in this series.

All titles of Famous Five series. Source

Enid's productivity is still ongoing. She also wrote "Secret Seven", "The Adventurer series", "The Mystery series" and "The Barney Mystery Books". And when World War II took place, she took care of printing every work. Even then she wrote ten thousand words per day.

Enid Blyton's series (Secret Seven, Adventure Series, and Mystery Series)

Source, here, here, here.

In 1945, she stopped filling the column in "Teachers' World". Then published "Little Noddy Goes to Toyland" which later became a famous series. Then in 1952, she published "Enid Blyton Magazine".

Her succes doesn’t mean she was not criticized. Between 1950 and 1960, her works are considered to emphasize the role of gender in a rigid and displays the values of middle-class casual. Her works were considered uneducated and withdrawn from public libraries, and even banned in schools. Some of hes writings are also mentioned not written by herself.

After "Enid Blyton Magazine" stopped publishing in late 1959, Enid's concentration to write began to disappear. Then her husband died in 1967. She herself followed on 28 November 1968 after writing about seven hundred books, spread all over the world.

Information source : http://pelitaku.sabda.org/enid_blyton