Enid Blyton

Blyton’s father died of heart attack in 1920. She was told that he died while fishing on the Thames but the truth was he died of a stroke while sitting in an armchair at his home in Sunbury, Florence. The truth about her father’s death was not revealed to the public as her mother had kept the breakdown of their marriage a secret otherwise it would have caused them great dishonor.

In 1924, she got married to Hugh Alexander Pollock, who was the editor of the company that was publishing her books. He was honored the D.S.O for WWI. They got married quietly at the Bromley Register Office, where no one from Blyton or Hugh’s family was invited. They lived together first in Chelsea and then moved together to Elfin Cottage in Beckenham in 1926.

In 1929, the couple started living in Old Thatch, in a cottage near the river Thames in Bourne Ed, Buckinghamshire. Blyton had a trouble conceiving children in the beginning of their marriage but in 1931 she gave birth to their daughter Gilian and thereafter, after a miscarriage in 1934, their younger daughter Imogen was born in 1935.

Enid Blyton was born in East Dulwich, London, to Thomas Carey Blyton, who was a salesman of cutlery, and Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton. After her birth, Blyton family moved to Beckenham in Kent and Enid spent most of her childhood there.

It was in Beckenham that her younger brothers were born: Hanley Blyton and Carey Blyton. She was very close to her father and they both shared a loving relationship. They both had a zest for knowledge and enjoyed nature, art, theatre, music and literature.

Her father taught her many great lessons that she carried with herself throughout her life. She developed a special love for gardening because her father was an ardent lover of the nature. But she was not very fond of her mother, though. Her mother was homely and domesticated who did not approve very much of Blyton’s bold expeditions of knowledge along with her father.

The First school ever that Blyton attended was a small school in Kent run by a couple of sisters and it was called ‘Tresco’. It was situated opposite to the Blyton house. Later in life, she recalled her days at Tresco as happy and memorable. She was good at art and nature study but was not quite as clever at mathematics.

In 1907, she was sent to a senior school in Beckenham called the St. Christopher’s School for Girls. She was a very dedicated pupil, full of life and enthusiasm for learning. She used to organize concerts, was a tennis champion and the captain of the lacrosse team. She received many awards for excellence in various fields, especially English composition. She was also appointed as the Head Girl of the school.

In 1916, Blyton’s first poem ‘Have you?’ was published in Nash’s Magazine. This was the first documented published work of hers. She finished her teacher-training course in 1918 and taught at a boy’s preparatory school called Bickley Park School in Kent.

After a year’s time, she became a governess to four boys at Southernhay house in Surbiton, Surrey. She started an experimental school in there and a lot of children from the neighborhood used to come to learn from her. She was there for 4 years.

In 1920s, her writings started to get noticed and published in various publications. Her stories and articles started getting published in ‘Teacher’s World’ and she did some work for greeting cards as well. In 1922, her first book was published called ‘Child Whispers’. It was a short volume of poetry and throughout the next year, her short stories, poems, plays, etc. were published.

In 1924, Blyton was signed up by the publishing company called George Newnes and her ‘London Zoo – The Zoo Book’ came out. This was the time when she met her first husband Hugh Alexander Pollock, who was the editor of the publishing company then.

In 1925, her first full-length novella was published called ‘The Enid Blyton Book of Bunnies’; it was later renamed as ‘The Adventure of Binkle and Flip’. This book was a collection of different stories.

‘The Story of My Life’ is considered by the critics to be the fiction of her own life because not even once she mentioned her First husband Hugh in it and all the details are from her life with her second husband Kenneth and her children from the first marriage, Gillian and Imogen. Readers are given the impression that Kenneth is the father of the girls.

The topic of Blyton’s over 600 books revolved around the experiences of regular children in unusual circumstances. They were either portrayed having an adventure or solving a mystery or being brave in general. A lot of her books also revolved around school settings and some of the books were out an out fantastical.

Her books were disapproved by the literary authorities for a very long time. Libraries did not keep her books, for they felt that her writing was too unrealistic and misled the children into thinking that life is a bed of roses.

Her writing style was considered to be immature, with limited use of vocabulary; all in all a poor role model for the children. But her books were becoming very famous amongst the children and they used to write her lettesr to thank her for her books. Blyton used to say that any critic over the age of 12 is not really the best critic for her books.

In 2009, BBC film made a movie on Blyton’s life. The role of Enid was performed by the famous British actress Helena Bonham Carter.