Nela Laughridge On: The Nostalgia of Reading Enid Blyton

Editor's Note: I met my very good friend Nela in high school. Later, when we were at university, we shared an apartment. In a recent email exchange, Nela and I were reminiscing about the Enid Blyton books we read as children. She very kindly agreed to write a guest post about them here.

I try to read every night to my six-year-old son Aaron and lately we’ve graduated to chapter books. Right now we’re reading Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven on the Trail. For those of you unfamiliar with Enid Blyton, she was a prolific British author of children’s short stories and novels who wrote primarily in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. As I was raised in Canada by British parents, our house was filled with these stories, often shipped to us by English aunties and grannies. As a child my very favorite was Enid Blyton’s fantasy series for children about a magical tree and the magic forest folk that inhabited it -- The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree(1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951).  While pregnant with Aaron, I dug them out of the attic to re-read them in hormonal anticipation of nights cuddled up on the sofa reading to my angelic child. I found them as delightful as I did as a child.

Revisiting these books is a poignant look at 1950s England. The lead characters’ names in The Faraway Tree series were Jo, Bessie, and Fanny. Modern reprints, in an effort to be more PC, have changed Fanny’s name to Frannie. Another character, Dame Slap, has been been change to Dame Snap, as to not to encourage corporal punishment. In the Famous Five series, Dick’s name is now Rick. The Secret Seven book we’re reading right now has a villain called “Stumpy Dick.” I wonder what his name will be changed to. Short Richard? Stubby Willie?

So far, Aaron is enjoying the Secret Seven book, and we’re moving on to the Famous Five series next. Both series are about upper class British youth solving crimes and getting into adventures, outsmarting criminals and authorities alike. The only issue I have is when I encounter words like "lorries," "torches," "car boots," and "tea time." I’m torn between reading them as "trucks,"  "flashlights," "trunks," and "supper" as to not confuse him, or reading them as is in an effort to make it more likely that he will understand his British nana when she comes to visit.

by Nela Laughridge

Editor's Note: One of my earliest memories is of my mother reading The Faraway Tree to me at bedtime.  I was particularly taken with Blyton's magic and fairy stories and, later on, with her Malory Towers series about life in a boarding school -- when I read the first Harry Potter book I was struck by how successfully it married those two elements.  Blyton's books are often disparaged as formulaic, classist, racist, and sexist -- they are definitely a reflection of their time -- but they continue to be among the most popular children's books worldwide.

Comments

[Susan T.]

What a nice column, complete with suggestions! I don't think I've ever read a single Enid Blyton book. I wonder if the Mississippi libraries (or, liberries, as many said) of my youth even owned them. Surely they did. I might have to try one out on my son. He's eight, but we've only just recently graduated to chapter book read-alouds.