Important Auction Sale 15th September

[Viking Star]

And for further info, Seven Stories are hoping to digitise quite a large proportion of the typescripts and make it available online (this will depend on obtaining copyright permission), so that everyone will be able to see the first hand evidence of Enid’s working method.

Visitors to Seven Stories' archive will also be able to see the original material in the flesh (as it were). The archive is open to any member of the public, by appointment.

In the meantime Seven Stories plans to continue developing its Enid Blyton holdings and plans to mount the first ever major Blyton exhibition within the next few years.

[Lenoir]

That’s good news. The museum sounds like a fascinating place.
This was a great thread to read as well.

[Ming]

Good news indeed, thanks for the article, Rob.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for the link and the latest news, Rob. Nice to see the pictures of Sarah Lawrance and an assistant with the manuscripts etc. It's great that Seven Stories are already making plans.

[Viking Star]

Thanks for the link and the latest news, Rob. Nice to see the pictures of Sarah Lawrance and an assistant with the manuscripts etc. It's great that Seven Stories are already making plans.

Oh I hadn't noticed that! And thank you Anita!

Tony I was interested to read that the Malory text was the only one known to be in existence. I was going to ask if you had any information about where the other typescripts might be? I suppose if you knew that someone such as Imogen had typescripts, that would be her own private business and it might not be appropriate to say. But any light you could share on the subject would be interesting, please.

Apart from the typescripts you brought to one of the Enid Blyton days, the only other reference I have is Sarah saying that a typescript came up for auction about 5 years ago and fetched £2000 (maybe it was you who told her that?).

[Tony Summerfield]

I read the Guardian article and also had a look at the pictures, and it is perhaps worth saying that it isn't the only archive in existence as the Society has one or two things as well! I was interested that Seven Stories think they have an unpublished Mr Tumpy manuscript - I doubt if this is so, but until someone from Seven Stories contacts me I can't really comment.

As far as the manuscripts are concerned, when I visited Gillian in Yorkshire back in 1997 she had a huge number of manuscripts and I think what was in the sale was just the few that she had kept, when she moved house. I have only displayed ones from the main series at EB Days, but I do have some lesser ones that haven't been on display. The only Secret Seven I have is the serialised version that was used in Mickey Mouse and I don't have any of the School books, but I do have The Secret of Moon Castle, and I don't think there was another Secret one in the sale.

I don't know of any other sources of manuscripts, and no I have seen any from her earlier books, but for all we know Enid may have weeded these out herself - they certainly take up a fair bit of room as I can vouch with all the original Journal manuscripts - but sadly these wouldn't fetch thousands of pounds!!

[Green Hedges]

I suspect the Guardian report is wrong when it says Seven Stories bought two ms from the Mystery series. As I understand it, SS bought one and Viking Star bought the other. The EBS already has The Mystery of the Vanished Prince ms, I think, so that leaves 12 not accounted for. It's a big assumption, but if it is assumed that all the typecripts before 1950 were chucked out by Enid, then there may still be four or five kicking around. The Mystery of the Missing Manuscripts anyone?

Tony tells us that Gillian had many ms at her house in 1997. She would have known they had value and would not have chucked them out. Therefore her family and friends will have them now. I expect these will be released into the market in small numbers to keep the price up. Of course, they might also be donated in time to the likes of the EBS or SS.

Good to know that SS are going to scan the typescripts and put them online. I expect it's the sort of thing that Tony might be doing with the archival material that the EBS owns if he had more time and the odd member of staff to help with it all. Or maybe, having done such a great job with listing the book titles, cover images and internal illustrations of all Enid's published work, that will be a forthcoming project.

Gillian's collection of Mystery books should be delivered to me by tomorrow unless they go AWOL. I've got my fingers crossed that there won't be The Mystery of the Missing Mysteries. That would be a Mystery too far!

Duncan

[Viking Star]

Five go to Mystery Moor went for less than the other Famous Fives because it had been miscatalogued.

The typescript in question actually consisted of the title page and foreword for ‘Five go to Mystery Moor’, followed by the text of Circus of Adventure. Seven Stories spotted this when they viewed the archive back in July and we told the auction house about it at the time, expecting they would make a correction to the catalogue, but they didn’t.

The auctioneer made an announcement just before the lot was called but it wasn’t terribly obvious if you didn’t already know. Seven Storeys bid for the typescript knowing what it was, and were pleased when it went for less than the others.

I have a vague memory of reading - possibly even before I joined the Society - that Gillian was going to sell some of her EB possessions, possibly to help provide for her children. I remember being surprised that Enid Blyton's daughter needed to raise money in this way.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Five go to Mystery Moor went for less than the other Famous Fives because it had been miscatalogued.

The typescript in question actually consisted of the title page and foreword for ‘Five go to Mystery Moor’, followed by the text of Circus of Adventure.

That's interesting, Rob. Personally, I'd rather own an Adventure manuscript than a Famous Five one!

I have a vague memory of reading - possibly even before I joined the Society - that Gillian was going to sell some of her EB possessions, possibly to help provide for her children. I remember being surprised that Enid Blyton's daughter needed to raise money in this way.

I don't think I'd heard about that but I do remember that Gillian sold a few Blyton-related things when she moved house about six months before she died, including the oak grandmother clock that Enid Blyton had had since her days at Old Thatch or possibly even earlier than that.

[Viking Star]

Five go to Mystery Moor went for less than the other Famous Fives because it had been miscatalogued.

The typescript in question actually consisted of the title page and foreword for ‘Five go to Mystery Moor’, followed by the text of Circus of Adventure.

That's interesting, Rob. Personally, I'd rather own an Adventure manuscript than a Famous Five one!

I have a vague memory of reading - possibly even before I joined the Society - that Gillian was going to sell some of her EB possessions, possibly to help provide for her children. I remember being surprised that Enid Blyton's daughter needed to raise money in this way.

I don't think I'd heard about that but I do remember that Gillian sold a few Blyton-related things when she moved house about six months before she died, including the oak grandmother clock that Enid Blyton had had since her days at Old Thatch or possibly even earlier than that.

I could be with you re. an Adventure typescript Anita. At any rate I loved reading Circus (several times over of course) whereas I found Mystery Moor one of the less interesting Five books.

I imagine your recollection about Gillian is what I'm thinking of!

I've received extensive notes from Sarah on how to preserve 'Tally-Ho'. I'm quite excited!!

[Tony Summerfield]

You are quite right, Anita, there was an auction of a number of Enid Blyton's possessions whilst Gillian was still alive, mostly silver and jewellery.

As far as the manuscripts are concerned I recall a phone call that I had with Gillian just after she had moved house. She told me that she had had a massive clear out of Enid's papers and thrown a lot away. There was a stunned silence at my end of the phone, so she went on quickly to say that she hadn't thrown away anything of any value, just Enid's carbon copies. I told her that most of Enid's own copies of the manuscripts were just carbon copies and would have been of great value and I think she may have then realised what she had possibly done. She did say that she had kept a few top copies.

In another phone conversation she told me that she had thrown away a lot of Enid's shawls and clothes and added that she had also thrown away Enid's fountain pen as it no longer worked properly, once again I expressed my horror! I got the feeling that Gillian was just throwing away things that belonged to her mother that she no longer wanted, and she has not fully registered that she was actually throwing away things that belonged to Enid Blyton.

[Viking Star]

Oops. Thanks Tony for the information about the typescripts. Seeing your second post reminded me that I forgot to thank you for your first post!

Unfortunately "She told me that she had had a massive clear out of Enid's papers and thrown a lot away" sounds as though you may have rather succinctly summed up where things stand as far as the typescripts are concerned. What a shame!

To think that Kenneth burned so many of Enid's personal papers including her diaries, and then all these years later Gillian has a "massive clear out" and even more material that could have shed light on Enid has probably disappeared without trace.

[Katharine]

Tony, do you think it's possible that Gillian was suffering from some early form of dementia the same as her mother, as I can't think of any other reason why she'd just throw out the paperwork and pen? Bad enough that Kenneth destroyed so much, but that was many years ago. It seems especially sad that personal effects were destroyed only within the last few years.

It's a pity the belongings of someone as famous as Enid Blyton couldn't have some kind of preservation order put on them in the same way as buildings are listed. Although I realise that would probably be very difficult to enforce.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Yes, it seems so sad that so much of Enid's possessions have been destroyed. Gillian must have thought of them as, just her Mother's things, that she would no longer need. We do destroy possessions from our parents, when they pass away, because we feel we won't use them anyway. Most possessions we tend to pass down are items of jewellery.

I would have loved to have some clothing possessions of Enid's, especially her shoes. There is a photo of Enid outside Green Hedges, with a shopping basket, and on her feet are some sandals that I remember many women wearing in the 50's. My own Aunt had a pair. I would have put in a bit for those if they had been in an auction. Just think, those 50's sandals could have become as popular as Cinderella's glass slipper or Dorothy's red shoes!

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's a terrible shame to hear about things belonging to Enid Blyton, which had been kept for several decades after her death, being thrown away within the last four or five years.

In August I visited Charles Darwin's residence, Down House in Kent, and it was fabulous to see personal belongings such as his microscope and notebooks, pictures on the walls painted by a member of the family, and his children's toys. One item which sticks in my mind is a list he'd drawn up when considering whether to get married (to his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood). He had listed "fors" and "againsts", and as the first list was longer he went ahead and proposed - and was accepted!

I've seen one of Enid Blyton's diaries and she was pretty guarded in that, with entries consisting of things like "Polished the bookcase today", "Imogen was sick" and "Went to the cinema to see The Little Princess. It was good." Hard to glean much about the inner workings of her mind from that, though she seems to have been more open in letters to trusted friends like Dorothy (extracts from at least one of those are printed in Barbara Stoney's Biography) and Dorothy's replies may well have been quite revealing too, so it's a pity that so little personal stuff has survived. It's believed that Kenneth may have destroyed some of the workbooks in which Enid Blyton listed work she had done, with dates and amount paid. Tony has one of the early workbooks and it has been invaluable in tracing some of her lesser-known work.