Lola Onslow

[Kate Mary]

I saw a piece in the Mail online this morning stating that Enid had a lesbian affair with the artist Lola Onslow (sorry, tried and failed to put a link in - put it down to the dreaded lurgy). This one is news to me. According to the Cave Onslow did the cover and frontispiece to the first edition of The Book of Fairies and a number of magazine stories and contributions to annuals and not much else. Are there any records of Enid and Lola meeting I wonder?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry you've gone down with the dreaded lurgy, Kate. I hope you'll soon be better.

I've managed to find the article but it says very little:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mance.html

[Katharine]

Hope you feel better soon Kate.

Mmm, so Enid wasn't particularly interested in men, and yet she had numerous affairs? Bit contradictory to me, or we to assume that all her affairs were with women?

I'm afraid I'd take this piece of news with a pinch of salt - I 'remember' my grandmother pointing out the house were Enid Blyton was a governess to 2 small boys. Admittedly I was younger than in my 20s, but I've since found out that Enid wasn't a governess here, but did her teacher training, and that the house I always thought it was, was neither the school she studied at, or the house where she lived during that time.

I'm also wondering why Lola's grandson felt the need to share this bit of 'news' with the world, apart from wondering if it really matters whether she did or didn't have an affair with Lola (or anyone else), there are no facts or other information to back it up. I'm not suggesting his mother lied, but things do get distorted over the years, usually quite unintentionally.

[Barnard]

I suppose this Grandson is trying to make money from this unimportant ‘revelation’.

[Bertie]

I suppose this Grandson is trying to make money from this unimportant ‘revelation’.

According to the article, it's something that he mentions within his new book. I guess most books are written with the intent of selling and making money, but this is something the papers have picked up as a 'revelation' so that'll help with his publicity, yeah.

Whether or not there's any truth to it, I've read 'revelations' along similar lines about Enid elsewhere so it's hardly something that I find surprising or out of the blue. I remember a while back reading up on some of the olden days Hollywood actors who were mostly just names and faces on a screen to me, and included amongst most of those histories were suggestions of regular affairs, and being bisexual / closet homosexual - all of which was just mostly an 'open secret' that was kept more private at the time than it is with modern celebrities.

[Fiona1986]

I'd seen the new book listed at Waterstones, in the blurb it just said He also shares previously unrecorded details about Blyton’s personal life, notably her love affair with Royle’s grandmother. so I was thinking of the usual accusation about Dorothy the nanny. I've never actually heard of Lola Onslow so I was never going to guess it was her.

[Susie9598]

I just read the Mail article. Things like this make me a bit cross, although I suppose he’s entitled two publicise his new book. Two things in particular annoy me: firstly, it’s nobody’s else’s business who Enid Blyton was sleeping with. Secondly, she is famous because of being an important author for children, and it’s as an author that she matters and should be discussed. Nothing else. There’s a quote about separating the dancer and the dance which feels relevant here (only I can’t remember it).

[Katharine]

Interesting to hear the blurb - again seems to be a contradiction "..... unrecorded details". I thought the article said he wishes he'd asked his mother more as he wasn't interested when she told him. I suppose it depends on the definition of details. Personally, I don't count a brief comment from his mother several decades ago as 'details', but that's my own view.

I do find it interesting that 100 years after this affair may or may not have happened, that it was even considered newsworthy. It would be different it it turned out Prince Albert wasn't the father of Queen Victoria's children, and which would subsequently throw our current royal family's lineage into doubt, or papers came to light that showed a prominent MP was having an affair with a foreign counterpart at a time when trade deals/national security negotiations were taking place, and so there could be a case to answer as to whether such transactions had been unduly influenced.

It's been well documented that Enid was divorced, and that there is a blurred line as to whether it was her or Hugh who broke found a new partner first - something that could have had a detrimental affect on her career if it had been widely known at the time, but this is 2023, so who cares? Most families have single parents/divorces/same sex relationships etc etc in them somewhere - maybe all of the above. Perhaps this article is actually in favour of Enid - showing that she's not the stuffy, repressed, (boring) typical English housewife people thought she was?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Personally, I don't count a brief comment from his mother several decades ago as 'details', but that's my own view.

Mine too!