Teachers World Letters 1943

[Anita Bensoussane]

I like reading Enid Blyton's columns through the year so I thought I'd follow her Teachers World contributions for 1943 (when Enid married Kenneth) as I believe Tony has most of the relevant pages from that year. I've read the first two and they're jolly, amusing, informative and chatty as always.

Enid Blyton opens by talking about Christmas 1942 at Green Hedges, mentioning that some things such as balloons and tangerines were unavailable because of the war but that they still had a lovely time with dolls for Gillian and Imogen, a fort and soldiers for Kenneth (the cook's little boy), stockings full of treats and a Christmas tree lit by candles. Incidentally, I think Kenneth was the grandson of "Old Tapping", the gardener who was fired.

The winter is mild, with roses and marigolds and celandines in bloom, and Enid is already looking forward to spring:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1920


The next page has a bit missing from the top but only a little of the text is affected. Enid Blyton writes of flowers, snow, wrens, bees and sounds she loves, and reminisces about past gardens. Bobs (who had died in 1935 but lived on in Teachers World) is rather put out to learn that Enid likes the sound of cats purring!

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1921

[Tony Summerfield]

Sorry about the missing bit, but I think that's the only one that is actually missing text. What you might find interesting from the first letter is that when I was having a fairly lengthy phone conversation with Imogen about five years ago I heard someone cough in the background and I said that she should have shut me up as she had a visitor. She replied that it was Kenneth who was staying with her for a few days and he wouldn't mind. Imogen was very good at keeping in touch with anyone who had been there in the Green Hedges days and here was Kenneth still in touch over 70 years after that letter was written.

[pete9012S]

Just had a bash at enlarging the first letter to read it a bit better:

[Anita Bensoussane]

I remember you saying that Imogen and Kenneth had kept in touch over the years, Tony. It's lovely that they were still meeting up after all that time.

[Anita Bensoussane]

We learn about 'planting' mistletoe this time, among other pieces of news.

Wartime rationing affected the garden birds, as people couldn't spare food to put out for them. That's something I hadn't really thought about before.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1922

[Kate Mary]

The Mystery of the Disappearing Pigeon - sounds like a case for the Five Find-Outers and Dog!

[Katharine]

Pete, thanks for putting up the large version - I enjoyed reading it.

Tony, that was very interesting to hear that Imogen had stayed in touch with Kenneth all those years.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Enid Blyton has experienced a cold snap this week, with ice and frost, but she's still hearing from her readers about flowers blooming. Where I live there's a sheltered garden near the river and daffodils have already been in full bloom there for some days, along with a carpet of snowdrops. Today I also saw purple crocuses flowering in another sheltered garden. Spring is on its way!

Enid Blyton writes of Gillian and Imogen reading her proofs and earning a penny for each mistake spotted (I think that is mentioned in Barbara Stoney's book). We also learn that Imogen (aged 7 at the time) is a bookworm - a word which confuses Bobs no end!

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1923

[Anita Bensoussane]

Today's letter is particularly interesting for references to wartime living and anecdotes concerning Imogen.

We're reminded of how war affected everyday life when we read remarks like:

They [the black hens] should have laid last year, but I suppose the food we have to give them now is not so good for egg-laying as it should be...

Imogen is very excited because I have given her a new bicycle... I meant to give her one when her birthday came, but we have to buy things when we see them now...

Regarding Imogen, Enid writes of Imogen being proud of her because the hens laid an egg after she (Enid) talked to them. She also says that Imogen offered to pay for her new bike using money from her money-box as she didn't expect to receive such a big present when it wasn't Christmas or her birthday. Unsurprisingly, Imogen didn't have enough money but Enid said she could pay for it by working hard in her new form at school. Enid writes, "I don't really want to be paid, of course - but I am always pleased when children want to give something in return - it shows they have the right spirit, doesn't it?"

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1924

[Katharine]

Since reading Imogen's book, I find it difficult to fully appreciate articles like this.

Was Enid lying and making up 'nice' stories about herself to look good for her readers, or did Imogen forget such events?

[Judith Crabb]

We know that memory is selective. An unhappy child reinforces the unhappiness by remembering and re-remembering the hurtful things, constantly. These things become 'hard-wired' into the consciousness. The reverse happens with a happy child and in the past we had expressions such as 'blessed with a cheerful disposition'. This is oversimplified but seems validated by contemporary psychology. In Imogen's case add to this a mother who was extremely busy and who was probably unaware of what was going on in her daughter's head. I suspect that Enid might defend herself by saying that she wasn't a mind-reader.

[Jomo]

An unhappy child reinforces the unhappiness by remembering and re-remembering the hurtful things, constantly.

Having read excerpts of Imogen’s account, widely cited by the agents of the ‘against’ case, I wonder if it was simply that the nannies hired to look after Imogen simply did not do their job well, certainly not anything like the way Enid would have done it if she had been hired in that capacity, as for instance she had done as Governess to the Thompsons.

Imogen apparently was lonely and neglected, but she had access to her mother for quality time after work hours were over. Like other working mothers, EB seems to have kept strict ‘office hours’, with additional time given over to answering correspondence from readers in the evening. But it was the long lonely hours of solitude that impacted Imogen and it was those that formed her emotional perceptions. This was sad for the child and we know she sought psychotherapy of some kind as an adult - and became a psychologist herself! But rehashing childhood trauma does very little to ameliorate it and can simply amplify and reinforce the resultant feelings and beliefs, with loss, loneliness and resentment embittering the adult self.

I think we need to take Imogen’s accounts with a grain of salt, and weigh the evidence of Gillian’s much happier recollections and the evidence of the activities and events recorded by Enid. Not that Imogen was fabricating anything but that her memories are seen through a dark filter that excludes the light that may have been there.

[Kate Mary]

I absolutely agree with Judith's and Jomo's posts. I've always thought that A Childhood at Green Hedges told us more about Imogen than about Enid.

[Katharine]

Good points. I suspect that Enid probably added a little bit of poetic licence to her letters, but will read them in future with the attitude that they were based on the truth.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I like Enid Blyton's description of the pollination of hazel. She explains things simply but lucidly.

Enid also mentions ivy berries, which I happened to notice yesterday for the first time this year. I remembered that the fairy folk use them as buttons in some of Enid Blyton's short stories.

Heh - trust Bobs to have the idea of looking for "dogkins" instead of catkins!

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1925