The Enid Blyton Society

Not sure if this was just me lol – but, back in the 80s (when I first started reading Enid’s books) I remember spending hours trying to find out if any of her fictional villages/towns actually existed in real life. This was obviously before the internet so all I had to go on was my Dad’s Reader’s Digest and collection of A-Z street maps. This was also years before I read Barbara Stoney’s amazing biography – so I had no idea that Enid based many of her books in the areas around Bourne End and Beaconsfield. The Five Find-outers were my favourite and thankfully, in this series, Enid does reference many real towns and places (Marlow, Maidenhead, Burnham Beeches, etc). Therefore, I was able to work out quite accurately where the fictional town of Peterswood was located. However, I didn’t have the same success with any of her other books, but was fascinated to find out many years later that other places were real too (the swimming pool at Malory Towers, Whispering Island, etc)! To date, I have resisted the urge to visit some of these amazing locations – perhaps I am scared the reality will somehow ruin the treasured images created in my mind’s eye! Although, I would be interested to hear if any of you have took the plunge and seen these places for real?

Best regards,

Lex Fraser
(My own book The Adventure of the Missing Diva is currently for sale on Amazon)

Many of us (including me) have visited Old Thatch and wandered around Bourne End, Lex, and some have also visited Corfe Castle and Brownsea Island.

Sounds great, Fiona. We hope to visit Dorset soon, but unfortunately will have to wait for a couple a years or so - with 2 kids under the age of 4, a long drive from Leeds to Dorset is not high on the wish list!! Although, it will be nice to go when they are a bit older and can get more out of it. We have already bookmarked several destinations in Andrew Norman's Dorset book in readiness - hopefully it will live up to my imagination! Cheers, Lex

I've been to Dorset several times now, visiting Corfe Castle, Swanage, Blue Pool, Studland and others. We went to Brownsea Island four years ago and it was nothing like I'd imagined it as Whispering Island. It's still a lovely place to visit though, with all the red squirrels.

Of all the fabulous places to visit in Dorset, three stand out for me - Corfe Castle, the Blue Pool and Enid's golf course - with stunning views of Poole Harbour etc.

At the moment I'm living quite close to Dorset so I can get to Corfe , the nearby Blue Pool and Hartland Moor, Brownsea Island and Swanage easily and often go walking there. I have also been up on the hill above Studland by the golf course which Enid owned, and often (most recently a few weeks ago) to the Dancing Ledge cliffs pool carved from rock on the seashore W of Swanage which seems to have been turned into the Malory Towers pool . As my delayed book will show, hopefully in 2017, I think there are Blyton connections with other places in the 'Isle of Purbeck' around Corfe and Swanage too, also further afield around Dorchester.
Enid mentions Dorchester in 'Five On Finniston Farm' as the local town to which the Hennings go for a day out from FFarm. As she owned Manor Farm at Stourton Caundle some miles NE of Dorchester I think we can classify this place as a 'real life Blyton site'. She used its disused medieval chapel, turned into a barn, for the ex-chapel turned barn to which the secret passage leads in this book. I visited the place once with my parents in the 1970s on a day trip to Sherborne, but only saw it from the nearby road. I have been through Beaconsfield from time to time but not for a detailed look, and went to Bourne End via Maidenhead once for a riverside walk - but this was before I knew any detail of where Enid set the Five Find Outers books.

These posts from Fiona, John, Rob and Timv - might just make us fast track our Dorset holidaying plans (we will just have to invest in ear plugs for the drive down!)! Your books sounds great, Timv - please post on the forum when it is ready to go live. Cheers, Lex.