The Enid Blyton Society

Chrissie777 wrote:Even though I disagree with most of the text (I think Adam Lee-Potter made EB look worse than she really was) and hope he'll receive criticism from DORSET MAGAZINE readers for calling Sooty Lenoir a French schoolboy (?)...

Not to mention claiming Sooty was black and "thoroughly unlikeable" and Enid therefore was racist. I consigned my copy of the magazine to the recycling bin a few weeks ago — there were some good things in it, but that leading article spoiled it all.

I'm afraid I'm guilty of thinking Sooty was a French schoolboy too!

Wouldn't Sooty have been of French ancestry, with his name being Pierre Lenoir? I can't remember exactly what Enid Blyton says about his background.

I certainly always assumed he must be of French ancestry, but he most definitely wasn't black (or Enid would have said so) - let alone "unlikeable"!! He was one of my favourite "guest stars" in the Famous Five books that I read as a child, with his secret tunnels and ingenious buzzer to warn him when someone was approaching the room, and his eager willingness to be "in" on the Five's plans and to help them hide Timmy - I always rather regretted that Sooty didn't come into any of the later books.

I always assumed that 'Sooty' was either:
(a) from an expat French family, their departure to the UK possibly as far back as the Catholic French monarchy's persecution of the Protestant 'Huguenots' at the end of the seventeenth century. A large number (tens of thousands) of Protestants then moved to SE England - and many of them settled in Rye, which is the likeliest main 'original' (in basic details) for 'Castaway'. But it is unclear if Enid had visited Rye by the time she wrote the book and so would have come across Huguenot names there - or if her locally expert fellow-author at Newnes publishers, Malcolm Saville, advised her on local names for the Rye area.
or (b) from the Channel Islands, which Enid had definitely visited by this time.
I have wondered how long the family had been living in Castaway, and if Enid ever thought about their intriguing background. It's a pity she didn't set up the Lenoirs for another story later - ditto with Berta and her US father, Presumably as the house was Dr Lenoir's he had inherited or bought it himself , not inherited it from his cousin, 'Sooty's father.
Other famous expat French names in British literature include 'Poldark' - Winston Graham wrote that the origin of the family was as a Huguenot expat one, called 'D'Arques', who married into the Trenwiths of Trenwith in Cornwall and added on the Cornish name 'Pol'. So could a grown-up Sooty look a bit like Ross?

I have never thought of Sooty's ancestry, nor intend to now. I just loved the book and the characters.

My thoughts too, Nigel.

timv wrote: So could a grown-up Sooty look a bit like Ross?

Now there's a thought.

Moonraker wrote:I have never thought of Sooty's ancestry, nor intend to now. I just loved the book and the characters.

So you don't think that a character called Pierre Lenoir might be French?

I refer you to my statement above.

Courtenay wrote:...He was one of my favourite "guest stars" in the Famous Five books that I read as a child, with his secret tunnels and ingenious buzzer to warn him when someone was approaching the room, and his eager willingness to be "in" on the Five's plans and to help them hide Timmy - I always rather regretted that Sooty didn't come into any of the later books.

I feel the same.
The underground passages are my favorite scenes whenever I re-read "Smuggler's Top".

timv wrote:I always assumed that 'Sooty' was either:(a) from an expat French family, their departure to the UK possibly as far back as the Catholic French monarchy's persecution of the Protestant 'Huguenots' at the end of the seventeenth century. A large number (tens of thousands) of Protestants then moved to SE England - and many of them settled in Rye, which is the likeliest main 'original' (in basic details) for 'Castaway'. But it is unclear if Enid had visited Rye by the time she wrote the book and so would have come across Huguenot names there - or if her locally expert fellow-author at Newnes publishers, Malcolm Saville, advised her on local names for the Rye area.

I was also wondering if the Lenoirs maybe immigrated around the time of the French Revolution?
The DuMauriers did leave France around that time.

Maybe the author misremebered these lines:

‘If you saw him you wouldn’t think so,’ said Dick, with a laugh. ‘He’s awfully dark! Hair as black as soot, eyes like bits of coal, eyebrows that look as if they’ve been put in with charcoal. And his name means „The black one“, doesn’t it? Le - noir - that’s French for black.’

Quite possibly. But Enid would certainly have repeatedly called him "black" if he was actually black-skinned (as she does with other characters such as Jo-Jo) — and that still doesn't explain how the article writer ever got the impression that Sooty is "unlikeable".

Wolfgang wrote:
‘If you saw him you wouldn’t think so,’ said Dick, with a laugh. ‘He’s awfully dark! Hair as black as soot, eyes like bits of coal, eyebrows that look as if they’ve been put in with charcoal. And his name means „The black one“, doesn’t it? Le - noir - that’s French for black.’

I take that to mean he has black hair, and very dark brown eyes. Not his skin.