The Enid Blyton Society

I've finally finished Barbara Stoney's (updated) biography, about 16 years after I first picked it up in a library as a teenager. I'm kind of glad I waited until now because I can rationalise some things better in the book than I would have been able to then.

On the whole, I found it a rather sad book. I'm not sure if this is because I knew how the ending was going to turn out or if I felt Enid had an undercurrent of sadness in her life which was kept buried in her mind until she could no longer keep it down. It was a very interesting read although I thought it rather sped up near the end - perhaps this is because of all the diaries that had been destroyed from around this period.

I'm sure you guys have discussed the biography a long time ago (I'm just a newbie here) so I'll not go on and on but it is clear that her childishness was both a problem for her and also a great gift. She definitely enhanced my childhood and, I believe, my imagination and even my English, as an adult.

Hi Gavin and welcome! I read the Stoney biog fairly recently too and really enjoyed it, I don't think I would have got as much out of it if I had been younger when I read it.

I'm about halfway through this book at the moment and I am enjoying it so far

I'll let you know what I think of it when I've finished it!

Gavin wrote: I felt Enid had an undercurrent of sadness in her life which was kept buried in her mind until she could no longer keep it down..

This description is how I always feel about Enid in my mind too.Does anyone else agree?
What could Enid (or anyone else) do though?
People say you should let things out,but how could Enid have done that?
If she did,would she still have become an author?

pete9012S wrote:

Gavin wrote: I felt Enid had an undercurrent of sadness in her life which was kept buried in her mind until she could no longer keep it down..

This description is how I always feel about Enid in my mind too.Does anyone else agree?

Afraid not, Pete.

I fully agree with Pete here.

I do think that Enid had a deep sadness within her for most of her life, stemming back from her childhood. She coped well, as everyone has to that have these deep inner feelings of sadness or something missing, and her writing was her escapism into a world that she longed to be in, and happily she shared that joy and happiness with many children around the world who loved and still do love her works.

Childhood is an important part of one's life, and many things that happen during those vital years do have a pychological affect on the rest of your life I think.

I think like all people Enid had her fair share of sadness - and probably more, like the rest of us, but like Julie and Pete, I think her writing helped her cope with it. I can't recall whether this is actually true or just a figment of my imagination or part of Enid but didn't she spend her last few months recalling home and in particular her mother? I'd be grateful if someone can correct this but this always made me feel as if she was full of regret about her childhood had been.

After I read Barbara's biography I was left with the feeling that if Enid's childhood had been different, would she have been such a wonderful author? Pure speculation on my part, but I feel that if she'd had a happy and 'normal' childhood, she wouldn't have needed to escape into a perfect fantasy world, and therefore wouldn't have created the stories that she did.

It's hard to say of course, but if she'd been happier at home, would she have had as much contact with the Attenboroughs? What if she'd never stayed at Seckford Hall and helped in a local Sunday School, would she still have wanted to become a teacher?

I'm not convinced that Enid carried a deep sadness with her for most of her life. We know she was upset at losing her father but I think in later life, especially after her second marriage, she enjoyed her writing as well as the time spent in Dorset playing golf and at home in her garden. It's a few years since I read the biography but the impression I got was contentment at least until her final illness.

I think the early sadness in Enid's life certainly had an impact in her stories - and probably made her the successful writer she was, adept at wish-fulfilment stories which answered her longing to turn her childhood into an idyll such as those she created in her stories. I don't believe she carried the sadness through her life, but I certainly think the need to escape helped her to be a better writer. I also think, as Barbara Stoney hinted, that the departure of her father somehow prevented her developing fully as a woman, and kept her locked in a half child- half adult state, which helped her to identify with the children she wrote for.

Enid treated her own family horribly, especially her mother and Hanly.
I'm sure that before her dementia, she would have had some feelings of guilt and regret. She just wouldn't have admitted to them.

Of course, its nothing to the way Enid's mother treated Enid!

Yes, to become a proper house wife just like any other girls in her era.

I know everyone has their own views, on this subject, Paul, but in all fairness you weren't there, none of us was, and so you don't know the true facts!

And we should also remember that Imogen might not like her mother talked about in this way - especially by people who have never met her. Am I alone in finding harsh criticism of Enid by people who didn't know her off-putting and in bad taste?