The Enid Blyton Society

Tony Summerfield wrote:
One thing that I can say is that the publishers missed out a large chunk of what she had written for the last edition of her biography. She was very upset and the publishers promised they would put it right when they reprinted, but this never happened as they went out of business without reprinting. As I proofread this chapter for her I have the missing chunk somewhere on my computer, but I am not sure where! Also as I think a lot of people already know, Barbara left me all her archives and I have boxes of material, some of which was never used.

How wonderful that Barbara left you all her archives and boxes of material! I hope we can all read the missing chunk and more from what you possess Tony.

Although i don't own copies of any of the books discussed here except for The Biography by Barbara Stoney published in 1992 i find the comments here enlightening and gave interesting as well as balancing views on Enid Blyton. I'm glad Imogen told us her story and gave us more insight to her mother

I was extremely sad to learn recently that Imogen had passed away.
This morning I found myself drawn to a poem by Enid that Imogen shared on the last page of her book:

Thanks for reminding us of that, Pete. 'April Day' is a beautiful poem and captures perfectly the hushed, hallowed feeling that nature can evoke.

I did not know that Imogen has passed away.When was this?

The end of February, though most of us just found out as it was in the latest Journal.

I have just received a copy of Imogen's book I purchased from ebay for £5.49.
It is in much better condition than my rather battered and well thumbed ex library copy that I have had for years.

There is an inscription on the very first page, inside the front cover.
Does it mean anything to anyone here I wonder?




Does this inscription mean anything to anyone?

There is a brief notice about Hugh Pollock's son by his first marriage, (Edward) Alistair Pollock - Gillian's and Imogen's half-brother - at the Ayrshire local history society website at: 'ayrshirehistory.org/Blyton/blyton2htm'. Apparently he was born in 1915 and farmed at Burnbrae farm, Symington; his half-sister(s?) met him at a family wedding in Ayrshire so this may be a reference to that occasion. Presumably it was in the 1940s to 1960s; the woman who wrote the dedication may have been a family relative of Alistair's mother or a personal friend as the names sounds Scottish and been at the wedding party. Alternatively, Enid's daughters kept in touch with him and saw him again later in England; Hugh himself seems to have ended up in Malta where he was buried in 1971.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply timv - those are excellent suggestions.
Thank you.

Pete

Sounds like you got yourself a real bargain there Pete.

The inscription sounds intriguing.

I can't work out what the first name is, at first glance I thought it was Isabel, but now I'm not so sure.

I think the first name looks like Ishabel.

Yes, that's what I think it looks like, but I've never heard of that as a name.

Thanks for that information timv. However, your web address doesn't seem to work. I have done some Googling, and this one might be to which you refer:

http://www.ayrshirehistory.org.uk/Blyton/blyton.htm

Very interesting.

Thanks; the article I was referring to has the same address but with a '2' after the 'Blyton' and is headlined as 'an update' ie to the first article. I think I left a full stop out of my listing, which presumably meant it did not work.

The '2- is after the second 'Blyton', where the 'b' is in lower case, just to confirm. Hope that works!

A very interesting inscription, Pete!

From "andofmeeting" on the third line we see that the writer has a tendency to run words together, so maybe what looks like "Johabel" or "Ishabel" starts with "To" rather than with "Jo" or "Is"? That could perhaps make it "To Mabel...", though it's still unclear.

Imogen says in her book:

One summer holiday, when I was about sixteen, I went with my sister to Ayr for the wedding of a Scottish cousin, my father's nephew. It was a friendly affair and I found myself quite enjoying the reception until someone suddenly came up to me and said, 'Imogen, this is your brother Alistair.' Alistair was fair and slim like my father and he was, of course, considerably older than I was. I had known nothing of his existence, not even that my father had had another child. I was quite stunned. After the wedding we corresponded for a while, I looking for a substitute for my own father, but we had nothing in common and lost touch. My sister tells me that he died of cancer when still quite young.

Incidentally, Hugh Pollock had two sons with his first wife (Marion Atkinson). Alistair was the second, born in 1915. The elder one (Alexander, born in 1914) died as an infant (aged about two) while Hugh was away at the Front. According to Wikipedia, his given names were William Cecil Alexander:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Alexander_Pollock

I seem to remember hearing that Imogen was to have been named Alexander if she'd been a boy.