The Enid Blyton Society

Eljay wrote: As for the colour photographs: who's to say if the colour is real or not?

As identical (apart from the colour!) photos exist in black and white, I think it's safe to say that the colour has been added.

You may well be right, Nigel. On the other hand, it's possible that the photos were taken in colour but printed in magazines etc. in black and white to save on printing costs. Just a thought!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:On the other hand, it's possible that the photos were taken in colour but printed in magazines etc. in black and white to save on printing costs. Just a thought!

I had a feeling I had seen the original photos, but can't be sure.

Anita has said what I was about to. In the past it was not uncommon for pictures to be taken in colour and for prints to be struck in both colour and black and white, depending on what the publication buying them wanted. Today, colour printing costs have come down considerably and everything is done digitally anyway where the colour can be switched off at the click of a button.

Until someone sees the negatives of these pictures, I assume they were in colour. I can't imagine anyone in the 1960s going to all the trouble of colouring pictures by hand when colour film was fairly cheap by then, even for amateurs. The colours look quite natural to me, but it's strange that Enid's hair looks bluer in some of the pictures than in others! Variations in lighting and exposure, perhaps? It's also strange that one of the pictures is in black and white (on the Pictorial Press website, anyway) - assuming it's from the same photoshoot.

Eljay wrote: Until someone sees the negatives of these pictures, I assume they were in colour. I can't imagine anyone in the 1960s going to all the trouble of colouring pictures by hand when colour film was fairly cheap by then, even for amateurs.

Imogen has said in the past that no photographs of Enid were ever taken in colour, and as it's unlikely that we shall ever see the negatives, I think it is fair to say that these were b&w pictures that were 'colourised'. I had an aunt who worked in a local photographer's, colourising black & white photographs in the 40s/50s. It was not an unusual service for a photographer to offer. Even in the 60s, colour film and processing was considerably dearer than black & white, and it was certainly unusual in my experience to see colour snaps in evidence. I believe now, however, that black & white processing is a dearer process. Of course, with most people using digital photography, different effects can be achieved - b&w and sepia, for example - at no extra cost.

I saw a pic of her in a secret seven book...

I have seen some pics of her in magazines .

Kenneth wrote: I also discovered recently a short film of Enid, filmed for the french television in 1964.(This time in black and white!)
You can see Enid walk around in her garden, Green Hedges is shown and there is an interview with Enid in her lounge in front of her fireplace. In the background you can see the bow-window of the lounge.
The interview and the comments of the film are in french, but Enid's answers are in english. Except the letter she reads, she received from a french girl. - If anyone needs a translation, just let me know, cause my french is pretty fluent, but I'm in a hurry now.
Here's the link to the short film:
http://www.ina.fr/art-et-culture/litter ... ts.fr.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Cheers, Kenneth (Michael)

Hi Michael/Kenneth,

Thank you soooo much for the link to INA. I have ordered one French TV series at INA about two years ago (still receive their newsletter), something I had watched on German TV way back in 1966 or 1967.
But without your link I would have never discovered this short film on Enid Blyton.
For decades I only saw photos of her, read books about her life, read most of all her wonderful suspense series, but I did not know that she was on film as well.
The interview was wonderful. I will show it to my husband who speaks French fluently and am sure he will enjoy it, too.
This truly made my day !!!

Moonraker wrote:I had an aunt who worked in a local photographer's, colourising black & white photographs in the 40s/50s. It was not an unusual service for a photographer to offer. Even in the 60s, colour film and processing was considerably dearer than black & white, and it was certainly unusual in my experience to see colour snaps in evidence.

Hi Nigel,

I have some photos from my mom and her parents and her brother that have been taken in the early thirties when she was very little and have been colorized. I love those colors that they used for colorizing way back then.

Yes, they had a certain je ne sais croix about them.

Quoi or croix ?

I love the way that the French interviewer tries to compare her
to the classics and Enid downplays herself as only writing for
children! She must have been used to being put down in
England by the literary establishment. If Enid had been French,
the French would have made a lot of her gifts and contribution to
children's literature. As it was they obviously rated her highly.

I agree. It's wonderful that Enid Blyton was at least appreciated by the French. And she was very, very appreciated and loved by hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of children from so many other countries like India, Australia, New Zeeland, South Africa, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and now even Russia!
I wonder if Tony knows how many million Blyton books total have been sold worldwide?

Francis wrote:I love the way that the French interviewer tries to compare her
to the classics and Enid downplays herself as only writing for
children!As it was they obviously rated her highly.

Your post also made me think of American novelist Patricia Highsmith who became a very famous author (Tom Ripley novels) living in England, then in France and later in Switzerland where she died in 1995 in Locarno and who was highly regarded in many European countries.
Diogenes Verlag in Switzerland published all her books in German translations.
I read her biography "Beautiful Shadow" by Andrew Wilson a few years ago and was amazed how unknown she is in the US. After all, Alfred Hitchcock filmed her novel "Strangers on a Train" and movie buffs must have watched "Plein soleil" with Alain Delon and "Le meurtrier" aka "Enough Rope" (The Blunderer) with Maurice Ronet, Marina Vlady & Gert Froebe.
Another example for/of an author almost unknown in her own country and so much appreciated abroad.

The French have always made a lot of authors etc - even when they are down on
their luck. They used to issue charity stamps for distressed intellectuals! They
also fully appreciate writers of children books and comics - think what a fuss they
make of Tintin and Asterix.