Enid Blyton - The Untold Story

[Fiona1986]

In his email to me Brian said he'd spoken with Anita but perhaps he had just misremembered.

Reading that back I realise I make it sound like he asked ME to close his account. I meant he reported to me that he had asked [Anita] for his account to be closed. He didn't tell me he wanted this whole thread deleted, and I'm baffled by that. This is one of the few pieces of promotion his book has on the internet, and several of us have helped him on the book!

Brian and I have been in contact several times since he first asked if he could use one of Stef's photos in the book, to update me on the book's progress as I expressed an interest in it, to send me a PDF copy, and then a hard copy and to check how I was getting along with it. As with a few others on here he has asked me to post on his behalf here, though it would be nice if he'd just do it himself to be honest. I don't know what he has against using websites other than his own!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Both Tony and I replied to Brian Carter's email enquiry about closing/deactivating his account but, as Tony said, it was back in December. Since then, Brian has emailed me again several times to talk about sending me a copy of Enid Blyton - The Untold Story and to discuss the availability of his book (he asked me to put up the eBay link on the forums but I replied to say that two people had already included the link in their posts).

[Judith Crabb]

I await the arrival of 'Enid Blyton The Untold Story' having plucked up my courage and ordered it, not that I had any doubts about the book, but because it is the very first time I have ever (all by myself) bought anything on Ebay. Postage is a killer - I paid more for postage than for the book.
I was interested in various comments about the supernatural which lead to Timv's reference to "a major cultural figure appearing in a seemingly 'pedestrian' lower-middle-class family". Timv mentioned Dickens.
Perhaps in a couple of hundred years a small group of enthusiasts who disbelieve in genius will try to convince everybody else that Enid Blyton didn't really write Enid Blyton but was a front for a remarkably gifted and/or ultra aristocratic person who did not want to be associated with such popular children's books and came to an arrangement to save embarrassment at the cost of disappearing from history as the most successful children's writer of the century. Any suggestions? Queen Elizabeth II? Barbara Cartland? Ian Fleming?
Winston Churchill?
By the way a favourite TV series of mine is Upstart Crow.

[John Pickup]

When I spoke to Brian by phone a couple of weeks ago he seemed keen that people would be able to buy his book. I find it surprising that he hasn't posted on this thread and doesn't appear to be actively promoting it.
Why does he wish to disassociate himself from this society? Every member who has received a copy, including myself, has been most complimentary about the book and its contents.

[pete9012S]

I totally agree John. For me, things seemed to go awry when Brian's book was removed from amazon.

I really felt his book was going to fly given the positives received about it from the Blyton heavyweights who had been given a chance to evaluate it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I find it surprising that he [Brian Carter] hasn't posted on this thread and doesn't appear to be actively promoting it.
Why does he wish to disassociate himself from this society? Every member who has received a copy, including myself, has been most complimentary about the book and its contents.

I'm only speculating, but maybe it has something to do with the criticism of his (aborted) GoFundMe project and one or two other things? Not that there's anything wrong with constructive criticism - writers have to be prepared for negative as well as positive responses, of course. As you say, John, the book itself has been well-received.

For me, things seemed to go awry when Brian's book was removed from amazon.

Do we know why the book was removed? I think people expect a new release to be listed on Amazon.

[Fiona1986]

He said he had "unresolved issues" with Amazon, but I don't know what those were.

I wasn't aware he had a GoFundMe project, what happened there?

[pete9012S]

From memory, deep in the bowels of this thread many years ago, I think he wanted 20K to fund the book.
I was the first one to donate - I think - or it may have been someone else.

[Courtenay]

Perhaps in a couple of hundred years a small group of enthusiasts who disbelieve in genius will try to convince everybody else that Enid Blyton didn't really write Enid Blyton but was a front for a remarkably gifted and/or ultra aristocratic person who did not want to be associated with such popular children's books and came to an arrangement to save embarrassment at the cost of disappearing from history as the most successful children's writer of the century. Any suggestions? Queen Elizabeth II? Barbara Cartland? Ian Fleming?
Winston Churchill?

Or all of the above and more?? I'm sure I've heard it said that even in Enid's lifetime, she had detractors who argued that one single person couldn't possibly churn out so many books so quickly, so "she" must have actually been a syndicate of authors writing under the one name...

[Fiona1986]

I have gone back to page one and yes I must have read about the GoFundMe as I’ve commented on page one myself

[Lucky Star]

I wasn't aware he had a GoFundMe project, what happened there?

If you go back to pages 1 and 2 of this thread you will see that he opened the thread by suggesting that we might like to help him raise 20K by contributing to a GoFundMe page. Some of the responses he got were, as you might expect, extremely sceptical with many questioning the amount required and others asking why they should pay for him to write a book! I have the impression that he may have got a bit annoyed with us over that which may explain why he apparently wants nothing more to do with this site.

EDIT: I see you've now done this. We must have been typing at the same time.

[Anita Bensoussane]

My mother was a regular reader of Enid's 'Teachers' World' articles and always spoke highly of them, saying that Enid had provided her with ideas for how to get children interested in topics like Nature (and how to write stories for children's magazines) when she was a primary school teacher in Wales and London in the mid-late 1940s . She certainly thought of Enid more as an educator for the under-11s rather than as just a serial adventure/ mystery story writer.

It's lovely that your mother remembers reading the Teachers World articles and being inspired by them, Tim. Brian Carter's book does a good job of highlighting this sadly neglected aspect of Enid Blyton's writing career.

...it is interesting to speculate on how you suddenly get a major cultural figure appearing in a seemingly 'pedestrian' lower-middle-class family with no obvious past record of that sort of 'arty' career by any of them.

Although Enid Blyton may be the only member of her family whose name is instantly recognisable, her talent didn't come out of the blue. Other family members were/are creative too, with several showing prowess at writing and/or music.

In The Story of My Life Enid Blyton tells us that the author of the play Charley's Aunt (Brandon Thomas) was a relation of hers. She also mentions her aunt (May Crossland, her father's sister), who had a successful career as a musician. Enid's father Thomas loved music as well and he played the piano and the banjo for pleasure.

When we hear the name "Arabella Buckley", many of us will immediately think of the character in The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor. However, Arabella Buckley was also the name of an author (known as Mrs. Fisher after her marriage) who is likely to have been a member of Enid Blyton's extended family. She wrote science and nature books to be used in schools, including Eyes and No Eyes. Enid Blyton referred to Eyes and No Eyes in a 'From My Window' article (Teachers World, Issue 984, September 5th 1923) and she even used that title for one of her own short stories in 1950.

In his article 'Loose Ends' (Journal 42, Summer 2010), David Chambers reports on some Blyton family connections and postulates that Arabella Buckley (Mrs. Fisher) might have been a family member: "Bertha and Sidney Blyton (siblings of Enid's father Thomas) were staying with their aunt Sarah Jane Fisher in 1871... Intriguingly Bertha Hamilton Blyton became Bertha Buckley by marriage so there were Fishers and Buckleys in the family. Which raises the question as to whether it was just coincidence Enid was given a book on natural history by Arabella Buckley (Mrs. Fisher)?"

Then of course there's Carey Blyton, Enid's nephew, who was a composer of songs, chamber music and orchestral scores.

Listening some years ago to Sue McGregor interviewing Enid Blyton for an episode of Woman's Hour (first broadcast in 1974 according to the BBC Archive, though the interview must obviously have been recorded considerably earlier!) I was struck by Enid Blyton's remark that "My father was a writer and I wanted to be a writer too." Barbara Stoney mentions that Thomas "wrote poetry" but she doesn't give any further details. However, Pete once posted an article, written by Nancy Spain for the Australian The Sunday Herald in 1953, which states that Enid Blyton's father and uncle "were contributors to the famous “Yellow Book” of the naughty nineties. [For those born after 1886: “The Yellow Book” was a miscellany published in the nineties – stamping ground of Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Aubrey Beardsley, and others.]" I've never been able to check out this piece of information but it's intriguing:

http://red-white-cross.blogspot.com/201 ... -1953.html

[Fiona1986]

I reckon that you should write a book about Enid Blyton, Anita!

[Courtenay]

I'd definitely buy it if she did write one... even if she had the nerve to say uncomplimentary things about Noddy!

[Jack400]

Carey Blyton wrote the theme tune for the children's TV programme "Bananas in Pyjamas"