The Real Enid Blyton

[pete9012S]

Read an online preview sample of this 'unique' book:

The Real Enid Blyton
By Nadia Cohen

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VVq ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Daisy]

I have done as you invited Pete... it's most interesting. I'll say no more at present as I expect others may like to read it too.

[Francis]

Of course this should be 'The Fake Enid Blyton'. All these boring unimaginative authors with their simplistic views and their rampant prejudices expect people to buy their books - some hope!

[pete9012S]

The Real Enid Blyton by Nadia Cohen
by Shiny New Books| Posted on February 7, 2019
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long

https://shinynewbooks.co.uk/the-real-en ... adia-cohen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Elaine Simpson-Long made a comment in her review that made me chuckle - little does she know:

Among the onslaught of complaints was that children would only read her books and would not try anything else. I dismissed this years ago as rubbish and I do now. Do you see a thirty-year-old sitting reading the Famous Five? I think not.

[Wolfgang]

I think you're a bit older than thirty, Pete .

[Lucky Star]

In my case the "Blyton gap" lasted from about 15 to 39. Then I resumed with a vengeance. It does show how little research some of these people do that they think no adult reads Blyton.

[Fiona1986]

My Blyton gap was fairly short. Not sure when I stopped reading her books, probably around 12 or 13 and I think I started again by the time I was 20 and realised there were many I had never read.

[Katharine]

Well I'm certainly well over 30!

I'm not sure when I stopped reading Enid Blyton books. I don't think it was a conscious decision, I suspect that it was probably in my mid-teens when youth clubs, working, socialising etc left little time for books of any description.

I definitely got re-interested in them when I was in my early 30's and discovered such books as the Holiday series.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I stopped reading Enid Blyton when I was 13, except for returning to the Adventure series as a bit of light relief when revising for my O Levels. After that, I had a gap before getting back into Blyton in my late twenties. I always knew I'd want to re-read her books at some point as they'd been such an important part of my life, so I never gave them away.

Elaine Simpson-Long talks about belonging to "the Sunshine Club". What was that, I wonder, or does she mean the Sunbeams (who raised money for blind children)?

[Boatbuilder]

It’s more than likely she has got that wrong, Anita. The only reference to ‘sunshine’ when doing an online search is to the books.

[pete9012S]

Elaine Simpson-Long talks about belonging to "the Sunshine Club". What was that, I wonder, or does she mean the Sunbeams (who raised money for blind children)?

Could she have meant The Sunny Stories Club?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sounds possible, Pete.

[John Pickup]

I stopped reading Enid when I was about 14. I don't think I even thought about her until my son went to school and we were looking for something suitable to read to him at home. Eventually, I bought some Secret Seven paperbacks and when he'd gone to sleep I started reading them myself. I would be about 32 and since then I've collected her books in hardback and read them regularly.

[pete9012S]

That's quite a long hiatus John - (sounds a bit painful that doesn't it!).
I've had just a one year break from reading Enid Blyton in my whole life, when going up from the junior school to the seniors and chucked my Blytons away.
As I've mentioned, my mum said you'll regret that son, and before twelve months was up I was re-collecting them all again.

[Irene Malory Towers]

I think I had a gap of around 20 years between teens and late 30s when I was too embarrassed to read Enid Blyton. But in the last 15 years I am reading them with vengeance and I am out and proud ! I have even read them on the tube (Before CV if we can remember that far back)