Enid Blyton's Own Favourite Books?

[pete9012S]

We often discuss our own books and the characters created by Enid Blyton, listing our favourite characters, series and individual books.

But, do we know which books or series of books written by Enid Blyton herself she was most proud of writing?

Did she ever say what her own personal favourites from all the books she had written were?

Also, which books gave her the most enjoyment to write and were not a chore?
Many Find Outers books for instance are so packed with mirth and humour it seems impossible to imagine that Enid did not enjoy the writing of them too?

Agatha Christie for example took great delight in writing the Mr Satterthwaite/Harley Quin short stories whenever the mood took her.
She wrote them individually, savouring the process, only when she really felt like writing them and got great pleasure from doing so.
She described writing other works as being like a sausage machine - churning out product.

But, back to Enid Blyton.
What books that she wrote out of the hundreds and hundreds was she most fond and proud of herself?

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'd be very interested to know, Pete, but in The Story of My Life Enid Blyton only talks about other authors that she enjoyed reading as a child. I don't know whether she ever discussed her preferences (regarding books written by herself) in letters to fans. She once said in an interview that she was particularly fond of George from the Famous Five books.

[GloomyGraham]

I think she would have rated 'Six Bad Boys' as one of her best. She seemed proud of it in her intro and also with the positive feedback from her judge friend saying how realistic it was.

She seemed to think it was educational for both parents and children and that it might make a difference in British society at the time.

Also perhaps 'The Children at Green Meadows' where she was able to promote real charities like the 'Busy Bees' and the RSPCA to her young readers.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The Six Bad Boys is special and I can imagine Enid Blyton being proud of it. Even as a child, I was wowed by that book and felt that it was a bit different from the norm.

In Enid's autobiography The Story of My Life, the Barney mysteries are the only series to be given a rating of 3 alone ("for the older ones"). Most of the other mystery/adventure series are given a rating of 2, 3 ("for the 7s - 11s and the older ones"), with the Secret Seven books and one-off adventure/mystery titles (e.g. The Boy Next Door and The Children of Kidillin) being rated 2 ("for the 7s - 11s"). Besides the Barney mysteries, the only other books to be given a rating of 3 alone are The Story of My Life and Birds of the Wayside and Woodland. It seems likely that Enid Blyton decided on the ratings herself, suggesting that she regarded the Barney series as particularly grown-up.

[Lucky Star]

It seems likely that Enid Blyton decided on the ratings herself, suggesting that she regarded the Barney series as particularly grown-up.

This was probably due to the situation regarding Barney being an orphan and searching for his father. At that time this would have been a slightly unusual situation for a character in children's books and certainly it's pretty unique in Enid's canon. It's well handled, at least in the first four books, as is Snubby's situation so she most likely deemed it more suitable for older readers. I would have said that the Adventure series is equally grown up but perhaps it's more as case of the Adventures just being the most exciting.