Who is Enid's worst villain?

[Deejay]

Yes, that wasn’t very smart of Dirty Dick and Maggie at all, Stephen! Agree with your comments about Gringo also and I think Tiger Dan and Lou deserve a mention in Caravan also, very nasty and not too bright either!

[Chrissie777]

The Stick Family and Mr. Roland.

[Chrissie777]

For truly horrible characters though what about monstrous Aunt Margaret from Hollow Tree House. What an absolute cow of a woman she is! Refuses to give the children money to go on a trip to the seaside with the rest of the school but when they earn some themselves she takes it for herself! Accusing them of stealing their own meagre belongings, barely giving them any food and openly telling them she doesn't want them. She's like every fairytale wicked stepmother rolled into one with some added for good measure. I feel sorry for Susan and Peter here, just how bad must your house be if the inside of a tree in the middle of the wood be a preferable and seem more like home?

I felt the same about the nasty aunt in "The Secret Island". I think both books have many parallels.

[MJE]

For truly horrible characters though what about monstrous Aunt Margaret from Hollow Tree House. What an absolute cow of a woman she is! Refuses to give the children money to go on a trip to the seaside with the rest of the school but when they earn some themselves she takes it for herself! Accusing them of stealing their own meagre belongings, barely giving them any food and openly telling them she doesn't want them. She's like every fairytale wicked stepmother rolled into one with some added for good measure.

     Quite true - she was horrible, even if not a villain in the conventional sense. The icing on the cake for her horribleness (the metaphor seems inappropriate in this case) was the way Aunt Margaret was presented with the seaweed and shells as a gift by Susan, but she just angrily tossed them onto the fire.
     That scene made me cringe - it was pure malice. People who think Blyton is just anodyne sunshine, butterflies, rainbows, and kittens seem to be ignorant of the fact that, when she chose, she could truly make readers cringe with shame and horror.

I feel sorry for Susan and Peter here, just how bad must your house be if the inside of a tree in the middle of the wood be a preferable and seem more like home?

     True - but mind you, Enid Blyton often gives a romantic aura to settings that, in real life, would just be miserable and uncomfortable, and even barely survivable. For example, the hollow tree as in this book - Barney's apparently carefree life on the road, going from circus to fair to circus - and even some of the Famous Five's hiking or cycling trips would probably involve significant discomfort and hardship that I am certain people like me would just find hard and unenjoyable in every way. But somehow I can read about it in the books and see it as being as romantic and idyllic as the books seem to portray.

Regards, Michael.

[jrw]

I can't think of any other character off hand more disturbing than Mr Change-About in The Magic Faraway Tree, either in Enid's books or any others.

[Moonraker]

In those days it was possible to like children and still be thought of as normal.

I appear to be a children's friend. There is a nine-year-old girl next-door-but-one to my seven-year-old granddaughter. Every time she sees me in the garden, she waves frantically. In fact, all of her friends treat me like a friend and love to play card and board games with me. I remember a former neighbour's daughter loved to sit on my lap - in these 'enlightened' times, I must say I am rather uncomfortable with this. I remember her mother coming into the room (my neighbour) and because the daughter (aged about seven at the time) had her arms around me, I must have felt guilty and lifted her back on to the floor. Our neighbour laughed and said I shouldn't look guilty! I am even rather uncomfortable writing this and sharing it with you. I remember when our two boys started swimming lessons, I videoed them in the pool. I never thought I was doing anything wrong, in my naïve, innocent mind. The following week there were notices put up that the videoing of children was strictly prohibited. I felt so guilty, even my wife said that was down to me. I guess today I would probably have had a visit from the police.

Sorry for going off-topic, but dsr's post brought it back to me.

[Katharine]

I can't think of any other character off hand more disturbing than Mr Change-About in The Magic Faraway Tree, either in Enid's books or any others.

That's an interesting one, for very young children, he could very well be quite a scary character.

[pete9012S]

I have never heard of him. He sounds very bad. What sort of things did he do?

[Lucky Star]

I agree with your post entirely Nigel. I too consciously avoid being friendly with strange children. Unfortunately any incidence of a middle aged man being friendly to children or talking to them in a park or beach immediately sets off only negative thoughts in the minds of anyone watching.

[jrw]

I have never heard of him. He sounds very bad. What sort of things did he do?

He changes from a 'fat, comfortable-looking person with a broad smile on his face', who passes round a box of chocolates to his visitors, into a thin 'mean-looking' person who angrily turns all the chocolates into stones after Dick chooses the biggest one. The Saucepan Man has already eaten his chocolate, so now he has a stone inside him. Eventually Mr Change-About changes into a mouse and Saucepan puts him into a kettle and stuffs the spout with paper to stop him escaping.

Not just scary for young children.

[Inspector Jenks]

For me nothing can be worse than participating in the abduction and imprisonment of a terrified little girl, as the Sticks did in “Five Run Away Together”. Pure evil.

[Lucky Star]

Yes the Sticks qualify on many levels as being among Enid's nastiest villains.

[Nair Snehalatha]

I think Jo Jo in the Island of Adventure is Enid's worst villain. Remember how he locked up Bill smugs and the rest of the children.and fixed up to blow up the sea bed with.dynamite?? It was sheer luck that saved them.Jo Jo is really the hard.hearted.villain