Was Enid Blyton a nice person?

Friar Tuck

Perhaps the strangest of the charges to be hurled at Enid Blyton was that her books contained homoerotic scenes, which were unsuitable for children. The 'proof', according to some critics, lay in the fact that Big Ears (a large-eared gnome with a grey beard) was such close friends with Noddy - the effemininate, young nodding hero of Toyland. Sinister meanings were also read into the fact that Noddy paid for his milk by letting Milkman tap him on his little nodding head. Some over-vigilant critics called that a masturbatory allusion. To make matters even worse, for a few extra taps, Milkman gave Noddy some extra cream. http://www.rnw.nl/special/en/html/021230noddy.html May 27 03, 12:30 PM

Stew

That was the best link I could find too Friar. She seems more old fashioned than anything sinister, though it seems that, aside from these odd suggestions of disguised eroticism her books fell from favour because they were too sexist and racially condescending to survive political correctness. May 27 03, 12:36 PM

Siskin

Unless anyone knew her personally, how can we possibly judge her, or anyone for that matter? There has been so much rubbish written it's impossible to know the truth - but does it matter? Thousands of children have a debt of gratitude to her - because through her books they were not only taught to read, but to enjoy the written word. The accusations have been that the books were too simplistic - children ARE uncomplicated, they don't understand 'deep' stuff! I read all the Noddy, Big Ears and Golliwog stories - then Famous Five and Secret Seven, as did my son. My parents didn't see any inuendoes thankfully, and neither did I. I think Stu, that someone who has written over 600 stories just for children in a way they can understand,and has them coming back for more, can't be that bad. May 27 03, 3:53 PM

Halai

Blyton was one of the best writer's that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. She wrote a few hundred books ranging from the Brer Rabbit series to the Enchanted Forest and the Faraway tree books to Mr. Meddle and Famous Five and Secret Seven to Noddy and the Golliwogs. She was one of the few people who inspired me as a child to imagine about the things unseen and unknown. I have come close to reading almost every book she has ever written. The problem with media is they will find any theme in any sort of art form is they look hard enough. The problem is, you can find eroticism in a children's drawing of a house as well if you see two crows in the sky as well, but thats not the issue. Nobody does that when writing something. Idiots are what the media are. May 27 03, 4:27 PM

kiwi in oz

I too have very fond memories of Enid Blytons books. The famous Five and Secret Seven especially. On the farm we had a plane tree we called the faraway tree and we built lots of huts in that grand old tree. Something that was inspired by Enid. It is just likethe do gooders bagging JK Rowlings for teaching kids about wizards and withces etc... if it gets the kids reading and appreciating the written word what is the problem. May 28 03, 4:26 AM