A Noddy is as Good as a Wink

My first ever memory of reading was the Noddy series of books by Enid Blyton. The excitement when my mother came home with another tale of the adventures of Noddy and Big Ears; at first reading them to me and, in time, being able to read them myself, back to back, over and over again.

With time came The Naughtiest Girl at the School, Mallory Towers and St Claire's, filled with such exciting stories of what school life could be like; full of adventures, midnight feasts, tuck boxes and girls called Gwendoline. The Adventure Series was my favourite. I simply could not - and certainly did not want to - put them down.

As an adult I can see now why her books caused such a stir among adults but back then and now but when I was a child, these books of mysteries and adventures were fantastical worlds for me to explore and reality was as far away as any child needed it to be.

In her tales, Enid Blyton created a wonderful, magical, adult-free world for children to escape to; where they could solve a mystery and handle situations just fine by themselves. At the end, there was always an adult somewhere reassuringly present, just in case. Controversy aside, this isn’t something that changes for children but controversy is something which has marred the Blyton name since the peak of the author’s career.

Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle is the latest installment in a series that began 60 years ago with a 43 year gap between the last Noddy story Blyton wrote and now. There are two very discernible differences in this book; it’s not written by its creator Enid Blyton but rather by the granddaughter she never met, Sophie Smallwood. Another telling distinction is the absence of the controversial Gollywogs and Golly town, which were removed over 30 years ago after many adults complained of the characters being racist in nature.

Smallwood, a pre-school teacher - who has never published a book until now - took on quite a challenge with the writing of the latest Noddy book. The shy 39 year old has stood as far as she could from the fame of her celebrated grandmother for most of her life. Born two years after Blyton’s death, Smallwood never got to know her; except through the stories her mother told her and the books her grandmother wrote. The book for her is both a way to celebrate her grandmother and to bring Noddy back to life one last time.

Enid Blyton was born into a fraught family life. At the age of 13 her much-loved father had an affair and her parents divorced. A gynecological problem developed soon after this which meant her womb did not grow beyond the age of 13, which made bearing children a huge difficulty for the author for many years. These two events are said to have had a major impact on Blyton for the rest of her life. Although she lived the life of an adult and her writing carried the maturity of an adult, her stories are said to appeal to children so much because she thought like a child herself and understood what children loved.

After writing during her spare time while working as a teacher, Blyton released her first book of verse in 1922 and in 1924 she married Hugh Pollack, who worked as an editor at the publishing company which released some of her books. The couple moved to a house called Green Hedges, which was given its name by the winner of a competition that Blyton ran in her magazine. From there, the acclaimed novelist’s hugely prolific run began, which continued for most of her life.

Though her life time, Blyton wrote some of the most popular series of children’s fiction of the twentieth century. Despite her detachment from her own children, in her writing she allowed her young audience to explore the extreme depths of their imagination. Her most famous collections include The Famous Five, Noddy, The Secret Seven, The Naughtiest Girl in the School and Malory Towers. Millions of children worldwide grew up reading magical tales of adventures, talking toys, fairies, and mysteries since the 1920s.

Although the enigmatic writer’s stories have always appealed to children – her target audience – her work has come under deep criticism throughout her life and after by adults. Series such as the hugely popular Famous Five and The Adventures of Noddy have come under fire due to underlying racism and sexism. In fact, many editions have been edited over the years to remove such content and appeal to a more modern audience. The racist and sexist undertones and the simplicity of her work meant her books were banned by a large number of libraries and the BBC refused to televise any of her stories for a number of years, despite their popularity.

A recent movie about her life entitled Enid, starring Helena Bonham Carter, depicts the author as living oblivious to reality and ignoring her children while doting on her young fans. This theme was also covered in an autobiography by the author’s daughter Imogen Smallwood, entitled A Childhood at Green Hedges. In it, she paints a picture of her mother being a cold, uncaring character - a complete contrast to her public image where she appeared to love and understand children.

Public and private image aside, Enid Blyton is one of the best-selling and most prolific British authors of all time, selling approximately 400 million copies of her work since the 1920s. Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle, which is illustrated by Robert Tyndall who drew the artwork for the series originally from 1953, is a celebration of that and one of her most well-loved characters. Although some of the themes and the language of her books may now be dated, the hundreds of stories she created still capture the imagination of the audience she set out to write for - children everywhere.

Originally published in Verbal June 2010.