That most loved children's writer.
Enid Blyton was the most popular writer of children's stories in the 20th century. By the 1940s this English writer, born in 1897, could do no wrong. Her books went into many reprints, and children wrote to her by the thousands pleading for more stories., She had an enchanting, childlike mind, and seemed to know what children wanted. Her later books on 'The Secret Seven' and 'The Famous Five' were avidly awaited, and the Noddy series was loved and read by children everywhere. It is always comforting to read a complete success story, living vicariously while we read, but in Enid Blyton's case, just when she attained the life of domestic ease with a staff and nanny for her children, some anomalies popped up. Her first marriage to Major Hugh Pollock (Publishing Editor of Newnes) foundered, with EB covertly meeting surgeon Darrell Waters in a flat in London, and then Noddy went out of favour. The Major was persuaded to be named the guilty party in the divorce action, and the writer went on to marry Mr. Waters, later changing the children's surname to his, causing the Major some distress.
The biography is written rather circumspectly with possibly an eye on Gillian Baverstock, EB's daughter who had agreed to the book, and one gets the impression that there is not that vast output to be drawn upon as in other biographies.
Nevertheless, if you want to read about this fascinatingly complex woman, this book will tell you more than any current source.
