Friday's Fabulous Woman: Enid Blyton

A BBC story this week about an unpublished Enid Blyton manuscript being unearthed, reminded me of the important role that she played in my young fantasy world.   In my dreams, I hung out with Noddy and Big Ears; and later on was an active participant in the adventures of both the Famous Five and the Secret Seven.  

Long before JK Rowling came along, there was Enid Blyton.   A prolific children's book writer who died in 1968, it is estimated that over a 40 year period, she wrote some 800 books many of them are still in publication and still very popular.  I haven't read one of her books in a while but I am a huge fan of the lovely vintage illustrations on the older books and often buy them when I see them.

These lovely lines from Enid Blyton's "The Poet," published in The Poetry Review in 1919 say it all:

"Dear heart
And soul of a child,
Sing on!"