The New Wishing Chair #5: The Land of Fairytales

Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton is one of the most-loved authors in children's publishing. With over 700 titles published, Enid Blyton's stories remain timeless classics, adored by children throughout the world.

Soon after Enid Blyton was born in 1897, she fell gravely ill with whooping cough. Her father, Thomas Blyton stayed up with her night after night until her cough subsided and she recovered. From that time on, Enid followed her father wherever he went, and it was through her father that she developed a love of nature and animals - an enthusiasm which stayed with her throughout her life. It was also her father who instilled in Enid her love of books, and she would often be seen sneaking into her father's library and borrowing a pile of books.

As a young woman Enid was faced with many choices; her father had planned a career in music for her, while she felt drawn to writing. In the end, she became a teacher, though her passion for writing never dwindled. In 1922, a collection of poems by Enid was published - it was her first step toward her dream of becoming an author.

At 27 years old, Enid married Hugh Pollock and moved to London. Enid had two children with Hugh, and soon after wrote her first novel, The Adventures of the Wishing Chair. Enid divorced Hugh after almost 20 years of marriage, and remarried Kenneth Waters in 1943.

Throughout the 40 and 50s, Enid wrote books at a colossal pace: adventure stories, mysteries, magical stories, farming stories, stories for younger children, best-selling series like The Famous Five and Noddy…her writing knew no bounds!

Apart from breaks to play golf and spend time with her children, Enid's working week was consumed with writing new stories, correcting proofs and answering the hundreds of letters she was, by now, receiving weekly. She explained that her characters evolved organically and her stories seemed to naturally form, she described herself as "merely a sightseer, a reporter, and interpreter."

Enid fell ill with Alzheimer's disease in her old age (a disease that affects people's memory) and she died in 1963. Her spirit lives on in her books and she is remembered as one of the most-loved and celebrated children's authors.

Some Statistics (from Wikipedia)
- Blyton's books have sold more than 600 million copies
- More than a million Famous Five books are sold worldwide each year
- Her books have been translated into more than 90 different languages
- The Magic Faraway Tree was voted no. 66 in the BBC's Big Read.
- In the 2008 Costa Book Awards, Enid Blyton was voted the best-loved author, ahead of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Shakespeare.
- 753 titles credited to her over a 45 year career with an average of 16 titles published per year!



Many of Enid Blyton's most popular titles are available to buy now, see below, but some, sadly, have become unavailable, they have dropped Out of Print.

We list a sample here in the hope that they will become available in the future:

Mr. Galliano's Circus
1. Mr. Galliano's Circus (1938)
2. Hurrah for the Circus! (1939)
3. Circus Days Again (1942)
4. Come to the Circus (1948)

Willow Farm
1. The Children of Willow Farm (1942)
2. More Adventures on Willow Farm (1942)

Mary Mouse
Hallo, Little Mary Mouse (1945)
More Adventures of Mary Mouse (1943)
Mary Mouse and Her Family (1946)
Here Comes Mary Mouse Again (1947)
Welcome Mary Mouse (1950)

Happy House 1. The Children at Happy House (1946)
2. The Happy House Children Again (1947)
3. Benjy and the Others (1955)
4. The Happy House Children (1966)

Twins
1. Tales of the Twins (1948)
2. Hello Twins (1951)
3. Come Along Twins (1952)
4. Here Come the Twins (1953)
5. Trouble for the Twins (1964)

Fabulous 4
Four in a Family (1956)
The Four Cousins (1961)

Stand Alone Novels:
The Treasure Hunters (1940) (writing as Mary Pollock)
The Children of Cherry Tree Farm (1940)
The Children of Kidillin (1940) (writing as Mary Pollock)
Three Boys and a Circus (1940) (writing as Mary Pollock)
The Land of Far-Beyond (1942)
Shadow the Sheep Dog (1942)
The Adventures of Scamp (1943) (writing as Mary Pollock)
Smuggler Ben (1943) (writing as Mary Pollock)
The Boy Next Door (1944)
At Appletree Farm (1944)
The Brown Family (1945)
The Family at Red Roofs (1945)
Hollow Tree House (1945)
The Three Golliwogs (1946)
The Put-Em-Rights (1946)
The Little White Duck (1946)
The House at the Corner (1947)
The Secret of Cliff Castle (1947) (writing as Mary Pollock)
The Smith Family (1947)
The Little Girl at Capernaum (1948)
The Boy With the Loaves and the Fishes (1948)
They Ran Away Together (1948)
Those Dreadful Children (1949)
What an Adventure (1950)
The Six Bad Boys (1951)
The Very Big Secret (1952)
The Queer Adventure (1952)
Enid Blyton's Christmas Story (1953)
Snowball the Pony (1953)
Visitors in the Night (1953)
The Adventure of the Secret Necklace (1954)
The Children at Green Meadows (1954)
The Golliwog Grumbled (1954)
Mischief Again! (1955)
Holiday House (1955)
Bible Stories from the New Testament (1955)
The Troublesome Three (1955)
The Adventure of the Strange Ruby (1960)
The Boy Who Wanted a Dog (1963)
The Boy Who Came Back (1965)
The Man Who Stopped to Help (1965)
The Dog with the Long Tail (1975)
The Night The Toys Had A Party (1989)
The Land of Blue Mountains (1993)