Enid Blyton died at the age of 71 on November 28, 1968. Having written over 700 books and 4 500 short stories for children she ranks with Beatrix Potter and J K Rowling as one of the most celebrated writers of books meant exclusively for children. The recent decision of the Royal Mint not to honour her memory on a 50 pence coin on the ground that her work is " racist, xenophobic, and sexist " is not only misplaced but completely misses the enormous impact she had on those growing up is distant lands in a far more innocent age than our own. Racism is now a "Thought Crime" and anyone with views not conforming to the radical posturing of Wokedom is a racist and a whole litany of thought crimes are added to damn writers, politicians, actors and others. Enid Blyton is only the latest casualty of this kind of intellectual policing. Post colonial literary theories have fabricated a new aesthetic in which the anachronistic effusions of self righteousness often parade as criticism or worse a dog whistle for rounding up the proles.
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| Enid Blyton (1897-1968) |
Enid Blyton was born in 1897 in Dulwich, East London. As her daughter Gillian recounts in her biography of her mother, Enid Blyton was deeply attached to her father, Thomas Blyton who instilled in her a love for books, music, nature and animals. Enid Blyton set up several charities and trusts for animals and English Heritage must see beyond the narrow limits of self defeating political correctness while appreciating and memorializing her work. There is nothing but respect for Nature in her work. Even the baddies do not harm Nature and the lush English countryside is alive with flowers, shrubs and meadows all described in such vivid colours that to a child reading in distant India, the English countryside appears as natural as the mango tress and palm trees of his own drab world. The only instance when an animal almost comes to harm is in Mystery of the Holly Lane in which the hyper active dog, Buster, is accused by the rather unintelligent policeman Theophillus Goon of killing sheep. Reading Enid Blyton at an impressionable age will leave a child with a reverence nature and animals.
What is the social world encompassed by Enid Blyton in her work. This is a large question. The Empire is hardly ever mentioned and it is very unlikely whether Enid Blyton had ever expressed any support or endorsed the Empire. Her characters were strangely far removed from the fast changing world that decolonization brought in its wake. The children like the Five Find-outers lived in sylvan villages in which the family was the stable unit and class determined one's place in society. Thus we find all service folk being entertained in the kitchen by the cook and even the village policeman accepts his station in life, without protest. Blyton wrote at a time when everyone knew his or her place in society. The vast changes after World War II that reshaped British Society were hardly at play during the years Enid was active writing. Britain was still a predominantly white country and it is therefore not surprising that all her characters are "white, pale and stale".
The charge that Blyton was a racist needs to be refuted. Her character in Noddy's Toyland, Golliwog, may offend our sensibilities today. But did she intend a racial insult when she used Florence Upton's creation. Unlike Hardy Boys Series or Billy Bunter in which racist stereotypes prance around the pages, there is no overt racism in Enid Blyton. If Bylton ignores people of colour, that was because she was writing before the huge influx from the colonies flooded into England.
The Royal Mint must honour Enid Blyton. Wokedom and its ideology cannot dictate the definition of culture and taste. Afterall Shakespeare and Charles Dickens can be read critically and wokedom can find serious thought crimes committed by these writers.
