Enid Blyton: A Market Guide - Antiques Info

1 Whilst sorting out a spare room in my mother s house recently, I came across a most enticingbox. It contained some of my childhood books. The most memorable were those written by EnidBlyton. Ruthlessly, I decided that my groaning bookshelves could take no more and I decided tosell. However, when I found myself buying more than I was selling I realised that I had becomea collector. From the early 1920s to the mid 1960s, Enid Blyton wrote over 700 books forchildren of all ages. Her vast output included fairy tales, animal stories, adventure books, schoolstories, poems and plays.

2 These included familiar favourites such as theFamous FiveandNoddy, which have never lost their appeal and are still published today. To cover all those genresin one article would do an injustice to this prolific author so I have decided to write the articlein two parts. Part 1 looks at her adventure books aimed at the reader from around 7 or 8 yearsold. Part 2, in the next issue, will cover her stories for younger famous FiveOne of the most enduring and collectable series of books written by Enid Blyton, the adven-tures of the famous five , have continued to capture children s imagination even into the twentyfirst century.

3 The stories were a development of an idea first published in 1941 as TheAdventurous Fourwhen Andy, the Fisherboy, helped Tom and his twin sisters to solve wartimemysteries in Scotland. Two further books were published in 1947 and 1948 and a short story in1952. Meanwhile, Blyton honed the idea of a group of children setting out to solve mysterieswith minimal adult supervision, and devised the famous five . five On A Treasure Islandwaspublished in 1942. The group this time included Timmy the dog, along with Julian, Dick, Anneand cousin Georgina, known as George, who is said to have been based on Enid Blyton wrote a new famous Fivebook every year for 21 years, as well as seven short illustrator, Eileen Soper, updated the images as well as the ages of the group, but this wasnot apparent in Blyton s writing.

4 By the time the last book five Are Together Againhad beenwritten, over 6 million famous Fivebooks had been sold with further sales from five Find-OutersThe formula of the group of five solving mysteries was so successful that in 1943 Blytonbegan a series of books featuring the five Find-Outers. This time five children and their dogBuster, solved mysteries around the village of Peterswood, and generally got in the way of Theophilus Goon. Blyton wrote 15 books in the series from the first The Mystery of TheBurnt Cottageto the last The Mystery of Banshee Towersin Adventure seriesIn 1944 The Island of Adventurelaunched another group of five , four children and a parrot,in a series of books which took their name from the site of the adventure.

5 The Castle, Valley, Sea,Mountain, Ship, Circus and River of Adventurefollowed over the next 11 years. As with theFamous Fivebooks, these are now very much sought after. According to Millers CollectingModern Booksthe first in the series, valued at 10- 15 ten years ago, is now worth 50 times Secret AdventuresAlthough not as desirable today as some of the other adventure series of books, the Secretseries, starting with The Secret Islandwas Blyton s first departure from fairy tales for youngerchildren. Published in 1938, from a serial first published in the magazine Sunny Stories, thesecrets of Spiggy Hole, Mountain of Killimooinand of Moon Castle, followed and werepublished as paperbacks in the mid Blyton: A Market Guide Part 1.

6 Adventure StoriesBy Zita Thornton Antiques INFO - September/October 04 This fifth impression of five Go ToSmuggler s Top was published in 1951. Itcontained a full colour illustration by EileenSoper who illustrated all the famous Fivebooks. Most of the drawings were in blackand white, sometimes with the addition was writing The Adventurous Four in1941 that gave Enid Blyton the idea for herFamous five of paperback editions of TheNaughtiest Girl series of books published inthe 1960s by Armada and first edition copy of five Have Plenty ofFun published in have been two television productions ofThe famous five adventures.

7 These two paper-backs were published to tie in with the TVseries, the first in 1979 and second in 1996. The Adventurous Four Again followed in1947. This is a second edition published in1950. Bought at a car boot sale for INFO - September/October 04 The Secret SevenAs a child I thought that The SecretSeven adventures, were inferior to theFamous five , but that is probably becauseBlyton wrote them for a different books which featured a youngergroup of children, were aimed at readers of6 or 7 years old, using simpler languageand vocabulary. Once again, this was adevelopment of earlier ideas.

8 Inspired by asecret society formed by the children ofone of her publishers, Blyton wrote TheSecret Of The Old Mill, published in year old Peter, his younger sisterJanet, and their dog Scamper, whothemselves had already featured in anearlier story At Seaside Cottagein 1947,formed a secret society with Pam, Colin,Jack, Barbara and George. A year later TheSecret Sevenwas published. Once again,Blyton wrote a book a year until the lastone, Fun For The Secret Sevenwaspublished in 1963. With this series ofbooks, different illustrators were were George Brook, Bruno Kay andBurgess Barney StoriesBlyton wrote the first mystery for olderchildren, The Rockingdown Mysteryfeaturing Barney the circus boy and hismonkey Miranda, as a one off adventure aspart of the Collins Junior Mystery series in1949, but wrote further books after demandfrom her readers.

9 There were six in all,whose titles all started with the same letterand included The Rilloby Fair Mystery,The Ring O Bells Mystery, The RubabdubMystery, The Rat-A-Tat Mysteryand thelast one in 1959 The Ragamuffin well as writing her series of mysteryand adventure books, Blyton wrote manyone-off stories for different publishers forchildren of different ages, managing tokeep up by taking less than a week to writeeach novel. However, it is perhaps thenature of collecting that it is the accumu-lation of a series that seems to most appealto collectors. Adventures in schoolI could not finish a feature on Blyton sadventure books without including theschool stories.

10 The first pupil to daringlybreak all the rules, was Elizabeth Allen,heroine of the appropriately named TheNaughtiest Girl In The School. She starredin three books between 1940 and 1945. Atthe same time, the O Sullivan twins weregetting up to mischief at St Clare sthroughout six books. However, myfavourite was Darrell Rivers who movedthrough the school from the first term tothe last at Malory Towers, the boardingschool scenario giving her plenty of scopefor adventure. There was one other schoolbook Mischief at St Rollo s, which Blytonwrote in 1943 under the pseudonym ofMary Pollock.