Gill Oliver on a celebration of ‘a phenomenon’

Midnight feasts, magic and lashings of nostalgia are on the agenda for an event about Enid Blyton.

The author’s much-loved characters the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Noddy and Big Ears have a timeless appeal.

The mother-of-two penned 700 books for children during her lifetime and has sold an incredible 500 million copies around the world. Kate Edwards and Alison Gwynn from Seven Stories, also known as the National Centre for Children’s Books, will be at the Oxford Literature Festival to explore the Enid Blyton phenomenon.

They’ll be finding out what has made her work so popular for so many decades and what her stories mean to today’s youngsters.

Seven Stories houses the largest public collection of Blyton’s original typescripts and illustrations, much of it bought at auction from the estate of her elder daughter. Visitors to the Newcastle upon Tyne-based centre can step into mock-ups of the Secret Seven’s shed, Kirrin castle and the common room at Mallory Towers.

Alison explained: “Enid Blyton continues to sell a phenomenal amount of books and is still up there near the top of all the public library lending lists. “Her books are enjoyed by generations of fans, from children through to people in their 60s and 70s who were introduced to them when they were young. “They are real page-turners, so you get caught up with the story and want to find out what happens next.

“She really is an amazing phenomenon in our British children’s literature heritage.” Enid Blyton was born in 1897 in London but grew up in Kent.

She dreamed up tales from an early age and when she became a teacher, carried on writing short stories and books in her spare time.

Her ideas flowed so thick and fast, she once said she struggled to type fast enough to keep pace with her thoughts and penned up to 40 books a week for children aged two-to-14.

The now famous titles ranged from adventures and mysteries to stories about circus life, boarding school, fantasy and fairy tales.

She launched her own magazine and clubs for children in the 1950s, including the Famous Five Club and the Sunbeam Society which raised money to help blind children.

Other successful series of books she created include the Five Find-Outers, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Wishing Chair and Mallory Towers.

She died in 1968, at the age of 71.

But there has been a good deal of controversy about her books over the years, as they have fallen in and out of favour with educational experts.

During the 1970s they were frowned upon and rationed or even banned from some schools and libraries. Alison pointed out: “Enid Blyton was never, ever out of favour with her fans and readers.

“But she still isn’t read as much as she should be in schools, so one of the things we have been trying to do is to champion her books and get them used in the classroom again.

“Enid was a nature-lover and particularly knowledgeable about wildlife and she also kept a diary, so we have created a range of activities for schools based around those ideas.”

More than 70,000 youngsters and adults visit the National Centre for Children’s Books each year and it works with many thousands more, by taking its events and activities in to schools and clubs all around the country.

The Seven Stories name was chosen because there are seven floors in the building and it is said that since there are only seven basic plots in the world, all stories are based on those seven.

Some of the biggest names in children’s literature work with the Centre to stage exhibitions and take part in events and it houses a children’s bookshop and café.

Its collections tell the story of British children’s literature from the 1930s onwards and include a treasure trove of more than 100 authors and illustrators’ work, including Oxford-based author Philip Pullman and Tiger Who Came To Tea creator Judith Kerr.

It offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what goes into creating a children’s book – from first scribbles, roughs and dummies through to final artwork and the finished article. Alison is in close touch with Oxford’s Story Museum and has been watching it develop its new building in Pembroke Street with great interest. She added: “The more organisations working to engage families in books and reading, the better. “If you gain a genuine love and enjoyment of books and reading when you are young, it stays with you for your whole lifetime.”

Enid Blyton, Mystery, Magic and Midnight Feasts is on Sunday, March 23 at 12pm. Tickets cost £6.