Enid Blyton’s stories about pixies and elves may sound uncontroversial, but for almost 30 years she was banned by the BBC.

Along with Charles Dickens and Anne Frank, she now joins a collection of 80 ‘banned’ authors on display in an Oxfordshire bookshop.

The Oxfam bookshop, in Thame, has collected more than 120 books which have been banned or suppressed at some stage.

Manager Dick Jennens said: “People probably do not realise that a lot of the books they have read were at sometime banned.

“We found a book a few months ago called 100 Banned Books and we thought it was really interesting.

“So ever since about March, we have been collecting books which range from To Kill a Mockingbird to the Qu’ran and from Lolita to Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”

He said one of the most surprising finds had been children’s favourite Enid Blyton, who was banned from public libraries and the BBC for nearly 30 years.

Executives at the BBC considered her work, including the Famous Five and Noddy, “second rate” and “small beer.”

A 1938 memo from head of the BBC schools department, Jean Sutcliffe states: “They have not much literary value.

“There is rather a lot of the pinky-winky-doodle-doodle dum-dum type of name – and lots of pixies.”

The BBC ban was only lifted in the 1960s.

Other books in the display include All Quiet on the Western Front, which was outlawed in Nazi Germany, and Oliver Twist, which was banned by various countries for the portrayal of “the Jew” Fagin.

One group of parents from New York even sued the city’s education board to get the text taken off the shelves.

Mr Jennens said: “What is interesting is that a lot of these books are set texts now and are being taught in schools.

“Times change and most of these books are considered classics now.”

They include American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, which was banned in Queensland, Australia, and James Joyce’s Ulysses.

George Orwell’s 1984 was banned by the Russian Government until 1990 because it was considered a satire on Stalin’s rule.

Mr Jennens said: “Banning books does not really happen here now. In the age of the internet, there’s more free speech and it would be so much harder. We do pick up books that would not go on sale now. We’ve got a children’s story about gollywogs that would be cause for concern.”

Mr Jennens said: “I am hoping we get lots of people saying they didn’t realise these books were banned – it will be a bit of a talking point.”

He joked: “Clearly Thame, from the donation of reading material, appears to be a hotbed of unrest, repressed sexuality and religious intolerance.”

The books are on display in the Cornmarket shop window.

OTHER BOOKS THAT WERE BANNED Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – banned in China for its use of talking animals, which were considered an insult to humans.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque – banned in Nazi Germany for being insulting and demoralising to the armed forces.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – banned in Ireland in 1932 for its portrayal of sexual promiscuity.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – banned in Lebanon because it was considered offensive to Christianity.

Diary of Anne Frank – Banned by a school in Virginia, USA, in 2010 for “sexually explicit” content in the unedited edition.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence – banned in the UK and USA for ‘violation of obscenity laws’.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – banned for obscenity in UK and France.

Ulysses by James Joyce – banned in UK, USA and Australia for sexual content.