Barbara Stoney: Enid Blyton: The Biography

Due to this years reading challenge I had to read a biography. As I am a huge fan of Enid Blyton and this bio was under offer I took this one. Enid had a pretty normal life until her father moved out, which was at that time some kind of catastrophe. She was not able to tell anyone what had happened, and even her closest friends did not know, that her father did not live at home anymore. This incident left deep marks in young Enid, and explains a lot of things which happened later. The bio covers all of her life, includes a few excerpts and poems and lists her books by publication date.

 

Before I read this bio I had often heard, that Enid was not the best of mothers. This is more or less confirmed by this book. Enid must have been the most wonderful teacher in the world, but as she had hundreds of thousands of children all over the world, her own children seem to get a raw deal. It is a little sad, to think of my favorite childrens book author as a not so good mother, howeever, the story why she was as she was explains a lot!

 

The bio itself seems to be well researched, a lot of information can be acquired. Sometimes I had the feeling, that it was a little mixed up (regarding the chronology), but I think this was my first biography, so perhaps this is quite normal. I award 8 out of 10.

EDIT: It is not my first bio... I read the bio of Margaret Rutherford 2 years ago...