But I Smile Anyway…

On a comment conversation with a fellow blogger, susieshy45, we started discussing, briefly, books, and the conversation turned to Enid Blyton books, and how a bookstore in The US that she visited hadn’t even heard of Enid Blyton!

I was astonished! How could a bookstore not have heard of her? It was possibly a young employee, but still!! Enid Blyton rocks! Her books were the core of my reading as a child, the reason I fell in love with books!

My mother was, and is an avid reader. She likes the family sagas by Cathrine Cookson, romance by Danielle Steele, all the Virginia Andrews Books, and many more, but as she grew up, and went to an English school in Kenya, she was exposed to the literature of Enid Blyton, and alongside many traditional tales, she encouraged my love of books too.

At the tender age of 4 I was admitted to hospital… Nothing drastic, my tonsils needed removing, but I was in there for 2 nights. As a reward I was bought the Noddy series of books.

The originals!

These are the uncensored ones, before Shhh! Gollywogs were not allowed…!

Hello Noddy and Big Ears!

How I loved these books! I read and re-read them! My mother had kept them for me, so I could share them with my children, but not before I had invested in some modern versions of the wonderful Noddy for Lil Man and Lil Princess.

Modern day Noddy!

This was just the start of my love for Blyton’s books. As I grew, I read the Amelia Jane series and the Naughtiest Girl books. I think I must have read them so much they near disintegrated! But I managed to find some for the kids.

More modern classics

And I then progressed to Mallory Towers, and St Clare’s. Oh how those books made me long to go to boarding school! I read them all. Again and again. These are the next ones I hope to get for try children to enjoy too!

I was never into the Famous Five, or the Secret Seven, but thanks to Macdonalds, of all places, and a very thoughtful range of Happy Meal gifts, the kids even heard some of these stories!

Three cheers for Maccy D’s!!

And that’s not all. I discovered a whole host of Enid Blyton classics that I hadn’t devoured as a child, which I read with my children now!

Even more Blyton!!

Ok, so I know she wasn’t politically correct, there were racist tendencies in some stories, but I can look beyond them! She was an amazing author, and probably a huge part of my desire to write, for children, as well as for adults!

There are other authors who I enjoyed immensely as a child, but she was my number 1! Who was yours?