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Should there be an Enid Blyton festival? Should there be an Enid Blyton festival?
(7 months later)
Anthony Mealing: 'A festival should not ignore her darker side'Anthony Mealing: 'A festival should not ignore her darker side'
I am not against the people of Beaconsfield holding a festival to celebrate Enid Blyton as a matter of principle. What disturbs me is the jingoistic manner in which they are going about it. As a former university examiner, I used to always tell my students to look at the whole story, at both sides of the coin. There is little doubt that while Blyton's stories have brought joy to a lot of readers, she also had a darker side with a certain degree of malevolence.I am not against the people of Beaconsfield holding a festival to celebrate Enid Blyton as a matter of principle. What disturbs me is the jingoistic manner in which they are going about it. As a former university examiner, I used to always tell my students to look at the whole story, at both sides of the coin. There is little doubt that while Blyton's stories have brought joy to a lot of readers, she also had a darker side with a certain degree of malevolence.
For example, portraying African-Caribbean people as "Little Black Sambos" who steal purses and bicycles is not OK – and it wasn't OK even back in 1953. I know, because even then my grandmother refused to let us read her stories because she felt Blyton's attitudes were racist.For example, portraying African-Caribbean people as "Little Black Sambos" who steal purses and bicycles is not OK – and it wasn't OK even back in 1953. I know, because even then my grandmother refused to let us read her stories because she felt Blyton's attitudes were racist.
Even Blyton's own children have raised questions about her integrity. In her 1989 memoir, her daughter Imogen alleged that her mother was "arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind and without a trace of maternal instinct". None of these things mean that her books should be banned, but anyone prepared to organise a festival in her honour should be prepared to answer some awkward questions. Instead, all I am seeing is the Blyton fan community close ranks against her critics.Even Blyton's own children have raised questions about her integrity. In her 1989 memoir, her daughter Imogen alleged that her mother was "arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind and without a trace of maternal instinct". None of these things mean that her books should be banned, but anyone prepared to organise a festival in her honour should be prepared to answer some awkward questions. Instead, all I am seeing is the Blyton fan community close ranks against her critics.
• Anthony Mealing is an architect based in High Wycombe near Beaconsfield• Anthony Mealing is an architect based in High Wycombe near Beaconsfield
Gabriel Gbadamosi: 'She taught me about attitudes to my race'Gabriel Gbadamosi: 'She taught me about attitudes to my race'
It would be fair to say I grew up in love with England's racist literature and iconography. I loved those swashbuckling tales of colourfully illustrated derring-do among faraway natives, the golliwogs on jam jars and my favourite, Little Black Sambo, clever enough to get tigers to chase round trees and turn into melted butter … Later, people called me golliwog or sambo; but by then it was too late: I wasn't going to give up my copy of the Sambo book, and I knew how people felt, how much they minded no longer being able to keep their golliwogs.It would be fair to say I grew up in love with England's racist literature and iconography. I loved those swashbuckling tales of colourfully illustrated derring-do among faraway natives, the golliwogs on jam jars and my favourite, Little Black Sambo, clever enough to get tigers to chase round trees and turn into melted butter … Later, people called me golliwog or sambo; but by then it was too late: I wasn't going to give up my copy of the Sambo book, and I knew how people felt, how much they minded no longer being able to keep their golliwogs.
It would be an equally black day on which Enid Blyton, one of the authors of my childhood, could no longer be celebrated by her readers. They have numbered in their millions, and been drawn to her vision of childhood's adventure from all corners of the globe. Everyone has their own memories of stumbling on grown-up secrets, or the midnight feasts of older children, but mine come to me through Blyton. She showed me what a mid-century, middle-class, white, English childhood ought to look like. Her books taught me about English attitudes to my race and lower-class status; she let me see over the fence how the adventure of privilege was going, who was involved and what they thought (they were not usually very good at feeling – that, rather than the vocabulary, was what struck me as limited).It would be an equally black day on which Enid Blyton, one of the authors of my childhood, could no longer be celebrated by her readers. They have numbered in their millions, and been drawn to her vision of childhood's adventure from all corners of the globe. Everyone has their own memories of stumbling on grown-up secrets, or the midnight feasts of older children, but mine come to me through Blyton. She showed me what a mid-century, middle-class, white, English childhood ought to look like. Her books taught me about English attitudes to my race and lower-class status; she let me see over the fence how the adventure of privilege was going, who was involved and what they thought (they were not usually very good at feeling – that, rather than the vocabulary, was what struck me as limited).
An Enid Blyton festival in Beaconsfield would put that town on the map of an England I was brought up on. It is an England gradually being rubbed out for its unguarded openness about so much – lashings of jolly suspicious stuff. But, then, without being able to have Blyton's original, uncensored texts down as a marker, it is so much more difficult to measure how far we have come.An Enid Blyton festival in Beaconsfield would put that town on the map of an England I was brought up on. It is an England gradually being rubbed out for its unguarded openness about so much – lashings of jolly suspicious stuff. But, then, without being able to have Blyton's original, uncensored texts down as a marker, it is so much more difficult to measure how far we have come.
• Gabriel Gbadamosi is an author and playwright. His novel Vauxhall will be published by Telegram Books in May• Gabriel Gbadamosi is an author and playwright. His novel Vauxhall will be published by Telegram Books in May
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