Enid Blyton
By Megan .C
1. Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for
different age groups, her books have enjoyed popular success in many parts of the
world, and have sold over 600 million copies.
Enid Blyton with her daughters Gillian and Imogen in 1946
2. Enid Blyton was born on August 11th 1897 and she died November 28th 1968 aged
71.
3. Enid Blyton's most famous series was The Famous Five. Its central characters were
Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and the dog Timmy. Her works celebrated good food,
enjoyment of picnics in the idyllic English countryside, outdoor life, spirit of
comradeship, and honesty. By the 1980s, Blyton's books had sold some 60 million
copies and had been translated into nearly seventy languages.
Anne saw some cows pulling at the grass in a meadow as they passed. 'It must be
awful to be a cow and eat nothing but tasteless grass,' she called to George.
'Think what a cow misses – never tastes an egg and lettuce sandwich, never eats
a chocolate aclair, never has a boiled egg – and can't even drink a glass of gingerbeer! Poor cows!' (From Five Get Into Trouble, 1949)
4. Enid Blyton was born in London, in a small flat above a shop in East Dulwich. She
was the eldest of three children. Her father, Thomas Carey Blyton, had many talents:
he painted in water colours, wrote poetry, learned to play piano, taught himself
foreign languages, and was a photographer. After working as a cutlery salesman, he
joined his two older brothers in the family 'mantle warehousing' business of Fisher
and Nephew. Theresa Mary Hamilton, Enid's mother, did not share her husband's
interests, and she did not approve that Enid kept her nose in a book all the time. After
Thomas started an affair with another woman, she moved with her children, Enid,
Hanly, and Carey, to Beckenham. Thomas established a successful wholesale clothing
business in the City of London. He took care of his children's private school fees and
sent regularly money to support his family. Blyton's father died in 1920; she did not
attend his funeral.
5. Blyton, who was trained as a kindergarten teacher at Ipswich High School, opened
her own infants' school. When the literary commitments increased, Blyton devoted
herself entirely to writing. In 1926 Blyton took on the editing a new magazine for
children, Sunny Stories for Little People. Her stories, plays, and songs for Teachers'
World were received with enthusiasms. She also compiled a children's encyclopaedia,
but it was not until in the 1930s, when her stories started to attract a wider audience.
6. Blyton's first full-length children's book, The Secret Island, was published in 1938.
This fast-moving story led to such series as The Famous Five, directed for readers
between nine and thirteen years, The Secret Seven, for readers between eight and nine
years, the Adventure series, the Mystery series, and the 'Barney' Mystery books. Her
young characters are courageous and resourceful children, who encounter adventures
without having adults hanging over them. " 'I only like adventures afterwards,' said
Lucy-Ann. 'I don't like them when they're happening. I didn't want this adventure at
all. We didn't look for it, we just seemed to fall into the middle of it!' " (in The Castle of
Adventure, 1946)
7. Enid Blyton was also known as Mary Pollock. Her work involves children's
adventure stories, and fantasy, sometimes involving magic.
8. The Adventure series by Enid Blyton was one of her most successful series. These
books feature the same child characters: Philip, Jack, Dinah, and Lucy-Ann, along
with several adult characters. Jack's pet cockatoo, Kiki, is also a standard feature in
each novel.
9. The stories show the four children off on their own, discovering and solving
mysteries without much adult assistance. Although the publication dates span a
decade, Blyton reportedly wrote each of the novels in less than a week.
The colourful dust jackets and line illustrations were by Stuart Tresilian
They where many book’s in the series:
The Island of Adventure
The Castle of Adventure
The Valley of Adventure
The Sea of Adventure
The Mountain of Adventure
The Ship of Adventure
The Circus of Adventure
The River of Adventure
From The Adventure Series by Enid Blyton
Dorris Day
1. Doris Day supported animal welfare as well as being a famous singer and
actress.
2. Her real name was Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff, Doris Day was created
because Dorris Kappelhoff was too long
3. Doris was born to German Catholic parents in 1924. She had a brother Richard,
who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older than her. Her father and
mother split when she was about eight. At twelve, she had a dance act with a boy
called Jerry Doherty, with whom - after winning $500 in a talent contest - she went to
Hollywood. On returning to Cincinatti, aged fourteen, Doris was in a terrible car crash
which almost ended her dancing career.
4. At the age of sixteen, Doris then discovered that she could sing and began touring
with the Les Brown Band, where she met Al Jorden, who she later married. Al turned
out to be a violent man and soon after the birth of her son Terry in 1942, she initiated
divorce proceedings. In 1946, after entertaining the troops for a couple of years, she
met and married George Weidler; this liason lasted only eight months.
5. In 1948 she made her first film, "Romance On The High Seas". Whilst filming for
Warner Brothers, she met Marty Melcher who became her agent and later on her 27th
birthday her husband. In 1958 her brother Paul died and it was around this time that
Marty started to make her sign to do films that she did not want to. This eventually led
to Doris becoming ill from nervous exhaustion. By the time that Marty died in 1968,
Doris was bankrupt and owed thousands of dollars, but she was eventually awarded
$22 million by the Courts. She married for the fourth time in 1976 and since her
divorce in 1980 has devoted her life to animals.