Enid Blyton is a famous children’s writer who endeared herself to growing children with almost 600 books. She also created a series of books on a set of characters like the Famous Five and the Secret Seven. Her novels always focused on children as the main characters who solved many crimes and mysteries, much before the Police could do. Enid Blyton was born in 1897 and died in 1968 of Alzheimer’s disease.

Enid Blyton and Writing of “Children of Green Meadows”

Enid Blyton also loved animals and this love found itself translated into a number of books. One of the more famous books is “Children at Green Meadows”. In the novel, Green Meadows is a large rambling house in a dilapidated condition, as the owners do not have enough money to repair it. The parents want to sell it, but granny who owns the house is dead set against it.

The Story

The Marshal family that resides in this dilapidated structure has 3 children named Francis, Claire and Sam. The father is confined to a wheelchair and looked after by his loving wife. He had suffered an injury during Hitler’s war. The children have no animals as pets but love animals and would love to have a few. The story picks up when a large apartment complex comes up near their house. This complex has a rule that no pets are allowed. Enid now weaves a lovely tale as the people coming to live in the apartment complex have pets and as they can’t keep them in the apartment complex, the children volunteer to keep them.

The children with support from granny soon build up a mini menagerie. The beauty of the book lies in the way Enid brings out the golden heart of the family, who will not accept any cash to keep the animals, but the owners find ways to compensate the kids and the Marshall household. This makes for a heartwarming story that is sure to touch the chords of a child as well as an adult.

The message Enid sends out is that good children will have good coming their way. This novel is not as famous as the other books of Enid Blyton like the famous five series and the secret seven series, but in its own way, it’s a lovely touching tale that engages the reader from start to finish. The book abounds in sentimentalism and a reader is sure to feel a lump in his throat.

Enid Blyton: Personal Life

Enid Blyton was born in 1897 and died in 1968. As a child, she was greatly attached to her father and it was a traumatic experience for her when he left the family to live and sleep with another woman. This probably affected her badly. Though she was married she started having a string of love affairs. She divorced her first husband and in 1943 married a second time to a man named Darrell Waters. She took the unprecedented step of changing the surname of her two daughters from her first marriage to Waters. Her husband died in 1967 and Enid died a year later. on 28 November 1968, aged 71. She was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where her ashes remain till date..

Enid Blyton as a Writer

Enid Blyton writes simple prose that endears itself to young children. The language is simple and the sentences well crafted for young boys and girls. The book has some lovely descriptions which show the love of children for animals. Out of nearly 600 books written by Enid Blyton, this book has a niche of its own and reveals what a master craftswoman, Enid Blyton was. Who could relate a simple tale and infuse it with life? The fact that she wrote over 600 books is testimony to her prodigious talent

Controversies

No review of Enid Blyton’s books is complete without reference to the controversies surrounding her writings. Many times her books were banned in public libraries as she made comments that were racist like referring to a Negro “as a black with soot”. From 1995 onwards her books have been reissued after editing

Where do we place Enid Blyton now in the 21st century? The fact remains that her books have sold over 600 million copies and from 2000 to 2010 she was still listed in the top ten selling author list, having sold books worth £31.2m in the UK alone.

Her book “The Magic Faraway Book” was voted no 66 in the BBC Big Read rankings. In 2008 she was awarded the title of Britain’s best-loved author by Costa Book Awards.