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[[Enid Blyton]] was a prolific author of English children's literature, producing around 800 books during her forty-year career, which were many people's first introduction to [[
Her writing is mostly set in an idealised version of pre-war England, and reflects the attitudes of the time, using some now-[[Dead Horse Trope|dead tropes]] about race, sex, and social class, commonly mocked when Blyton is parodied. Often, her characters spend days roaming across the countryside, [[Free-Range Children|without any trace of adult supervision]], eating lavish picnics and having jolly adventures fighting assorted villains.
While her work was highly influential (even all these years later, those who have read Blyton can't help but be reminded of the ''St. Clare's'' and ''Malory Towers'' books while reading about [[Harry Potter|Hogwarts]]) there is a fairly large amount of [[Values Dissonance]] strewn liberally among her books, and it has come under controversy, although even that hasn't stopped her books from still being widely bought and read today.
Many of her works have been televised or filmed. ''The Famous Five'' is the one most commonly referenced. Blyton also wrote hundreds of stand-alone novels. Her books still sell around eight million copies a year. The Famous Five books alone sell more than two million copies a year according to [[The Other Wiki]].▼
There are two fansites at http://enidblyton.net and http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/ .▼
{{bibliography}}
* "[[Noddy]]" (24 books). Set in Toyland.
* ''[[The Famous Five]]'' (21 books). Four children and a dog, who regularly stumble across mysterious happenings.
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* ''[[The Secret Seven]]'' (15 books). Seven children in a detective club, who solve mysteries during term-time.
* ''[[Malory Towers]]'' (6 books). One girl's progress through a [[Boarding School]]
* ''[[St
* ''The Naughtiest Girl'' (4 books, plus 6 by Anne Digby). Elizabeth Allen makes trouble in a progressive [[Boarding School]].
* ''[[The Faraway Tree]]'' (4 books). Three children find a magical tree which has a [[Magical Land]] at the top, but the land it connects to changes every week.
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* ''[[The Circus Series]]'' (3 books). The adventures of a young boy and his family who join a circus.
* Now out of print, ''The Three Golliwogs'' a book full of a trio of gollywog dolls. A publishing nightmare in terms of modern race relations. Not only are the dolls based on a racial stereotype visually, but the text uses names that have since become bound to racism. An excerpt:
{{quote|
▲Many of her works have been televised or filmed. ''The Famous Five'' is the one most commonly referenced. Blyton also wrote hundreds of stand-alone novels. Her books still sell around eight million copies a year. The Famous Five books alone sell more than two million copies a year according to [[The Other Wiki]].
▲There are two fansites at http://enidblyton.net and http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/ .
{{creatortropes}}
* [[Absent-Minded Professor]]: A stock trope for Enid's works. Most evident in Uncle Quentin from the ''Famous Five'' novels.
* [[Adults Are Useless]]
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* [[Anime]]: the St. Clare's books were adapted into the 26 episode Anime "Ochame na futago: Claire Gakuin monogatari".
* [[Anti Gravity]]: The villains of ''The Mountain of Adventure'' are trying to build antigravity wings as a weapon.
* [[Author Appeal]]: Enid Blyton has a fondness for writing tomboyish female characters (George, Jo, Henry, Bertha, Bobby, Bill, etc.) in her novels who either crossdress or assume male names.
* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: Nobody actually says "Lashings of ginger beer".
** The hilariously not-childsafe parody ''Five Go Mad in Dorset'' corrects this oversight.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Most evident in George's hair trigger in the ''Famous Five'' books whenever someone is mean to her pet dog Timmy, or worse dares to call her a girl.
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]:
** Anne from the ''Famous Five'' books is a [[Proper Lady]] but every once in a while, well you know how the [[Trope]] goes.
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* [[Cave Behind the Falls]]
* [[City Mouse]]: Cyril, Melisande and Roderick from the ''Six Cousins'' duology.
* [[The
* [[Country Mouse]]: Jack, Jane and Susan from the ''Six Cousins'' duology.
* [[During the War]]: Due to the period in which she was writing, this crops up quite a lot. Rationing due to [[World War Two]] leading to national hunger - well, not exactly hunger, but definitely a longing to be able to just pig out sometimes - also goes a long way towards explaining the [[Food Porn]] in her books.
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo, for obvious reasons.
* [[Evil Cripple]]: Subverted in ''Five Go to Smuggler's Top'', {{spoiler|the villain's henchman Block feigns deafness to avoid suspicion and eavesdrop on the secrets of the Lenoir family.}}
* [[Five-Man Band]]: Famously, ''The Famous Five''.
** The Hero: Julian
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** The Chick: Anne
* [[Food Porn]]: Featured vividly in several scenes such as the midnight feasts in her boarding school books and the countryside picnics in the Famous Five.
* [[Gender Equal Ensemble]]: Her works often consist of a gender-balanced group of children, sometimes supplemented by a pet.
** ''[[The Famous Five]]'': Not counting the dog, the titular ensemble consists of two boys (Julian and Dick) and two girls (Georgina and Anne)
** ''The Adventure Series: Two boys (Phillip and Jack) and two girls (Dinah and Lucy-Ann)
** ''The Secret Series: Two boys (Jack and Mike) and two girls (Peggy and Nora)
** ''The Far Away Tree: The second book has two boys and two girls.
** ''The Adventurous Four'': Two boys (Tom and Andy) and twin sisters (Jill and Mary)
** ''Six Cousin Series'': Three boys (Jack, Cyril and Roderick) and three girls (Jane, Susan and Melisande)
* [[Ghibli Hills]]: The rather idealised landscapes through which The Famous Five et al roam and adventure.
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: Perhaps best exemplified in ''The Magic Faraway Tree'' when Dick, frustrated at having his name misheard by a hard-of-hearing character, shouts back at him, "Not Chick, but ''Dick''!". You had to wonder if Enid was just a little bit in on the joke.
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* [[Master of Disguise]]: Fatty in the ''Five Find-Outers'' series.
* [[Magical Land]]
* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Uncle Quentin from the ''Famous five'' novels, although it's more an [[Informed Attribute]]. He's also something of a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] as well.
* [[Portmanteau]] / [[Neologism]]: "Delumptious" and "scrumplicious", being the two portmanteaux of "delicious" and "scrumptious". They became famous enough to somewhat enter the language, and are quoted by Zach in ''[[Goodnight Mister Tom]]'' for example.
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* [[Reformed but Rejected]]: Mirabel in the St Clares series.
* [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship]]: Practically all the main characters in Malory Towers - Darrell and Sally, Alicia and Betty, Mary-Lou and Daphne, and there's outright [[Les Yay]] between Bill and Clarissa.
** A Dutch [http://www.pitty.nl/ college-set sequel] makes it a lot more explicit.
* [[Ruritania]]: Tauri-Hessia from the ''Adventure'' series.
* [[Secret Underground Passage]]: Stock trope, bordering on [[You Fail Geology Forever]] on occasion.
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* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Jack Longfield gives one of these to his twin sister Jane about her poor personal hygiene in the first ''Six Cousins'' book.
* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: Are implied to be the hostile foreign power in ''The Adventurous Four'', although they are only ever referred to on page as "the enemy".
* [[Timmy in
* [[Tomboyish Name]]: In the Famous Five, Georgina always calls herself George.
** The [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] in [[Fanfic]] is that George is
** Wilhelmina Robinson of ''Malory Towers'' calls herself (and insists on being called) Bill. Even more tomboyish than George, with the difference that nobody (not her parents, nor teachers, nor classmates) tries to force her into a 'girlish' mould. Consequently she doesn't appear to have a chip on her shoulder.
* [[Treasure Map]]: In the first Famous Five book and one of the ''Adventure'' books.
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[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Enid Blyton]]
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