Lovers of Enid Blyton rejoice – Noddy is back! After a 46-year hiatus the beloved children’s book character is celebrating his 60th birthday with a new book – Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle – written by Blyton's grand-daughter, Sophie Smallwood.
Blyton’s wooden elf first appeared in 1949, and she went on to publish 23 more Noddy books. She was an incredibly prolific writer and wrote over 800 books in her lifetime. She’s well known for her Noddy series as well as The Famous Five, The Magic Faraway Tree, and The Wishing Chair series. (I loved The Magic Faraway Tree and Wishing-Chair books. Then, when I was ‘older’, like, 10, I got into the more daring Enid Blyton books – such as The Naughtiest Girl in School.)
Most people would be familiar with the controversy surrounding Blyton’s writing. Since her hugely successful writing career began, Blyton has been criticised for perceived racism and sexism in her writing. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that it really became obvious and moves were made to eliminate some of these elements from newer editions of her work. Of course, as a child, these issues went over my head. Without a context to attach them to, I didn’t see golliwogs as racist (I had no idea of their history or of what they represented) and I thought it was perfectly acceptable that boys were boys and girls were girls.
Nevertheless, Smallwood and the publishers of the latest edition of Noddy have taken modern sensibilities into account and the Golliwogs don’t appear in this book. In fact, they haven’t been included in new editions of Blyton’s books for around 20 years now. Still, Smallwood has promised a return to the original style of the books, and this will no doubt be helped by the illustrations of Robert Tyndall, who worked with Blyton on the Noddy series from 1953.
And my excuse for reading Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle in the bookshop? I have four nephews to buy Christmas presents for!
Tessie from the UK.
Noddy is a toy carved out of wood (like Pinnochio) not an elf.
Posted by: Tessie Ursine | 22 November 2009 at 12:16 AM