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Lead book review

How Noddy and Big Ears conquered the world

Love her or loathe her, Enid Blyton and the safe, sunny world she cleverly marketed will remain a publishing phenomenon, says Sam Leith

11 December 2021

9:00 AM

11 December 2021

9:00 AM

Enid Blyton: A Literary Life Andrew Maunder

Palgrave, pp.323, 17.99

Perhaps the funniest of the many funny jokes in Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ is its protagonist’s struggle with Enid Blyton. Having turned the corner into adolescence, Adrian is mortified by the Blyton characters on the wallpaper in his childhood bedroom and sets about repainting the room in black, the better to represent his turbulent soul.

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