Enid Blyton Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1890s

Enid Blyton was born in South London on 11 August 1897. In the first year of her life she suffered from whooping cough, a serious disease to infants that still kills tens of thousands, despite being preventable with vaccines.

Enid had two younger brothers. The family moved around London and to Kent. Enid's father, a salesman, left the family when she became a teenager. She had a strained relationship with her mother, too.

Answer: Piano

As a child, Enid was made to practice the piano for hours at a time, and her father believed that she could find a career in music. Enid's aunt was a professional musician, but Enid decided to pursue writing instead. She entered a poetry competition while at school, where she came to the attention of the educator Arthur Mee.

Answer: Teacher

Enid trained as a teacher in 1916 with the National Froebel Foundation. She worked at a boys' school in Kent and as a private tutor in Surrey. She would describe the latter as one of the happiest periods of her life. During her five years of teaching, Enid began to get short stories and poems for adults published, but she decided that as she loved working with children she would begin to write children's stories.

Answer: Child Whispers

"Child Whispers", a collection of 28 poems, was published in 1922. In the preface she describes her experience of what children enjoy - humor from "the child's point of view", not that of an adult; and "clear and whimsical" imagination. She struggled to find such poetry and so wrote it herself for the children she taught. During this year she also decided to start writing for "Teacher's World".

Answer: Sunny Stories

"Sunny Stories" told myths and legends to an audience of child readers. She also began the column "From My Window" in "Teachers' World". In 1937, the former was renamed to "Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories". It continued until 1952.

Answer: The River of Adventure

Published in 1955, "The River of Adventure" was the eighth and final book in the "Adventure" series, which followed four children and their pet parrot. Another installment in the series is called "The Sea of Adventure".

Enid worked typical nine-to-five hours writing from her own home. She did not research or write outlines for her novels, which have recurring themes, character types, and plots. However, there is no evidence of ghostwriting. One librarian who accused her of such was made to apologize in court.

Alongside her writing, Enid Blyton performed much of the housework and childcare needed by her family. She responded to fan letters without a secretary, turned up to public appearances that she did not enjoy, and negotiated contracts for merchandise like jigsaw puzzles.

Answer: Famous Five Clubs

Fans wrote to Enid, who gave permission for the fan clubs if they raised money for Shaftesbury Society Babies' Home. The first club was established in 1950. Its membership peaked at around 500,000. Enid would sometimes meet fans on the street wearing Famous Five club badges.

She was persuaded to extend the series by more than triple her original plan of 6 books: 21 books were published as well as Famous Five-themed annuals.

Answer: Banned in school libraries

BBC Radio avoided adapting her stories during the peak of her career and many schools and libraries prohibited her books. Enid Blyton's stories are typically limited in vocabulary, repetitive, morally uncomplicated, and show children from wealthy, English families with few worries.

As such, they have received much negative critical reception. Nonetheless, they are enormous bestsellers, widely translated and remain particularly popular in China.

Answer: Golliwog

The golliwogs of "Noddy" are cruel to the blonde white children. One group of them leave Noddy naked in the woods after stealing his car.

In Enid's writing, characters like thieves are often cast as foreigners. Black servants are morally or intellectually inferior to the other adult characters. In one book from 1937, "The Little Black Doll", a doll with an "ugly black face" is saved by "magic rain" that washes his face white. The child characters tell each other that girls are not as good as boys and prevent each other from doing things because of their gender. Even within the time period and setting, Enid Blyton's books are limited in perspective and diversity of characters.

Answer: 750

Blyton's series include "The Faraway Tree" (1939-51), "Malory Towers" (1946-51), "Noddy" (1949-63), "St. Clare's" (1941-45), "The Adventure Series" (1944-50), "The Famous Five" (1942-63), "Five Find-Outers" (1943-61), and "The Secret Seven" (1949-63). Many different publishers have put her books out, including George Newnes, Hodder & Stoughton, Brockhampton Press and Egmont Books. A small number of her books were edited and published after her death.

Her books were not highly acclaimed among professional critics, but in public surveys she has ranked highly as one of the best British authors and a blue plaque has been placed to commemorate her childhood home.