Enid Blyton 1897 - 1968

Enid Mary Blyton was born off Lordship Lane in Dulwich which is to the Southeast of London. Her family moved soon after to  Beckenham in Kent. Two brothers were born there. She was close to her father until he left when she was 13. He encouraged her love of reading. She started writing poetry when she was 14 then it was stories for magazines.  At 19 she trained as a kindergarten teacher then opened her own school for small children so she had confidence and enterprise. In 1924 , at Bromley Register Office, with none of her family present, Enid married Hugh Pollock, DSO, a soldier-turned-publisher, a divorcee eight years her senior. You can see why the family didn't show. She gave up on teaching when they moved  to Elfin cottage in Bromley, Kent and became a full time writer. In 1929, they moved to Old Thatch in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire where their two daughters, Gillian and Imogen, were born. When World War II began, her marriage broke off. Later  she married Doctor Kenneth Darrell Waters. She gave us  over 400 books  and 10,000 short stories which have been translated into many languages.

Her two daughters detest each other heartily. One cares about her mother while the other has only bad things to say. In 1996 the family sold their interest in the Blyton literary estate for £14 million so her  daughters are very comfortable and, of course, never see each other.

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Updated  on Tuesday, 18 November 2008 22:09:22