The Gernat children
dailymail / Children who inspired Enid Blyton's Famous Five book covers
The Gernat Family
Mary Gernat used her sons Roger, Francis, Nicholas and Justin for the illustrations in the Famous Five and Secret Seven stories.
A Mary Gernat illustration
Enid Blyton has sold more than 600,000,000 Books.
Enid Blyton's husband Hugh Pollock once found Enid locked in the bathroom with another woman.
Hugh Pollock became a secret alcoholic. Pollock entered into a relationship with Ida Crowe. Blyton began a series of affairs, including a lesbian relationship with one of the children's nannies.[97][98]. Blyton divorced Pollock and married met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon.
Above we see the Enid Blyton character called George.
George is a girl.
A Mary Gernat illustration
Mary Gernat lived and worked in Lymington and illustrated over one hundred and twenty book covers for authors such as Enid Blyton, Monica Edwards, Richmal Crompton, Captain W. E. Johns, Frank Richards and the Pullein-Thompson sisters.
George is a girl.
A Mary Gernat illustration
Mary Gernat lived and worked in Lymington and illustrated over one hundred and twenty book covers for authors such as Enid Blyton, Monica Edwards, Richmal Crompton, Captain W. E. Johns, Frank Richards and the Pullein-Thompson sisters.
"In The Famous Five series one of the child characters is named ‘Dick’, and an adult character is called ‘Fanny’.
"Americans may associate ‘fanny’ with ‘buttocks’.
"In the rest of the English speaking world however ‘fanny’ refers to the female sex organ.
"‘Dick’, I assume is universally recognised by anglophones.
"So here we have two characters, in series of books for young primary school children, named after the female and male genitalia.
..
Enid Blyton
"Did Ms. BLYTon know of this at the time?
"Americans may associate ‘fanny’ with ‘buttocks’.
"In the rest of the English speaking world however ‘fanny’ refers to the female sex organ.
"‘Dick’, I assume is universally recognised by anglophones.
"So here we have two characters, in series of books for young primary school children, named after the female and male genitalia.
..Enid Blyton
"Did Ms. BLYTon know of this at the time?
"According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, ‘fanny’ came to mean vulva in 1879.
"Likewise, ‘dick’ has had impure connotations since 1891.
"Ms Blyton, having been born in 1897 should have known, thus we can only assume that this was her intent all along – to have children uttering filthy words, all over the world in their bedrooms."
The static void.
Some some later editions have been altered.
"Likewise, ‘dick’ has had impure connotations since 1891.
"Ms Blyton, having been born in 1897 should have known, thus we can only assume that this was her intent all along – to have children uttering filthy words, all over the world in their bedrooms."
Some some later editions have been altered.
The Faraway Tree's Dame Slap, who made regular use of corporal punishment, was changed to Dame Snap who no longer did so.
The names of Dick and Fanny in the same series were changed to Rick and Frannie.[150]
Characters in the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series are no longer spanked or threatened with a spanking, but are instead scolded.
References to George's short hair making her look like a boy were removed in revisions to Five on a Hike Together, reflecting the idea that girls need not have long hair to be considered feminine or normal.[151]
In The Mail, we learn that Enid Blyton did not like her mother.
In The Mail, we learn that Enid Blyton did not like her mother.
(Enid Blyton as a barking-mad adulterous bully)
"The first husband didn't work out, so she scrubbed him out.
"Emotionally, Blyton remained a little girl, stuck in a world of picnics, secret-society codes and midnight feasts. It acted as a huge comfort blanket.
"Many of Blyton's obsessions can be traced to her father, who left her mother when Enid was 12. She then seized up emotionally and physically."
Blyton's daughter Imogen Smallwood says: 'My mother was arrogant, insecure and without a trace of maternal instinct. Her approach to life was childlike, and she could be spiteful, like a teenager.'
A BBC drama "shows Blyton's flirtatiousness - she entertained servicemen to dinner at the house while her husband was away at war and found them and their attention attractive...
"The first husband didn't work out, so she scrubbed him out.
"Emotionally, Blyton remained a little girl, stuck in a world of picnics, secret-society codes and midnight feasts. It acted as a huge comfort blanket.
"Many of Blyton's obsessions can be traced to her father, who left her mother when Enid was 12. She then seized up emotionally and physically."
Blyton's daughter Imogen Smallwood says: 'My mother was arrogant, insecure and without a trace of maternal instinct. Her approach to life was childlike, and she could be spiteful, like a teenager.'
The Secret Seven Adventure.
A BBC drama "shows Blyton's flirtatiousness - she entertained servicemen to dinner at the house while her husband was away at war and found them and their attention attractive...
"Directors chose to omit some aspects of Blyton's apparently sensual side, such as visitors arriving to find her playing tennis naked and suggestions of a lesbian affair with her children's nanny, Dorothy Richards."
"Blyton embarked on a string of affairs..." (New TV drama reveals Enid Blyton as a barking-mad adulterous bully ...)
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton is the UK's best-loved writer, according to a survey conducted for the Costa Book Awards. (Blyton voted 'most loved writer')
Blyton, who wrote the Famous Five series and the Noddy books, has sold more than 600 million books worldwide.
(Enid Blyton came top, followed by 2. Roald Dahl 3. JK Rowling 4. Jane Austen and 5. Shakespeare)
Enid Blyton's work is translated into 130 languages!
Why so successful?
She wrote like a ten year-old.
Enid Blyton
Ask an average ten year-old to write an adventure story and it might read something like this:
"Four children go to stay in an old house at the coast. They make tree houses. They ride bikes and have picnics and go swimming. They find some dark caves with secret passages.
"They take a boat out to a mysterious island. They are captured by smugglers. Without any help from adults, they escape from their incompetent and silly captors and tell their story to the grateful police."
The vocabulary is simple. The story is simple. The prose is child-like. There are no boring descriptions of people or scenery, but there are some details of things like tree houses and picnics and caves.
Blyton has been accused by the horrid PC world of being racist, sexist and snobbish.
But, note well that Blyton's books do not encourage kids to overdose on heroin or commit gang rape.
They encourage kids to enjoy being kids, and they encourage kids to read. Both adults and children can enjoy the books.
Let's take THE ISLAND OF ADVENTURE as an example.
Chapter 1 The Beginning of Things.
A young boy called Philip normally lives with his impatient Aunt, his non-child-loving Uncle, his sister Dinah, and a "stupid" black servant, at a house on the coast called Craggy Tops.
But during the summer holidays Philip, is getting extra tuition at the home of one of his teachers, a Mr Roy.
While staying with Mr Roy, Philip makes friends with a boy called Jack and his sister Lucy-Ann. Jack and Lucy-Ann are looked after by an uncle.
Note that the children do not have straighforward family backgrounds. Blyton's parents were divorced, and she herself got divorced.
Chapter 2. Making Friends.
As there were only four boys to coach, Mr Roy gives them each individual attention.
Philip tells Lucy-Anne that Craggy Tops is "wild" and "queer".
Philip takes a hedgehog out of his pocket. "It was a baby one, whose prickles were not yet hardened.
Observe that the Blyton world was a world free of child abusers and serial killers. Instead it was a world of harmless teachers and hedgehogs in pockets.
Did you know that hedgehogs are bisexual?
Famous Five.
Chapter 3. Two Letters and a Plan.
"Uncle doesn't want us back," says Jack. Philip decides that Jack and Lucy-Ann should escape with them to Craggy Tops.
As you can see, the children do some pretty risky things, but nothing cruel and nasty.
Chapter 4. Craggy Tops.
The children arrive at Craggy Tops.
"It was a queer place."
There has still been no violence!
The Famous Five.
Chapter 5. Settling in at Craggy Tops.
"Lucy-Ann wished she was sleeping nearer to Jack."
Isn't she sweet and innocent.
Chapter 6. The Days Go By.
"It was a queer place to sleep for the first time at Craggy tops."
Jack shares a mattress with Philip.
"Jack soon got warm, cuddled up against Philip's back."
Blyton has suspected paedophile tendencies?
Chapter 7. A Queer Discovery.
The children explore the damp dark caves, some of which have "queerholes in their roofs."
Dinah pushed Philip.
"She had certainly meant to give philip a hard blow."
Philip falls into a hole.
What would Freud think?
Famous Five.
Chapter 8 . In the Cellars.
A secret passage is discovered.
Nabokov and Pale Fire?
Chapter 9. A Strange Boat.
Philip - "Even when he was wearing bathing-drawers he seemed able to secrete some kind of creature about his body.
"Yesterday it had been a couple of friendly crabs. But when he had accidentally sat down on one, and it had nipped him....."
Is this why kids love Blyton?
Chapter 10. Night Adventure.
The black servant is involved in some dark doings.
"Blyton embarked on a string of affairs..." (New TV drama reveals Enid Blyton as a barking-mad adulterous bully ...)
Enid Blyton is the UK's best-loved writer, according to a survey conducted for the Costa Book Awards. (Blyton voted 'most loved writer')
Blyton, who wrote the Famous Five series and the Noddy books, has sold more than 600 million books worldwide.
(Enid Blyton came top, followed by 2. Roald Dahl 3. JK Rowling 4. Jane Austen and 5. Shakespeare)
Enid Blyton's work is translated into 130 languages!
Why so successful?
She wrote like a ten year-old.
Enid Blyton
Ask an average ten year-old to write an adventure story and it might read something like this:
"Four children go to stay in an old house at the coast. They make tree houses. They ride bikes and have picnics and go swimming. They find some dark caves with secret passages.
"They take a boat out to a mysterious island. They are captured by smugglers. Without any help from adults, they escape from their incompetent and silly captors and tell their story to the grateful police."
The vocabulary is simple. The story is simple. The prose is child-like. There are no boring descriptions of people or scenery, but there are some details of things like tree houses and picnics and caves.
Blyton has been accused by the horrid PC world of being racist, sexist and snobbish.
But, note well that Blyton's books do not encourage kids to overdose on heroin or commit gang rape.
They encourage kids to enjoy being kids, and they encourage kids to read. Both adults and children can enjoy the books.
Let's take THE ISLAND OF ADVENTURE as an example.
Chapter 1 The Beginning of Things.
A young boy called Philip normally lives with his impatient Aunt, his non-child-loving Uncle, his sister Dinah, and a "stupid" black servant, at a house on the coast called Craggy Tops.
But during the summer holidays Philip, is getting extra tuition at the home of one of his teachers, a Mr Roy.
While staying with Mr Roy, Philip makes friends with a boy called Jack and his sister Lucy-Ann. Jack and Lucy-Ann are looked after by an uncle.
Note that the children do not have straighforward family backgrounds. Blyton's parents were divorced, and she herself got divorced.
Chapter 2. Making Friends.
As there were only four boys to coach, Mr Roy gives them each individual attention.
Philip tells Lucy-Anne that Craggy Tops is "wild" and "queer".
Philip takes a hedgehog out of his pocket. "It was a baby one, whose prickles were not yet hardened.
Observe that the Blyton world was a world free of child abusers and serial killers. Instead it was a world of harmless teachers and hedgehogs in pockets.
Did you know that hedgehogs are bisexual?
Famous Five.
Chapter 3. Two Letters and a Plan.
"Uncle doesn't want us back," says Jack. Philip decides that Jack and Lucy-Ann should escape with them to Craggy Tops.
As you can see, the children do some pretty risky things, but nothing cruel and nasty.
Chapter 4. Craggy Tops.
The children arrive at Craggy Tops.
"It was a queer place."
There has still been no violence!
The Famous Five.
Chapter 5. Settling in at Craggy Tops.
"Lucy-Ann wished she was sleeping nearer to Jack."
Isn't she sweet and innocent.
Chapter 6. The Days Go By.
"It was a queer place to sleep for the first time at Craggy tops."
Jack shares a mattress with Philip.
"Jack soon got warm, cuddled up against Philip's back."
Blyton has suspected paedophile tendencies?
Chapter 7. A Queer Discovery.
The children explore the damp dark caves, some of which have "queerholes in their roofs."
Dinah pushed Philip.
"She had certainly meant to give philip a hard blow."
Philip falls into a hole.
What would Freud think?
Famous Five.
Chapter 8 . In the Cellars.
A secret passage is discovered.
Nabokov and Pale Fire?
Chapter 9. A Strange Boat.
Philip - "Even when he was wearing bathing-drawers he seemed able to secrete some kind of creature about his body.
"Yesterday it had been a couple of friendly crabs. But when he had accidentally sat down on one, and it had nipped him....."
Is this why kids love Blyton?
Chapter 10. Night Adventure.
The black servant is involved in some dark doings.
Chapter 11. Bill Smuggs.
The four children visit a cove.
"The children slipped off their jerseys and shorts and went into the water to bathe."
They spy a boat.
"What a queer place to keep a boat, " says Philip.
Is the pace too fast? Are you embarrased by the strip-tease?
I won't describe all 29 chapters, as I'm sure you've got the idea.
Blyton is gentle innocent fun for both adults and children.
Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita.
The four children visit a cove.
"The children slipped off their jerseys and shorts and went into the water to bathe."
They spy a boat.
"What a queer place to keep a boat, " says Philip.
Is the pace too fast? Are you embarrased by the strip-tease?
I won't describe all 29 chapters, as I'm sure you've got the idea.
Blyton is gentle innocent fun for both adults and children.
Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita.
What do we know about the real Nabokov?
1. Vladimir Nabokov found boys interesting, and there are gay characters in almost all of his 17 novels.
Vladimir came from a ‘liberal’ family which contained a number of ‘gay’ characters.
When Vladimir occasionally used ‘homophobic slurs’ this did not neccessarily mean that he was not fond of young males.
With Nabokov things are not always what they seem.
2. Some quotes from Nabokov’s novel ‘Pale Fire’:
1. Vladimir Nabokov found boys interesting, and there are gay characters in almost all of his 17 novels.
Vladimir came from a ‘liberal’ family which contained a number of ‘gay’ characters.
When Vladimir occasionally used ‘homophobic slurs’ this did not neccessarily mean that he was not fond of young males.
With Nabokov things are not always what they seem.
2. Some quotes from Nabokov’s novel ‘Pale Fire’:
"When he was a dark strong lad of thirteen ... he had several dear playmates but none could compete with Oleg, Duke of Rahl.
"In those days growing boys of high-born families wore on festive occasions ... sleeveless jerseys, white anklesocks with black buckle shoes, and very tight, very short shorts called hotinguens ...
"Both lads were handsome, long-legged specimens of Varangian boyhood... Oleg ... stripped and shiny in the mist of the bath house, his bold virilia...
"A secret passage... his soft blond locks ...his golden brows ... the downy warmth of that crimson ear ... dark passageways ... stealthy intrusion ... blind pokings ... penetrations ...dusky odor ...
"Behind him the young Prince’s electric torch played on the ground and gave a coating of flower to the back of Oleg’s bare thighs... smooth entrance ..."
"You’re all chalky behind," said the young Prince ... Both were in a manly state and moaning like doves...
"He inhaled the hair oil of the pretty page who had bent to brush a rose petal off the footstool...
"The King waded into the damp ...its odor, its lacy resilience, and the mixture of soft growth and steep ground...a bare kneed mountain lad like a tawny angel...
"The boy-handsome tousle-haired girlfriend...
"Some of his predecessors, rough alderkings who burned for boys...
"He saw nineteen-year-old Disa ..She had come in male dress, as a Tirolese boy...
The graceful boy wreathed about the loins with ivy...
"The boy wiped his wet hands on his black bathing trunks...
The boy striking his flanks clothed in white tennis shorts... The young woodwose had closed his eyes and was stretched out supine on the pool’s marble margin; his Tarzan brief had ben cast aside on the turf..."
3. In the 1950s Nabokov wrote Lolita. For six months it was the number one bestseller in America.
Nabokov liked girls, so long as they looked like boys.
Lolita was the girl with the ‘puerile (boy) hips’, the girl wearing ‘shorts’.
The moon's an arrant thief
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.
"Reality is neither the subject nor the object of true art which creates its own special reality having nothing to do with the average ‘reality’ perceived by the communal eye."
Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 novel, Pale Fire, is about things not being as simple as they first appear.
Pale Fire, Kinbote, Zembla, Charles II, and Gradus, may be the elaborate creation of the Russian academic.
Are any of us what we appear to be?
Lolita was the girl with the ‘puerile (boy) hips’, the girl wearing ‘shorts’.
4. A quote from Timon of Athens:
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.
5. With Nabokov things are not always what they seem.
In Pale Fire, the commentator appears to be Charles Kinbote.
But, Nabokov reveals in his diary that the commentator is Prof. Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and an academic.
Nabokov was Russian and an academic.
According to Nabokov, in Pale Fire :
In Pale Fire, the commentator appears to be Charles Kinbote.
But, Nabokov reveals in his diary that the commentator is Prof. Vseslav Botkin, a Russian and an academic.
Nabokov was Russian and an academic.
According to Nabokov, in Pale Fire :
Pale Fire, Kinbote, Zembla, Charles II, and Gradus, may be the elaborate creation of the Russian academic.
Are any of us what we appear to be?
I like Enid Blyton as a kid, now i find out that she was a sex crazed granny. Sex does have a way of getting into everything.
ReplyDeleteNow the youngsters watch porn on their phones at school instead.
Sex crazed granny? How about a normal woman? What is this having to do with her books anyway?
DeleteI'm in the slightest but prudish, but sometimes the apprentices have shown me some porn on their phones, its usually crude and I don't like it much. They watched all the S&M stuff for laughs. I wonder what it does to them, and they've been brought up with it.
DeleteWhen I was young I wouldn't watch poon as I worried it would corrupt me. It could really turn me on. Guys at work would pass videos around and I sometimes watched one. But these apprentices have watched so much porn they seemed to be uninterested in it now, unless its something odd that makes them laugh.
This was a very soothing read, thanks. I read all those books but I cannot remember them. The only thing I can remember is the chorus from the TV version of the famous Five, it was very good, "Julian, Dick, Ann, George and Timmy the dog."
ReplyDeleteOh and as far as double entendre in children's lit/tv it was Seaman Stains and Master Bates in Pugwash wasn't it?
Genius American spell check thinks entendre is not a word. Thank you America.
There never was a Seaman Stains in Pugwash, that is an urban myth, Master Bates however was a character in the show, apparently later renamed Master Mates. Apologies for not doing the correct research before making the previous comment.
ReplyDeleteI read Enid Blyton when I was young and I had Beano's but I only had one Rupert the Bear book. I noted that better off middle-class kids had those. I thought Rupert the Bear was good. But always wanted to read more. Now I find out that Rupert the Bear was a strip cartoon in the Express Newspaper, a middle class Tory paper at the time.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily so. Growing up my family weren't particularly well off and we certainly weren't middle class. Nonetheless I loved Rupert Bear and between maybe 3 and 8 years of age I accumulated many of the books. They helped teach me to read. My mother would read the longer verse at the bottom and I would read the simplified 2 lines in the middle. Fond memories. I'll have to revisit Rupert Bear; hopefully it's still as wholesome as I remember.
DeleteOne's disillusionment now knows no bounds! You've got to laugh.
ReplyDeletereblogged
ReplyDeleteWHITE RABBIT TRAIL - THE NORTH YORKSHIRE PAEDOPHILE HAS BEEN AROUND LONGER THAN YOU THINK?
ReplyDeletewww.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/13954428.A_very_important_date_as_Alice_in_Wonderland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll
https://vheyblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/historic-east-yorkshire-the-beverley-messenger
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/11525001/Alices-Adventures-in-Wonderland
www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Burton-Agnes-link-Bront-euml-Carroll-Wilberforce/story-1661653
blog.casebook.org/mcebe/?cat=33&paged=3 (Article dated 22nd March - Lewis Carroll and the Ripper Myth)
twlightstarsong.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/alice-charles-dodgson-lewis-carroll.html
AT THE CENTRE OF PUBLIC LIFE!!!
www.bl.uk/press-releases/201/novemberalice-in-wonderland-exhibition-opens-at-the-
hi i was wondering if you would do a follow up on operation rose
ReplyDeletehiya! fantastic blog, Thank you. Shocked at Blyton! She was a fly one eh?!
ReplyDeleteYou reminded me of another of her books & inspired me to write a blog about it.
It is VERY lighthearted, so if you decide to have a look,
please keep expectations low!!
Hopefully, with a bit of luck, it'll give you a wee giggle!
many thanks. xx
https://spidercatweb.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/the-secret-mountain-enid-blyton-its-illuminating/
I think the one can write such good books with children independence can't be ever such (as it is written above). I am not saying that all is false. I just know that her books are best and she's my inspiration for becoming an author.
ReplyDelete