Back to Enid Blyton’s Original World!

Seen through the prism of modern politically correct lenses, there is scarcely much in English literature of a vintage earlier than the late 20th century that would pass muster today. Nearly every English language author from Chaucer to Enid Blyton can be deemed guilty of all kinds of biases. Little wonder then that the move to ‘sensitise’ — correct speak for ‘sanitise’ — classic works has had a consensus among the chatterati. Children, however, beg to differ. At least that is one conclusion to be drawn from the decision by Hachette to go back to the original version of Enid Blyton’s books as the ‘sensitised’ versions — launched in 2010 — have failed to strike a chord in the targeted young audience. So, the criticism that unnecessary changes were made “just for the sake of it, from adults who underestimate the intelligence of children” levelled by Enid Blyton Society has been borne out by this flop of the rewritten versions.

Indeed, deciding that a girl who is part of a bunch of young ‘detectives’ cannot be portrayed as liking dolls indicates an inclination to hew to a current politically sanitised stereotype while self-righteously jettisoning an old cliché. It is time that the guardians of correctness realise that children recognise a good story when they read one, and are refreshingly deaf to dog whistles.