112-399: Mary Mouse is a fictional character "imagined" by Enid Blyton , a prolific British children's author, in the mid 20th century. Mary Mouse is a mouse exiled from her mousehole who becomes a maid at the dolls' house, employed by Sailor Doll. The original publications were in an unusual format, 15 cm × 7 cm (6 in × 2 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) softback pictorial. Due to
224-492: A Gothic mansion in Surrey belonging to Lord Ashcombe , and they began a romantic relationship. Blyton's marriage to Pollock was troubled for years, and according to Crowe's memoir, she had a series of affairs, including lesbian relationships with one of the children's nannies and with Lola Onslow, an artist who illustrated Blyton's 1924, titled The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies . In 1941, Blyton met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters,
336-429: A post town it contains more than 82,000 people as at the 2011 census. Like most towns of its size, Beckenham has several leisure organisations and societies. The local Odeon cinema has six screens and is a grade II listed building. The Beckenham Festival of Music and Dancing takes place every November. Beckenham Theatre puts on amateur productions. The Beckenham Concert Band is a community wind band which has, over
448-546: A 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Its illustrator, Enid's schoolfriend Phyllis Chase collaborated on several of her early works. Also in that year, Blyton began writing in annuals for Cassell and George Newnes , and her first piece of writing, "Peronel and his Pot of Glue", was accepted for publication in Teachers' World . Further boosting her success, in 1923, her poems appeared alongside those of Rudyard Kipling , Walter de la Mare , and G. K. Chesterton in
560-440: A London surgeon with whom she began a serious affair. Pollock discovered the liaison and threatened to initiate divorce proceedings. Due to fears that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image, it was ultimately agreed that Blyton would instead file for divorce against Pollock. According to Crowe's memoir, Blyton promised that if he admitted to infidelity, she would allow him parental access to their daughters; but after
672-596: A Noddy jigsaw series featuring cards appeared from 1963, with illustrations by Robert Lee. Arrow Games became the chief producer of Noddy jigsaws in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Whitman manufactured four new Secret Seven jigsaw puzzles in 1975 and produced four new Malory Towers ones two years later. In 1979, the company released a Famous Five adventure board game, the Famous Five Kirrin Island Treasure. Stephen Thraves wrote eight Famous Five adventure game books, published by Hodder & Stoughton in
784-618: A Treasure Island (1942), Five on Kirrin Island Again (1947) and Five Go Down to the Sea (1953). Capitalising on her success, with a loyal and ever-growing readership, Blyton produced a new edition of many of her series such as the Famous Five, the Five Find-Outers and St. Clare's every year in addition to many other novels, short stories and books. In 1946, Blyton launched the first in
896-611: A charge she vehemently denied. Blyton's work became increasingly controversial among literary critics, teachers, and parents beginning in the 1950s due to the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing and her themes, particularly in the Noddy series. Some libraries and schools banned her works, and from the 1930s until the 1950s, the BBC refused to broadcast her stories because of their perceived lack of literary merit. Her books have been criticised as elitist, sexist, racist, xenophobic, and at odds with
1008-565: A child. According to Blyton's daughter Gillian, the inspiration for the magic tree came from "thinking up a story one day, and suddenly she was walking in the enchanted wood and found the tree. In her imagination, she climbed up through the branches and met Moon-Face, Silky, the Saucepan Man and the rest of the characters. She had all she needed." As in the Wishing-Chair series, these fantasy books typically involve children being transported into
1120-403: A few minutes, with my portable typewriter on my knee – I make my mind a blank and wait – and then, as clearly as I would see real children, my characters stand before me in my mind's eye ... The first sentence comes straight into my mind, I don't have to think of it – I don't have to think of anything. In another letter to McKellar, she describes how in just five days she wrote
1232-601: A following that readers asked Blyton if they might form a fan club. She agreed, on condition that it serves a useful purpose, and suggested that it could raise funds for the Shaftesbury Society Babies' Home in Beaconsfield, on whose committee she had served since 1948. The club was established in 1952, and provided funds for equipping a Famous Five Ward at the home, a paddling pool , sun room, summer house, playground, birthday and Christmas celebrations, and visits to
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#17328594681811344-467: A form of escapism. Brandon Robshaw of The Independent refers to the Blyton universe as "crammed with colour and character", "self-contained and internally consistent", noting that Blyton exemplifies a strong mistrust of adults and figures of authority in her works, creating a world in which children govern. Gillian noted that in her mother's adventure, detective and school stories for older children, "the hook
1456-557: A former first-class cricket ground. It has been the breeding ground of England internationals Derek Underwood and Richard Ellison , and most recently Kent County captain Rob Key . From 1886 to 1996, the club also staged the Kent Championships , an international tennis tournament, which featured many of the world's top players because it opened the grass-court season building up to The Championships at Wimbledon . In June 1968,
1568-479: A happily married and devoted doctor's wife. After discovering she was pregnant in the spring of 1945, Blyton miscarried five months later, following a fall from a ladder. The baby would have been Darrell Waters's first child and the son for which they both longed. Her love of tennis included playing naked, with nude tennis "a common practice in those days among the more louche members of the middle classes". Blyton's health began to deteriorate in 1957, when, during
1680-705: A little wooden boy from Toyland, first appeared in the Sunday Graphic on 5 June 1949, and in November that year Noddy Goes to Toyland , the first of at least two dozen books in the series, was published. The idea was conceived by one of Blyton's publishers, Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, who in 1949 arranged a meeting between Blyton and the Dutch illustrator Harmsen van der Beek . Despite having to communicate via an interpreter, he provided some initial sketches of how Toyland and its characters would be represented. Four days after
1792-524: A magazine that typically included the re-telling of legends, myths, stories and other articles for children. That same year, she was given her own column in Teachers' World , entitled "From my Window". Three years later, she began contributing a weekly page in the magazine, in which she published letters from her fox terrier dog Bobs. They proved to be so popular that in 1933 they were published in book form as Letters from Bobs , and sold ten thousand copies in
1904-427: A magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies and other mythological creatures. Blyton's first full-length adventure novel, The Secret Island , was published in 1938, featuring the characters of Jack, Mike, Peggy and Nora. Described by The Glasgow Herald as a " Robinson Crusoe -style adventure on an island in an English lake", The Secret Island was a lifelong favourite of Gillian's and spawned
2016-575: A mini-bus for disabled children at Stoke Mandeville Hospital . Blyton capitalised upon her commercial success as an author by negotiating agreements with jigsaw puzzle and games manufacturers from the late 1940s onwards; by the early 1960s, some 146 different companies were involved in merchandising Noddy alone. In 1948, Bestime released four jigsaw puzzles featuring her characters, and the first Enid Blyton board game appeared, Journey Through Fairyland , created by BGL. The first card game, Faraway Tree, appeared from Pepys in 1950. In 1954, Bestime released
2128-422: A parents' meeting at her daughter's school, during which a young librarian had repeated the allegation, Blyton decided in 1955 to begin legal proceedings. The librarian was eventually forced to make a public apology in open court early the following year, but the rumours that Blyton operated "a 'company' of ghostwriters" persisted, as some found it difficult to believe that one woman working alone could produce such
2240-462: A publisher, with Winston Churchill , which may have reawakened the trauma Pollock suffered during World War I. With the outbreak of World War II, he became involved in the Home Guard and also re-encountered Ida Crowe , an aspiring writer 19 years his junior, whom he had first met years earlier. He made her an offer to join him as a secretary in his posting to a Home Guard training center at Denbies ,
2352-417: A round of golf, she started to feel faint and breathless, and, by 1960, she was displaying signs of dementia . Her agent, George Greenfield, recalled that it was "unthinkable" for the "most famous and successful of children's authors with her enormous energy and computerlike memory" to be losing her mind and suffering from what is now known as Alzheimer's disease in her mid-60s. Worsening Blyton's situation
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#17328594681812464-506: A shed in the garden to discuss peculiar events in their local community. Blyton rewrote the stories so they could be adapted into cartoons, which appeared in Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1951 with illustrations by George Brook. The French author Evelyne Lallemand continued the series in the 1970s, producing an additional twelve books, nine of which were translated into English by Anthea Bell between 1983 and 1987. Blyton's Noddy , about
2576-502: A special issue of Teachers' World. Blyton's educational texts were influential in the 1920s and 1930s, with her most sizable being the three-volume The Teacher's Treasury (1926), the six-volume Modern Teaching (1928), the eight-volume Pictorial Knowledge (1930), and the four-volume Modern Teaching in the Infant School (1932). In July 1923, Blyton published Real Fairies , a collection of thirty-three poems written especially for
2688-471: A teacher. Blyton was introduced to the children at the nursery school and, recognising her natural affinity with them, enrolled in a National Froebel Union teacher training course at the school in September 1916. By this time, she had nearly terminated all contact with her family. Blyton's manuscripts were rejected by publishers on many occasions, which only made her more determined to succeed, saying, "It
2800-506: A teaching certificate with distinctions in zoology and principles of education; first class in botany, geography, practice and history of education, child hygiene, and classroom teaching; and second class in literature and elementary mathematics. In 1920, she moved to Southernhay, in Hook Road Surbiton , as nursery governess to the four sons of architect Horace Thompson and his wife Gertrude, with whom Blyton spent four happy years. With
2912-420: A vehicle for the serialisation of Blyton's books. Her first Naughty Amelia Jane story, about an anti-heroine based on a doll owned by her daughter Gillian, was published in the magazine. Blyton stopped contributing in 1952, and it closed down the following year, shortly before the appearance of the new fortnightly Enid Blyton Magazine written entirely by Blyton. The first edition appeared on 18 March 1953, and
3024-480: A volume of work. Blyton felt a responsibility to provide her readers with a positive moral framework, and she encouraged them to support worthy causes. Her view, expressed in a 1957 article, was that children should help animals and other children rather than adults: [children] are not interested in helping adults; indeed, they think that adults themselves should tackle adult needs. But they are intensely interested in animals and other children and feel compassion for
3136-514: Is a Christian parable along the lines of John Bunyan 's The Pilgrim's Progress (1698), with contemporary children as the main characters. In 1943, she published The Children's Life of Christ , a collection of fifty-nine short stories related to the life of Jesus , with her slant on popular biblical stories, from the Nativity and the Three Wise Men through to the trial , the crucifixion and
3248-459: Is a minor treatment centre and an outstation to Princess Royal Hospital in Farnborough for outpatient services. It has GP, dental and other services available. Beckenham has a non-League football club Beckenham Town F.C. , which plays at Eden Park Avenue, and a Sunday league team, Beckenham Manor Football Club, which plays at Langley Sports Club. Beckenham Cricket Club plays at Foxgrove Road ,
3360-477: Is best remembered for her Noddy , Famous Five , Secret Seven , the Five Find-Outers , and Malory Towers books, although she also wrote many others, including; St. Clare's , The Naughtiest Girl , and The Faraway Tree series. Her first book, Child Whispers , a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. Following the commercial success of her early novels, such as Adventures of
3472-520: Is either dismissed or explained". Watson further notes how Blyton often used minimalist visual descriptions and introduced a few careless phrases such as "gleamed enchantingly" to appeal to her young readers. From the mid-1950s, rumours began to circulate that Blyton had not written all the books attributed to her, a charge she found particularly distressing. She published an appeal in her magazine asking children to let her know if they heard such stories and after one mother informed her that she had attended
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3584-642: Is partly the struggle that helps you so much, that gives you determination, character, self-reliance –all things that help in any profession or trade, and most certainly in writing." In March 1916, her first poems were published in Nash's Magazine . She completed her teacher training course in December 1918 and, the following month, obtained a teaching appointment at Bickley Park School, a small, independent establishment for boys in Bickley , Kent. Two months later, Blyton received
3696-625: Is served by Beckenham Junction station , with further stations ( Clock House , New Beckenham , Ravensbourne , Beckenham Hill and Kent House ) serving the surrounding area. Beckenham Junction and Kent House have services into central London every 15 minutes, taking 13 minutes to Brixton and 21 minutes to London Victoria . Beckenham Junction also provides services into London Bridge every 30 minutes, taking 35 minutes, and to Orpington every 15 minutes, taking 7 minutes to Bromley South and 17 minutes to Orpington. Ravensbourne and Beckenham Hill stations provide direct access to central London and
3808-404: Is served by several Transport for London buses that link the town with other areas including Bromley , Catford , Chislehurst , Croydon , Crystal Palace , Eltham , Lewisham , Orpington , Penge , West Wickham and Woolwich . The town has a number of places of worship. St. George's Church is the principal parish church, and is in the centre of Beckenham. It was extensively rebuilt, at
3920-431: Is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park , east of Penge , south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham , and west of Bromley and Shortlands , and 8.4 miles (13.5 km) south-east of Charing Cross . Its population at the 2011 Census was 46,844. Beckenham was, until the coming of the railway in 1857, a small village, with most of its land being rural and private parkland. John Barwell Cator and his family began
4032-586: Is the home of the wildly snobbish, socially aspirational and insecure sister Victoria; the town is frequently mocked by association. Beckenham is also one of the main locations of the novel The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), by Hanif Kureishi . Numerous prominent personages were born or have lived in Beckenham. In the world of politics and governance, these include the colonial administrator George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), politician and diplomat William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland (1745–1814), Admiral of
4144-528: Is the strong storyline with plenty of cliffhangers, a trick she acquired from her years of writing serialised stories for children's magazines. There is always a strong moral framework in which bravery and loyalty are (eventually) rewarded". Blyton herself wrote that "my love of children is the whole foundation of all my work". Victor Watson, assistant director of Research at Homerton College, Cambridge , believes that Blyton's works reveal an "essential longing and potential associated with childhood", and notes how
4256-509: The Cinema a Christian Science Reading Room existed close to the site occupied by the postal sorting site in the 1980s. The site is now occupied by Kingsway church at 18 Rectory Rd. While the postal office site is now occupied by Citygate Church. Strictly defined to its historic parish area translated to today's modern wards of the United Kingdom , Beckenham covers four such wards, however as
4368-859: The Domesday Book of 1086, and in the Textus Roffensis as Becceham . The name is thought to derive from Beohha' s homestead (Beohha + ham in Old English ). The name of the small stream here – the River Beck – is most likely to have been named after the village. Although early written history tells little of the area we have the entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 and various records in Court Rolls, Feet of Fines and other historical documents. Thomas Philipott recorded it in his Villare Cantianum in 1659 based on
4480-693: The Enid Blyton Magazine , it attracted 100,000 members in three years. Such was Blyton's popularity among children that after she became Queen Bee in 1952, more than 20,000 additional members were recruited in her first year in office. The Enid Blyton Magazine Club was formed in 1953. Its primary objective was to raise funds to help those children with cerebral palsy who attended a centre in Cheyne Walk , in Chelsea, London, by furnishing an on-site hostel among other things. The Famous Five series gathered such
4592-518: The HSBC Sports and Social Club adjacent to New Beckenham railway station . They currently have three men's and three ladies hockey teams and play competitive fixtures in the Kent Hockey League. [1] The training ground for Premier League club Crystal Palace is located on Copers Cope Road. In Simon Brett 's long-running BBC Radio 4 comedy drama, No Commitments (1992–2007), Beckenham
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4704-532: The Malory Towers series of six books based around the schoolgirl Darrell Rivers, First Term at Malory Towers , which became extremely popular, particularly with girls. The first book in Blyton's Barney Mysteries series, The Rockingdown Mystery , was published in 1949, as was the first of her fifteen Secret Seven novels. The Secret Seven Society consists of Peter, his sister Janet, and their friends Colin, George, Jack, Pam and Barbara, who meet regularly in
4816-847: The Roman Catholic St Edmund of Canterbury Church . Town churches include: St. George's Church ( W. Gibbs Bartleet , 1885–1887), St. Barnabas on Oakhill Road (A. Stenning & H. Hall, 1878 or 1884), Christ Church, Fairfield Road (Blashill & Hayward, 1876), St. Edmund's Catholic Church, Village Way (J. P’Hanlon Hughes, 1937), St. James, St. James’ Avenue (A.R. Stenning, 1879–1898), St. Michael and All Angels, Ravenscroft Road (W. H. Hobday & F. H. Maynard, 1955–1956), St. Paul, Brackley Road (Smith & Williams, 1872), Holy Trinity, Lennard Road (E.F. Clarke, 1878), Baptist Church, Elm Road (Appleton & E. W. Mountford, 1889), Congregational Church, Crescent Road (J. W. & R. F. Beaumont, 1887–8), Methodist Church (James Weir, 1887). Close to
4928-566: The Secret series . The following year Blyton released her first book in the Circus series and her initial book in the Amelia Jane series, Naughty Amelia Jane! According to Gillian, the main character was based on a large handmade doll given to her by her mother on her third birthday. During the 1940s, Blyton became a prolific author, her success enhanced by her "marketing, publicity and branding that
5040-751: The resurrection . Tales from the Bible was published the following year, followed by The Boy with the Loaves and Fishes in 1948. The first book in Blyton's Five Find-Outers series, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage , was published in 1943, as was the second book in the Faraway series, The Magic Faraway Tree , which in 2003 was voted 66th in the BBC 's Big Read poll to find the UK's favourite book. Several of Blyton's works during this period have seaside themes; John Jolly by
5152-455: The 1980s. The first adventure game book of the series, The Wreckers' Tower Game , was published in October 1984. On 28 August 1924, Blyton married Major Hugh Alexander Pollock , DSO (1888–1971) at Bromley Register Office, without inviting her family. They married shortly after his divorce from his first wife, with whom he had two sons, one of them already deceased. Pollock was an editor of
5264-454: The 60,000-word book The River of Adventure , the eighth in her Adventure Series , by listening to what she referred to as her "under-mind", which she contrasted with her "upper conscious mind". Blyton was unwilling to conduct any research or planning before beginning work on a new book, which coupled with the lack of variety in her life according to Druce, almost inevitably presented the danger that she might unconsciously, and did, plagiarise
5376-700: The Adventure series, The River of Adventure , and her seventh Secret Seven novel, Secret Seven Win Through . She completed the sixth and final book of the Malory Towers series, Last Term at Malory Towers , in 1951. Blyton published several further books featuring the character of Scamp the terrier, following on from The Adventures of Scamp , a novel she had released in 1943 under the nom de plume of Mary Pollock. Scamp Goes on Holiday (1952) and Scamp and Bimbo , Scamp at School , Scamp and Caroline and Scamp Goes to
5488-557: The Blackheath Beds which are now included in the Harwich Formation Beckenham was the headquarters to Capita Registrars Limited who provides share registration services for more than half of the UK's quoted companies, they have since moved from Beckenham. Proper Records , the UK's biggest independent music distributor, was originally based in Beckenham but relocated to Surrey Quays in 2017. Beckenham town centre
5600-589: The Burrells and a land exchange in 1793 made the northern parts of the manor John Cator's and the southern parts absorbed into the Burrells Langley and Kelsey estates. What is now Beckenham Place Park is almost entirely parts of Foxgrove manor. Now it is part of the London Borough of Lewisham after boundary changes in the 1990s. The Kelsey Estate, named from a manorial estate, Kelsies, recorded in 1479. The estate
5712-554: The City every 30 minutes - Peckham Rye in 12 minutes, Elephant & Castle in 23 minutes, London Blackfriars in 27 minutes, City Thameslink in 29 minutes, Farringdon in 33 minutes and London St Pancras in 37 minutes. New Beckenham and Clock House have services to London Charing Cross , London Bridge, Waterloo East , London Cannon Street and Hayes . Tramlink serves Beckenham with services from Beckenham Junction and Beckenham Road to Wimbledon via East Croydon . Beckenham
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#17328594681815824-544: The Clown and Bom and the Rainbow (1959) and Bom Goes to Magic Town (1960). In 1958, she produced two annuals featuring the character, the first of which included twenty short stories, poems and picture strips. Many of Blyton's series, including Noddy and The Famous Five, continued to be successful in the 1960s; by 1962, 26 million copies of Noddy had been sold. Blyton concluded several of her long-running series in 1963, publishing
5936-554: The Noddy series, Noddy and the Aeroplane , in February 1964. In May of the following year, she published Mixed Bag , a songbook with music written by her nephew Carey, and in August she released her last full-length books, The Man Who Stopped to Help and The Boy Who Came Back . Blyton cemented her reputation as a children's writer when in 1926 she took over the editing of Sunny Stories ,
6048-688: The Round Table , Tales of Ancient Greece and Tales of Robin Hood were published in 1930. In Tales of Ancient Greece Blyton retold 16 well-known ancient Greek myths, but used Latin rather than Greek names and invented conversations between characters. The Adventures of Odysseus , Tales of the Ancient Greeks and Persians and Tales of the Romans followed in 1934. The first of twenty-eight books in Blyton's Old Thatch series , The Talking Teapot and Other Tales ,
6160-1234: The Royal Navy Sir Peircy Brett (1709–1781), Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne of Rorke's Drift (who lived at 16 King's Hall Road, Beckenham and is buried in Beckenham Cemetery), judge Wilfred Greene, 1st Baron Greene (1883–1952 – born at 8 Fox Grove Road) and Fr. Thomas Pelham Dale , an Anglo-Catholic clergyman prosecuted for Ritualist practices in the 1870s. Former British Prime Minister John Major lived at West Oak in Beckenham with his wife Norma from 1974 to 1978. Writers include Enid Blyton who lived at 95 Chaffinch Road from 1897 to 1903, Walter de la Mare , who lived at 195 Mackenzie Road, and A.L. Barker (1918–2002). Show business people include Bob Monkhouse (1928–2003), Julie Andrews , who lived on Cromwell Road, Floella Benjamin (now Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham), who grew up on Mackenzie Road, Maurice Denham (1909–2002), Simon Ward (1941–2012). and Betty Box (1915–1999) and her brother Sydney (1907–1983), both film producers. Music artist David Bowie (1947–2016) lived at 42 Southend Road from 1969 to 1973. Others from
6272-464: The Sea (1943), a picture book intended for younger readers, was published in a booklet format by Evans Brothers . Other books with a maritime theme include The Secret of Cliff Castle and Smuggler Ben , both attributed to Mary Pollock in 1943; The Island of Adventure , the first in the Adventure series of eight novels from 1944 onwards; and various novels of the Famous Five series such as Five on
6384-466: The South East. Beccehamians RFC, a rugby union club founded in 1933, plays competitive rugby at Sparrows Den, near West Wickham . Beckenham Cricket Club is also the home to Bromley and Beckenham Hockey Club . Swimmers from Beckenham Swimming Club, established in 1893, have gained medals in the 21st century at national and international levels. New Beccehamian Hockey Club play their home games at
6496-491: The St. John family until Frederick St. John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke sold most of the manor to John Cator the younger in 1773. The manor house and its grounds had been exchanged with Peter Burrell, Lord Gwydir in 1757. Beckenham remained a small village until well into the 19th century. The beginning of its growth began after 1825 when the estates of John Barwell Cator and Lord Gwydir began to be developed. if In 1760 John Cator
6608-470: The Wishing-Chair (1937) and The Enchanted Wood (1939), Blyton went on to build a literary empire, sometimes producing fifty books a year in addition to her prolific magazine and newspaper contributions. Her writing was unplanned and sprang largely from her unconscious mind ; she typed her stories as events unfolded before her. The sheer volume of her work and the speed with which she produced it led to rumours that Blyton employed an army of ghost writers ,
6720-639: The Zoo (1954) were illustrated by Pierre Probst. She introduced the character of Bom, a stylish toy drummer dressed in a bright red coat and helmet, alongside Noddy in TV Comic in July 1956. A book series began the same year with Bom the Little Toy Drummer , featuring illustrations by R. Paul-Hoye, and followed with Bom and His Magic Drumstick (1957), Bom Goes Adventuring and Bom Goes to Ho Ho Village (1958), Bom and
6832-616: The austerity and paper shortages of the times, during and after World War II , the first editions were cheaply made with simple colour illustration and stapled bindings overstuck with linen edging. Loved mainly by girls, this character's memory has lived on. The original books (published by Brockhampton Press of Leicester at a price of one shilling ) are highly collectable, perhaps because few remain in reasonable condition. The books were immensely popular in Blyton's days and eventually sold one million copies. Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968)
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#17328594681816944-676: The blind boys and girls, and for the spastics who are unable to walk or talk. Blyton and the members of the children's clubs she promoted via her magazines raised a great deal of money for various charities; according to Blyton, membership of her clubs meant "working for others, for no reward". The largest of the clubs she was involved with was the Busy Bees, the junior section of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals , which Blyton had actively supported since 1933. The club had been set up by Maria Dickin in 1934, and after Blyton publicised its existence in
7056-656: The book department in the publishing firm George Newnes, which became Blyton's regular publisher. It was he who requested her to write a book about animals, resulting in The Zoo Book , completed in the month before their marriage. They initially lived in a flat in Chelsea before moving to Elfin Cottage in Beckenham in 1926, and then to Old Thatch in Bourne End (called Peterswood in her books) in 1929. Blyton's first daughter, Gillian ,
7168-674: The book with the exception of "Pretending", which had appeared earlier in Punch magazine. The following year, she published The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies , illustrated by Horace J. Knowles, and in 1926 the Book of Brownies . Several books of plays appeared in 1927, including A Book of Little Plays and The Play's the Thing with the illustrator Alfred Bestall . In the 1930s, Blyton developed an interest in writing stories related to various myths, including those of ancient Greece and Rome ; The Knights of
7280-436: The books she had read, including her own. Gillian has recalled that her mother "never knew where her stories came from", but that she used to talk about them "coming from her 'mind's eye ' ", as did William Wordsworth and Charles Dickens . Blyton had "thought it was made up of every experience she'd ever had, everything she's seen or heard or read, much of which had long disappeared from her conscious memory" but never knew
7392-475: The boundaries" in her books, and encompassed a range of genres even in her short stories. In a 1958 article published in The Author , she wrote that there were a "dozen or more different types of stories for children", and she had tried them all, but her favourites were those with a family at their centre. In a letter to the psychologist Peter McKellar, Blyton describes her writing technique: I shut my eyes for
7504-416: The club held the world's first "open" grass-court tournament – one month after the sport became open to amateur and professional players – with Australians Fred Stolle and Margaret Court winning the singles titles. Beckenham Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club formed originally in 1894. It fields six senior men's teams a successful women's team, and also has one of the largest youth sections in
7616-497: The colour red acted as a "mental stimulus" for her. Stopping only for a short lunch break, she continued writing until five o'clock, by which time she would usually have produced 6,000–10,000 words. A 2,000 article in The Malay Mail considers Blyton's children to have "lived in a world shaped by the realities of post-war austerity", enjoying freedom without political correctness, which serves modern readers of Blyton's novels with
7728-466: The company Darrell Waters Ltd to manage her affairs. By the early 1950s, she had reached the peak of her output, often publishing more than fifty books a year, and she remained extremely prolific throughout much of the decade. By 1955, Blyton had written her fourteenth Famous Five novel, Five Have Plenty of Fun , her fifteenth Mary Mouse book, Mary Mouse in Nursery Rhyme Land , her eighth book in
7840-525: The direction her stories would take. Blyton further explained in her biography that "If I tried to think out or invent the whole book, I could not do it. For one thing, it would bore me and for another, it would lack the 'verve' and the extraordinary touches and surprising ideas that flood out from my imagination." Blyton's daily routine varied little over the years. She usually began writing soon after breakfast, with her portable typewriter on her knee and her favourite red Moroccan shawl nearby; she believed that
7952-506: The divorce, he was denied contact with them, and Blyton made sure he was subsequently unable to find work in publishing. Pollock, having married Crowe on 26 October 1943, eventually resumed his heavy drinking and was forced to petition for bankruptcy in 1950. Blyton and Darrell Waters married at the City of Westminster Register Office on 20 October 1943. She changed the surname of her daughters to Darrell Waters and publicly embraced her new role as
8064-742: The eastern side of the town, towards its confluence with the River Thames forming an eastern boundary with Bromley. A small stream, the River Beck (sometimes referred to as the Hawkesbrook), passes through the town before joining the Ravensbourne via the Pool River further north near Catfod. The area is part of an outcrop of London Clay which were the basis for several brickworks during the development period with areas of Harwich Formation and consists of many small hills. Several gravel pits extracted parts of
8176-454: The end of the 19th century, but an earlier building dates back to 1100. It has a 13th-century lych gate that is thought to be one of the oldest in England . The almshouses next to the church go back to 1694. There are also three other Anglican churches in the town: All Saints Church; Holy Trinity Church; and St James at Elmers End. In addition, there are Methodist and Baptist churches; and
8288-538: The family had moved to a semi-detached house in Beckenham , then a village in Kent . A few months after her birth, Enid almost died from whooping cough but was nursed back to health by her father, whom she adored. Thomas Blyton ignited Enid's interest in nature; in her autobiography she wrote that he "loved flowers and birds and wild animals, and knew more about them than anyone I had ever met". He also passed on his interest in gardening, art, music, literature, and theatre, and
8400-557: The fictional Whyteleafe School. The first of her six novels in the St. Clare's series, The Twins at St. Clare's , appeared the following year, featuring the twin sisters Patricia and Isabel O'Sullivan. In 1942, Blyton released the first book in the Mary Mouse series, Mary Mouse and the Dolls' House , about a mouse exiled from her mousehole who becomes a maid at a dolls' house. Twenty-three books in
8512-631: The first four jigsaw puzzles of the Secret Seven, and the following year a Secret Seven card game appeared. Bestime released the Little Noddy Car Game in 1953 and the Little Noddy Leap Frog Game in 1955, and in 1956 American manufacturer Parker Brothers released Little Noddy's Taxi Game, a board game which features Noddy driving about town, picking up various characters. Bestime released its Plywood Noddy Jigsaws series in 1957 and
8624-623: The first week. Her most popular feature was "Round the Year with Enid Blyton", which consisted of forty-eight articles covering aspects of natural history such as weather, pond life, how to plant a school garden and how to make a bird table. Among Blyton's other nature projects was her monthly "Country Letter" feature that appeared in The Nature Lover magazine in 1935. Sunny Stories was renamed Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories in January 1937, and served as
8736-450: The five were involved with "unmasking hardened villains and solving serious crimes", although the novels were "hardly 'hard-boiled' thrillers". Blyton based the character of Georgina, a tomboy she described as "short-haired, freckled, sturdy, and snub-nosed" and "bold and daring, hot-tempered and loyal", on herself. Blyton had an interest in biblical narratives and retold Old and New Testament stories. The Land of Far-Beyond (1942)
8848-558: The growth of Beckenham in less than fifty years. Prior to 1965, Beckenham was part of the administrative county of Kent. In 1965, as part of the creation of the Greater London Council , the Borough council was disbanded and Beckenham came under control of the newly constituted London Borough of Bromley . Councillors represent various parts of the Borough of Beckenham. Beckenham Town Centre Management coordinates business interests in
8960-479: The historical documentary evidence has revealed a more detailed early history showing how the manors and estates changed hands through families such as Rokele, Bruyn, Bardolf, Langley, Style, Kelshulle, Brograve, Raymond, Leigh, Burrell, Cator and various yeoman property owners like Kempsall, King, Batt etc. Archaeological evidence at nearby Holwood Park, where Stone Age and Bronze Age artefacts have been found, reveals some evidence of early settlers. A Roman camp
9072-472: The last 35 years, raised thousands of pounds for local and national charities. It caters for amateur wind and brass musicians and performs locally during the winter months and across London and the South East during the summer. The South East London Green Chain , a long-distance footpath , crosses through Beckenham. Both Cator Park and Beckenham Place Park form part of the Chain. There are other open spaces in
9184-434: The last books of The Famous Five ( Five Are Together Again ) and The Secret Seven ( Fun for the Secret Seven ); she also produced three more Brer Rabbit books with the illustrator Grace Lodge: Brer Rabbit Again , Brer Rabbit Book , and Brer Rabbit's a Rascal . In 1962, many of her books were among the first to be published by Armada Books in paperback, making them more affordable to children. After 1963, Blyton's output
9296-423: The leasing and selling of land for the building of villas which led to a rapid increase in population, between 1850 and 1900, from 2,000 to 26,000. Housing and population growth has continued at a lesser pace since 1900. Beckenham has areas of commerce and industry, principally around the curved network of streets featuring its high street, and is served in transport by three main railway stations — nine within
9408-533: The magazine ran until September 1959. Noddy made his first appearance in the Sunday Graphic in 1949, the same year as Blyton's first daily Noddy strip for the London Evening Standard . It was illustrated by van der Beek until his death in 1953. Blyton worked in a wide range of fictional genres, from fairy tales to animal, nature, detective, mystery, and circus stories, but she often "blurred
9520-496: The meeting, Blyton sent the text of the first two Noddy books to her publisher, to be forwarded to van der Beek. The Noddy books became one of her most successful and best-known series, and were hugely popular in the 1950s. An extensive range of sub-series, spin-offs and strip books was produced throughout the decade, including Noddy's Library , Noddy's Garage of Books , Noddy's Castle of Books , Noddy's Toy Station of Books and Noddy's Shop of Books . In 1950, Blyton established
9632-478: The more progressive environment that was emerging in post-World War II Britain, but updated versions of her books have continued to be popular since her death in 1968. She felt she had a responsibility to provide her readers with a strong moral framework, so she encouraged them to support worthy causes. In particular, through the clubs she set up or supported, she encouraged and organised them to raise funds for animal and paediatric charities. The story of Blyton's life
9744-560: The new station. Wide roads and large gardens epitomised these properties, often built by developers who acquired land from the Cators. Lord Gwydir died in 1820 and his estates were split up, sold and developed. The manor of Foxgrove was owned by the Leigh family for some generations but purchased into the ownership of Lancelot Tolson circa 1716, his heirs divided it and it was acquired in part by John Cator and Jones Raymond. Raymond's part passed on to
9856-460: The opening pages of The Mountain of Adventure present a "deeply appealing ideal of childhood". He argues that Blyton's work differs from that of many other authors in its approach, describing the narrative of The Famous Five series for instance as "like a powerful spotlight, it seeks to illuminate, to explain, to demystify. It takes its readers on a roller-coaster story in which the darkness is always banished; everything puzzling, arbitrary, evocative
9968-613: The pair often went on nature walks, much to the disapproval of Enid's mother, who showed little interest in her daughter's pursuits. Enid was devastated when her father left the family shortly after her 13th birthday to live with another woman. Enid and her mother did not have a good relationship, and after she left home, Enid gave people the impression that her mother was dead. Enid did not attend either of her parents' funerals. From 1907 to 1915, Blyton attended St Christopher's School in Beckenham, where she enjoyed physical activities and became school tennis champion and lacrosse captain. She
10080-536: The pantomime. By the late 1950s, Blyton's clubs had a membership of 500,000, and raised £35,000 in the six years of the Enid Blyton Magazine' s run. By 1974, the Famous Five Club had a membership of 220,000 and was growing at the rate of 6,000 new members a year. The Beaconsfield home that was set up to support was closed in 1967, but the club continued to raise funds for other paediatric charities, including an Enid Blyton bed at Great Ormond Street Hospital and
10192-833: The piano, which she mastered well enough for him to believe she might follow in his sister's footsteps and become a professional musician. Blyton considered enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music , but decided she was better suited to becoming a writer. After finishing school, in 1915, as head girl, she moved out of the family home to live with her friend Mary Attenborough, before going to stay with George and Emily Hunt at Seckford Hall , near Woodbridge , in Suffolk. Seckford Hall, with its allegedly haunted room and secret passageway, provided inspiration for her later writing. At Woodbridge Congregational Church, Blyton met Ida Hunt, who taught at Ipswich High School and suggested she train there as
10304-419: The post town — plus towards its western periphery two Tramlink stations. In common with the rest of Bromley , the largest borough of London by area, Beckenham has several pockets of recreational land which are a mixture of sports grounds, fishing ponds and parks. The place-name 'Beckenham' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 862 as Biohhahema mearc . The settlement is referred to as Bacheham in
10416-420: The research of his father John Philipott. Hasted wrote about it in 1778 in his History and Topography of Kent based on Philipott's material. Others like Lysons and Ireland continued to record Beckenham Manor, Foxgrove Manor, Kelsey and Langley estates and Kent House Farm. Several other local historians updated the account based on more recent events and developments of Beckenham. Revisiting the history and collating
10528-580: The series were produced between 1942 and 1964; 10,000 copies were sold in 1942 alone. The same year, Blyton published the first novel in the Famous Five series , Five on a Treasure Island , with illustrations by Eileen Soper . Its popularity resulted in twenty-one books between then and 1963, and the characters of Julian, Dick, Anne, George (Georgina) and Timmy the dog became household names in Britain. Matthew Grenby, author of Children's Literature , states that
10640-721: The shortage of area schools, neighbouring children soon joined her charges, and a small school developed at the house. In 1920, Blyton moved to Chessington and began writing in her spare time. The following year, she won the Saturday Westminster Review writing competition with her essay "On the Popular Fallacy that to the Pure All Things are Pure". Publications such as The Londoner , Home Weekly and The Bystander began to show an interest in her short stories and poems. Blyton's first book, Child Whispers ,
10752-550: The subterfuge to her and her publisher, with the result that all six books published under the name of Mary Pollock – two in 1940 and four in 1943 – were reissued under Blyton's name. Later in 1940, Blyton published the first of her boarding school story books and the first novel in the Naughtiest Girl series, The Naughtiest Girl in the School , which followed the exploits of the mischievous schoolgirl Elizabeth Allen at
10864-592: The town centre along Bromley Road, south along Croydon Road, and west along Beckenham Road around Clock House station, where the town's library can be found. To the north lies the New Beckenham area, essentially a residential suburb of Beckenham proper. The Municipal Borough of Beckenham came into being in 1935. It took over from what had been, since 1894, Beckenham Urban District Council and included parts of Hayes and West Wickham , previously part of Bromley Rural District Council . The new Borough status reflected
10976-599: The town, including Croydon Road Recreation Ground and Kelsey Park . There is also a walk starting in Cator Park, going down the High Street, through Kelsey Park, then Croydon Road Recreation Ground and back to Cator Park. Beckenham Green, in the town centre, hosts regular markets and activities throughout the year. The principal secondary schools in Beckenham are Harris Academy Beckenham (formerly Kelsey Park Sports College), Harris Academy Bromley (formerly Cator Park School),
11088-507: The town. Beckenham lies 1.7 miles (2.7 km) west of Bromley and 3.8 miles (6.1 km) north-east of Croydon . The original village of Beckenham was a cluster of development surrounded by the lands of a series of manorial estates: Beckenham, Foxgrove, Kelsey, Langley and Kent House Farm with their mansions, halls and Parks. The parish boundary has changed over time but extended from Crystal Palace Park to Bromley and Lewisham to West Wickham. The River Ravensbourne flows northwards at
11200-485: The two Grade II listed lodge cottages at the entrance, which are over 200 years old. In 1876 Beckenham Cemetery opened (originally Crystal Palace District Cemetery), located south of the town in Elmers End. Today Beckenham is an outer London suburb, though it has maintained its own identity and forms a town in its own right. It is centred on its non-pedestrianised curving high street. Further rows of shops run east from
11312-574: The two Langley Park schools, for boys and for girls , and Eden Park High School. There are also a large number of schools catering for primary education, including the independent Roman Catholic school, Bishop Challoner , St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Marian Vian Primary School, Balgowan Primary School, Worsley Bridge Primary School, Harris Primary Academy Beckenham (formerly Bromley Road Infants School), Clare House Primary School and Churchfields Primary School. Beckenham Hospital, now called Beckenham Beacon, following redevelopment in 2009,
11424-416: The younger built Beckenham Place and became lord of the manor in 1773 after purchasing the manor of Beckenham from Frederick St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. After Cator died in 1806, his heirs under his nephew John Barwell Cator became aware that an area in such relative close proximity to London was ripe for development, especially once the railway had arrived in 1857, and large villas began to be built around
11536-418: Was an English children's writer , whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been translated into ninety languages. As at June 2019, Blyton held the 4th place for the most translated author. She wrote on a wide range of topics, including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. She
11648-472: Was born on 15 July 1931, and after a miscarriage in 1934, she gave birth to a second daughter, Imogen, on 27 October 1935. In 1938, she and her family moved to a house in Beaconsfield , named Green Hedges by Blyton's readers, following a competition in her magazine. By the mid-1930s, Pollock had become a secret alcoholic, withdrawing increasingly from public life —possibly triggered through his meetings, as
11760-683: Was dramatised in Enid , a BBC television film featuring Helena Bonham Carter in the title role. It was first broadcast in the UK on BBC Four in 2009. Enid Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 in East Dulwich , south London, United Kingdom, the eldest of three children, to Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a cutlery salesman (recorded in the 1911 census with the occupation of "Mantle Manufacturer dealer [in] women's suits, skirts, etc.") and his wife Theresa Mary ( née Harrison; 1874–1950). Enid's younger brothers, Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–1976), were born after
11872-470: Was far ahead of its time". In 1940, Blyton published two books – Three Boys and a Circus and Children of Kidillin – under the pseudonym of Mary Pollock (middle name plus first married name), in addition to the eleven published under her name that year. So popular were Pollock's books that one reviewer was prompted to observe that "Enid Blyton had better look to her laurels". But Blyton's readers were not so easily deceived and many complained about
11984-497: Was generally confined to short stories and books intended for very young readers, such as Learn to Count with Noddy and Learn to Tell Time with Noddy in 1965, and Stories for Bedtime and the Sunshine Picture Story Book collection in 1966. Her declining health and a falling off in readership among older children have been put forward as the principal reasons for this change in trend. Blyton published her last book in
12096-495: Was granted to William Kelshulle in 1408. Peter Burrell the first bought Kelsey in 1688 and a house which had belonged to John Brograve was on the site. In the mid 18th Century a mansion was built overlooking the lake in Kelsey Park. This was later rebuilt, extended or altered circa 1835 to replace an earlier structure, though it was itself demolished in 1921 and the grounds turned into Kelsey Park . The only surviving buildings are
12208-512: Was her husband's declining health throughout the 1960s; he suffered from severe arthritis in his neck and hips, deafness, and became increasingly ill-tempered and erratic until his death on 15 September 1967. Beckenham Beckenham ( / ˈ b ɛ k ən ə m / ) is a town in Greater London , England, within the London Borough of Bromley . Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent . It
12320-423: Was not keen on all the academic subjects but excelled in writing and, in 1911, entered Arthur Mee 's children's poetry competition. Mee offered to print her verses, encouraging her to produce more. Blyton's mother considered her efforts at writing to be a "waste of time and money", but she was encouraged to persevere by Mabel Attenborough, the aunt of school friend Mary Potter . Blyton's father taught her to play
12432-582: Was published in 1934, the same year as Brer Rabbit Retold ; (Brer Rabbit originally featured in Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris ), her first serial story and first full-length book, Adventures of the Wishing-Chair , followed in 1937. The Enchanted Wood , the first book in the Faraway Tree series , published in 1939, is about a magic tree inspired by the Norse mythology that had fascinated Blyton as
12544-650: Was sited here, and a Roman road , the London to Lewes Way passed through the district. By the time of the arrival of the Normans , the manor of Beckenham encompassed much of what is modern Beckenham, with other areas covered by the estates of Foxgrove Manor, Kelsey and Langley. Although William the Conqueror's half brother, Bishop Odo, was overlord of all of Kent the manor of Beckenham was held or enfeoffed to Anschil of Rochester. The manor became divided but eventually rejoined under
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