Well, Really, Mr Twiddle
The Independent has come up with even more of a non-story than the Sunday Murdoch's recent yap about an episode in the adolescence of William Golding. It appears that Enid Blyton, whose "reputation has been eroded by accusations of racist attitudes in her books", was present at a dinner in the late 1930s when the conversation turned to the subject of "appeasing" Hitler. (In fact, by the late thirties the British government had decided that it would probably have to fight Hitler, but Britain was militarily unprepared to do so until late 1939, as a result of the earlier policies of a certain Winston Churchill.) Blyton's husband, Major Hugh Pollock, walked out of the party, but Blyton stayed. This devastating revelation was imparted to the Independent on Sunday by one Ida Pollock, a factory hen for the Mills and Boon farm who married Hugh after he and Blyton divorced. Ida Pollock, who is a centenarian and hence is referred to by her first name in the Independent, does not know what Blyton thought about appeasement, but in compensation she claims that Blyton sent her "a fairly spiteful letter" some years after her marriage to Hugh. The literary correspondent at the Independent appears to believe that there is some connection between all this seventy-year-old gossip and the fact that Blyton's reputation has suffered because her books are written from a perspective that is no longer considered acceptable; or at least, he believes that there is some mileage in rather snidely implying it. Unfortunately, the crimes of sending nasty letters and being "happy to remain" at a dinner party where contemporary politics was being discussed are unlikely to brand Blyton as a Unity Mitford for the under-tens.
3 Comments:
At 5:16 pm ,
Rosemary Pollock said...
I am the daughter of Ida and Hugh Pollock. I have been advised (urged) to stay well back from all the malicious comment currently circulating in connection with my mother, but really I can't take any more. The Independent on Sunday interviewed my mother by email, posing a set of six questions. Most of these questions concerned her own life (surprisingly enough this 'factory hen' is a fascinating and talented woman) but one or two inevitably focused on my late father's one time marriage to Enid Blyton. My mother was asked if she had any ideas about the original reason for the marriage breakdown, and she replied that she believed Enid had wanted to exert a degree of control not tolerable by my father. To illustrate this she mentioned the 1930's dinner party. My father walked out, Enid remained. My mother was not suggesting any sympathy with Hitler, merely that Enid Blyton did not want to walk out of that dinner party. Just about everyone who has read my mother's book has said 'but it isn't like that. She's quite balanced about Enid, and anyway the book contains very little on that subject’.
Perhaps some psychologist could explain why Enid's reputation is benefiting so enormously from all this. Also, why so many people who have never met my mother or read any of her work are so eager to describe her as a 'venomous old woman', an 'embittered second wife' and, oh yes (cheapest and nastiest of all) a 'factory hen'.
At 8:13 pm ,
Philip said...
My mother was not suggesting any sympathy with Hitler, merely that Enid Blyton did not want to walk out of that dinner party.
Hence my malicious comment referring to the Independent piece as a "non-story". The reporter certainly seems to be suggesting sympathy with Hitler; in fact, that is the main thrust of his piece, whatever other questions he may have asked. The main thrust of my piece - with which you appear to agree - is that he has no grounds for saying anything of the sort.
Perhaps some psychologist could explain why ... so many people who have never met my mother or read any of her work are so eager to describe her as a 'venomous old woman', an 'embittered second wife' and, oh yes (cheapest and nastiest of all) a 'factory hen'.
Well, I cannot speak for whoever called her the other names, but the term I used was "factory hen for the Mills and Boon farm", which is a literary cheap shot rather than an actual character assassination. It's true that I cannot claim extensive acquaintance with Mills and Boon's output, but they do have a reputation for rating blandness and quantity rather highly - exactly the attributes one expects of battery eggs.
At 2:55 am ,
Deanna said...
What an arrogant comment Philip - do you write? or do you just flay writers in general because you can't?
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