Reviewing and editing the text of Enid Blyton’s books has been an ongoing process, beginning in her own lifetime and continuing now and, we anticipate, into the future. At Enid Blyton Entertainment (owners of the Enid Blyton estate and copyright, and part of Hachette UK), our intention is to keep Enid Blyton’s books and stories at the heart of every childhood, as they have been for generations. To do so, we work to ensure that there are no offensive terms in the books, while retaining the original language as far as is possible. This enables a very wide international audience of children to enjoy the books, while also understanding that they were written and set in the past.
There are six original books in this boarding school series, which in reading order are now numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8. The first book was originally published in 1941, with the rest coming out in the following four years. The texts are the original ones wherever possible, with some minor sensitivity amendments. In 2000, two new titles by Pamela Cox were published, The Third Form at St. Clare’s and The Sixth Form at St. Clare’s. A further title, Kitty at St. Clare’s, was added in 2008.
