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 – changing words where the definition is unclear in context and therefore the usage is confusing, and where words have been used in an inappropriate or offensive sense – 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.
This is a series of fifteen mystery novels about Pip and Bets, Larry and Daisy, Fatty and Buster the dog. The series has been variously known as The Find-Outers, The Five Find-Outers and Five Find-Outers and Dog, but we think of it simply as the Mystery series!
In 2016, a change was made to the text of the books to remove most of the references to the character Fatty’s weight and size, making his nickname refer instead only to his initials, for Frederick Algernon Trotteville. Some other text amendments have been made since 2018 to bring the text in line with the editorial standards above.
In new editions of Enid Blyton books, we do not change language for the sake of modernising it. The books’ period setting is part of their charm and is enjoyed by readers of all ages. Any historic changes previously made to new editions, which come under the category of ‘modernisation’ in this context, have been or are being restored to the original text at the point of reprint.
