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.
Enid Blyton wrote three books about the Naughtiest Girl between 1940 and 1945. The fourth book, Here’s the Naughtiest Girl, published in 1997 in book form, was originally serialised in Sunny Stories magazine in 1952 and then published in Enid Blyton’s Omnibus in the same year. In 1999-2000 a further six books about the Naughtiest Girl, written by Anne Digby, were published. These now form books 5-10 in the series. The whole series was reissued with new covers illustrated by Claire Powell in 2021. The texts are the original ones wherever possible, with some minor editorial amends 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.
