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 originally wrote five books about Jack and his friends Mike, Peggy and Nora. The first book, The Secret Island, published in 1938, is a remarkable survival story and was her first full-length children’s novel. The subsequent books, published in the 1940s and 1950s, introduce the children to a new friend, Prince Paul of Baronia, and are quite different in style, being more like her other adventure stories. The latter four books are no longer in print in the UK (or most other territories) as they would have needed extensive editing to align them with the 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.
