When was enid blyton born and when did she died

She had two younger brothers — Hanly, born in , and Carey, born in He then joined his uncle's firm selling Yorkshire cloth and, later still, set up his own business as a clothing wholesaler. He and his daughter had a close, loving relationship — both had dark hair and alert brown eyes, and shared an appetite for knowledge and a zest for life.

Together they enjoyed nature rambles, gardening, the theatre, art, music and literature. When Enid had whooping cough as a baby, and was not expected to live till morning, her father refused to accept the doctor's opinion and sat up all night with her, cradling her and willing her to survive. Enid learnt a lot from her father, especially about nature. In her autobiography, The Story of My Life , she wrote: " And what was more he was willing to take me with him on his expeditions, and share his love and his knowledge with me!

That was marvellous to me. It's the very best way of learning about nature if you can go for walks with someone who really knows. When she wanted to plant seeds in her own patch of garden he made a bargain with her, saying: "If you want anything badly, you have to work for it. I will give you enough money to buy your own seeds, if you earn it.

I want my bicycle cleaned — cleaned well , too. And I want the weeds cleared from that bed over there. If the work is done properly, it is worth sixpence to me, and that will buy you six penny packets of seeds. Part of the pleasure and value lay in the fact that she had earned them for herself.

Theresa was a tall, raven-haired woman whose life revolved around housework. She was not creative and artistic like Thomas, and did not share his interests. She expected her daughter to help with household chores but gave her sons a lot more freedom, which Enid, who was not very domesticated, resented. Stern and house-proud, Theresa did not approve of Enid devoting so much time to nature-walks, reading and other hobbies when there was work to be done in the house.

Neither did she understand why her husband encouraged their daughter in such activities. As an adult, Enid Blyton said about the school: "I remember everything about it — the room, the garden, the pictures on the wall, the little chairs, the dog there, and the lovely smells that used to creep out from the kitchen into our classroom when we sat doing dictation. I remember how we used to take biscuits for our mid-morning lunch and 'swap' them with one another — and how we used to dislike one small boy who was clever at swapping a small biscuit for a big one.

She was a bright girl, blessed with a good memory, and she shone at art and nature study, though she struggled with mathematics. Indoors she played card games, Snakes and Ladders, Draughts and Chess. Her father thought that all young children should learn to play Chess because " And if they haven't any brains it will make the best of those they have! Alcott's Little Women. She said of the characters in Little Women : "Those were real children That's the kind of book I would know how to write.

She was fascinated by Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia : "It gave me my thirst for knowledge of all kinds, and taught me as much as ever I learnt at school. What appealed to her "wasn't so much the story as the strange 'feel' of the tale, the 'atmosphere' as we call it. It hung over me for a very long time, and gave me pleasant shivers.

Christopher's School for Girls in Beckenham. She was not a boarder, like so many of the characters in her books, but a day-girl. Intelligent, popular and full of fun, she threw herself wholeheartedly into school life. During her time at St.

Christopher's she organised concerts, played practical jokes, became tennis champion and captain of the lacrosse team, and was awarded prizes in various subjects, especially English composition.

In her final two years she was appointed Head Girl. Outside school she and two of her friends, Mary Attenborough and Mirabel Davis, created a magazine called Dab , for which Enid wrote short stories. The title of the magazine was formed from the initials of the contributors' surnames.

Enid's first holiday abroad in was to stay with one of her French teachers, Mlle. Louise Bertraine, at her home in Annecy, France. They had frequent violent rows, causing their children great distress. At night-time, Enid, Hanly and Carey would sit at the top of the stairs with their arms around one another for comfort, listening to their parents' heated arguments. One night, when Enid was not quite thirteen, the children heard their father state angrily that he was leaving and would not be coming back.

To Enid's shock she learnt that there was another woman in his life, Florence Agnes Delattre, a secretary, and that from now on he would be living with her. Since marital breakdown was regarded as a scandal in suburban Beckenham in , Theresa forced Enid and her brothers to pretend, if asked, that their father was merely "away on a visit.

In she wove this traumatic experience into a novel, The Six Bad Boys. Her father's leaving was hard for Enid to accept and she seems to have viewed it as a rejection of her personally. Years later, when she was married, she had difficulty conceiving a baby and was found to have an under-developed uterus, equivalent to that of a girl aged twelve or thirteen.

Enids love for writing had surfaced from the beginning of her childhood. Although her mother never approved of her writing and thought it was a mere waste of time her father encouraged his daughter to take part in all such activities.

Enid gained confidence and started sending her work to different magazine. Enid was a very bright child who excelled in studies, was a talented pianist and had remarkable writing skills. She attended St. Later she became a trained teacher and taught at Bickly Subiton and Chessington. Enid was born on 11 August in East Dulwich, London. Her father, Thomas Blyton was a salesman. Her mother was called Theresa. Enid had two younger brothers. Unfortunately in , her father left the family for another woman.

She was musically talented. Enid left school in and went to with a family in Woodbridge in Suffolk. She decided to become a teacher and started a training course in Ipswich High School in Enid Blyton began teaching a Bickley Park School in In she moved to Surbiton and became governess to four boys of a couple called Thompson.