Enid Blyton Froze At 13

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-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 17:23

As you read through the fabulous adventures of '' or the innocence of 'Noddy', you might be shocked to know that the author Enid Blyton transformed her psychological setbacks in to creativity, as she stopped growing emotionally after the age of 13.

Late children's writer Enid Blyton's only surviving daughter has revealed that the author had the emotional age of a 13-year-old, as her development "froze" after she witnessed violent arguments between her parents.

Imogen Smallwood said that the lady, known for the '' and the 'Secret Seven', was quite "childlike" and would often behave like a "spiteful" teenager even after she became a mother.

Smallwood also revealed that the reason behind Blyton's troubled personality could be a result of a particularly troublesome argument between her mother and drunken father, soon after he moved in with another woman.

"Barbara Stoney, (Blyton's 1974 biographer), suggested the trauma she suffered around about her 13th birthday was so huge that a lot of her emotional development just froze there and I think this is a very good way of looking at her," the Telegraph quoted Smallwood as telling in a new Radio 4 documentary, 'A Fine Defence of Enid Blyton'.

She added: "I think her approach to life was quite childlike and she could also sometimes be almost spiteful like a teenager." Earlier, Blyton's brother Hanly had also blew the covers off the distressing impact of the fights on the author. "Enid and I used to stop at the top of the stairs with our arms around each other, crying and listening to all that was going on," said Hanly.

Blyton's traumatic childhood had serious repercussions on her health as well— Stoney's biography revealed how the author was given hormone injections to help her conceive after a gynaecologist described her underdeveloped uterus as "like that of a 12 or 13-year-old-girl".

However, later Blyton went on to have two children: Gillian in 1931 and Imogen in 1935. Blyton's books, including the Noddy series and Malory Towers, have sold more than 500 million copies around the world. She was recently voted Britain's best-loved author.