Enid Blyton Collection
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB |
| Dates of Creation | 1924-2006 |
| Name of Creator | Enid Blyton |
| Language of Material | English |
| Physical Description | 14 box files, 3 archive boxes, 2 crates + books |
Scope and Content
Typescript drafts for thirteen books by Enid Blyton, including one unpublished novel, as well as drafts for numerous short stories published in magazines and newspapers. The collection also includes one piece of original artwork for 'Last Term at Malory Towers'; some personal items belonging to Enid Blyton's daughter, Gillian Baverstock, including her childhood diary and several family books inscribed by Enid Blyton; ephemeral material and merchandise relating to Blyton's books; a quantity of VHS cassette recordings of various television adaptations of books by Enid Blyton; and copies of some of her published works.
Administrative / Biographical History
Created by Enid Blyton during the course of her career as a writer.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into four series, with material divided according to type as follows:
EB/01 Typescripts
EB/02 Personal papers and ephemera
EB/03 Audio visual material
EB/04 Printed books
Further information on the content and arrangement of each series can be found at series level.
Conditions Governing Access
Accessible to all researchers, by appointment only.
Custodial History
Following Blyton's death, the material passed into the possession of her elder daughter Gillian Baverstock. Following Gillian Baverstock's death, this material, along with a quantity of other Blyton papers and books, was put up for sale as individual lots through Hartley's Auctioneers and Valuers. Seven Stories purchased the material in this collection, consisting of 18 lots, with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the MLA/V & A Acquisitions Fund and two private donors, including Enid Blyton's granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood.
Typescripts
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01 |
| Dates of Creation | c 1930s-1962 |
| Physical Description | 4 archive boxes |
Scope and Content
Original typescript drafts by Enid Blyton for twelve published books and one unpublished novel, as well as numerous short stories first published in magazines and newspapers. The series includes typescript drafts for novels from many of Blyton's most popular series, including the Adventure series, the Barney Mysteries, the Famous Five, the Five Find-Outers, Malory Towers, Noddy and the Secret Seven. The series also includes one piece of original artwork for the Malory Towers series.
Arrangement
The typescripts have been sorted according to series, with the series arranged in alphabetical order. Typescripts for non-series, stand-alone books and short stories appear at the end of the sequence.
Adventure series
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/01 |
| Dates of Creation | [1952-1955] |
| Physical Description | 2 files |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript drafts of 'The Circus of Adventure' and 'The River of Adventure', the final two books in Enid Blyton's Adventure series.
'The Circus of Adventure'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/01/01 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [ 1952] |
| Physical Description | 249 ff. |
Scope and Content
Typescript draft of 'The Circus of Adventure' (Macmillan, 1952), the penultimate book in Enid Blyton's Adventure series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, which mostly correct minor typing errors, although there are also some changes to vocabulary and sentence construction. The typescript shows that the character of Gustavus was originally called Gustavious, but a pencil note on page 14 amends this to "use Gustavus throughout". The final page of the typescript is badly damaged, with several tears repaired with sellotape and the bottom-left corner torn off and missing.
A manuscript note in Enid Blyton's hand at the front of the file, along with a typed copy of the same, reads 'This is the original typescript of Five Go to Mystery Moor'. This note was with this typescript when it was purchased at auction, and the typescript was wrongly identified in the sale catalogue as a draft of 'Five Go to Mystery Moor'. The first four pages of typescript in the file - constituting title pages, foreword and contents page - are for 'Five Go to Mystery Moor', but the remainder constitute a draft of 'The Circus of Adventure'. No further pages of the Famous Five book appear in this file, and it is not known what has happened to the rest of the original typescript for 'Five Go to Mystery Moor'.
Related Material
For a VHS recording of Cloud 9's television adaptation of 'Circus of Adventure', see EB/03/01/06.
'The River of Adventure'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/01/02 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [1955] |
| Physical Description | 239 ff. |
Scope and Content
Typescript draft of 'The River of Adventure' (Macmillan, 1955), the final book in Enid Blyton's Adventure series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, which mostly correct minor typing errors, although there are also some more significant changes made as the typescript progresses. The typescript also bears very occasional pencil annotations which are not in Blyton's hand, probably written by the editor. In several places, the typescript evidences revision with new, partial pages of typed text cut and pinned into position over the top of earlier text. These revisions become more frequent towards the end of the novel.
Related Material
For a VHS recording of Cloud 9's television adaptation of 'River of Adventure', see EB/03/08.
Barney Mysteries series
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/02 |
| Dates of Creation | [1959] |
| Physical Description | 1 file |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript draft of 'The Ragamuffin Mystery', the final book in Enid Blyton's Barney Mysteries series.
'The Ragamuffin Mystery'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/02/01 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [1959] |
| Physical Description | 167 ff. |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript draft of 'The Ragamuffin Mystery' (Collins, 1959), the sixth and final book in Enid Blyton's Barney Mysteries series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, mostly concerning minor alterations or corrections to typing errors. Some slightly more significant revisions do appear as the typescript progresses, although the plot and characters are largely the same as the published book. In several places, the typescript evidences revision with new, partial pages of typed text cut and pinned into position over the top of earlier text.
Famous Five series
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/03 |
| Dates of Creation | 1951-1955 |
| Physical Description | 4 files |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript drafts of three books in the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton, as well as draft material relating to the play 'Famous Five Adventure', first performed in 1955 and first published in 2000.
'Five on a Hike Together'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/03/01 |
| Dates of Creation | 1951 |
| Physical Description | 181 ff. |
Scope and Content
Typescript draft of 'Five on a Hike Together' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1951), the tenth book in Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, which mostly correct minor typing errors, although there are also some manuscript insertions and revisions of text. The typescript also bears occasional typesetting instructions for the printer in pencil. Some cutting and pasting of text is evident towards the end of the typescript, and only a partial fragment of the final page has survived, the rest apparently having been torn off and lost.
'Five Have a Wonderful Time'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/03/02 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [1952] |
| Physical Description | 189 ff. |
Scope and Content
Typescript draft of 'Five Have a Wonderful Time' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1952), the eleventh book in Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, which mostly correct minor typing errors, although there are also some manuscript insertions and revisions of text. Chapter titles have also been inserted in ink. The typescript includes a rough of the title page, with hand-lettered text probably created by Blyton. Part of page 174 of the draft is missing, apparently intentionally cut off and removed from the typescript.
'Five Have Plenty of Fun'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/03/03 |
| Dates of Creation | 1955 |
| Physical Description | 184 ff. |
Scope and Content
Typescript draft of 'Five Have Plenty of Fun' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1955), the fourteenth book in Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, which mostly correct minor typing errors, although there are also some manuscript insertions and revisions of text. The bottom of page 117 of the typescript has been neatly torn off, suggesting an intentional removal of a paragraph of text. An additional paragraph of text has been pasted onto page 125, and an additional paragraph has been pinned onto page 166. The final page of the typescript, page 176, consists of two partial sheets of typescript pasted together.
A manuscript note in Enid Blyton's hand at the front of the file identifies this as "the original typescript of FIVE HAVE PLENTY OF FUN", and explains that she did not write books by hand, but typed the first draft and then made changes by hand before sending the draft to the publisher. The note also references the illustrations sent to Blyton "for checking", but these are not included here. It seems probable that Blyton showed this typescript to children, which is why it has an explanatory label included.
Related Material
For a recording of the 1990s television adaptation of 'Five Have Plenty of Fun', see EB/03/02/05.
'Famous Five Adventure'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/03/04 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [c 1955] |
| Physical Description | 5 items |
Scope and Content
Several typescript drafts of the play 'Famous Five Adventure', written by Enid Blyton and based on her Famous Five series. The file includes a complete top copy typescript with stage directions in red ink and spoken dialogue in black ink. This typescript was kept in a paper folder, on which the manuscript label 'My own top copy Famous Five Adventure' has been crossed out and replaced with 'old copy'. A complete carbon copy of this typescript is also in the file, with a manuscript note in Blyton's hand on page one identifying it as 'My own complete carbon copy'. Both the top copy and the carbon copy are annotated with corrections in ink, and these are largely the same on both copies although there are some small differences between the two. Both copies also show evidence of cutting and rewriting of text, with revised text pinned into position on several pages. All of this cutting and rewriting is identical in both copies.
The file also contains three further typescripts of the play, labelled respectively 'First carbon', 'Second carbon' and 'Third carbon'. These typescripts are identical and unmarked, but incorporate into the main body of typed text most of the manuscript annotations shown on the first two typescripts. They appear to be later, clean copies of the final text for the play.
Five Find-Outers series
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/04 |
| Dates of Creation | 1953 |
| Physical Description | 1 file |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript draft of 'The Mystery of Holly Lane', the eleventh book in the Five Find-Outers series by Enid Blyton.
'The Mystery of Holly Lane'
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/04/01 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [1953] |
| Physical Description | 189 ff. |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript draft of 'The Mystery of Holly Lane' (Methuen, 1953), the eleventh book in Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outers series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, mainly correcting typing errors, although there are some manuscript insertions and revisions of text. Some cutting and pasting is evident in the typescript, where blocks of re-typed text have been pinned into position on pages. In one place in the typescript, Blyton has also made a marginal note for the illustrator. The typed chapter titles appear to be later insertions, presumably added after the draft was finished.
Malory Towers series
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/05 |
| Dates of Creation | 1951 |
| Physical Description | 2 files |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript draft of 'Last Term at Malory Towers', the final book in Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series, and one original illustration for the book by Stanley Lloyd.
'Last Term at Malory Towers' typescript
| This material is held at | Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books |
| Reference Number(s) | GB 1840 EB/01/05/01 |
| Dates of Creation | nd [1951] |
| Physical Description | 195 ff. |
Scope and Content
Complete typescript draft of 'Last Term at Malory Towers' (Methuen, 1951), the sixth and final book in Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series. The typescript bears occasional ink annotations in Blyton's hand, mainly correcting typing errors, although there are some manuscript insertions and revisions of text. The typescript has also been marked up in pencil with typesetting instructions for the printer.
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