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Enid Blyton
on Holiday
Enid Blyton's wartime stories
Where is Kirrin?
At the end of 2006 a letter was published, written by Enid Blyton, which at first glance put doubt on the claim that Corfe Castle was the inspiration for Kirrin Castle in the Famous Five books.
This is what Enid wrote in 1962
It was an island I once visited several times when I was in Jersey - it lay off the coast and could only be reached either by boat or by a rocky path exposed when the tide was out. It had an old castle there and I longed to put the island and castle into a book. So I did, as you know!
This letter has lead to a big debate in The Enid Blyton Society of which island and castle was being described. There are many little islands off Jersey, many of which have small forts on them, dating from Tudor times. Yet the castle Enid describes in the F5 has Norman
architectural features; big arches, slit-like windows, a tower and a courtyard. Kirrin is built of pale (almost white) stone - just like Corfe. We know that Enid first visited Corfe in 1931, and was a regular visit to Swanage during the period she wrote Five on a Treasure Island.
Traveling by train, she would have had splendid views of Corfe Castle from her railway carriage.
This 1962 letter was written 21 years after Five on a Treasure Island was written, and 38 years after her honeymoon on Jersey. There is little doubt that she is remembering the topography correctly (the castle on the island) but Kirrin Castle has far more in common with Norman Corfe Castle than any little
Tudor fort!
The "real" Kirrin is likely to have been in Enid's head, with aspects of both Jersey and Corfe incorporated to make the familiar setting of the Famous Five books.
Enid
Blyton Biography help
Enid
Blyton first visited Dorset in 1931.
She stayed in Bournemouth and drove to Corfe Castle.
She described the trip in her weekly letter in Teachers
World magazine.
Enid
next visited Swanage in 1940 when her daughter Gillian needed a holiday
after being ill. They went
by steam train on the railway to Corfe Castle. This visit was still fresh in her mind when later that year
she wrote Five on a Treasure
Island, the first of the Famous Five books, with Corfe Castle as the
inspiration for Kirrin Castle.
Swanage
became a regular place for Enid Blyton to spend her holidays – three
times a year for over twenty years. Her husband made sure that it was a holiday and wouldn’t
let her write books whilst she was away.
They enjoyed keeping fit by playing tennis and swimming around
Swanage Pier!
Enid
Blyton and her husband, the surgeon Kenneth Darrell Waters, loved to
play golf, and in 1951 they bought the Isle of Purbeck golf club.
It needed a lot of money spending on it, and they were very proud
of it. She wrote about it
in Five have a Mystery to Solve.
Brownsea Island is Whispering Island in this book, but this was
at a time before the National Trust owned Brownsea and Enid would never
have visited the Island. Lucas
was Kenneth’s golf caddy, and he still has a set of golf clubs that
they gave him.
Enid
Blyton also has connections with Studland.
PC Christopher Rone was the village policeman, and was
immortalised as Mr Plod in Noddy. Enid Blyton’s last Dorset holidays were at the Knoll House
Hotel, where she was always happy to sign any books that children had
with them.
Second
World War Help
These
books are all about the war. There wasn’t a Blyton reader in the country who didn’t
dream of finding a spy like the children in these stories! It is best to try and find old copies where the text hasn’t
been updated.
The
Children of Kidillin (1940)
This
is a story about evacuees, but it is a private evacuation to the
children’s own family in the Scottish countryside.
Children without country families would usually be evacuated with
their schools. The two sets
of cousins don’t get off to a good start – the boys hate each other,
the girls hate each other, even the dogs hate each other… but then
they close ranks when there is a spy to catch!
The
Adventurous Four (1941).
(Try
and find a copy with the original text – the twins should be called
Mary and Jill.)
This
book is about enemy German submarines sinking the British ships in the
North Atlantic Convoys, which brought food from America to Britain.
The Merchant Seamen in these ships were very brave, and people
were encouraged to knit jumpers for them.
The children’s father is in the RAF and their mother is
knitting hard – possibly something warm for her husband.
All civilians were encouraged to knit for both the RAF and the
Merchant Navy – even boys in Prep. Schools would knit scarves.
Andy
is the working class leader of the group and at 14 has already left
school to join his father on his fishing boat.
The school leaving age went up to 15 in 1947.
The
children are taking far more food with them than they could get on
Rations – but Enid Blyton never lets her children go hungry!
Sea
Planes are able to take off and land from water.
They would have been a familiar sight to Enid Blyton whilst she
was on holiday in Swanage since Poole Harbour, which is just a couple of
miles away, was like an airport for them.
Smuggler
Ben (1943)
Here
are another lot of spies to catch; this time written after Enid Blyton
had started to visit Swanage. With its steep path and smuggling connections, the little bay
described sounds very much like Durlston Bay south of Swanage.
Enid
Blyton found her winning formula during the war, and started many of her
most famous series during this time.
The Twins at St Clare’s
(1941), Five on a Treasure Island (1942), Mystery of the Burnt Cottage
(1943), The Island of Adventure (1944).
Enid
Blyton was famous for writing a little magazine called Sunny
Stories. Many of
the stories we now know as books were first published a chapter at a
time each week in the magazine. Here
is a poem written to her by a reader.
We can only wonder what sort of life June the Evacuee was
leading, since she may have been away from home for over 2 years.
But someone had kindly given her a subscription to Sunny Stories,
and it was the highlight of her week.
The
Evacuee
I
am a little evacuee,
And I am as happy as a bumble bee,
I have Sunny Stories every
week,
And now I have a nice big heap.
My best friend comes round our
garden and reads them,
And so do my little friends too.
To you, dear Enid Blyton,
I say a big “Thank you!”
Made
up by June Crouch (age 10)
Old
Bear Inn
Staverton,
Nr Trowbridge, Wilts
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