Thursday, August 21, 2008

We Still Love Blyton!

A survey carried out to mark the 2008 Costa Book Awards has revealed that Enid Blyton tops the list of Britain's "most cherished and best-loved writers".
Blyton's gold medal position in this table, along with the high preponderance of children's writers elsewhere on Costa's list (Roald Dahl took second place and JK Rowling third, while JRR Tolkien and Beatrix Potter made the top 10), is evidence that it is the books we read, wholeheartedly, passionately, uncritically, in childhood to which we remain most firmly and irrevocably attached. The flaws we see in them as adults, the criticisms - and some pretty hefty ones, in the shape of accusations of sexism, racism and class snobbery have been flung Blyton's way over the years - do not weaken those bonds. For hundreds of thousands of us, Blyton was the wedge that cracked open the pleasure-filled world of reading and allowed us in. Our rational adult sides reject and mock Kirrin Island and all the adventures played out there; our inner children remember it rightly, and gratefully, as the promontory from which we caught our first glimpse of the promised land.
writes Lucy Mangan in the Guardian. I've certainly acknowledged my own debt to Blyton who got me reading! The full list of most loved authors is here :
1. Enid Blyton 2. Roald Dahl 3. J.K. Rowling 4. Jane Austen 5. William Shakespeare 6. Charles Dickens 7. J.R.R. Tolkien 8. Agatha Christie 9. Stephen King 10. Beatrix Potter 11. C.S. Lewis 12. Catherine Cookson 13. Martina Cole 14. Bill Bryson 15. Charlotte Bronte 16. Jacqueline Wilson 17. Oscar Wilde 18. Maeve Binchy 19. Dan Brown 20. Emily Bronte 21. Jackie Collins 22. Martin Amis 23. Isaac Asimov 24. Margaret Atwood 25. John Grisham 26. Marian Keyes 27. H.G.Wells 28. Alan Bennett 29. Arthur C. Clarke 30. George Orwell 31. Danielle Steel 32. Iain Banks 33. Judy Blume 34. Jodi Picoult 35. Arthur Conan Doyle 36. Peter Ackroyd 37. Kingsley Amis 38. P.G Wodehouse 39. Dr. Seuss 40. Mark Twain 41. J.G. Ballard 42. Thomas Hardy 43. James Patterson 44. Ian Rankin 45. Leo Tolstoy 46. Irvine Welsh 47. Jilly Cooper 48. Beryl Bainbridge 49. Ray Bradbury 50. Geoffrey Chaucer

15 comments:

Ted Mahsun said...

hehe! Dan Brown's on the list. Go Dan Brown!

Anonymous said...

Awwww. I think many people our generation relate to Blyton and her tongue sandwiches and scones. This was at a time when all I knew about was thosai. Maybe she started my fixation on food. :-)

Anonymous said...

And Jackie Collins is in!!! Whoo hoo!!!!

Anonymous said...

On my shelf is nearly the entire set of the Five Find Outers and Dog which I picked up at a secondhand book shop. As soon as my stint as book reviewer is over, I'm gonna revisit it.

Satima Flavell said...

I learnt to write by reading Blyton - when I was little, I wanted to be a children's author, just like her. However, I'm now having to unlearn all the bad habits of Blyton and her era generally - overuse of adverbs and adjectives, slow starts, trite endings...but without reading her I might not ever have put pen to paper.

Anonymous said...

Love the Five Find-Outers. More interesting than Famous Five with whiney Anne and dykey George...

Anonymous said...

i love enid blyton.

i love Margaret Atwood also.

*love*

:P

Anonymous said...

Oh, i also wrote my praise for Enid Blyton last year, here: http://www.dunia-vovin.com/2007/apresiasi-enid-blyton.htm

Anonymous said...

yey, Roald Dahl is second on list!

Anonymous said...

Well she was pretty racist, but then again everyone was I guess.

YTSL said...

Hooray for Enid Blyton. As un-PC as she may seem these days, her books really were a major factor in getting me on the road to bibliophiledom. In fact, I remember as a child thinking that she, the Brothers Grimm and Aesop were the only storytellers the world had ever known! ;D

A few other favourite authors I noticed on the list: JK Rowling (though I wouldn't have placed her that high!), George Orwell, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jilly Cooper (yes, well!)... hmmm, that makes for quite the mix, doesn't it? :)

Anonymous said...

Yea am surprised people like Sir Arthur aren't in. Also am surprised that people like Barrie and Twain aren't in either.

Anonymous said...

Wait, Twain IS in. Blah :P

Ted Mahsun said...

And so is Sir Arthur actually. Unless you're referring to a different Sir Arthur? *scratches head*

Anonymous said...

Eh, I didn't know what I was thinking. And I just realized Carroll isn't in either. Or Herriot.