Passing it on: Enid Blyton and Antonia White

This is another article about people who suffered at the hands of their parents then went on to make their own children suffer in much the same way.

Writers Enid Blyton and Antonia White are two more people who passed on their bad experiences to their children.

Apart from writing fiction, having two daughters and causing a lot of suffering for many of the people around them, Enid Blyton and Antonia White have little in common. 

There are a few references on here to Antonia White’s life and her autobiographical fiction with more to come, but there is little in Enid Blyton’s life and books that is relevant to this blog so this is almost certainly her first and last appearance. 

Enid Blyton’s books
Enid Blyton was one of the most popular and successful children’s writers ever. I never cared much for her books myself, but millions of other children did: she was one of the most borrowed authors in the public libraries. I remember being informed when I first joined that her books were too popular to be reserved - as if I cared!

Enid Blyton and her family
I read some biographical material that revealed the dark side of Enid Blyton a while back and have summarised from memory an example of her passing it on.

Enid Blyton’s parents frequently had violent quarrels. She had first-hand experience of the devastating effect this can have on sensitive and impressionable young children. Her idolised father left the family when she was 12 years old. She had only occasional contact with him after that, and he died when she was 23.

She seems to have been permanently affected by his desertion and death.

As often happens, rather than take extra special care to ensure that her children never had to go through what she had been through she just passed it all on.