BLYTON (Enid Mary, 1897-1968, Children's author, Creator of Noddy)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed in her married name 'Enid Darrell Waters' to Mrs Graebe thanking her for her letter and "kind invitation ... I'm so sorry but I'm always away in September - October (my husband runs a golf course & a farm down here in Dorset. It is our 'second home'). In any case I have practically given up public engagements as I am so busy in many directions - books, T.V. programmes, films, plays & the rest. Unfortunately public engagements take up so much time in travelling! It's not like popping 'down the road' to open a Bazaar or Garden Fete ..." she continues that she remembers "Marigold Keeble well - & her brother even better ... Tommy .... an enchanting, untidy, imp of a boy in the transition or the first form. Some children stand out in the memory for years and years, others fade out completely. I often wonder what they have all become - or not become. So often the bright ones fade out but unassuming ones blossom prolifically when they grow up. I wish I could help you but I cannot rush here, there and everywhere ... I have had almost ninety requests ... to open sales, or make a speech or attend school concerts, you will see how impossible it is, alas, to say yes, much as I would like to ...", 2 side 4to., Grand Hotel, Swanage, Dorset headed paper, 8th July

Blyton's marriage to her first husband Hugh Pollock was troubled, and, in 1939, she began a series of affairs. In 1941 Blyton met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon with whom she began a relationship. Pollock accused her of adultery and having a lesbian affair with one of her children's nannies after finding them locked in the bathroom together. During her divorce, Blyton blackmailed Pollock into taking full blame for the failure of the marriage, knowing that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image. She promised that if he admitted to charges of infidelity, she would allow him unlimited access to their daughters. However, after the divorce, Pollock was forbidden to contact his daughters, and Blyton ensured he was unable to find work in publishing afterwards. He began drinking heavily and was eventually forced to petition for bankruptcy in 1950. Blyton and Darrell Waters married in October 1943, and she subsequently changed the surname of her two daughters to Darrell Waters. Blyton's second marriage was very happy and, as far as her public image was concerned, she moved smoothly into her role as a devoted doctor's wife, living with him and her two daughters at Green Hedges.

Item Date:  1968

Stock No:  36316