I first began to research the life and works of Enid Blyton back in 1990, and at that time, the stock answer to the question: Did Enid Blyton ever use pseudonyms? was, and still is: Yes, just the one - Mary Pollock (her middle name and married surname). However, in time, I began to suspect otherwise.
There is an excellent biography by Barbara Stoney, but like most official biographies, it is fascinating more for what it does not contain than what it does. What it shows us though, is that Enid Blyton was a mysterious, secretive and enigmatic woman in many ways, closing a number of chapters in her life and never re-opening them. For example, though originally training for a career as a professional pianist, when she abandoned it in favour of teaching, she was never known to play again. So it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that she used pseudonyms of which no one was aware, and took the secret to her grave.
My suspicion was initially aroused when I read Enid’s first published poem in Nash’s Magazine from March, 1917, entitled Have You -? The first two lines read:
Have you heard the night-time silence, just when all the world’s asleep,
And you’re curled up by your window all alone?
In the June, 1917 issue of Nash’s Magazine, there appeared a poem in reply, by one Maud K. F. Dyrenfurth, entitled I Have - (complete with dash). The first two lines read:
I have heard the night-time silence full of mystic melody,
And have seen and called that star you love so well;
The last lines of the two poems are, respectively:
Have you never stretched your arms out – to the night?
and
I have sought you, yes! And found you – in the night.
The style of the two poems is remarkably similar, and one is drawn to the conclusion that the unlikely named Ms. M. K. F. Dyrenfurth, if she existed, went to considerable effort to duplicate the style of Miss Blyton, or alternatively, a very young and mischievous Enid was having a private giggle to herself.
In the very earliest days of Enid Blyton’s writing career, she produced a number of short stories for a company called Birn Brothers Ltd. This company was not a publishing organisation at all, but a printing firm specialising in high quality greetings cards. It is well known that Enid made money from greetings card verses before she was published in book form, and this is no doubt how Birn Brothers got hold of her stories. No one knows the full catalogue of titles issued by this company since they were never registered in the usual way, and they do not exist in Enid’s private collection. Why not? Well, perhaps Enid was later ashamed at the quality of the writing, (the ones I’ve seen are pretty poor), which begs the question: why were other books from around that time, published by bona fide publishers like George Newnes, of so much better quality? Enid’s first husband, Major Hugh Pollock was a senior editor at George Newnes. Is there perhaps a clue here? Bear in mind that when Enid Blyton first qualified as a teacher, the ony subject in which she did not obtain a first class pass was English.
But there are other unanswered questions about the Birn Brothers books. I have had in my possession, four of their titles – two credited to Enid Blyton, one to a Freda Whittaker and one uncredited to anyone. The styles are indistinguishable, and without becoming too arcane, the use of certain words and phrases repeatedly, (for example “queer”, used many, many times by Enid Blyton throughout her career) is uncanny. Would other writers be copying Enid’s style to cash in on her success? Hardly, since at the time these books were allegedly published (the early 1920s), her reputation did not exist. So what was going on here?
So back to my opening remarks concerning known pseudonyms used by Miss Blyton. In recent years Enid Blyton's daughter, Gillian Baverstock, has revealed that Blyton did in fact, when she was a teenager, use other names – for example, Becky Kent, (from her town in Beckenham, Kent), Christopher, (presumably from St. Christopher’s School which she attended), and Audrey St. Lo.
Becky Kent brings to mind one Margaret Kent, a writer of children’s books, mainly from the 1940s. Collectors might be familiar with her work, especially as it was mainly illustrated by that most famous of Blyton illustrators Eileen M. Soper. However, I can find very little information about this lady other than that which appears on the dustwrapper sleeves, from which one can glean that she was involved in education (E.B. was of course a trained teacher).
I list below, the Margaret Kent titles I have come across – there may be more, (if anyone knows of any, I would be extremely grateful to hear of them):
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter at Cherry Tree Farm (four titles)
The Twins at Home
The Twins at Hillside Farm
The Twins at the Seaside
Animals
Animals of Hedge, Pond and Moor
Animals of the Farm
Flowers (The Children’s Nature Series)
Pond Life
Do any of these titles bring Enid Blyton to mind? The Twins and the seasons certainly do. A careful study of the style of writing reveals other remarkable similarities, not least of which the hyphenating of the words today (to-day) and tomorrow (to-morrow), which was an Enid Blyton trait, certainly in her early days, and whilst not incorrect, is somewhat idiosyncratic. So was Margaret Kent really Enid Blyton, writing under a pseudonym for reasons best known to herself? If you have a definitive answer, one way or another, I will be very pleased to hear from you.
I have no answers, just questions. But when one is dealing with the best-selling writer of all time, there is surely no discredit in asking them. Sadly, time is running out as the number of those who might be able to shed light on the matter decreases year on year.
Mason Willey began researching Enid Blyton's work and life in the early 1990s, having done what most bibliophiles do, specialised more and more on less and less until he was down to one author. His other interests include Elvis Presley, Baroness Thatcher and Beethoven (not necessarily in that order).
Mason's Enid Blyton Bibliography of First Editions is available to buy at Kidz Books for just £5.
His Enid Blyton website can be found here: http://masonwilley.tripod.com/
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Update February 2010: A letter to Kidz Books from Margaret Kent's grandson confirms that she was an author in her own right. Further information can be found here: http://www.kidzbooks.net/kidzbooks/articles.aspx?id=21