Make Way For Noddy

Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 - 28 November 1968) was a British children's writer known as both Enid Blyton and Mary Pollock. She was one of the most successful children's storytellers of the twentieth century.

She is noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups. Her books have enjoyed popular success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies. Blyton is the fifth most translated author worldwide: over 3544 translations of her books were available in 2007 according to UNESCO's Index Translationum;

This index contains titles in all the translated languages. The top five are: Walt Disney Productions, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Enid Blyton, and the next five: Lenin, Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel, Hans Christian Andersen, and Stephen King. she overtook Lenin to get the fifth place and is behind Shakespeare.

One of her most widely known characters is Noddy, intended for early years readers.

However, her main forte is the young readers' novels, where children ride out their own adventures with minimal adult help. In this genre, particularly popular series include the Famous Five (consisting of 21 novels, 1942?1963, based on four children and their dog), the Five Find-Outers and Dog, (15 novels, 1943?1961, where five children regularly outwit the local police) as well as the Secret Seven (15 novels, 1949?1963, a society of seven children who solve various mysteries).

Her work involves children's adventure stories, and fantasy, sometimes involving magic. Her books were and still are enormously popular in Britain, Malta, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia; as translations in the former Yugoslavia, Japan; as adaptations in Arabic; and across most of the globe. Her work has been translated into nearly 90 languages.

Blyton's life is set to be turned into a BBC film for the first time later in 2009. Academy Award nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter will be portraying Blyton in the film. Filming is set to commence on the week beginning 9 March 2009, and will be aired in Britain on BBC Four later in 2009. Bonham Carter is set to star alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson who will be playing Blyton's first husband Hugh Pollock and Blyton's second husband Kenneth Darrell Waters respectively.Digital Spy: BBC producing Enid Blyton film