Embracing Our Enid Times

Ms Blyton in full flight…

he lady may have passed over 50 years ago, but children’s author Enid Mary Blyton still has a hold on readers young and old today.

From The Famous Five to The Secret Seven, from Noddy to Malory Towers, the London-born writer was the JK Rowling of her day.

And now, for their latest stage production, the Arclight Theatre Company returns to The Whale to have a little fun with one of Blyton’s most popular creations, Upper Fourth At Blyton Towers bearing a more-than-passing resemblance to the author’s Upper Fourth At Malory Towers.

Arclight’s Paul Cullen gives us the lowdown…

I grew up with three sisters in the 1970s. My reading material mainly consisted of Bunty and Judy comics, Malory Towers, St. Claire’s, and the Chalet School books owned by my mother.

The books all had similar themes; midnight feasts, academic and sporting achievement, daring escapades, mysterious foreigners, dormitory pranks, enemies becoming friends, friends becoming enemies before becoming friends again.

There was the new girl finding it hard to fit in until some daring event makes her the hero, all illnesses were usually a result of brain fever, Mademoiselle, the French mistress, was always eccentric, head mistresses were firm but fair, there was always one teacher you never crossed, and there was always lashings of food.

Above all, the honour of the school must always be upheld.

How many of you growing up wanted to attend Malory Towers? I know I did. That is, until I found out that they didn’t take boys… and that it didn’t exist.

We in Arclight are producing this play as we wanted to evoke the joy of reading those stories as children and perhaps take you back to a bygone era when schooldays were the happiest days of your life.

You can catch Upper Fourth At Blyton Towers at The Whale from September 27th to 29th – tickets here.