Roald Dahl vs Enid Blyton - who did you likst the most?

Pawnless Endgame · 30 Jul 2017 at 19:30

I guess this thread is geared towards children of the 1990s or earlier, so people aged 30+ now.

Which author did you read the most out of the 2? What other authors did you also read?

I was definitely a Roald Dahl kid. Loved his fantasy stories like the BFG, James and the Giant Peach, the Witches and so on. I also read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (which took me a full year!) But yeah, fantasy or sci fi for me, so other examples would have been Narnia (Lion / Witch / Wardrobe) and John Christopher's The Tripods. Not sure if gamebooks count but I LOVED the Fighting Fantasy series too by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson :-D

My sister's school banned books by both authors (probably because they were unoriginal choices?) but at home though, my sister loved her Enid Blyton. Never read any myself but I think she was more geared towards adventure stories e.g. Famous Five and Secret Seven. Don't think there were any fantasy or sci fi elements in her stories.

How do you think JK Rowling compare as a children's author for the current generation of kids? I only read them as an adult (2004-2007, aged late 20s) but I still enjoyed reading them at that age. I would say that the reading age increases slightly for each book. Perhaps at Harry Potter's current age, so a year 7 kid would be ok to read the 1st book (Philosopher's Stone) and someone in 6th form could quite happily read the last 2 books.

Rroff · 30 Jul 2017 at 19:33

Preferred Enid Blyton - Roald Dahl's fantasies seemed kind of twisted to me and overly exaggerating elements a touch too much of the surreal - not sure I can describe it properly and that just didn't sit well with me - I found it easier to suspend my disbelief with Blyton and there was less overdoing it for effect.

Blyton did plenty of fantasy stuff like the magic faraway tree.

I find JK Rowling leaning more towards Blyton than Dahl though more fantasy than Blyton went for but similar style of escapism but not quite as immersive as Blyton IMO.

As a child I mostly read stuff by Malcolm Saville, W. E. Johns, Arthur Ransome, etc. will have to look up the other authors as its years ago hah.

EDIT: Funny thinking about it - as a child I preferred a good book over a TV show - maybe because even then I found the acting and action and so on not particularly convincing especially in more budget productions while these days I'd far rather watch a good TV show than read a book :s

Bickaxe · 30 Jul 2017 at 19:45

Dahl for me. I think they were more light hearted but involved more imagination than Blyton whom I think was a bit darker.
By late 80's though I had moved on to Pratchett which combined both and improved on immensely.

As for Rowling, the books are fine (even if she sold out) but if they had been released in the 80's, I doubt they would have been published.

Glaucus · 30 Jul 2017 at 19:46

Famous five all the way, loved those books.

Rroff · 30 Jul 2017 at 19:47

Bickaxe said:
than Blyton whom I think was a bit darker

Some of Blytons stuff had quite a dark background - I preferred stuff like the adventure series over the more light hearted mainstream series like the famous five as they had quite a dark backdrop hinted at behind the actual story which added to the intrigue.

Malevolence · 30 Jul 2017 at 20:00

Roald Dahl kid here too, it was the underlying darkness that got me.

xyphic · 31 Jul 2017 at 10:05

Both. I read a lot of Blyton when I was young, but also loved Roald Dahl. Danny the Champion of the World was and still is one of my favourite books.

ci_newman · 31 Jul 2017 at 10:51

I was a Blyton kid (and Goosebumps

). I've never read a Roald Dahl book even to this day.

robgmun · 31 Jul 2017 at 14:27

I was a Roald Dahl kid through and through. Enid Blyton just seemed far to twee and old fashioned even back in the 80's.

pepp77 · 31 Jul 2017 at 14:30

Definitely read more Dahl than Blyton as a youngster, but defintely read more Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew than either.

Robzere31 · 31 Jul 2017 at 15:57

Enid Blyton for me, Famous Five, Seret Seven & my favorite The Five Find-outers & Dog.

Liked them so much I actually wrote my own book when I was 12 or 13 in the style of the Five find-outers, never published but I thought it was a cracking read!

lokiss · 1 Aug 2017 at 00:08

Brer rabbit, and The Famous Five were my favourites as a child. Anything of Enid Blyton's Id read when I was that age seemed to connect. In all honesty that was the only time of life where I found it a joy to do little more than just read for hours.

Grimley · 3 Aug 2017 at 18:06

robgmun said:
I was a Roald Dahl kid through and through.

This. IIRC I read my first RD book (age 8) back in 1974. I must've read that book cover to cover more times that year than I've drunk cups of Coffee this year. I've read at least 6 of his most famous kids books when I was little.

Vonhelmet · 3 Aug 2017 at 19:46

Roald Dahl, though I did read a lot of Famous Five books.

SPG · 4 Aug 2017 at 12:55

Neither, I found them both boring and to some degree condescending. Infact they put me off reading until i discovered a comic called the eagle i think. There was particular story about man putting up some dish to provide free cheap electricity and it had the opposite effect of stopping electricity working on the earth and we all had to revert to steam in some mad max type world etc. This then got me hooked on reading

cheesyboy · 4 Aug 2017 at 13:12

I read both. Blyton had a bigger output, so read more of those.

Different eras, really, the two authors : pre and post war split, and Blyton does feel much more dated, particularly something like Famous Five and Secret Seven - Magic Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair are less so.

Vern1961 · 4 Aug 2017 at 15:10

Enid Blyton...

I probably learned to read via "Noddy" (says a lot for my outlook on life), probably had all 24 (I think it was) of the original novellas at one time. And this was in the '60's so long before it got sanitised by the PC brigade. Graduated from that on to the "Adventure" series of books though strangely I never bothered with Famous Five. By that point I was probably moving on to more cerebral fare such as Biggles, the Jennings (boarding school) novels or Andre Norton sci-fi. Was quite an avid reader back in the day but these days prefer to blow heads off in FO4.

Can't say I ever read much Roald Dahl at all, in fact missus had to point out to me not long ago he was author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory et al.

Rimsy · 9 Aug 2017 at 23:50

Read a lot of both but generally preferred Blyton. The faraway tree was probably my favourite set of books until I discovered "proper" fantasy. Loved the secret seven too.
Dahl was amazing too but his writing didn't grip me quite as much.
Both legends regardless!

Nitefly · 10 Aug 2017 at 00:05

Gawd... tough call. For some reason I think the Dahl books are going to treasured for longer than some of the Blyton books. They often had that surreal, slightly twisted, giddy quality that appeals to a lot of children.

I think the darkness is what draws children to Harry Potter. It's very easy to forget that pretty much the first thing you know in Harry Potter is "your parents are dead" - it's pretty brutal, really!

Semple · 10 Aug 2017 at 09:05

Nitefly said:
Gawd... tough call. For some reason I think the Dahl books are going to treasured for longer than some of the Blyton books. They often had that surreal, slightly twisted, giddy quality that appeals to a lot of children.

I think the darkness is what draws children to Harry Potter. It's very easy to forget that pretty much the first thing you know in Harry Potter is "your parents are dead" - it's pretty brutal, really!

I'm thinking on similar lines.

I read both as a kid, was a huge fan of the famous-five/secret-seven, but then again i really enjoyed a lot of Dahl's stories. So not sure which i'd say i enjoyed most.