About twenty years ago, Enid Blyton's books appeared to be a fading - hoplessly out of fashion. She was attacked as elitist, sexist and even racist. Stuck in a ginger beer world that had no relevence to contemporary children. Blyton died in 1968, and it seemed that her work was destined to disappear within a generation. Good riddance said an army of teachers and librarians who found her attitudes arrogant, and her vocabulary too simple. How wrong they were.

The wonder of life and the spirit of Christmas can be experienced all year round through reading her work. Simple pleasures of looking up at a bird in a tree and watch it open it's beak as it starts to sing or see ants rush around in their colony and seemingly go nowhere appeals to our wonderment. The joy of nature is childlike.

Taking this childlike wonderment and putting it into a book is a gift that Enid Blyton was able to do. Her heroes are children going on adventures and solving lifes problems. The books appeal to children of all ages. Even at an advanced adult age she could reach the child in us all. Enid wrote her Famous Five series during the war years when children were sent by their parents from English cities to the safety of the country to be looked after by their relations. One can see magic in nature, even in the city. But our fast moving world does not give us an opportunity to stop and appreciate the beauty around us. Enid Blyton's books helped to deepen that awareness. Her books are coming back into children's lives even in the 1990's, one hundred years after her birth. With todays children usually looking at the telly or playing a computer game, the child can still escape into their own adventures and imagination through Enid's book.