Enid Blyton was an English childrens writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. She was born on August 11, 1897, in East Dulwich, South London, United Kingdom, and was the eldest of three children. Enid Blyton had two daughters, Gillian Baverstock and Imogen Smallwood. After divorce and remarriage, Enid Blyton changed her daughters surname to "Darrell Waters". Gillian Baverstock was the elder daughter of Enid Blyton and Kenneth Waters. After the divorce, Enid Blytons relationship with her daughters became strained, and they were not allowed to see their father. Enid Blyton died in 1968, aged 71, and for the last decade of her life, she suffered from what was then called pre-senile dementia.
Imogen Smallwood, Enid Blytons youngest daughter, wrote a candid memoir, A Childhood at Green Hedges, that shattered any illusion of Enids family life reflecting the cosy, idealised world of her fiction. In the memoir, Imogen describes Enid Blyton as arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind, and without a trace of maternal instinct. Imogens relationship with Enid Blyton explains her detachment, as well as her conscious determination not to appear subjective or unfairly coloured by her mothers views.
Sophie Smallwood, Enid Blytons granddaughter, has no plans to write another childrens book and would like to try adult fiction instead.