Sir, As I opened our school copy of The Times today a cry of outrage came from behind me as some of our pupils saw the picture of the new Famous Five. What are we doing to these well-loved characters? Surely the magic of childhood is that the imagination can take you to wherever you want to go, based on your own experiences or influences.

When I was working in an inner-city library in the 1970s our council was very concerned to ban the Famous Fives and any other Enid Blyton books that we stocked as they felt that they were racist and far too middle class. Yet our longest waiting lists were for the Famous Five books and the people waiting were predominantly the children of immigrant families.

These children loved the whole idea of a land full of adventure and freedom where the possibilities were endless. And they learnt their new language by struggling to read these wonderful books.

Why not film the original stories? The morals and credos of Enid Blyton’s writing are at least as good as The Lion King and The Little Mermaid.

Bring back the ginger beer and the innocence of childhood, we say. My incensed pupils will be voting with their money and not paying to see what they call “an atrocity”.

S. Bussey
Head of Library Resources,
Derby High School

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