It looks as if there is such a thing as an unpublished novel by Enid Blyton.
You wouldn’t think so, given that Blyton supposedly published nearly 800 books. Enid Blyton wrote the successful series of books about The Famous Five, as well as the Noddy series of books for younger children. She also wrote several other series, articles, poems, short stories and picture books. Blyton became one of Britain’s best-loved authors. She died in 1968.
That means news this week of an unpublished novel is a bit of excitement for Blyton fans around the world.
The short novel is titled Mr. Tumpy’s Caravan, and the experts point out that this is not the same Mr. Tumpy story that Blyton published as a cartoon in 1949. They say this one was likely written in the 1930s, and features a much different Mr. Tumpy.
This video from BBC explains the story, and includes blandly generous comments from Blyton experts and from Enid Blyton’s youngest daughter.
For Blyton fans, there’s some irony in the BBC’s glowing report. It’s well known that the BBC dismissed Blyton’s attempts to get her work on the radio — they ignored her worldwide popularity and considered her work to be below their standards.