annecater
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Posts: 1629
Location: Lincolnshire
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 Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:56 am Post subject: Noddy set for new adventure thanks to Enid Blyton's grand-da |
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Noddy is to appear in a new book on the 60th anniversary of his first appearance.
Enid Blyton's character has undergone several makeovers since the books featuring his Toytown antics were first published in 1949 and remains popular with children.
The new book, provisionally entitled Noddy's Birthday Surprise, has been written by Blyton's grand-daughter, Sophie Smallwood, and will be illustrated by Robert Tyndall, who worked with Blyton in the early 1950s.
It has been commissioned by Chorion, the firm that owns the rights to Noddy and earns a reported £180million a year from sales of the books, which also feature Big Ears, Tessie Bear and Mr Plod.
Blyton's books have been revised many times in response to changing attitudes, with the removal of Golliwogs from Noddy and the renaming of Faraway Tree character Dame Slap, who used to administer corporal punisment, to Dame Snap.
Ms Smallwood, 38, told the Mail on Sunday that critics of the books had "missed the point" but said she had no plans to undo any of the changes when the new book appears next November.
She said: "When I was a child I wasn't aware there was a negative attitude to them. It says more about the people who made these comments than it does about the books. They were missing the point because these books were for children, and children do not see it at that level at all.
"We have to be sensitive to people's feelings, and now we have the books as they are, it would cause more problems to go back."
Noddy and Big Ears first appeared in 1949 in Noddy Goes To Toytown, illustrated by Dutch artist Harmsen Van der Beek, who died in 1953. The books have since sold 200million copies in 40 languages, making Blyton the sixth most translated author in the world, just behind William Shakespeare.
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Currently reading: The Tent The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy and Granny The Pag by Nina Bawden
1001 Challenge Books read in 2009 - 3
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