How utterly, splendidly ripping
Enid Blyton has been voted Britain's best- loved writer. Lucy Mangan says hurrah for the 'nanny-narrator' who introduced her and countless others to the joys of reading

Lucy Mangan writing in The Guardian,
Wednesday August 20 2008

"I say, old chap, she's done it again!"
"What's that, old thing?"
"Enid Blyton. She's topped the latest poll - by the 2008 Costa Book Awards, I believe - to find the nation's best-loved writer."
"I say - that's most awfully splendidly ripping!"
"It's jolly, jolly good. Hurrah - and doubtless not for the last time - for Blyton!"

Forty years after her death, Enid Blyton continues to exert her mesmerising influence over child readers - even if, as Costa polled not the current generation of children but 2,000 adults - many of them have now technically grown up.

For the full story go to the Guardian online.