Blyton daughter rebuffs Madonna
Enid Blyton‘s daughter has written off Madonna‘s new children’s book – saying it is too girly.
Gillian Baverstock, of Ilkley, says the megastar’s new book The English Roses will not be part of a junior reading competition in next year’s Wharfedale Festival of Performing Arts – because it has got no boy appeal whatsoever.
Mrs Baverstock, a retired teacher, said her decision had nothing to do with the fact that the Queen of pop had never heard of her famous author mother.
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Blyton daughter rebuffs Madonna
by Kathie Griffiths
Enid Blyton‘s daughter has written off Madonna‘s new children’s book – saying it is too girly.
Gillian Baverstock, of Ilkley, says the megastar’s new book The English Roses will not be part of a junior reading competition in next year’s Wharfedale Festival of Performing Arts – because it has got no boy appeal whatsoever.
Mrs Baverstock, a retired teacher, said her decision had nothing to do with the fact that the Queen of pop had never heard of her famous author mother.
Madonna stunned the nation last week when she had to ask reporters at her glitzy book launch: “Who’s Enid Blyton?”
Mrs Baverstock said for a book to get on the May festival’s prepared reading list, it has to appeal to boys and girls, among other criteria – but she said Madonna’s book did not come up to scratch. “It wouldn’t be fair to expect boys to get enthusiastic about reading from a book that’s about five little girls,” she said.
The English Roses tells the morality tale of four friends who pick on another little girl called Bina who they think has the perfect life until one day a fairy whisks them off to Binah‘s home where they see her life is far from how they imagined.
Mrs Baverstock has made excuses for the celebrity mum-of-two’s ignorance by saying it is because she’s American. “She probably wouldn’t have come across Enid Blyton when she was growing up – unless she had kind relatives over here who sent her the books as gifts.
“I don’t know if she was much of a reader as a girl but I’m not particularly surprised she’d never heard of my mother. America has so many of its own children’s authors. It was always a bit of a struggle getting into the American market – unless it had a television series to back it up they weren’t interested.”
And she added: “Even Noddy didn’t go over there until five years ago. If Madonna had ever read him to her own children she might not necessarily have linked them to Enid Blyton – you’d be surprised how many people in this country don’t know she was the one who wrote them!”
Bradford’s branch of Waterstones sold its last copy of The English Roses within hours of the books going on the shelves on Monday.
Now the store is eagerly waiting for more copies to arrive and expect the book to be one of its autumn bestsellers.
Kate Gordon, of Waterstone’s, said: “We expected it to fly off the shelves but not that quickly. It’s going down well with our young readers and looks set to be an autumn best-seller. It’s certainly one for the Christmas list.”
Kate, however, did admit The English Roses was “quite girly” and said: “It’s about fairies too – so that can be an immediate turn-off for some boys.”
A spokesman for Puffin, which published Madonna’s book, said Mrs Baverstock was welcome to her opinion about The English Roses being too “girly”.
The spokesman said: “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and that’s all Mrs Baverstock’s comment is. It’s up to people to read the book for themselves and make up their own minds.”
Source:Telegraph and Argus
Thanks to Enzo