A review by rubygranger
A Childhood At Green Hedges by Imogen Smallwood

5.0

Simply marvellous. As a fan of Enid Blyton in my youth, this book instantly appealed to me. I watched the film 'Enid' back in 2009, a film which was largely based on Imogen Smallwood's memoirs, and can certainly see similarities between the two (though a lot seems to have been added to the movie for cinematic purposes). The story is, quite frankly, heartbreaking and it is awful to see how detached Smallwood was from her mother, especially considering the apparent closeness between her and Gillian. This level of neglect only led to social isolation and bitterness on her part which only proved to further the distance between the girl and her mother. Indeed, the novel 'Six Bad Boys' does seem to show some sort of recognition of this on Blyton's part because the story recognises that a child is usually bad as a result of abuse -- does this suggest some sort of regret on Blyton's part? Smallwood further critically assesses her mother's children's books and relates them to her own authorial experiences and influences. A good read for anybody who read the Blyton books when they were young.