English Heritage admits Enid Blyton’s work is “racist and xenophobic”.

Enid Blyton has hit the news again with controversy with a reassessment on how much the author should be celebrated due to her less tasteful views.

Commemorative blue plaques are placed outside of the homes of noteworthy British people by the English Heritage, and in 1997 the children’s author gained her own. The English Heritage recently updated their website with acknowledgments of the author’s more problematic views on race after their blue plaque initiative was criticised. Their website explained that they have “started an on-going programme of updating the online entry for each blue plaque recipient. Our website entries aim to provide a fuller picture of each person’s life, including aspects that people may find troubling.”

The English Heritage updated their website to include “reference to the fact that the author’s work has been criticised for its racism.”

They continue: “English Heritage has no plans whatsoever to remove any of our blue plaques and we’ll continue to update our website so that we can tell more of the story behind each plaque and each person.”

Accusations began back in 1966 in The Guardian newspaper when journalist Lena Jeger cited Blyton’s The Little Black Doll, which had been published a few months before. In the book the doll Sambo, the titular character, is hated by his owner and other toys because of his “ugly black face”, and he runs away. He is then cleaned by a shower of “magic rain” and he is welcomed back home with his now pink face.

The Noddy books are also considered to be racist because of the blonde children and the black ‘golliwog’ toys who are portrayed as thieves.

Blyton also portrays ‘foreigners’ as thieves in many of the Famous Five books, adding xenophobia to the criticism of Enid Blyton’s work.

Rather than ‘cancel’ the author altogether the English Heritage are making steps to include all the information possible on their website, allowing the author to be celebrated for the work she did to get generations of children reading, without pretending some of her views were not unsavoury and unwelcome.