ENID

UK, 2009, 80 minutes, Colour.
Helena Bonham Carter, Matthew Mac fadyen, Denis Lawson, Claire Rushbrook.
Directed by James Hawes.

Enid is a biography of children’s writer, Enid Blyton. While there have been biographies of other English writers (Iris Murdoch in Iris, Beatrix Potter in Miss Potter? with Renee Zellweger), this is the first film about England’s most famous writer of children’s books, thousands of them.

What emerges from the film is an unpleasant woman, driven in her writing, commanding over everybody that she encountered, singly unsuited to be a wife and a mother.

It is to the credit of Helena Bonham Carter that she makes the character so interesting, bringing all the nuances of foibles, faults as well as her response to her career and the children who loved her writing. It is an excellent performance. She is matched by Matthew Mac fadyen as Hugh Pollock, her publisher and first husband. He was not strong enough to stand up to her, disappeared during the war and she divorced him. She also made him take the blame for the divorce. However, she personally took up with a surgeon, Kenneth Waters, treating his wife shamefully, having an affair with him and then marrying him. He is played by Denis Lawson. Claire Rushbrook appears as Enid’s close friend, Dorothy Richards, who was nurse to her children – and whose name was used to hire the flat for the affair between Enid and the surgeon.

The film shows Enid at work, her hard work, her relationship with her children which was severe, almost like a nanny rather than a mother. It also shows the background of her father leaving the family, her walking out on the family, her stating that her mother was dead – and having to face her younger brother thirty years later when her mother actually died.

As with many biographies, audiences realise that talent is not the same as an exemplary character (Amadeus and the criticisms of Saliere).

The film was directed by James Hawes who has considerable television experience including episodes of Dr Who and Merlin as well as a version of The Thirty-Nine? Steps.

1.The reputation of Enid Blyton as a novelist? Her many books? Her fans? Children?

2.Enid Blyton as a person, as a woman? Not known? Her public persona, private persona?

3.A BBC production, re-creation of a period, use of locations, the country house, the city of London? Décor and costumes? The musical score?

4.The introduction to Enid as busy, bossy, threatening to fire her chauffeur, her cold manner, warming to the children, presenting a genial face to them, inviting questions, her reading to them?

5.Enid as a child, her love for her father, the shock of his leaving, her idealising him, the reality of him as a person, blaming her mother, her mother being dead to her? Abandoning her brothers? Her stories, inventing aspects of her life – refusing to admit her dog was dead? Her brother appearing thirty years later, announcing her mother’s death, her reaction? His asking why she abandoned them? Her later memories – and possible regrets?

6.The idyllic life, her mother announcing her father’s leaving, Enid going to the wardrobe and finding it empty? Her decision to go to London, writing stories, the many rejections and her keeping the slips?

7.Being accepted, Hugh and his graciousness, talk, signing with the emphasis under her signature? Going for coffee? The marriage, her life and work, her going to the gynaecologist and her womb not having developed, arrested at the time of her father’s leaving? Her being able to conceive, having two children? Her lack of empathy for the children? The baby crying, her being annoyed, continuing to work, Hugh coming and picking the baby up?

8.Dorothy, her arrival, holding the baby, stopping it crying? Their becoming friends, together, laughter, her getting the job as proof reader? Hugh’s reaction?

9.Hugh and his work, the encounter with Enid, falling in love with her? The gift of the typewriter? Their life at home, the relationship to the children? Her workaholism? Ignoring him? Despising him? His drinking, her watching him stumble? His quiet behaviour? Going to the War effort, to Surrey? Relationships? Visits, the divorce? Her wanting him to take the blame and his accepting it as long as he could see his children? Enid and her refusing to let him see the children, the phone calls, putting him off? Her phone calls arranging him to lose his job after the war?

10.Dorothy and the invitation to the bridge game, meeting Ken, the game, talk, the attraction, the affair, setting up the flat, in Dorothy’s name? Dorothy warning Enid about people talking, her resentment at having her name used?

11.The children, quiet, in the nursery, Enid arranging tea for visiting children and excluding her own? Her rationalisations about what she did? Sending the older girl to boarding school? The younger girl overhearing the situation, to school, getting in the car, locking her mother out?

12.Enid and the radio interview, her glowing descriptions of her life and her work, her role as mother?

13.Ken, his relationship with his wife, the wife’s visit to Enid, Enid’s lies and pretence? Callous attitude, laughing with Ken at his wife? The divorce, the wedding? Her life with Ken as a support? Ken as a character, medical background? Her pregnancy, the accident, her miscarriage and its effect on her? On Ken?

14.The accusations about her authorship, that she did not write her books, taking it very personally?

15.The indication of her forgetfulness, the later information about her decline into dementia?

16.Her literary achievement? The portrait of her person – and her persona?