Blyton with my hero the girl George and the writer of the early http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Drew (who could do anything; ride elephants at the circus and drive fast vehicles plus she treated her fav. suitor in a condescending way) influenced my young life, I've only noticed exactly how much in later years. My father had gotten a whole box full of Barbie novels (yes, they existed and I read them all and am still suffering the collateral damage to be expected...), Blyton and what was then called Kitty (=Nancy) from a female colleague and I so revelled in them after all the heavy Goethe, Hugo and Dostoyevsky stuff of the house and suddenly, for a short moment, was capable of communicating on face level with the other girls *phew* only they didn't get my fascination with George but nevermind the bollocks!