Paperbacks:Looking for Enid, by Duncan McLaren

Though anyone who is really looking for Enid Blyton would be better off reading her biography, by Barbara Stoney, this peculiar adventure does manage to capture some of her spirit.

The author and his intrepid companion sometimes seem a little bonkers (Two Go Mad in Dorset) but they are clearly quite besotted by their subject. That makes the tone of this book, interspersed with its spiffing little mysteries, a love-it-or-hate-it affair – just like Blyton herself.