IT has been a long-fought battle but finally one of the major children’s authors of the last century is getting the recognition she deserves in Bucks.

Enid Blyton is set to have a plaque to mark the 30 years she spent living in Beaconsfield unveiled in the town next month, and it is long past time.

We are fortunate in Bucks to have such strong links to two of the most important children’s authors of all time around here, in Blyton and Road Dahl, Great Missenden’s most famous former resident.

Roald has quite rightly got his own museum, but poor old Enid has been woefully neglected until now. Indeed, she surely deserves more than a plaque but at least this is a start, thanks to the passionate campaigning of the Beaconsfield Society and the help of the town council.

They have faced a bit of controversy along the way – thanks largely because of the rougher edges some of Blyton’s tales have these days.

In fact, some call the author an out-and-out racist, sexist and elitist, and it is true there are some questionable moments in some of her books, particularly to modern eyes.

But this is to miss the point. Whatever her faults, Blyton, like Dahl, has served an enormous role in sparking children’s enthusiasm for reading. I remember eagerly devouring my older brothers’ and sister’s copies of her books when I was young and it helped shape of love of reading I still have now.

Some more high-minded critics have moaned about the quality of her work, too, but again, this is to not so much miss the point as turn around and look for it in the opposite direction. Storytellers like Blyton are, basically, ‘gateway authors’ for children– she may have written simple tales of adventure, but these lead their readers to bigger, more sophisticated works with bigger themes and ideas.

Frankly it doesn’t much matter what children read as long as they enjoy it (well, you might draw the line at Mein Kampf). Its snobbery that gets adults and critics moaning about simplistic kids books and comics – anything that fires up their imaginations and gets them reading in this age of endless TV channels and video games must surely be a good thing.

And this week, with World Book Night having got underway on Wednesday, seems a good time to remember that.

Of course there are a few tricky elements to Blyton’s work these days, but this is inevitable – they were a product of their times. In 50 years’ time some of today’s authors will look a bit out of sync with the attitudes of the time. And that in itself is an important lesson for kids to learn anyway.

Why shouldn’t children understand that the way people behaved 60 years ago is not always so acceptable today? Despite the occasional ridiculous extreme, the much-maligned idea of political correctness isn’t a bad one in itself (it is just a way of encouraging people to be nicer to each other, after all). And looking at Blyton’s work is not a bad way of illustrating that.

So congratulations to the Beaconsfield Society for leading the charge to get some proper recognition for Enid. Now how about following Roald Dahl’s lead and giving her a museum too?