June 29, 2025

An English book collector was riffling through a children’s novel he’d picked up from a thrift shop when he stumbled upon a happy surprise: notes his wife had written 50 years ago as a child. A collector of around 50 novels by the late Enid Blyton — a bestselling children’s author who penned an estimated 800 books over four decades — 67-year-old Steve Mills told the BBC he was “completely gobsmacked” by the discovery. He was going through some new additions when he found the writings from Karen, 60, in a copy of The Naughtiest Girl Again, which had been donated by her mother in the 1970s.