I write crime fiction. Dark crime fiction. My debut novel, Resurrection Bay, begins with the protagonist cradling his best mate’s slain body, and ends in a bloody denouement. So it almost goes without saying that one of my greatest writing influences is Enid Blyton.

I didn’t take to reading when I first went to school. Maybe it was my tender age, or my vagueness, maybe it was the boring-as-bat-shit readers that the teachers kept giving me (Look at John, John can run. Look at Jane, Jane can simper). But then I discovered a book called The Magic Faraway Tree and everything changed. Who can forget the thrill of their first good book? The rush to the head, the tripping pulse, the sudden enlightenment. The Magic Faraway Tree was my first taste of the good stuff; no more stories about helping Mother in the kitchen, or watching Father mow the lawn — this was a world of adventure. There were fairies and elves, fun and food. And friends, something else that had been lacking at school. I was addicted.

I read and reread The Magic Faraway Tree and moved on to The Magic Wishing Chair. There were worlds to be discovered here, all far more exciting than the half-built Melbourne suburb that I called home. Instead of brick veneer and unfathomable social rules, I could open The Magic Wishing Chair and travel to exotic places like the Land of Treats, and a far away place called England, where the children had strange names like Dick and Fanny, and always kept clean handkerchiefs in their pockets. I may not have known what a half-term was, or why anyone in their right mind would eat something called potted meat, but I was at home.

Soon these happy stories weren’t enough. I needed something stronger. So I moved on to Blyton’s darker works — The Famous Five. Julian, Dick, Anne and George were into some pretty scary stuff. It wasn’t all smoked kippers and ginger beer, there were smugglers, kidnappers and poison pen letters. Where were the parents in all this? Working, sick, away, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that those four children and Timmy the dog were in danger, and me along with them.

But then the side effects began. There was a sour aftertaste whenever the girls in the novels whimpered and fussed, or insisted on doing the dishes like good little housewives. An itching feeling at characters’ offhand comments about dirty foreigners, and people with strange names.

But there was no turning back. I read all the books in the Famous Five series and moved on to The Five Find-Outers, The Secret Seven and the Mystery Stories. And then the books ran out.

I was bereft. I tried other children’s writers, but they were pale imitations of Blyton. There were books with tantalising titles high up on the bookshelf, but for some unfathomable reason my parents thought that seven was too young to read Agatha Christie and PD James. So I began writing my own stories. My early attempts were strange amalgams of every Enid Blyton book that I’d ever read, but what a rush! I wrote stories and plays and scrappy little picture books, and slowly the writing became my own. The outsiders became heroes and the good characters had weird names. The girls defeated robbers and never whined or did the dishes. And I was hooked all over again.

Decades later, I’m still hooked. I still write about outsiders and women who don’t do the dishes; I still love exploring different worlds and people and experiences. There may not be any potted meat or clean handkerchiefs in my stories, but there is always plenty of danger. And I owe it all to Enid Blyton, because she’s where it all started — my gateway author.

About the Writer

Emma Viskic is an award-winning Australian crime writer. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Resurrection Bay, won the 2016 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut, and three Davitt Awards: Best Adult Novel, Best Debut, and Readers’ Choice. Resurrection Bay was iBooks Australia’s Crime Novel of 2015. She is currently writing the second in the Caleb Zelic series, And Fire Came Down.

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