In Defence of The Golly.

I’m a big fan of this little chap and I am putting these pages here in his defence and to explain more of where he comes from and where he has been seen.

For anyone who knows Enid Blyton, the Golly is a familiar character. He was quite often involved in the adventures of Noddy and Amelia Jane and was one of many nursery toys who magically came to life in her stories.

Enid Blyton gave the Gollies their own town. It was always being visited by small children, teddy bears, small family pets and nursery toys. In this time of violent crime, it does seem rather strange that these children were allowed to wander all over Toyland with little more to protect them than a small teddy and a stuffed blue Rabbit. Not much protection in Golliwog Town if Gollies are violent and mean spirited. One can only assume that these children were just in an imagined ‘play-world’. If not, someone needs to have a word with their parents about letting them travel around unaccompanied.

Golly was just one of the toys in the nursery. There were Rabbits, clowns, sailors, teddies and all sorts of other fun characters. There is always one who spoils life in the nursery and this "disruptive influence" came in the form of Amelia Jane – the big naughty doll. She was always causing trouble and had a lovely time picking on all the toys, especially Golly. She bossed him around and ‘the Golliwog’ quite often got water poured, tipped, or squirted at him. Amelia Jane wasn’t the only one who gave Golly a hard time. Other dolls went after him and resorted to all sorts of violent ways of torturing him.

In Enid Blyton’s "A Book of Naughty Children", a doll called Twinkle attacks the Golly with scissors! The reason is that she is copying the little girl to whom she belongs but, it still doesn’t alter the fact that Golly is the victim and not the aggressor. It’s surprising just how many of these girl dolls were violent and nasty.

Poor old Golly wasn’t the villain that everyone seems to think He was, in fact, a helpful soul who was always there to lend a hand to other toys. Well, he had the advantage of height over most of the others.

He did have a mischievous side though, as Amelia Jane sometimes found out. As you can see in this picture, he is bursting balloons to scare her and teach her a lesson. The rest of the toys are doing the same but you will notice that the bear is the one with the gun. It’s strange that the Teddy Bear never got any bad press despite actions like this. Even the rabbit looks menacing and looks quite likely to bite her on the bum at any minute. But, are Rabbits seen as aggressive troublemakers? No. Just poor old Golly is.

When the Teddy Bear looses his bow tie and wants an acorn necklace in "More About Amelia Jane" Enid Blyton writes the following, "Well, Teddy, we’ll thread you one," said the Golliwog, who was always very kind. "Now let me see – what do we need for threading beads?"

Golly was "always very kind" and that’s from Enid Blyton herself. A bad guy? I think not.