Enid Blyton dolls race storm

I knew my earlier Golly post would come back to haunt me! A RACE row has erupted in a picture-postcard Dorset village after an Enid Blyton shop started selling golliwogs. The owner of the Ginger Pop shop – a shrine to the children's author who lived nearby – has received complaints branding her a racist and urging her to stop selling the rag dolls. Viv Endecott insists the golliwogs are harmless soft toys synonymous with Enid Blyton who regularly featured them in her famous books, including Noddy. In recent years the golliwogs have been "cleansed" from the novels as many people began to see them as a crude racial stereotype. But Miss Endecott claims there is demand for the toys in the Dorset village of Corfe Castle – immortalised in the Famous Five books. She said she has sold more than 500 in the last six months to customers of varying ages and ethnic backgrounds. The 47-year-old said despite the complaints she will continue to sell the dolls alongside the Blyton books, teddy bears and bottles of ginger beer. Miss Endecott said: "The note had been pushed under the door one night. I felt annoyed, mainly because whoever wrote it didn't put their name to it. "I thought the best way to gauge people's reaction to it was to place the note in the window alongside some golliwogs and the general reaction has been 'is that for real?' "Around here it is accepted that a golliwog is a soft toy associated with Enid Blyton. I genuinely think most people don't associate them with black people. "No offence has ever been intended by me and therefore none should be taken. "My customers aren't members of the BNP or the National Front. They don't cuddle golliwogs and turn into racist bigots, who we all detest." Miss Endecott, who is of Indian origin and suffered racism as a child, added: "There is plenty of real racism to get worked up about than to argue over the merits of a soft toy. "I suffered real racism at school so I don't need any lessons on it." The golliwog first appeared in a children's story by the writer Florence Kate Upton and was popularised in Britain when jam manufacturer Robertsons adopted it as a symbol for its products in 1910.