Re: Policemen and other figures of Authority


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Posted by RichardG on October 17, 2003 at 11:14:31 from 62.173.81.130 user RichardG.

In Reply to: Policemen and other figures of Authority posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on October 17, 2003 at 10:34:18:

Can't recall off-hand when they were written - 1950s probably - but Enid Blyton's "Five Find-Outers" series has two contrasting policemen - the local constable, known as "Old Clear-Orf" to the children, and the benevolent Inspector Jenks. The constable features strongly as a negative figure throughout most of the books, while the Inspector (who gets promoted as the series goes on) usually turns up at the end to praise the young heroes. I have an idea that this series may have been banned in South Africa at one time because of the negative view of the constable.

I would think that the middle-class view of the police had not changed much from the 1930s to the 1950s, or indeed into the early 1960s, so the fact that both AR and EB felt able to portray constables in a negative light in children's books suggests that not everyone saw all policemen as kindly "Dixon of Dock Green" type figures.


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