PC madness reigns at the Royal Mint

The Royal Mint turned down a proposal to honour author Enid Blyton with a special edition coin due to concerns that her alleged views on race and gender.

The Mint’s advisory committee blocked plans to mark the 50th anniversary of Blyton’s death last year with a commemorative 50p coin, according to minutes of their meeting obtained by the Mail on Sunday under Freedom of Information laws.

The committee said she was “known to have been a racist, sexist, homophobe and not a very well-regarded writer”.

And they registered “deep concern that this theme will bring adverse reaction… concern over the backlash that may result from this” at the December 2016 meeting.

Blyton’s books have sold 600 million copies, including more than 2 million in the last five years.

As well as her best-known creation, the Famous Five series, Blyton also won legions of loyal juvenile readers with the Secret Seven and Noddy books. Her Malory Towers novels, set in a boarding school for girls, sold 350,000 copies last year and are set to be turned into a 13-part drama for CBBC, the BBC reports.

A spokesperson for the Royal Mint said: “The point of the advisory committee is to ensure that themes commemorated on UK coins are varied, inclusive and represent the most significant events in our history. For these reasons not every event will progress to a UK coin.”

However, novelist Jilly Cooper dismissed the Royal Mint's criticism as “rubbish”.

“Enid Blyton was a brilliant storyteller and her books have got millions of children hooked on reading,” she told the Mail on Sunday. “She definitely deserves a commemorative coin. I adore her and so do my grandchildren.”

How has it comes to this When English people cannot celebrate one of our nations best-loved authors?