A rip-roaring business adventure

1950s tour bus

Viv Endecott is carving out a business based on her love of the books of Enid Blyton.

And the twists and turns of getting it off the ground wouldn't be out of place in one of the writer's stories.

But ultimately, Viv's experience is an example of how big and small businesses can work together to overcome problems.

Ginger Pop is Viv's brainchild, a company offering guided tours around Dorset that inspired Enid Blyton during her many family holidays in the area.

Landmarks such as Corfe Castle and Brownsea Island are recognisable in some of her Famous Five books.

Problems

One of Viv's aims was to use the Blyton connection to raise the tourism profile of the Isle of Purbeck.

Swanage: A favourite spot for Enid Blyton

Just as parts of north-east England are associated with Catherine Cookson and the Yorkshire Dales with

James Herriott, she wanted to help establish Enid Blyton Country.

But that's where her problems began.

The 700 books in the Blyton catalogue may be for children, but Viv found herself pitched into the very adult world of big business and corporate lawyers.

Rights

The rights to Enid Blyton's name and works are owned by Chorion, a specialist business which also has Agatha Christie on its books.

She told the company what she was planning and it did not object so she started arranging tours.

But then a letter arrived from Chorion saying it would sue if she did not withdraw her website and other material using the Blyton name.

Viv had to cancel bookings and refund money to her customers.

Viv: Determined to carry on

"As a small micro-business, the biggest asset you have is your own reputation and credibility," says Viv.

"I had partnerships with hotels, I'd got a group of local businesses to go to a coach tourism exhibition and I was letting companies down.

"These were people I would need to get business relationships with again having seemed a total idiot." But she was determined to overcome this obstacle.

Arrangement

A friend happened to be a Chorion shareholder so Vivienne attended the company's AGM as his proxy.

"I'd never been to a big company AGM in my life and I didn't know when I could ask a question or what the procedure was," she recalls.

But she managed to speak privately to one of the directors, Lord Astor, a former tourism minister.

He was interested in her plans and brought over Chorion's chairman Nick James.

He explained that the company had to protect its interests against unlicensed activity, but Viv and the company eventually came to an arrangement.

International potential

She is now able to use phrases such as Enid Blyton Country and In the Footsteps of the Famous Five without paying any fees.

"Just by talking directly to people face to face rather than via the legal department, things got resolved," sys Viv.

This year, Viv is planning five tours for about 100 people; eventually she hopes to run 20 each year.

"There's international potential because Blyton is actually even bigger in Germany than she is in Britain," explains Viv.

Local business

Ginger Pop is also helping other local businesses.

Paul's coach business also benefits

Her clients are taken on their tours in a 1950s bus run by Paul Warrington from Fareham.

"It's a 1950s theme, we're a 1950s coach company and it brings in business all round for both of us," he says.

And local hotels and the Swanage Youth Hostel are also involved in the tourism drive.

"As well as the heritage coastline that people come for they can come to Purbeck for a Blyton weekend and it adds more interest," says the hostel's Olga Earnscliff.

Viv tries to recreate the atmosphere of the Famous Five books, and her tours include spooky night-time walks around Durlston Castle.

She's even planning to incorporate a visit to a ginger beer brewery up the coast at Bridport.