Denis Lawson

Amanda's life is a happy one with her husband Jimmy, and son Luke. But her world is shattered when she is left an enormous inheritance by a man she has never heard of before, and she becomes embroiled in the world of the Worrall family.

Edwardian child Enid Blyton begins to tell stories to her brothers as an escape from their parents' rows before the father deserts the family. While training as a teacher after the Great War she sends her stories to publishers; one of them, Hugh Pollock, takes her on and also marries her. They have two daughters, but Enid is a terrible mother, letting a nanny raise them while she, ironically, is bestowing treats on anonymous children who worship her for her stories. She is completely self-absorbed,driving Hugh to drink and then to another woman. Enid uses the children as emotional blackmail to get a divorce on her terms before marrying Kenneth Waters, a weak man similar to her father. After World War Two she is as popular as ever, despite accusations of using a syndicate to pen her books, and she carries on, adored by children who do not know her true nature, for another 20 years before her death in 1968.

In efforts to construct perfect android killing machines in a war against China, UK scientists exceed their goal and create a sentient robot.