London, Oct 19 (ANI): Noddy is set to return to the Toyland later this month in the first official new book in 45 years, but without his best friend Mr Golliwog.

Enid Blyton’s granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood has decided to omit the golliwogs from her new book called ‘Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle’.

The book to be released later this month marks Noddy’s 60th birthday.

The original Noddy stories featured golliwogs who lived in Golly Town, including Mr Golly, one of Noddy’s best friends who ran Toyland’s garage and looked after Noddy’s car.

It also featured villainous golliwogs. The black-faced woollen dolls were Noddy’s arch enemies, who were rude to his friends and stole his car.

Although the dolls were popular at the time stories were written, but were later considered racist, prompting publishers to reissue the books replacing the golliwogs with other characters, with the white-faced Mr Sparks, who become the proprietor of the garage and the evil goblins Sly and Gobbo becoming Toyland’s main villains.

Smallwood has decided to remove golliwogs to avoid any controversy.

However, the decision has been described as “unnecessary” by fans of the series.

Smallwood says she had tried to remain “very true to the original stories because they are so loved as they are”.

“I read all the Noddy stories again before I started writing to make sure I struck the right tone with the characters,” the Telegraph quoted her as saying.

“I think most people now do realise that the toys removed from the stories were just toys, but sometimes things are too complicated and I thought it would cause more upset to try and recreate something that had moved on,” she added.

Golliwogs were dropped from the BBC’s television adaptation of the books in the 1980s and replaced by other soft toys. To counter criticisms of racism and sexism, the BBC also introduced Dinah Doll into its animated series in 1992, a china doll who was described as a “black, assertive, ethnic minority female”. (ANI)