There are two writers named Nicholas Royle: there’s the Nicholas Royle who’s a novelist and critic and used to teach at Manchester Metropolitan University; and there’s the Nicholas Royle who is a novelist and critic and used to teach at the University of Sussex. David Bowie, Enid Blyton and the Sun Machine is the work of the Sussex Royle – not to be confused with the Sussex Royals, Harry and Meghan. Whoever the author, even if it were the Sussex Royals, you’ll never have read a book like this. Parts I and III function as a third-person narrative framing device – “It’s real life or what I call reality literature,” writes Royle – and seem to be based on Royle’s experience with his young family during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Part IV is a short work of fiction, based on historical documents and family rumours that suggest Royle’s paternal grandmother, the children’s-book illustrator Lola Onslow, had an affair with Enid Blyton.…