The Enid Blyton Society

The David Tazzyman cover may well be skilfully executed but his style of illustration is as others have said very unsuited to the 'Famous Five' series, although he might be a better fit for the 'Wishing Chair' or 'Faraway Tree' books. His interpretation surely couldn't be worse than the Quentin Blake examples seen elsewhere.

I do like the Tony Ross cover on the other hand, although the children are a little cartoony for my taste. But then as Tony has pointed out the books aren't aimed at someone with my tastes.

Daisy wrote:You're probably right Tony. If we love the books, we tend to like what we are first introduced to regarding illustrators. Look at the Soper v Maxey discussions we have had. I guess if other authors have book covers like this latest version, then it makes sense to the publishers to make the Fives books look similar. (I was going to say similarly appealing!) So, if the books reach a wider audience, we can only rejoice.

I agree to a certain extent...but then the Betty Maxey illustrations were still proportionately human in stature and facial expression. The Tony Ross illustrations and the Tazzyman illustrations are great for fantasy type stories but I find it odd that 'real' humans can be depicted as cartoon characters. I loved the 1970's Famous Five annuals, but again, the characters depicted did still look human. I can't imagine that I would have liked the Ross/Tazzyman versions even as a child. I guess what it really shows is that I'm getting older, LOL.

Not necessarily, Robert. I'm under 35 and I don't like the style of the Ross or Tazzyman illustrations either, as far as the Famous Five covers go. I don't at all mind cartoony-looking illustrations for books that are full of zany and wacky humour, but that's not at all what Enid Blyton's books are like.