The Famous Five - Rate the uncredited cover

[pete9012S]

Look and see how Betty just gets it right!!

[Lucky Star]

Perfect Pete. Those will always be my favourite series of covers; right up there with the originals.

[Katharine]

I don't mind that cover, Timmy is certainly more how I imagined him.

I don't feel the cover would make me want to pick up the book particularly though - it's just a group of children looking upwards and doesn't to me convey a feeling of adventure/excitement.

Perhaps my biggest problem with modern illustrations is that along with modernising currency, having the children wear jeans etc is that it doesn't fit in with the period the books were written in.

Maybe in the 1970's it didn't matter so much, but the idea of a modern version having Uncle Quentin signalling from the tower night and day is ridiculous - he'd use his mobile to ring or text, and would he really have a precious notebook full of all his calculations? Much more realistic if the crooks tried to steal his laptop or memory stick!

So why not stick to having covers/illustrations that set the book into the time period it was written.

As I believe I mentioned once before, no one would modernise a classic like the Railway Children and their red flannel petticoats so why do it to Enid Blyton?

[Anita Bensoussane]

An adequate illustration but nothing special. I dislike covers emblazoned with gaudy bars and splashes saying what good value the book is. They look tacky! 4/10.

Have you red this one man?


You'll be blue if you have this one rather than the above!

I've seen the original artwork and I find the fluidly-drawn figures and comical chimp striking. Chris Riddell is an accomplished illustrator. It's a pity only two of the children are shown though, and I'm not entirely sure which two they are (Julian and Nobby? Julian and George? Nobby and George?)

The red background sets off the figures perfectly - 6.5/10.
The blue background isn't as attractive - 6/10.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I agree with others that the castle looks new and the tower is too small. A really ugly cover - 1/10.

Look and see how Betty just gets it right!!

It may be partly nostalgia but I very much like that portrayal of the Five and the ruined arch in the background. The colours are soft and attractive. The fact that the children are gazing intently at something creates a sense of expectation - a feeling that things are about to happen! 8.5/10.

[Katharine]

As general illustrations, I quite like the Chris Riddell one. The red is better and would probably make me pick it up to find out more. However I can't understand why only 2 children are shown, and although I'm not normally bothered by gender equality, I'm at a complete loss as to why both characters are boys! That perhaps might make me ignore it as I'd assume it was a boys book.

Also not really sure why Julian? is in just a vest.

As a piece of artwork - 6/10
As a FF cover - 1/10

[Barnard]

I chuckle each time I see Quentin’s tiny tower. The spiral staircase must have been minute. When Quentin was inside, he probably had to breathe in when he wanted to turn round.

[Wolfgang]

I suppose it's like the tardis - it's much bigger in the inside than it seems to be from the outside...

[Barnard]

Great reply, Wolfgang.

[pete9012S]

1986 Hodder & Stoughton, illustrations by Jolyne Knox, cover uncredited (*)



FIVE GO TO BILLYCOCK HILL (illustrated by John Ridgway)
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4332" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One uncredited cover and one credited. Perhaps covers we don't see very often?

[Katharine]

I'm not keen on the 1986 cover, it's too 'blurry' for my liking although the plane looks quite good.

I don't mind the magazine drawings but think that the plane looks more like a space ship.

[John Pickup]

The first one, uncredited, looks like a lunar landscape. And that's got to be Thunderbird 2 in the second one but at least the grass is the right colour.

[pete9012S]

See also the above.

[Katharine]

And that's got to be Thunderbird 2 in the second one but at least the grass is the right colour.

Yes definitely - I knew it reminded me of something.

I'm not sure about the Chucklers' Weekly cover.

Timmy looks good, but other than that it doesn't do much for me.

[pete9012S]

This one's an improvement - to me at least!