Good Company!

[Rob Houghton]

Personally I identified with the Find Others and Secret Seven much more easily, just as I identified with Jimmy from Mr Galliano's Circus - because they were kids who seemed to live in similar circumstances to me - in a normal house in a normal street (at least, more 'normal' than the Famous Five, who were obviously posh kids who lived in the country and owned castles and islands! I could identify with the Secret Seven or Find Oiyters because they lived in what I interpreted as being a slightly more familiar setting.

[John Pickup]

My favourite was Snubby from the Barney books. I was a lot like Snubby when I was younger, tiresome, exasperating and mischievous according to my mother. Erika thinks I still am! I never took to George in the Famous Five and her childish refusal to be recognised as a girl.

[Machupicchu14]

The person I really identified myself when I read Enid Blyton books Elizabeth Allen, and Darrell, both in boarding schools. I felt I was similar to them, kind- hearted, hot-tempered, intelligent, and sporty.
Although, I have to say that I have spend all my childhood up till about a year or two, imitating George Kirrin, in every possible way. (I didn't cut my hair, though). I find this behaviour strange in my case. But, those are probably also my favourite characters. Everything has a reason, I suppose.

[Rob Houghton]

My favourite was Snubby from the Barney books. I was a lot like Snubby when I was younger, tiresome, exasperating and mischievous according to my mother. Erika thinks I still am! I never took to George in the Famous Five and her childish refusal to be recognised as a girl.

I think Snubby is definitely my favourite character also. He reminds me in some ways of Fatty, but Snubby is less stuck-up and self-opinionated and also of course not so clever and, as you say, more exasperating, mischievous and tiresome - but also very likeable!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Personally I identified with the Find Others and Secret Seven much more easily, just as I identified with Jimmy from Mr Galliano's Circus - because they were kids who seemed to live in similar circumstances to me - in a normal house in a normal street (at least, more 'normal' than the Famous Five, who were obviously posh kids who lived in the country and owned castles and islands! I could identify with the Secret Seven or Find Oiyters because they lived in what I interpreted as being a slightly more familiar setting.

I loved it when circumstances and settings in the books chimed with my real-life circumstances and settings - e.g. the Secret Seven meeting in their shed just as my sister and I did with our friends, the Five making holes on the beach like my sister and I used to do (we lived near the sea), and the Carltons in Those Dreadful Children standing on a garden-roller to talk to children in a neighbouring garden - again, something we did too.

Having said that, I didn't identify to any great extent with any of the Secret Seven, the Famous Five or the Carltons. What really mattered to me was personality, and I found myself identifying with people like Elizabeth Allen, Jack Trent and Fatty. I didn't attend boarding school, go off in boats and planes to exotic locations or have masses of pocket money to spend in wig-shops and tea-shops - but I related to certain aspects of their characters which drew me to them and made me aspire to be like them.

[Rob Houghton]

Of course - I was speaking very generally - and there were plenty of 'posh' characters I identified with too - especially the Carltons - even though I wasn't quite so sheltered and 'stuck-up' as a kid, I did have a family living next door (I played with their daughter Dawn) who were less well-off and had a 'colourful' lifestyle compared to my sister and me. I also identified with digging on the beach, going on bike rides, having picnics, dressing up and having a circus camp in our local playing-fields!

Even though I'd never been in a rowing boat as a child, or gone away on my own, or even been on a long train journey, I could still identify with characters who had, because as you say there were always aspects of their character which fitted in with things I had personally experienced.

It was always a big disappointment that we didn't have a shed to hold meetings in - but we did have a tree-house instead!