Mine have to be - all from memory as I haven't re read them and last read over 25 years ago!
1. Five have a Mystery to Solve
Loved the 'Lucas is there still' working as a Groundsman - I wrote to the publishers and got a reply from Gillian Baverstock as a result! I treasured the letter. I was fascinated and wondered if Lucas still worked as a Groundsman 'telling stories of the animals and birds he loved so much'.
It was great that Enid wrote a foreword to this book, I'd have loved one in all the five books! Is this the only foreword in the five series?
2. Five Run Away Together
Loved the concept of running away!
3. Five go to Smuggler's Top
Great name for a house and Block a great villain.
Your Top 3 Famous Five Books?
hi
hi great famous five!
all of them really but if I had to choose:
smugglers top
adventuring again
fall in to adventure
all of them really but if I had to choose:
smugglers top
adventuring again
fall in to adventure
Ok, off the top of my head, just testing memory:
Adventuring again - was that about finding a secret passage in Kirrin Farm? Which never features again in a Five story as I recall?
Fall into Adventure - is that the book that features a man called 'Red Tower' that the children think is a place? And an escape via rowing boat - or have I invented the last part/confused it with a James Bond film (grin).
Does George get kidnapped and Jo the Gypsy Girl features?
It's interesting that I don't remember the details of them all, well I read them 25 years ago, but some I recall better than others so perhaps 'subconcious' favourites:
Get into Trouble - featured Owls Dene and breaking into the the house of the same name? Was Jo the Gypsy in this one too?
Billycock Hill - some unsavoury characters at a farm and a butterfly farm featured.
Go Down to the Sea - Who could forget Julian and Dick's antics as 'Clopper' and the 'Barneys' and the spread laid on for supper at the farm! Funny how in Blyton I always remember the food - the 'tins' - never has tinned food seemed so appetising...'full cream milk' on the table, thick ham, raspberries (thinking of the children's high teas also in the Adventure series) Well that's enough for another post!
I also took some money I found lying about the house to buy this book and got into terrible trouble aged about 8 - well my parents didn't buy me books v often and I was desparate! How could they! I had to rely on a loving Grandma!
Demons Rocks - went with some boy to a lighthouse and found passages and treasure underneath
On a Hike Together - the 'Saucy Jane' canal boat and the puzzle the children solve. Plus the slap up breakfast at the end the children enjoyed as I remember - eggs, bacon the lot!
Secret Trail - I loved this one as could have been set in my road with a common nearby, very ' 6'oclock news and a lime juice and gin' 'middle england'/my world at the time. The twin boys whose father was a mad scientist. Timmy's cardboard collar, etc.
Wonderful Time - I can remember the 70s paperback I had with a fire-eater on the front! Again I can remember a stew the children shared with the circus folk which was 'delicious' tasting! Snakes, Faynights castle, George having flu at the beginning, dramatic rope escapes etc.
I remember these but not as fell as the ones I listed as faves. My most memorable book has to have been 'The Castle of Adventure' though.
Together Again - Not a great book to end the series I think! On account of I can't remember a single thing that happens.
Adventuring again - was that about finding a secret passage in Kirrin Farm? Which never features again in a Five story as I recall?
Fall into Adventure - is that the book that features a man called 'Red Tower' that the children think is a place? And an escape via rowing boat - or have I invented the last part/confused it with a James Bond film (grin).
Does George get kidnapped and Jo the Gypsy Girl features?
It's interesting that I don't remember the details of them all, well I read them 25 years ago, but some I recall better than others so perhaps 'subconcious' favourites:
Get into Trouble - featured Owls Dene and breaking into the the house of the same name? Was Jo the Gypsy in this one too?
Billycock Hill - some unsavoury characters at a farm and a butterfly farm featured.
Go Down to the Sea - Who could forget Julian and Dick's antics as 'Clopper' and the 'Barneys' and the spread laid on for supper at the farm! Funny how in Blyton I always remember the food - the 'tins' - never has tinned food seemed so appetising...'full cream milk' on the table, thick ham, raspberries (thinking of the children's high teas also in the Adventure series) Well that's enough for another post!
I also took some money I found lying about the house to buy this book and got into terrible trouble aged about 8 - well my parents didn't buy me books v often and I was desparate! How could they! I had to rely on a loving Grandma!
Demons Rocks - went with some boy to a lighthouse and found passages and treasure underneath
On a Hike Together - the 'Saucy Jane' canal boat and the puzzle the children solve. Plus the slap up breakfast at the end the children enjoyed as I remember - eggs, bacon the lot!
Secret Trail - I loved this one as could have been set in my road with a common nearby, very ' 6'oclock news and a lime juice and gin' 'middle england'/my world at the time. The twin boys whose father was a mad scientist. Timmy's cardboard collar, etc.
Wonderful Time - I can remember the 70s paperback I had with a fire-eater on the front! Again I can remember a stew the children shared with the circus folk which was 'delicious' tasting! Snakes, Faynights castle, George having flu at the beginning, dramatic rope escapes etc.
I remember these but not as fell as the ones I listed as faves. My most memorable book has to have been 'The Castle of Adventure' though.
Together Again - Not a great book to end the series I think! On account of I can't remember a single thing that happens.
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booklover
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Famous Five
Belly, you have a phenomenal memory! Pretty good after all these years. 
Together Again features Mr Wooh the magician and his chimp Charlie. The modus operandi for the crime is the same as in The Rilloby Fair Mystery. Blyton plagiarising herself it would seem - but having written that many books, that's excusable I guess. The boy in Demons' Rocks is Tinker Hayling, who reappears in Together Again. His father is a scientist and colleague of Uncle Quentin.
If I can give a book a plug, all Famous Five fans should get a copy of Enid Blyton: The Famous Five: Everything you ever wanted to know! by Norman Wright (published by Hodder). This book has everything - summaries of all the stories, a coloured map of Kirrin and surrounds, and a discussion of the real life places the various books are based on, and much much more. It's fantastic!
PS My favourite Famous Fives (not in order):
Go Off to Camp - love those spook-trains;
Fall into Adventure - Ragamuffin Jo is a great character and the Red Tower twist is clever; and
Smugglers' Top - a creepy gothic story with Block lurking around every corner - reminds me of The Fall of the House of Usher.
Honourable mentions to Go Off in a Caravan and Wonderful Time.
Together Again features Mr Wooh the magician and his chimp Charlie. The modus operandi for the crime is the same as in The Rilloby Fair Mystery. Blyton plagiarising herself it would seem - but having written that many books, that's excusable I guess. The boy in Demons' Rocks is Tinker Hayling, who reappears in Together Again. His father is a scientist and colleague of Uncle Quentin.
If I can give a book a plug, all Famous Five fans should get a copy of Enid Blyton: The Famous Five: Everything you ever wanted to know! by Norman Wright (published by Hodder). This book has everything - summaries of all the stories, a coloured map of Kirrin and surrounds, and a discussion of the real life places the various books are based on, and much much more. It's fantastic!
PS My favourite Famous Fives (not in order):
Go Off to Camp - love those spook-trains;
Fall into Adventure - Ragamuffin Jo is a great character and the Red Tower twist is clever; and
Smugglers' Top - a creepy gothic story with Block lurking around every corner - reminds me of The Fall of the House of Usher.
Honourable mentions to Go Off in a Caravan and Wonderful Time.
Thanks for the suggestion of the book on the Five.
Great reading your reply - lots of memories jogged.
Oh, who could forget Five Go off in a Caravan - OH! How I wanted parents to let me go off in a horse drawn caravan - just didn't translate into my 'inside the M25' - Herts home! How I envied them...
I've confused - Five Go off to Camp with Hike Together in parts in my head, I think.
Anyone else try to work out - as a child - how many adventures the five had a year and how old the Five were at the end?
As Eva Rice says in her book on Blyton (I have got this one) again from memory Timmy would have been 'a rather grey 13 by the end'.
I would have guessed he was even older! Julian I think mid teens?
Great reading your reply - lots of memories jogged.
Oh, who could forget Five Go off in a Caravan - OH! How I wanted parents to let me go off in a horse drawn caravan - just didn't translate into my 'inside the M25' - Herts home! How I envied them...
I've confused - Five Go off to Camp with Hike Together in parts in my head, I think.
Anyone else try to work out - as a child - how many adventures the five had a year and how old the Five were at the end?
As Eva Rice says in her book on Blyton (I have got this one) again from memory Timmy would have been 'a rather grey 13 by the end'.
I would have guessed he was even older! Julian I think mid teens?
Top 3 Famous Five Books - 
Only 3!!!
I've got down to a shortlist of 6
Five on a Treasure Island The first Famous Five book I ever remember reading. I still love the "getting to know the people and place" feeling there is with a first book in a series. And of course this is also a brilliant adventure.
Five go Adventuring Again who could forget the sliding panels, trap doors, map to find a secret way and catching the thieves.
Five go off in a Caravan Being allowed to go off by themselves in 2 horsedrawn caravans, camping near circus folk over the entrance to a secret tunnel.
Five go to Mystery Moor The rivalry between George and Henry is so funny. I also loved the idea of following the 'patrins'. Not to mention hiding the forged money down the funnel of the old engine.
Five get into a Fix Going to stay on a farm in Wales, camping out in a hut, strange happenings over the house on the opposite hill and of course Morgan with his enormous voice and 7 dogs.
Five on Finniston Farm finding the site of the old castle and discovering all the old treasures. Great Grandad swinging the huge old sword
But chosing 3, well..... I just don't think I can
It would certainly be the first two I've listed but then....... probably
five get into a fix or five go off in a caravan or.......... LOL
The whole series are great!
Only 3!!! I've got down to a shortlist of 6
Five on a Treasure Island The first Famous Five book I ever remember reading. I still love the "getting to know the people and place" feeling there is with a first book in a series. And of course this is also a brilliant adventure.
Five go Adventuring Again who could forget the sliding panels, trap doors, map to find a secret way and catching the thieves.
Five go off in a Caravan Being allowed to go off by themselves in 2 horsedrawn caravans, camping near circus folk over the entrance to a secret tunnel.
Five go to Mystery Moor The rivalry between George and Henry is so funny. I also loved the idea of following the 'patrins'. Not to mention hiding the forged money down the funnel of the old engine.
Five get into a Fix Going to stay on a farm in Wales, camping out in a hut, strange happenings over the house on the opposite hill and of course Morgan with his enormous voice and 7 dogs.
Five on Finniston Farm finding the site of the old castle and discovering all the old treasures. Great Grandad swinging the huge old sword
But chosing 3, well..... I just don't think I can
It would certainly be the first two I've listed but then....... probably
five get into a fix or five go off in a caravan or.......... LOL
The whole series are great!
I also have a copy of this book and I was suprised when I read it how many details I had forgotten! I did like the map but it didn't look anything like the picture I had in my head - I guess everyones interpretation is different! The most interesting chapter for me was the explanation of places in the country that the books were based on.all Famous Five fans should get a copy of Enid Blyton: The Famous Five: Everything you ever wanted to know!
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halagoo
Re: Famous Five
thats the book lolbooklover wrote:If I can give a book a plug, all Famous Five fans should get a copy of Enid Blyton: The Famous Five: Everything you ever wanted to know! by Norman Wright (published by Hodder).
[/b].
That's the one! I found this the most tedious of all the 'Five's' books. Obvious from the start Mr Roland was a 'baddie', anyone that Timmy took such a dislike to was bound to be 'no good'; yet we had to plough through the story almost to the end before the obvious was confirmed.Belly wrote:Ok, off the top of my head, just testing memory:
Adventuring again - was that about finding a secret passage in Kirrin Farm? Which never features again in a Five story as I recall?
Quentin's cruelty to Timmy was also most distasteful. Keeping a poor animal with a hacking cough outside on winter's nights just to punish George, was inexcusable.
Also the rest of the Five were spineless as was Fanny.
I was screaming at the book most of the time!!
Society Member
hi
Ive noticed most people like smugglers top!!
If "Valley" (as it seems) is Enid's masterpiece, thereby making it the best "of Adventure" book; then "Smuggler's Top" has to be (IMO)the FF masterpiece. It has it all. A weird location, weird servant, odd parents, secret passages, smugglers, lights (I could go on!). A wonderful book. So much atmosphere.
Society Member
Interesting point, Moonraker, and tend to agree..
That said it wasn't the 'masterpieces' that grabbed me as a child. The Castle of Adventure - if you'd asked me as a 10 year old - was probably my favourite book ever. Something about the storms, castle perched on the side of a cliff, underground chamber and secret passages that was far superior to the Valley.
The same, for me personally, with Five Have a Mystery to Solve. Strange goings on this island and the fact it still actually existed along with Lucas 'telling stories of the animals and birds he loved so much' Wow!
I think the Adventure seires was absolutely tremendous generally. I am going to re-read them and try to get the hardback 70s (?) versions I remembering borrowing from the library as a child.
I went on to study English at university as a 'qrown up' and on one level am yet to read a book that resonates with me as did the Adventure series!
That said it wasn't the 'masterpieces' that grabbed me as a child. The Castle of Adventure - if you'd asked me as a 10 year old - was probably my favourite book ever. Something about the storms, castle perched on the side of a cliff, underground chamber and secret passages that was far superior to the Valley.
The same, for me personally, with Five Have a Mystery to Solve. Strange goings on this island and the fact it still actually existed along with Lucas 'telling stories of the animals and birds he loved so much' Wow!
I think the Adventure seires was absolutely tremendous generally. I am going to re-read them and try to get the hardback 70s (?) versions I remembering borrowing from the library as a child.
I went on to study English at university as a 'qrown up' and on one level am yet to read a book that resonates with me as did the Adventure series!
You're absolutely right, Belly. It is the atmosphere that protrudes and materialises in the darkest corners of our minds, that makes a book come alive. The best time to achieve this is probably as a child; years before cynicism, sceptism, doubt and all the other worldly corrosions warp our minds. The joy I achieve in reading Blyton is made real by transporting me back to times long gone. The idyllic, magical times in the 50s when I was a small child. The pictures in my mind of Kirrin, Peterswood et al, were in reality the quiet streets where I lived. I walk along a footpath now on the outskirts of Salisbury, and I see Goon, Fatty and the rest, just around the corner.
Sic Transit Gloria
Sic Transit Gloria
Society Member
I agree completely. I hated school and for me Julian, Dick, Ann etc were my very 'real' friends. Being brought up by elderly grandparents for the most part my world mirrored Jack, Dinah's and Lucy Annes far more than the kids in the local primary.moonraker wrote:You're absolutely right, Belly. It is the atmosphere that protrudes and materialises in the darkest corners of our minds, that makes a book come alive. The best time to achieve this is probably as a child; years before cynicism, sceptism, doubt and all the other worldly corrosions warp our minds. The joy I achieve in reading Blyton is made real by transporting me back to times long gone. The idyllic, magical times in the 50s when I was a small child. The pictures in my mind of Kirrin, Peterswood et al, were in reality the quiet streets where I lived. I walk along a footpath now on the outskirts of Salisbury, and I see Goon, Fatty and the rest, just around the corner.
Sic Transit Gloria
I was thrilled to see, as I mentioned in an earlier post, that Blyton is a 'set text' at my nephew's feeder school for Bedales. I couldn't believe it when I saw him clutching a rather battered copy of the 'Castle of Adventure' at supper time only to be told it was a school text!
But then quite an amazing school the physics teacher believes in ghosts, apparently! How fantastic! He often goes 'off script' when teaching the 'national cirriculum'.