Overall Favourite Series

[Lucky Star]

Comparing the FF and the FFO is like comparing apples and oranges. The FF range all over the countryside encountering adventures and criminals everywhere in all sorts of settings. The FFO stay in their village and do battle with the village policeman to solve "whodunnit" type mysteries. Each has their charms.

In the Famous Five the characters are a bit more evenly drawn. Each one gets more or less equal billing and each has a distinct personality. With the FFO as the series goes on it becomes more a case of Fatty and Bets Vs Mr. Goon. The other three find-outers fade into the background a little. But I love how the village of Peterswood almost becomes a character in it's own right. Enid portrays the homely locations so well over the first fourteen books that we almost seen and know it's streets.. With the FF we get a new location virtually every book, with the FFO we get cosy familiarity.

As regards the number of good books its about even for me. The only FFO book I dislike is Banshee Towers. So we get fourteen good ones in my opinion. With the FF its a longer series but for me we get the about fifteen good ones three so-so ones and three bad ones. The bad ones would be Secret Trail, Billycock Hill and Together Again, the so-so ones would be Mystery to Solve, Finniston Farm and Plenty of fun. The first thirteen plus Fix and Demons Rocks are all good.

Its a matter of mood really. If really pushed I'd choose the FFO over the FF but really for me its the Adventure series and the Secret series that stand out in Enid's work. With honourable mentions to the Six Cousins and the Adventurous Four.

[John Pickup]

If the Adventurous Four counts as a series, I would rate it fairly high.

[StephenC]

Well, there were two Adventurous Four books John, so that makes a series, I think. Both books were good, particularly the first book, in which the four children, battle the Nazis. Quite a unique and amazing book.

[Anita Bensoussane]

In the Famous Five the characters are a bit more evenly drawn. Each one gets more or less equal billing and each has a distinct personality. With the FFO as the series goes on it becomes more a case of Fatty and Bets Vs Mr. Goon. The other three find-outers fade into the background a little. But I love how the village of Peterswood almost becomes a character in it's own right. Enid portrays the homely locations so well over the first fourteen books that we almost seen and know it's streets.. With the FF we get a new location virtually every book, with the FFO we get cosy familiarity.

Spot-on, John. That "cosy familiarity" is one of the great strengths of the Find-Outers series.

If really pushed I'd choose the FFO over the FF but really for me its the Adventure series and the Secret series that stand out in Enid's work. With honourable mentions to the Six Cousins and the Adventurous Four.

Same here, though I'd also add the Barney mysteries, the Naughtiest Girl trilogy, the Malory Towers series and the Faraway Tree books to the "greats". Also The Six Bad Boys, The Family at Red-Roofs and The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies, though they're not series of course.

[Deejay]

Good point Lucky Star about the FFO books centring around the village. Personally I prefer the differing locations of the FF books and I think it makes for a more exciting read. Just like I believe the characters in FF are better. In FFO Fatty and Bets are well developed characters as is Mr Goon but you read very little of Larry, Daisy and Pip and at times they almost become bystanders! Don’t get me wrong, I still love the FFO books but for me I prefer the FF series.