The Enid Blyton Society

Money is for spending, Nigel. You can't take it with you when you pop off this mortal earth.

That's the right attitude !

Merged with an older thread.


1973 Dean, illustrations and cover uncredited

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I'm having a re read of all the Adventurous Four books.(in the editions I originally read them)
I read them in the wrong order originally,and I have yet to read the short story.
I realise it's one I have not re read very often at all and am really enjoying it.

Andy is coming across as a fair and very reasonable reader too.Especially after Tom has just left his camera at the back of the shallow cave were they saw old hairy legs!!

pete9012S wrote:Andy is coming across as a fair and very reasonable reader too.Especially after Tom has just left his camera at the back of the shallow cave were they saw old hairy legs!!

I think Andy is quite a good leader too!

The book seems to be set on the East Coast of Scotland with about 40 or 50 islands within sailing distance.
Surely Enid must have really meant the West Coast as I don't think there that many islands on the East side of the country??

Maybe in Enid's world, Scotland is a mirror image?

"We shall see Andy again soon! We haven't seen him since
our exciting adventures last summer!" said Tom, a red-haired
boy of twelve.
"It was bad luck getting measles in the Christmas hols, so
that we couldn't come up here and stay in our little cottage," said
Jill.

Only a year has gone by since their last adventure although the books are six or seven years apart in real time.
The children are depicted as being 'a year older'.

Their mother was already waiting for them in the cottage
she had bought in the fishing village. She had gone there two
days ahead of the children to get things ready for them, when
they broke up from school. It was the Easter holiday, and
everywhere the trees were leafing, the hedges were greening,
and the banks were starred with primroses, violets and
celandines.

It's nice to read an Enid Blyton in the same season the book is set.
I notice their Mother has now bought a holiday cottage since 'last year'.

This book is unusual too in that Enid actually depicts April as being cold at times during the adventure,especially at the end of the day as evening draws in.
No mention at all as yet of their Father in anyway at all.

pete9012S wrote: Only a year has gone by since their last adventure although the books are six or seven years apart in real time.
The children are depicted as being 'a year older'.

Lovely thread, Pete!
Wish I had found it earlier.
I was wondering about the same: why did EB wait several years, before writing a sequel and why did she finally decide to write a sequel and a short story (I think the short story was part 3?).
Maybe she was too busy with keeping up with the other series of books?
Or vol. 1 didn't sell well? But then, why did she write a sequel plus a novella later on?
Maybe Anita or Tony knows?

I always thought while reading this that the sequel comes across as written in the same spirit, you cannot even tell that EB waited that long. It's more as if she wrote them back to back, then lost the manuscript for the 2nd part and found it again 6 or 7 years later. Just my guess?

Although I always thoroughly enjoy both Adventurous Four books, I do definitely favour the first one I think, just because it surrounds such a unique and unexplored genre in Enid's literature - around the war.

The Adventurous Four Again is a really entertaining book, but I do just think that this plot is reused various times amongst Enid's work and it doesn't focus on such a 'different' subject.

I think Andy is a very good leader, too. He is very fair, and he doesn't come across as an 'obvious leader', but the others come to rely on him, and respect him - so I think think this really does express what a dependable and trustworthy leader he was.

I wonder if Adventurous Four was intended to be a stand alone book. I think children may have begged for more which will have eventually meant another. Some years after the first it was of course no long wartime so a different kind of adventure had to be devised. They are both good stories but the first does just take the lead for me as it is so unusual and a jolly good story too.

I'm finding it interesting reading this book after so many years as an adult.
Different things stand out that as a child I wouldn't have really focused on.

The children know exactly how cautious their parents would be to let them stay away overnight after their last nasty adventures.
Despite this,they deliberately hold back from telling their Mother or Andy's Father about the horrid hairy legged bird smashing,whistling man they encountered on their day out.Would Andy's Father have given such a glowing testimony if he had known the truth about the strange man on the Cliff Of Birds?

"Oh, Andy's used to being on the boat for nights on end!"
said the fisherman, in a very good temper after his fine supper.
"You'll not come to any harm with Andy there. You can trust
my boy, ma'am."
"Oh, I know I can," said the children's mother. "It's only
that--well--after their adventure last year I just don't feel I want
them to go travelling on their own again."
"Why, ma'am--you don't suppose two adventures like that
could happen, do you?" said Andy's father. "Theirs was an
adventure that only happens once in a lifetime, if that! You let
them go--they'll be all right with Andy. He can anchor the boat
somewhere quiet, and they can sleep on her in comfort if they
take plenty of rugs."

Andy is definitely a good leader and makes Tom promise not to venture into the dangerous waterfall high up on the cliff.
Despite being warned,Tom defiantly decides he is going to disobey Andy's wise instructions and go into danger by telling the other he wants to take more photos of the birds...

They made their way to the waterfall. Beyond it the cliff ledge
along which they were walking came to a sudden end.
There was no way the other side at all. The water ran out of a
hole in the cliff, and fell headlong down. Andy made his way
cautiously there and looked into the opening.
He gave a shout. "Anyone could get in here now! Anyone!
I bet that's where the man went. He waited till the torrent
lessened, then hopped up. That was his hiding-place."
"But what's he hiding for?" said Jill, puzzled. "There's
nothing and no one to hide from here!"
"Can we get in?" asked Tom excitedly. "Yes, I bet we can."
"No, you're not to," said Andy. "Suppose the water came
out again in a sudden great rush? You'd be sent right off the
cliff, you idiot! I can't allow anything like that."
Tom looked sulky. "All right," he said, and turned back.
"Well, that puzzle's solved. That's where the man went. But if
you're not going to let us explore any farther, we shan't know
what kind of a hidey-hole he s got or anything about him.
You're a spoil-sport!"
"Can't help it," said Andy, giving him a cross little shove.
"I'm in charge. Go and take some pictures of the birds while the
sun is so bright!"
Tom said nothing more. But he made up his mind that as
soon as the others were not looking, he would go back to the
waterfall and find out a bit more for himself. He'd climb right in
if he wanted to! He'd show Andy he would have his own way!

If the children had told the truth about the strange goings on at the Cliff Of Birds I doubt whether they would have been allowed to go back for an overnight stay.
Tom's disobedience and defiance directly led to the adventures that follow.

As a teacher, Enid would have known and encountered many naughty,disobedient children.
Reading the book as an adult you can clearly see she knows exactly how a child would think and reason,and also how economical with the truth they can be to get their own way!

It's probably why she is still such a successful childrens writer. The children in her books behave and act like children, unlike in many other childrens books where they are really just 'small adults'. Even after all these years modern kids can still identify with her characters.

Great thread, as these books aren't discussed nearly so often as the other series.

I too prefer the first book, although they are all good reads. Looking at the Dean cover Pete posted, the same version I first came across as a child, I always felt the cover was done in a very slap-dash way. Why did they just squeeze the 'Again!' in as they did, almost as an after thought? To me it spoils the cover a little.

I find the question about the long gap between book one and book two very interesting. They are both written in very much the same spirit, as has been mentioned, and yet several years apart. It would be interesting to know more about the reasons behind this, as it's unique in any other series that a sequel should follow after such a long period of time.

Wasn't there a fairly large gap between the 'Wishing Chair' books too?

walter raleigh wrote:Wasn't there a fairly large gap between the 'Wishing Chair' books too?

That's true as far as books go...not sure if any one-off stories appeared in Sunny Stories in the intervening years?