The Real Secret Seven

The books! Over seven hundred of them and still counting...
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lizarfau
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The Real Secret Seven

Post by lizarfau »

Gabriel has a few of the latest Secret Seven books - the ones where the people on the cover look like they're all out of Bob the Builder :lol: - and there's a really interesting foreword by Gillian Baverstock in them. She says the Secret Seven "are very special books because Peter, Janet and the other members of the Secret Seven were all real children" and goes on to say that Enid's publisher had told her that his four children had formed a secret club with three friends. "They meet in a shed at the bottom of the garden and you can't get in if you don't know the password! They've even made badges with SS on them. They hoped that you might be able to put them, and Scamper their dog into one of your stories," he told her.

Gillian says Enid went home and wrote to Peter, the publisher's son, asking questions about the Secret Seven and sent him some money to buy them all a feast. She then wrote the stories.

Gillian finishes by saying that the real Secret Seven must be grandparents by now. Does anyone here know anything about this or the identity of these children?

Amusingly, four pages later, the imprint page declares that "all characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental"! :lol:
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

What a lovely little story, Liz. So there really was a Secret Seven. :D

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Nick
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The Real Secret Seven

Post by Nick »

Merged with an older topic.

I've just started a series re-read of the SS books. Normally I read the versions produced in that late 70's/early 80's with the TV style covers but for some reason when it came to SS Adventure I picked up the 2006 version with the Stephen Hanson covers. I'm pretty sure I have read this version at some point in the past but I had certainly not seen the introduction that is written by Enid's daughter, Gillian. Entitled A Note From Enid Blytons Daughter, Gillian describes how Enid was meeting her publisher to discuss a new series of books and she told her about a secret society that her 4 children and their 3 friends had - the Secret Seven. It goes on to say that Enid wrote to the society head, Peter, and asked him lots of questions about the society and sent him some money to take the society out for a feast.

Has anyone ever unearthed any further information on who these children were?

The introduction concludes with Gillian speculating that the Seven must be grandparents and wondering how they felt if they ever read the SS stories to their own grandchildren? Personally I wonder how Peter felt when he realised that Enid made him out to be such a bullying dictator :)
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by pete9012S »

This article may be of interest Nick,and I know there is a whole lot more info about this on other threads/parts of the site:
In 1948 Enid wrote another Janet and Peter story, Secret of the Old Mill, and this time her aim was true. The book is in the same format as the previous year’s story, with Eileen Soper chained to the mast for another 26 full-page illustrations. Peter, inspired by reading about a secret society in a book, creates his own secret society - with rules and rituals – whose members meet in the old mill. And after some enchanting scene setting, the Seven solve the mystery that materialises right before their eyes.

In Barbara Stoney’s biography of EB, she describes how Ewart Wharmby of Brockhampton Press told Enid that his four children had formed a secret society, with rules, password and a shed HQ. Enid wrote to the oldest child to get more details and that was supposed to be the way the Secret Seven got started. It probably was. But BS says the first meeting between Wharmby and Blyton was in 1949. I expect somebody’s memory has slipped up and it was 1948 these communications took place, because they probably preceded Secret of the Old Mill.
http://www.enidblyton.me.uk/styled-2/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by Nick »

Many thanks for that, all very interesting.
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by pete9012S »

I seem to vaguely remember starting a thread on The Secret Seven myself.Not sure if it will contain anything of interest though..
The Secret Seven

Postby pete9012S » 11 Apr 2012, 13:07

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... by#p128199" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
" A kind heart always brings its own reward," said Mrs. Lee.
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by Nick »

Despite posting on that thread I don't recall it at all :lol:

Interesting to note the discrepancies between the forward from Gillian in the 2006 prints compared to the biography and other information.
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by pete9012S »

Yes,I forgot I started a thread until you mentioned the origins of the Secret Seven Nick!

Here's a quote from a link in my thread:

Image

Popular Children's Literature in Britain - Secret Seven

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ImO ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by Nick »

It's not worth another thread but there is an alteration in the 2006 version of SS Adventure that pretty much undermines the whole plot.

The height of the wall around Milton Manor has been altered from 10-11 feet to just 2 meters. 10-11 feet is about 3.5 meters, so you can appreciate the difficulty in scaling it but 2m? Surley a acrobat would just jump up that, no need for stilts at all!
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by Courtenay »

Maybe some editor wasn't too good at metric conversions. :roll:
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: The Real Secret Seven

Post by Nick »

Later on in the 2006 version the wall grows to 3m :?

Clearly had the builders round!
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