The Adventure Series!

[Chrissie777]

If you have Journal 58, Chrissie (which came out in Winter 2015), it contains an article about Stuart Tresilian written by Angela Canning.

I do have it, Anita, and I'll reread all the journals later this year.
Ilsa gave me 10 or 11 journals (she had them twice) when we met at the Spade Oak in Bourne End in May 2014 and I think shortly after I subscribed it.

[Chrissie777]

Chrissie, my guess would be that the main inspiration for the Isle of Gloom was Lundy - Lundy's much further out to sea than the fictional island, but is visible from the coast in good weather (and at times from the nearer part of South Wales too) and is a regular destination for tourist boat trips. Possibly Enid had been on a boat trip there herself when staying in Cornwall - I think she went to St Ives once (for a honeymoon trip?). The idea of an island that can only be seen in good weather fits Lundy, and ditto the remark by Jo-Jo that 'bad men' had lived there - Lundy was used as a pirate base in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and may even have been used as a stopping-off point by the long-ranging Moslem 'Barbary' pirates of North Africa who raided Cornish and Irish coastal villages in the 1620s looking for seamen to seize as slaves for their ships.

The folk stories about odd islands that can only be seen in certain weathers and as such may or may not be 'real' - and are dangerous to visit - go way back in Cornish myth, with the legend of the lost island of 'Hy Brasil' way out in the Atlantic, a sort of 'Isle of the Blessed' where the souls of the dead went . They fed into the medieval Welsh and Irish stories of the voyages of early monks and saints, eg St Brendan, to remote and holy Atlantic islands lost in the mists - hence the famous 'Brendan Voyage' re-enactment of a voyage in a reproduction C6th AD Welsh ship by adventurer Tim Severin in the 1970s to see if such a ship could get to America with the currents. I do wonder if Enid had come across these old stories somewhere, eg on holiday in Cornwall or in old books, as the mystery about the island adds to the eerie atmosphere of the story's Cornish opening chapters - it is more than just conventional 'ghostly' scare-stories by a cunning Jo-Jo to keep the boys off his trail.

There are old tin-mines on Lundy: I recall an article on it (with photos) in an early edition of the Puffin Books' children's club magazine in the late 1960s when some competition-winners had a trip there (as it's well-known for puffins). There are also old and ruined buildings. So the layout of the Isle of Gloom reflects a real island, with only one cove - though Lundy is bigger. The tin-mines and ruined mine-buildings (and isolated old houses) on the North Cornish coast seem similar to the mixture of ruined clifftop buildings and old mines in the Craggy Tops area, which Philip says that Uncle Jocelyn is writing a book about and which were ruined in old wars. The most famous mines, with tunnels under the sea, were around St Ives, especially between there and Lands End - most of the 'Levant' mine was under the sea, and there was a big pit disaster in around 1912 when it flooded; another famous mine is at Botallack. Some of the sites appear in the successive BBC adaptations of the 'Poldark' novels in the 1970s and 2010s; the Poldarks in Winston Graham's series, set in the 1780s - 1810s, own some of these mines. Author Susan Howatch also uses the local mining industry in one of her historical romances, 'Penmarric'.

Hi Tim, I'm sorry that I have missed your post in May (we were about to fly to Germany at the time and sometimes I don't get a notification from EBS in my inbox).
I used to do some research on Lundy in Google a few years ago and thought that it very well could be the inspiration for the Isle of Gloom. But I didn't hear about the underground passages under the sea way back then. That's fascinating. So that's not something EB made up.

I've been to Cornwall in 1981, 1987 and in 1995. And in 1995 I finally explored St. Ives which is (together with Fowey) probably the most beautiful town in Cornwall (at least for me).

Way back in the 1980's I've read all Susan Howatch novels up to the point when she unfortunately started writing a series of novels on the Anglican Church (which didn't interest me).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Howatch

I especially liked her modern gothic novels like "April's Grave" and "Call in the Night" or "The Rich are different" and the sequel "The Sins of the Fathers" which I've read several times. I've read "Penmarric", but it was decades ago and I don't remember much of the novel.

As much as I like Winston Graham's temporary novels like "Marnie" and "The Walking Stick" (both were made into movies), I cannot say the same about "Poldark". I know it's a popular TV series and I tried to watch it, but found it very slow (my usual problem with most historical novels or movies). I didn't care for "Jamaica Inn" and "My Cousin Rachel" by Daphne DuMaurier either.

[Blytonfan]

The one point that bothered me about the Circus of Adventure was leaving the rope behind after their daring escape.

Wouldn't it be obvious that only Circus performers could possibly have engineered the escape?

[timv]

Chrissie, I've read most of Susan Howatch's novels too, but found the Anglican ones a bit hard-going and slow-moving with a lot of detail on Church controversies and theology that the author had obviously researched in detail but was rather too long for my liking. I enjoyed 'Penmarric', which was the one that SH based on places in western Cornwall - the Levant mine and real disasters there in the Edwardian era featured in it and the Penmarric family owned a big house on the cliffs near a mine, rather like Craggy Tops. The storyline was based on the family of King Henry II in the twelfth century, with updated versions of Henry (d. 1189) as a hot-tempered , mine-owning academic figure with a scheming wife (based on Eleanor of Aquitaine) and adventurer sons based on Henry's sons, including Richard the Lionheart and King John . The real life presumed murder by John of his nephew and rival Prince Arthur in 1203 was the climax of the book, here transferred to a family quarrel over owning the mine. SH also did other grand sagas set in the C19th and early C20th based on slightly altered versions of the English medieval royal family, which I recognised as a historian - I could guess what was coming next but it was interesting to see how she adapted it all. One was set in the Gower Peninsula in South Wales which i know well, and another (Cashelmara?) on a remote Irish estate. The family drama was a bit like John Galsworthy's (written 1920s-30s) Forsyte Saga, which is a favourite of mine.

I watched the original Poldark TV series in the 1970s as a boy, and read the books after that; my own family is Cornish and WG featured our name in the Poldark family tree, which was amusing! I found the 1975? series better than the recent remake, though a bit over-the-top and melodramatic. Robin Ellis as Ross and Angharad Rees as Demelza were the stars and became cult figures at the time, and there was quite a fuss when ITV decided around 1996 to do an adaptation of one of the books written by Winston Graham since the series ended and didn't ask them to star in it. I missed it as I was away working, but it was apparently not up to much.

The modern series was a bit truer to the original books, but I thought some characters weren't as WG had imagined them - Ralph Bates in the original series as villainous banker George Warleggan was much more like the man in the books! One Blyton note - the Poldark family 'drunken and lazy old retainer' figure, farmhand Jud Paynter, was played in the original series by Paul Curran, who was 'Jeremiah Bogle' in the 1978 Famous Five 'Demons Rocks' adaptation. Probably his performance in the show as a rascally West Countryman was why the FF producers decided on him for Jeremiah.

[Boodi 2]

One was set in the Gower Peninsula in South Wales which i know well, and another (Cashelmara?) on a remote Irish estate. The family drama was a bit like John Galsworthy's (written 1920s-30s) Forsyte Saga, which is a favourite of mine.

Apologies if this is a bit off topic, but is the book set in the Gower Peninsula in South Wales "Wheel of Fortune"? If so, it is a book that I really enjoyed when I borrowed it from a friend several years ago. I also like John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, which I have (picked up the books second hand!) and as a child I used to watch the TV series based on the books with my parents every Sunday night.

[Wolfgang]

The one point that bothered me about the Circus of Adventure was leaving the rope behind after their daring escape.

Wouldn't it be obvious that only Circus performers could possibly have engineered the escape?

Well, they could alway claim that the rope has been stolen. And with the excitement about the missing king, who will blame them not waiting for the police to report it ?

[timv]

Yes, the book I was referring to was 'Wheel of Fortune', which I read when it first came out - it's mainly set around Oxwich Bay, which is the bit of Gower (very like Devon and really rural) at the SW end near the famous 'Worm's Head ' headland. (The latter is long and 'snaky' as seen from the sea, and is cut off regularly by the tide - apparently Vikings thought it looked like a recumbent dragon and so called it after their word for dragons). The book is based on the family of King Edward III (r. 1327-77), the one who started off the Hundred Years' War and fought at Crecy, and has an Edwardian - 1960s Galsworthy-like landed gentry family at the centre. As usual there are a couple of murders and many inter-family feuds, with clever adaptations of real people and events in a new setting - Edward III' s spoilt and paranoid but very cultured grandson Richard II becomes a capricious novelist and Henry V a 1960s rock star! One of the other books, 'The Rich Are Different', features a modernised version of Mark Antony and Cleopatra vs future Emperor Augustus as 1920s American tycoons with the murder of a 'Julius Caesar' figure, here a Mafia-style 'hit', as the main setpiece which kicks off the struggle. The 're-telling of actual stories from history in a new setting' theme in Susan Howatch's books is a brilliant idea.

If you know where to look you can 'map' the use of the British countryside across a whole lot of modern as well as classic novels, adults as well as children , and knowing the real places always makes a book seem more real and attractive to me. In the Hampshire area, we have Jane Austen's Alton East of Winchester - I always think of Elizabeth Bennett being tut-tutted at by the respectable gentry ladies like Miss Bingley for striding around in the muddy lanes getting her dress dirty when I tackle the footpaths around Jane's home at Chawton. And for the Galsworthy 'Forsyte' books, the house that Soames builds for Irene at 'Robin Hill' in the first book (and which ends up owned by Young Jolyon) is based on where Galsworthy used to live on Kingston Hill near Richmond Park's 'Robin Hood Gate' in Surrey, which I know well, and Val Dartie's stud-farm in West Sussex in the later books is based on where JG lived at Bury near Arundel.

[S-Dog2001]

Something I've wondered for a while concerning the Adventure series: what happens to Philip's pets in between books? I imagine he wouldn't have kept all of them, but ones like Mickey and Button who wouldn't leave him? I know the reason is he has a different pet each book but it does make you wonder what he did with the old ones...

[Lucky Star]

The Bargua snake in River wouldn't have lived long as it had had it's poison ducts removed. That's stated in the text. I imagine the slowworm, Sally Slither, wouldn't have lasted too long either. Button the fox cub I like to think would have been released into the wild before they left Scotland. Or at least given to Tassie to look after.

I think the biggest question hangs over Mischief the monkey from Ship. They had found it in Morocco and the book ends in Greece. They could hardly have got it back into Britain with the quarantine regulations so poor Mischief's end can only be guessed at. Maybe a zoo or sanctuary in Greece?

[Bertie]

As an animal lover, with a very soft heart towards them, thinking about what happened to the animals after Philip left was something that used to upset me about the Adventure books. The same with Barker being poisoned, how the Sticks treated Tinker, etc.
Even as I've got older, I still don't like the treatment of Tinker or Barker - but it's especially Micky, and thinking about how many animals have to face that sort of life of abuse every day in the real world, that still upsets me. So I like to think they found a safe place for him to live before they left.

[Wolfgang]

I think the biggest question hangs over Mischief the monkey from Ship. They had found it in Morocco and the book ends in Greece. They could hardly have got it back into Britain with the quarantine regulations so poor Mischief's end can only be guessed at. Maybe a zoo or sanctuary in Greece?

Micky (Mischief was Tinker's pet, in Voilier's continuation story he even get a cheetah) was brought to Great Britain and got his dinner with from Aunt Allie:

"Mrs. Mannering was delighted to see them all, though she was rather cool to Bill. She had a wonderful tea ready for them, and Kiki screeched with delight to see a plate laid for her and Micky, with a lovely fruit salad."

[Katharine]

..... So I like to think they found a safe place for him to live before they left.

Yes, I'm sure all the animals were treated well after the books ended - this is Enid Blyton world after all, were the baddies always got their just desserts, and everyone lived happily ever after.

At least that's certainly the way I'd like to look at it.

[IceMaiden]

I always imagined that as Philip's pets are animals that shouldn't really be kept as pets and aren't meant to be, that he only keeps them a short time then releases them back where they belong in the wild.

I'm watching the Adventure films and series on YouTube at the moment. So far I've seen the Castle and Island films and the Island episode of the New Zealand series. They're very enjoyable, though the actors for Island seem way too old for the part and it's a bit distracting! Also Philip and Dinah are blonde instead of brown and Jack and Lucy-Ann are brown instead of red. Jocelyn, Polly and Bill are very well cast however. I prefer Island and New Zealand set Bill over castle Bill, he mysterious important secret service-y. Castle Bill does not. On the whole all do a great job but no adaption can truly live up to nor bring to life what's written in the books and what your minds imagination conjures up from the words.

[Inspector Jenks]

Gareth Hunt was terribly miscast as Bill in “Castle”. But then again I was equally baffled that they cast a black and white dog as Timmy in the 70s Famous Five series. Did they really think nobody would notice?

[Wolfgang]

I suppose it's not that easy finding a dog that can do the trick or is fit for film production, so they probably take a dog that can do it and if there's a selection of dogs available, they'll take the most suitable one.
The dogs in the German Famous Five films of this century are not that impressive at all and I don't think they would have made any impression to a real villain.