FF - Downhill after Hike?

[Dick Kirrin]

The question if two people ever read the same book is as old as literature as a science itself. Attitudes change through life, too. Sorry if the teacher in me is getting through.
The point I'm trying to make is, it doesn't exactly matter if a book is "good" by any standard except one's own liking. There are a lot of very fine books out out, some of them maybe even better than EB's , but hardly anybody bothers to read them.
Besides, the rich choclate cake image someone used before puts it rather nice (it's got something to do with eating - very important for the FF); have one piece and enjoy it instead of getting indigestion from eating the whole cake at once.
If you are after a ranking, the German fanpage http://ff5.lgfb.de/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; can do that for you. There is an English version as well.
@Tony, you did a great job setting up the Enid Blyton Society, it's just that I came to know of this website via the German fanpage. I am a regular visitor to both sites, and I love them both. They are different and so they provide different sorts of information which makes them nice. I admire the work of everybody bothering to create a website about a hobby which (s)he wants to share with others. That there are many people who consider Enid Blyton's creations worth creating a homepage just goes to show the impact she made.
@Moonraker: I've no idea, why the EB society comes behind obscure links and sites, but as quantity and quality mean different things, I think that everybody searching for quality (in huge quantities by the way ) will finally end up here. Just like in one of Enid's stories: You have to find the secret passage first..., and we can see that google cannot replace good old Timmy.

[Jeffery Greyling]

My favourite Famous Five books are Run Away Together, Down To the Sea, On a Hike Together, Finniston Farm, Get into Trouble and Off in a Caravan. I also like Smuggler's Top, and Kirrin Island Again. The stories in the '70s TV series are great - I just wish I'd been around to see it when it first came out.

[pete9012S]

Perhaps it's just me but having just finished re-reading the entire FF series for the first time in 25 years I couldn't help but notice something that passed me by as a kid.

After "Hike" the series goes down rapidly.

Rather than feel that glow of nostalgia run through my veins as I had with books 1-10 I found myself disappointed that the books were so weak.

Is there anyone out there that can "sell me" books 11-21?

I wonder if our plethora of modern day posters who have joined us here in the last few years have a thought on this interesting poser?





I love Five Get Into A Fix for starters, and Billycock Hill gave great excitement when I first read it too when little.
One other latter book I really enjoyed was Finniston Farm, which may divide opinion and ensue a heated - but friendly debate!

(Mainly for the viewing pleasure of John Puffin Pickup I have included the Maxey covers alongside Soper's)

[John Pickup]

Those Maxey covers are excellent, Pete. But they're not a patch on Sopers.
For me, the series goes downhill after Plenty Of Fun. The only book I rate in the last seven is Fix although Demon's Rocks would be better without Tinker's ridiculous car noises.
It shows how strong is Enid's characterisation when the obnoxious Junior in Finniston Farm winds me up so much.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Up to Finniston Farm, I think are all great, but from then on sadly the books begin to fall. But from 1961, I do think that quite a few of Enid's books didn't have that strong Blyton theme about them. I guess it was all due to the oncoming illness of Enid's and also she'd wrote so many books, that one's inspiration must start to go downhill too.

[Daisy]

I have the difficulty of not having read the later Fives books until I was grown up - they weren't all written before I reached that status! Consequently I guess I read them from a rather different view point. I am really not sure if I would have appreciated them more if I had read them as a child. They all have their good points but I am inclined to agree that the later ones do lack something of the former ones.

[number 6]

The later F5 stories are indeed a little weaker in comparison to the earlier ones, but I still loved them when I was a kid. I've got a soft spot for Mystery to Solve, though. I re-read it several years ago whilst I was in Dorset. I visited the real life places that are described in the story, matching the chapters with the locations. I started off at the viewpoint overlooking Poole Harbour, as seen from the Purbecks. I moved on to the Isle of Purbeck Golf Course and then down to Agglestone Cottage, which is the cottage Enid describes the Five and Wilfred staying in. Later, I walked down to catch the ferry to Brownsea island/Whispering island to finish off the remaining chapters. It sparked my imagination and I could visualise the children wandering over the golf course or landing on the island. Probably an odd thing to do, but enjoyable and unique all the same.

[Katharine]

I think I mostly enjoyed the last 5 books. I especially liked Five Have a Mystery to Solve, and still recall the chill I felt when Timmy choked on the ball, and the thrill I felt at the hidden treasure.

[Fiona1986]

Four of the books from 11-21 appear in my top 10... Sea, Demon's Rocks, Fix, and Finniston Farm. And just to further go against the grain, Mystery to Solve is my second least favourite

If anyone's interested the whole list goes:

1. Five Go To Smuggler’s Top (4)
2. Five on a Hike Together (10)
3. Five on a Treasure Island (1)
4. Five Go Down to the Sea (12)
5. Five Go Off in a Caravan (5)
6. Five Go Demon’s Rocks (19)
7. Five Run Away Together (3)
8. Five Get Into a Fix (17)
9. Five Get Into Trouble (8)
10. Five on Finniston Farm (18)
11. Five Go Adventuring Again (2)
12. Five Fall Into Adventure (9)
13. Five Have a Wonderful Time (11)
14. Five on Kirrin Island Again (6)
15. Five Have Plenty of Fun (14)
16. Five Go Off to Camp (7)
17. Five Go to Mystery Moor (13)
18. Five on a Secret Trail (15)
19. Five Go to Billycock Hill (16)
20. Five Have a Mystery to Solve (20)
21. Five Are Together Again (21)

[Barnard]

I didn’t like Five Have A Mystery To Solve very much. More hidden treasures found was bad enough but the ridiculous nonsense of Anne becoming a ‘tiger’ was just too much. And Mrs Layman was not sure whether Wifrid was her nephew or her grandson. This and the final Famous Five book were dreadful.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I think that Enid herself would very happily ended the series at #12 Five go down to the sea.

On the back cover she poses the question - "how many more do you want?"

From there on it is Enid the businesswoman taking charge, listening to her customers demands for yet more of the same - which she stoically provides even if the quality wasn't what it was. The formula was an exotic pet, another child and a secret passage. Some worked better than others.

It is in the later books that she draws on real places more, particularly Dorset. I like Mystery Moor (the descriptions of the heathland is good, though Henry is a bit trying) and Billycock Hill (for the planes but not the piglet - not Dorset) and I wish I could like Mystery to Solve because I can see the whole landscape from my village, but I will never like Wilfred...

Viv

[Anne Gracie]

The best last book in the series for me was Five Go to Demons Rocks. I think that Five are Together Again was an acceptable way to end the series IMHO but I agree with the critical views of Five have a Mystery to Solve. I never got into it personally. I don’t know whether this had anything to do with it not being adapted to television before the ‘90’s, but I was into the other books before they made it to the screen so I think this was a weak story, compared to the others in the series.

[Debbie]

I think, given there were 21 books, EB did a very good job (or should that be jolly good job) of making them individual adventures.
Five are together again was the only one to me that feels a really rehashed story from the FF. Some of them have elements used in other stories, but I think you could fairly easily describe each one so it was easily identifiable.
I'm not sure you would say that of many 20+ book series.

I'd have a fairly similar list of preferences to Fiona's although I would put Caravan first, being completely taken with the photo on the front of the (70s TV series) cover. I wanted those caravans!

If you just look at the last 5 books.
17: Fix-yes it is a mix from other books but she hasn't used the mysterious metal in FF, set in Wales, again I think new for the FF. You get them skiing and sledging, which I don't think there's been snow since book 2.
18. Finniston Farm-very different from the other books in that it's a search for the treasure against someone, but not a criminal villain. You have the two Harries who go from hating them to friendly, and the wonderful grandad. To me the lack of a villain made it a gentle book-and none the worse for it.
19. Demon Rocks-who doesn't love a lighthouse? Yes it's another treasure hunt, but the Lighthouse makes it totally different.
20. Mystery to solve-Not one of my favourites, but that's mostly because it scared me to bits when I first read it (yes, I know!). The using of a real place makes it feel more real somehow.
21. Together again-does feel a bit of a rehash. They're going back to Kirrin Island, circus again etc. If she'd planned on it being the end of the series you could look at it as being a bit of a return with old friends finish.


But I think she may have planned on finishing after book 20. Look at book 19. It ends with
"And good-bye, dear old Timmy, best of friends. How we wish we had a dog like you! See you all again some day!"
Which is a very typical author speaking to the reader, with a promise of more to come, which she does at the end of FF often. I haven't got them all to hand to see which she does that to, but I remember when I first read Mystery thinking it was the last book in the series because of the end.

"We leave them all there in the sunshine, quiet and peaceful, watching the little creatures that Wilfrid can always being round him.
Julian is lying back, looking at the April sky, glad that their adventure ended so well. Dick is looking down at Whispering Island, set in the brilliant blue harbour. Anne is half asleep-quiet little Anne who can turn into a tiger if she has to!
And George of course, is close to Timmy, her arm around his neck, very happy indeed. Good-bye, Five-it was fun sharing in your grand adventure!"

That felt to me that was a tableaux saying a final goodbye.

[FiveFanDownunder]

This is an interesting topic that you've rekindled, Pete.

I am so deeply connected to this series that I've never really stepped back to look at the quality of the stories or evaluate them like this, though I've often considered and nominated favourites, and have noted that one of my particularly enjoyed books of my very early teens is not usually considered a strong one - Hike. I have never thought to rank them, but found that a very interesting list Fiona. I think I would find that a real challenge to come up with such a list for myself.

At the very least, I'd have to read them all again, and then I wonder if looking to evaluate them would feel like I was looking for character flaws in an old, old friend. Probably being a bit too sentimental, because all books and fiction can and rightly are discussed and debated.

My reading list grows ever longer, as I've remembered I planned to revisit Narnia in the order published after reading one of Courtenay's posts, and Anita has got me on to The Island of Adventure.

[Fiona1986]

It was a rather difficult undertaking. I knew my favourite and my two least favourites, and then loosely divided the rest into "favourites", "middlings" and "least favourites" and then sort of compared the ones in each group to see which came out top. I did that a couple of years ago now and having read through the first half of the series, I stand by it so far!