Favourite FF Covers

[Nick]

Continuing my FF postings (I will move onto another series, probably FFO, later on in the year I promise), I was wondering which covers were preferred by forum members.

For me two designs stand out. Growing up in the 70's I was huge fan of the TV serial and I had the vast majority of the series. Seeing a "live action" cover helped make the stories more real (I had the SS series that featured live action covers as well and begged my mother to find that TV series for me!) and when I see those covers today they are the ones that pull most on the nostalgia heart strings.

However, during the 70's there were a number of books that I missed out so with my hard earned pocket money I purchased the remaining books and they were all from the 83 run with the untitled covers. I adored those covers and having now seen the whole series thanks to the Cave of Books I am convinced they are the best.

Picking a favourite cover from each series I'd have to say it's Hike from the 78 print and Down to the Sea from the 83 series.

Other thoughts?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Good question, Nick. I too read the books in the 1970s (Knight paperbacks dating mainly from 1977-79) and had a mixture of the Betty Maxey covers and the photo covers. The covers with the Betty Maxey drawings are very appealing, especially the Five Go off to Camp one showing George and Timmy. It's a beautiful picture of them - I love the watchful Timmy and the way the light catches George's face. Other memorable Betty Maxey covers include Treasure Island and Billycock Hill, though I like most of them really. Interesting that some of the Betty Maxey cover-pictures were reversed from one edition to the next.

Of the 1970s TV covers, the ones which stand out to me are Demon's Rocks with the children by the lighthouse and Go Off in a Caravan featuring the old gypsy caravans.

Looking at the original Eileen Soper covers in the Cave, I think my favourite is Five Get into a Trouble. A striking moonlit scene and I love the vintage car. I also like Soper's second cover for Go Off to Camp, showing the "spook train."

I hadn't looked properly at the 1983 covers before, Nick, but now you mention it I agree that most of them are very attractive.

Anita

[Daisy]

I think most of us would say we like the illustrations we first met. For me it was the hard backs as they were published and I agree with you Anita that Five get into Trouble has a very atmospheric cover and - ahem - that car wasn't vintage when I first read the book!!!

[Moonraker]

To me, reading a story set in the 40s or 50s, it seems pretty absurd to have a cover depicting a group of kids dressed in 70s clothes. Imagine reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with a modern cover showing a Bendy-Bus next to a modern bank with a cash machine in the wall!

I can understand, however, that the illustrations one grew up with will always be special, but those 80s covers with kids in jeans....please!

Daisy, that car didn't look that old to me, either!

[Julie2owlsdene]

My preference has to be the hard backs I read as a child. I used to love seeing them on the book shelves all lined up, with those enticing oval pictures on the spine of the book. I could never make up my mind which to buy, after saving my sixpences up for weeks, so the choice had to be right

Overall my favourite cover has to be Five Get into Trouble, followed by Five Fall into Adventure. That's a good picture of Jo on the front of that dust jacket. But I love all the covers.

[Lucky Star]

Like Anita I grew up with the 1970's Betty Maxey covers and still have a soft spot for them today. Indeed they are all sitting on my shelf right now as I bought a job lot of the whole series from ebay when I returned to Blyton a few years ago. Off to Camp is certainly a nice one, in addition to Anita's comments I would add that it captures perfectly how scared and awestruck George must have been when she found herself face to face with the dreaded Spook Train. Apart from that I love the Treasure Island cover from these editions and Hike is also nice with them all peering down into the gloomy water.

However I must say that nowadays its the original Eileen Soper covers that I like best. I am slowly and painfully building up a complete set of these. Its hard to choose a favourite but I think Demons Rocks and Go Down to the Sea are especially atmospheric. My choices change regularly though. Ask me again next week and I might give you a different set of answers. In general I think I could safely say that the original Soper cover for Five on a Treasure Island is a very classic FF image, its always going to be high on my list of fave covers.

[Kitty]

I like the Soper covers of Run Away Together and Caravan best. And I like the spine of whichever one has the golden statuette on a blue background - Mystery to Solve, maybe

[Lucky Star]

I like the Soper covers of Run Away Together and Caravan best. And I like the spine of whichever one has the golden statuette on a blue background - Mystery to Solve, maybe

Yes its Five Have a Mystery to Solve. The front cover for that one is quite nice too depicting Timmy in full action mode attacking a baddie in an underground cave full of treasure boxes. Classic Blyton stuff.

[Lucky Star]

Speaking of FF covers has inspired me to browse ebay to see if there are any bargains. I found this nice looking one below. Alas I dont have nearly £20 to buy it at present.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Enid-Blyton-The-F ... 7C294%3A50" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rob Houghton]

To me, reading a story set in the 40s or 50s, it seems pretty absurd to have a cover depicting a group of kids dressed in 70s clothes. Imagine reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with a modern cover showing a Bendy-Bus next to a modern bank with a cash machine in the wall!

I can understand, however, that the illustrations one grew up with will always be special, but those 80s covers with kids in jeans....please!

Daisy, that car didn't look that old to me, either!

I must admit that I'm one of those people who (until I was about 26) could only really picture the Famous Five as 1970's jean-wearing kids with 70's hairstyles. They were the five I grew up with: the Five I drew pictures of as a child, the Five I made games up about. They WERE the Five to me, and Eileen Soper's illustrations (which I have since come to accept as the originals!!) were interlopers!

The same goes for The Secret Seven, illustrated by Derek Lucas. His depiction of the Seven WERE the Seven to me, and I spent many happy hours drawing the Seven to look like his depictions.

The same also goes for the Faraway Tree: Rene Cloke's illustrations were the definitive ones.

As for the Soper Five covers, I like them all now, particularly the first edition ;Five on a Treasure Island' and the 'new' edition of 'Camp' with the steam train on it.

[Moonraker]

I must admit that I'm one of those people who (until I was about 26) could only really picture the Famous Five as 1970's jean-wearing kids with 70's hairstyles.

Surely that proves that Enid must have been a remarkable authoress in as much her stories slot into any timezone.

[Aurélien]

Surely that proves that Enid must have been a remarkable authoress in as much her stories slot into any timezone.

True, Moonraker, but in terms of critical acclaim EB's achievements are largely unrecognized by the high priests (and priestesses ) who lead the worship at the temple of Children's Literature.

Not that I'm knocking the whole Chn'sLit movement, which has contributed much of value to the reading world. It's just that, like most (more likely all) of us here, I'm not very impressed by the outrageously selective and by now stubbornly ingrained blindness that this bunch shows toward the worth and influence of one of our favourite children's writers.

A parallel case would be when a bunch of third-rate scientists stick smugly to their pet theories rather than actually looking at the evidence which undermines them.

It is unfortunate that when the Chn'sLit movement was getting underway those sorting out the worthwhile books from the
second-rate and the outright rubbish included those who -
out-heroding Herod in order to prove their own worthiness - more or less took the view that the proper spelling of t-r-a-s-h was actually B-l-y-t-o-n.

But, then, book critics have always been suspicious of popular writers - especially those who write a large number of books. To those less open-minded literary academics who jumped on the Chn'sLit bandwagon, great writers:

• 1) write very little,
  2) can probably be understood and appreciated only by the intelligensia, and
  3) *surprise, surprise* end up starving in an attic.

Measured against such criteria, EB obviously doesn't make the grade!

• ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

All this has taken us very far from our favourite FF covers. As none of my FF dustjackets survive, these days my favourite covers can be found in Tony's wonderful Aladdin's Cave of Books.....

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’

[Lenoir]

My preference has to be the hard backs I read as a child. I used to love seeing them on the book shelves all lined up, with those enticing oval pictures on the spine of the book.

I feel the same way about the old FF hardbacks. I only had 1 myself, but my sister had 8 of them in her bookcase, 7 with dust jackets. Maybe that’s why those 8 are among my favourites as well; it’s just the books that I have the oldest, fondest memories of.
"Smuggler's Top" was not one of them, but the library had it in hardback with a dj.

The FFs are on the top shelf of my bookcase these days, most of them now with "enticing oval pictures"! Just a couple left to get, including my old favourite "Run Away Together".

[Stephen]

I never really liked Eileen Soper's depiction of the children - even though they were more true to the time they were set. Whereas Betty's (and TV's) George looks like a rather angelic tomboy, Eileen's George just looks like a boy. I know that's the whole point, but for someone who first remembers the FF from the 70s series, it just looks very odd.

Also, does anyone else think that Eileen's Dick had unusually shiny black hair? Did children use Brylcreem back then?

Having said that, I thought Eileen's Uncle Quentin looked far better than Betty's. The original was a tall, thin, frowning man who you would equally respect and fear. But the 70s version is a slightly portly man with a perm and a moustache! How can the same person look so different?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Also, does anyone else think that Eileen's Dick had unusually shiny black hair? Did children use Brylcreem back then?

Funnily enough, I was sorting out a cupboard the other day when I came across a school photo of my dad's, taken in 1957 when he was 14. It's a photo of the "under 15s cricket team" and most of the boys appear to have their hair Brylcreemed.

Anita