Put a quick post about this on the TV forum, but thought I'd say hello here ... I am seeing lots of details in my new Blu Ray Famous Five disc that were always a bit too blurry in the past. Can anyone spot the edition of the paperbacks here. They must be earlier that '77, and mostly white spines by the look. I am leaning towards the late 60s Knight paperbacks. Hard to find good photos of the spines out there ... there's definitely ( I can just read ) a Finniston, a Camp, Adventuring Again, Kirrin Island Again in that pile to the right of screen.
That is a great find FFFDU - many thanks for sharing it!
Notice how the spine colours vary with the set above - Adventuring Again/Finniston Farm for example..
The 1960's Knight paperbacks - spine and front.
The 1970's photo cover spines.
Regards
Pete
ps
I've just noticed the older Knight 1960's books have either a blue square on the spine or green.
Anyone know why?
Would be really great if that indicated the internals being either Maxey or Soper????
" A kind heart always brings its own reward," said Mrs. Lee.
- The Christmas Tree Aeroplane - Society Member
The Knight Secret Sevens have blue and green squares too, as do the Knight editions of Malcolm Saville's Michael and Mary' series. The Knight paperbacks of H. E. Todd's Bobby Brewster books have red and orange squares. I don't know what they mean. Could it have something to do with genre perhaps, or recommended age?
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Weren’t they age related markers? The green knights were for 9-12 year olds. I’ve forgotten where I picked up that bit of information.
“To grow up in intimate association with nature – animal and vegetable – is an irreplaceable form of wealth and culture.”
~Miles Franklin, Childhood At Brindabella: My First Ten Years
Jomo wrote: ↑04 Feb 2022, 00:19
Weren’t they age related markers? The green knights were for 9-12 year olds. I’ve forgotten where I picked up that bit of information.
Very interested in this thought Jomo, Pete, Anita, and trying to find out ( without much luck ). Certainly by the time I was browsing and buying ( the glorious 70s TV tie in covers of course ) the squares and any reference to 'green' was gone ... simply 'Knight Books' on the covers. That spine photo of the 67ish covers ( thanks Pete ) with a mix of green and blue suggests that the reading age for some of the Five titles was imagined to be a little younger ( I assume ) for the blue square? And I wonder if the age ranges had any overlap, as even a two or three year range, such as 6-8, sounds too young for a Famous Five without some sort of blurry edge.
So perhaps I now need to find a 'blue knight' marked cover ... anyone ever seen that?
Recommended reading age is a bit of nonsense anyway, just give children something to aspire to!
(My first full length book was a Famous Five at age six, in ensuing months I read and thoroughly enjoyed, the Faraway Tree series, Five Find-outers, Secret Seven and Noddy, in no particular order. Once I’d mastered reading, it didn’t matter.)
“To grow up in intimate association with nature – animal and vegetable – is an irreplaceable form of wealth and culture.”
~Miles Franklin, Childhood At Brindabella: My First Ten Years
Jomo wrote: ↑04 Feb 2022, 00:19
Weren’t they age related markers? The green knights were for 9-12 year olds. I’ve forgotten where I picked up that bit of information.
Dragon books definitely did something like that. Their coding was as follows:
Blue Dragon - For young children
Red Dragon - For boys and girls
Green Dragon - For older boys and girls.
I'm unsure whether or not a similar thing applied to Knight.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
I'm not sure that the colour coding on Knight paperbacks related to age. I've got some early Knight books, a couple of Blyton titles from 1969, on the back of which it states; "This is a Green Knight Book which means that it is a book by one of the most popular authors of all". And I've also a copy of Bambi by Felix Salten published in 1967, on the back of this it says "This is a Black Knight book, the sign of good reading by a distinguished and famous author". I also had a Red Knight copy of Rosemary Sutcliff's 'The Hound of Ulster' but I seem to have lost that. No mention of recommended reading age anywhere on the cover or inside.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
Thanks very much for the information about Knight, Kate Mary. As a result of your post I checked the back cover of a 1972 Knight paperback of Bobby Brewster's Torch by H. E. Todd and it says, "This is a Red Knight Book which means that it is a distinguished and enjoyable book for young readers of today."
Splodj wrote: ↑04 Feb 2022, 12:50
According to my 1966 books ...
Blue Dragon : 6 - 8 years
Red Dragon : 8 - 12 years
Green Dragon : 12 - 15 years
Thanks, Splodj. It's interesting to see the Dragon age-groups.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
In puzzling over a possible sighting of Famous Five books in the 70s TV show, found this picture, which shows the 'Green Knight' blurb so well recalled here a few days ago, the variety of back cover layouts with pictures or blank spaces, credits or not for illustrations and the removal of the "green' from the Green Knight logo. Lots of changes in a short space of time, and all before my era of the late 70s ( and much loved ) TV covers ...
