What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

[Stephen]

I've finished The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage. It's slightly scary to think it's seventy five years old this year and all the children - even little Bets - would be well into their eighties!

As it was the first in the series, it's where the regular characters are being established, and so it was somewhat different from what was to come. It's basically three friends of similar age - Larry, Daisy and Pip. Then there's Pip's little sister Bets who tags along with the older ones. And then on the night of the crime being committed and the villagers watching the cottage burning, they meet and befriend this fat boy. But Fatty is not like the enigmatic, charming super sleuth of later on. He's actually quite irritating at times, prone to being teased, and often gets quite offended at the others when they dismiss his boasting. In later books, there's the occasional reference to his boasting, and I've always thought it's rather out of character for such a seemingly flawless, invincible person, but here it makes sense. The only reason they seem to put up with him at all is because he has a cute dog!

Bets is another peculiar inclusion at first glance. She's noticeably younger than the others, as well as being younger than Lucy-Ann from the Adventure series, Diana from the Barney series, and Anne from the Famous Five. The others, especially a jealous Pip have their misgivings about having a "baby" on their team, and she does somewhat inhibit the action. But I guess Enid was just experimenting to see how this age combination would work. Several times in later books, Bets' innocent remarks lead to the solving of the mystery.

It's good to see that Daisy - who I've often thought of as a very underused character - was the one who came up with the idea of them being detectives in the first place!

But it's a great story, full of suspects, motives and red herrings. I last read it only a few years ago, and I was really taken aback at the relationship between Mr. Peeks and Lily. I'd always thought of adults in Blyton books as married, widowed or carefree spinsters and bachelors. But suddenly here are a young courting couple, the girl of which is doing so despite her mother's disapproval. I never picked up any of that in my innocent childhood!

My next book is Five Get Into A Fix which I've only read about once or twice and that was well over thirty years ago. I know it's set in Wales but I have absolutely no idea of the plot!

[Rob Houghton]

Personally - and we all have differing opinions of course, I would place 'Five Are Together Again' as the best of the three worst 'last books' that Enid wrote. Together Again, Banshee Towers, and last (and most definitely 'least'!) is 'Fun For The Secret Seven - a book that has absolutely no plot at all and meanders around in so many directions; all of them rather bland!!

[Nigel D]

Never liked the SS. Tried a couple recently and didn’t enjoy them at all. Too many characters plus they were presumably aimed at a much younger audience.

[Courtenay]

Good review, Stephen. I've always felt that one reason Enid included a younger character like Bets in the FFO stories is so there would be a character closer to her readers' typical age — I certainly would have been about 7 when I started reading the books and I identified most of all with Bets. She can be a bit irritatingly babyish at times, but as you say, often her remarks and ideas lead to the solution — and it's her frequent questions that enable Enid to throw in some definitions of words that are useful in a detective story but that younger readers (at least in Enid's time) might not have heard of, like "clues" or "alibi" or "anonymous". I know I learned the meaning of "insurance" from reading Burnt Cottage!

[Rob Houghton]

Also of course it helps to have a younger character like Bets so that procedures and words can be explained to the readers in a more natural way, by having a character explain the m to her.

I'm always well impressed by how young everyone was reading Famous Five, The Find Outers, etc. I think aged 7 I was still reading the Faraway Tree, short stories, Noddy, etc. I may have read a few Secret Seven books by then, but didn't read The Find Outers until I was about 9 or 10.

As a child I loved The Secret Seven and was really quite obsessed with the Derek Lucas illustrations - used to enjoy copying them and making Secret Seven comics etc. They were probably the one series I read most of as a child. Some are of course better than others, but some of them are very good in my opinion - Secret Seven Adventure, Secret Seven On The Trail, Good Work Secret Seven Secret Seven Win Through, and Good Old Secret Seven were some of my favourites.

[Anita Bensoussane]

But it's a great story [i.e. The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage], full of suspects, motives and red herrings. I last read it only a few years ago, and I was really taken aback at the relationship between Mr. Peeks and Lily. I'd always thought of adults in Blyton books as married, widowed or carefree spinsters and bachelors. But suddenly here are a young courting couple, the girl of which is doing so despite her mother's disapproval. I never picked up any of that in my innocent childhood!

I love The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage too, Stephen. The inclusion of a courting couple feels quite grown up, as does the mention of insurance. With the story being "full of suspects, motives and red herrings" as you put it, Enid Blyton inevitably draws us deeply into the village community and we learn all about the relationships, feuds, passions and secrets of various people who live and/or work there. Fascinating stuff! Very interesting to see the creation of the Find-Outers too (I love the "Fine-Doubters" comment!) - characters who are to develop so much over the course of the next couple of books.

As a child I loved The Secret Seven and was really quite obsessed with the Derek Lucas illustrations - used to enjoy copying them and making Secret Seven comics etc.

My sister and I liked and identified with the Secret Seven (we had our own shed, formed a detective club with friends, practised shadowing and hoped a mystery would come our way) but, perhaps because the books were short, we didn't rate the series as highly as the other mystery and adventure series.

[Courtenay]

Also of course it helps to have a younger character like Bets so that procedures and words can be explained to the readers in a more natural way, by having a character explain the m to her.

Swatisaid.

[Moonraker]

Mind you, my read-through of the entire series is still stuck on Invisible Thief, which I did find a massive let-down the first time I read it a few years ago and haven't yet been able to bring myself to pick it up again! I must get on with it and see what I think the second time — I might be a bit more forgiving.

This title has always been one of my favourites. Isn't it odd how one man's meat can be another man's poison?

[Courtenay]

I know — I was aware it was one of the most popular titles before I read it and was really surprised that I found it so disappointing!

[Rob Houghton]

When I first read Invisible Thief (as an adult) I found it thoroughly enjoyable, and especially at the beginning, when the robberies start happening, I found it very intriguing. I couldn't work out how the thefts were being done at all. I didn't guess who had done it either, until quite a way into the book! Its still one of my favourite Find Outer books, but also its one I tend to read less, because the culprit is rather obvious after the initial read-through, but that first time I read it I admit I was completely taken in and didn't guess for a minute!

[Moonraker]

I rather enjoy re-reading books knowing who the culprit is. I like to spot the clues that the author has laid.

[Courtenay]

I didn't guess how the robberies were committed until about halfway through either, but still "got it" well before the Find-Outers did — and also thought Enid made the thief too obvious, since the story goes on and on and ON about how obnoxious this particular person is, to the point where one can't help suspecting there's got to be some reason for that. Mystery stories are more effective when the culprit turns out to be someone that no-one would have suspected at first...

[Daisy]

I have always enjoyed Invisible Thief and didn't guess the culprit until well on into the book. I was given it on my 13th birthday, so still quite young. Whether I would have had more idea if I had come to it when I was an adult, I don't know, but those I did only read after I had grown up were still usually not solved by me until the dénouement. Sometimes it was possible to guess who, but not how!

[Courtenay]

I didn't figure out "whodunnit" in Pantomime Cat until all was revealed (I had guessed it was "someone else in Boysie's skin", but not who), but was annoyed by Enid's mistake of — SPOILER ALERT...





... having identical male and female twins, which is biologically impossible. (I know we had this discussion before and several people remarked that you could have a twin brother and sister who happened to look very similar, but that's a bit too coincidental. When Enid says "twins" she's always thinking of "identical" — so alike they can be mistaken for one another — and in the case of male and female twins, that doesn't happen. But hey, even Shakespeare made the same blooper in Twelfth Night, so who am I to judge... )

[Rob Houghton]

SPOILER ALERT!!

hmmm...I still think that in the case of the twins in Pantomime Cat, the fact is that they looked identical when dressed as women, surely? Presumably his sister put on similar makeup, wig and clothes etc in order to pass herself off as her brother? So they weren't just relying on the fact they looked alike without makeup...? I've always presumed that he would have been quite heavily disguised, and that his sister would have worn the same clothes and makeup, as they were both appearing as the same character on stage...