Five Get into Trouble Talking Points

[Katharine]

I think the whole point about there being a previously unmentioned aunt is as follows:-

I have one niece - my sister's daughter. My niece has 2 cousins on her father's side, so absolutely no relation to me or my own daughter. Whilst it would be quite natural for my niece to come and stay with me and my daughter, I would never have her other 2 cousins to stay - I don't know them.

So if Julian etc. are Quentin's brother's children, and Fanny has a sister who is no relation to Julian etc., it seems a strange to thing for Quentin to say he never knows when the children are going to stay with Fanny's sister.

[Carlotta King]

Crikey this is sounding more and more complicated than ever, haha!

[Maggie Knows]

There's no other Aunt, it's just a blooper.

Mrs Blyton was writing very fast, and she forgot she already had Quentin and [insert name] down as brothers.

I blame the editors...

[Daisy]

I agree - as I said before I think it's a blooper. I too, sometimes wonder about the proof reading, or lack thereof!

[Katharine]

I suppose in defence of the proof readers/publishers, it was 7 years between the first book which mentions that Quentin is the brother of Julian's father. Would the same people who checked the first book have checked the 8th? Also, they were probably checking for things such as grammar, spelling and punctuation, would they have time to double check every minute detail? The main relationship was that George was cousin to the other 3 children, with the emphasis being that she was an only child with a temper who wanted to be a boy, and she was devoted to Timmy. Whether it was her father or mother who was the link between her and the other children wasn't really that important.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I agree that it is a mistake. As I mentioned in my earlier posting, it was a 6 year or so gap from when Enid wrote the first Five book to this one, and she'd written many more books inbetween the Five books, so I think we can all forgive her for a bit of memory loss.

When I've been writing the continuation novels for this site, if I write a chapter and then don't write anything for a week, I have forgotten what I've written in the last chapter of writing and have to keep re-reading the whole thing, and that's only a relatively short period of time!!

In one of the letters that Enid sent to Trevor Bolton, she also said that the Barnard, surname was an error by herself and the publishers which had not been picked up. These things happened I guess, but for me they don't spoil the story, none of us are that perfect.

[Katharine]

Julie, I quite agree, the question of who was brother/sister to who doesn't make any differences to my enjoyment of the story, I was just interested to see that I wasn't the only person who had spotted the 'error' this week.

Considering the output that Enid Blyton managed, I think it's amazing that so few errors occurred. For me the more important 'mistake' in this book is that George offered to help with the cooking. To me that just didn't fit in with her personality. This comment is slightly balanced with her mother pointing out that the last time she'd tried to boil an egg it had burned, but I still think it's an odd thing for her to have said.

[Moonraker]

I'm lost...

I'm lost with you, too!

Maggie, you are right, I never read it to mean that the "sister" was Fanny. My mistake. Julie: you are privileged to be in on Enid's private letters to Trevor Bolton. If I were writing a series of books about a family, I would draw out a family tree so that these errors could not be made. But then, I am perfect.

[Julie2owlsdene]

If I were writing a series of books about a family, I would draw out a family tree so that these errors could not be made. But then, I am perfect.

I must be as perfect as you are then, Nigel, as that is exactly what I did when writing the Find Outers in Retirement, a family tree, with date of births for all, jobs etc who was married to who!!!

Trevor had some of his letters printed in an early Journal, Nigel, for all members to see and read. He was indeed privileged to correspond with Enid so often.

[Carlotta King]

When I've been writing the continuation novels for this site, if I write a chapter and then don't write anything for a week, I have forgotten what I've written in the last chapter of writing and have to keep re-reading the whole thing, and that's only a relatively short period of time!!

I'm exactly the same Julie - when I stop writing for whatever reason (to have a meal, go out, do something else, whatever it is) I always have to leave a sentence half-finished or else I have no clue what I was going to write when I go back to it!
Either that or just add a little clue in italics ie Snubby is about to go up the stairs.
And as for what I wrote in previous chapters - well I haven't got a clue - I have to read them all again!

When I was writing some books a few years ago they featured quite a lot of characters and a lot of them were related so I wrote out plans and descriptions and family trees so that I knew who was connected with who and how old they were etc etc, however it didn't stop me making tons of errors - when I read them back now I am constantly spotting things that don't make sense or don't fit!

[Moonraker]

Trevor had some of his letters printed in an early Journal, Nigel, for all members to see and read.

Oh yes, I knew that. Sorry, but I misread what you wrote and thought you said Trevor had sent you letters from Enid.

[Fiona1986]

I think the whole point about there being a previously unmentioned aunt is as follows:-

I have one niece - my sister's daughter. My niece has 2 cousins on her father's side, so absolutely no relation to me or my own daughter. Whilst it would be quite natural for my niece to come and stay with me and my daughter, I would never have her other 2 cousins to stay - I don't know them.

So if Julian etc. are Quentin's brother's children, and Fanny has a sister who is no relation to Julian etc., it seems a strange to thing for Quentin to say he never knows when the children are going to stay with Fanny's sister.

That's what I was trying to say. Julian et al would be no relation to Fanny's sister and it wouldn't make sense for them to visit.

I know what you mean about family trees; Stef and I regularly tie ourselves up in knots over that. I'm always having to go back and re-read earlier chapters to check what we wrote before we refer to it again. It's extra complicated as Stef's original stories are early 50s at uni, and we've also jumped forward to a story set in 1960 (so there have been several marriages and children by then) and another one in 1966 (more marriages and more children!) so we're forever trying to work out the children's ages for each story.

[Maggie Knows]

Reading on last night, I was interested that the Five were having anchovy paste on their sandwiches.

I love anchovies, and I had them in a salad for lunch yesterday, but I haven't really come across anchovy paste as a product. A quick Google search reveals that it is still available though.

Anyway, it sounded like quite an exotic sandwich item for circa 1949: I know the Five like sardines on sandwiches, but I don't recall any other reference to anchovy paste: does anyone know if it was it a commonly found product back then ?

[Carlotta King]

It was featured in St Clares too - Fifth Formers At St Clare's, when Antoinette polishes Angela's shoes with anchovy paste and spreads shoe polish on the toast instead of the other way round.

[Deej]

Five Get into Trouble is one of my favourite FF books. I don't think Richard is introduced too early at all. For me, he is introduced at exactly the right time after a lovely and gentle start where the children go on a seemingly peaceful cycling holiday, take in the lovely nature and eat traditional food. It is masterful the manner in which the children bump into Richard and trouble kicks off immediately. At first he came across as an arrogant, posh, snobby coward but we soon see his good nature when he sees how decent the children are and I think it's wonderful that his brave deed of getting into the car solved the mystery. The plot is first class in every way from the wrong kidnapping, to a villain in Rooky who I found genuinely terrifying to read about as a child and the wonderfully named mysterious location that is Owl's Dene. Genius.