Five Have Plenty of Fun

[Maggie Knows]

My re-read of the FF series has now progressed as far as the 14th instalment: Five Have Plenty of Fun (FHPoF)
The point has been made elsewhere, extensively, that there are strong parallels between the basic plot in this story and that of Fall into Adventure. Basically, George gets kidnapped once again by villains who are trying to obtain scientific secrets - this time for a technology that will give the world an energy source for next to nothing (which sounds a bit like the early hope for nuclear fusion, but of course it didn’t turn out like that…).

The twist this time is that it’s mistaken identity – the villains think George is the daughter of an American scientist who is Quentin’s collaborator. Of course, it was an ingenious plan to hide Bertha with the family of her father’s chief research collaborator, but sadly the villains saw through it….

We also get another dose of George’s jealousy and petulance when it comes to any other girl who wants (or in this case, is forced) to pretend to be a boy. Oh dear: the author comes down hard on George once again, she only comes across as petty and immature and, just in case the young reader doesn’t understand the lesson, we even have Aunt Fanny telling George how ashamed of herself she must feel.

A lighter moment is provided by Timmy, who falls heavily for Bertha’s cute little poodle dog, much to George’s horror and disgust.

Another parallel with FFIA is that the key villain (Gringo) is another Gypsy/Circus/fairground type, and once again Ragamuffin Jo turns up to provide important clues and, ultimately, to rescue our heroes from yet another locked room.

An interesting episode involves a trip to Gringo’s fair (guess what, George is hidden for a time in a caravan…) followed by some Secret Seven style sleuthing to try and find out where she has been taken to next. This involves some phoning around garages and hotels to trace the whereabouts of the villain’s very distinctive car (luckily he never thought to try and blend in with the rest of the population by driving a common or garden car …)

The end of the story involves the boys (plus Jo, tagging along) doing a night-time visit to another hideout which sounds like a carbon copy of Owl’s Dene in the Get in to Trouble story. In fact, I can never seem to remember which house is accessed through the ajar window and which through the coal cellar door. There are certainly strong parallels between the two stories here, to the point where the enemy ends up getting locked in rooms while the gang make their escape.

Despite the rehash of so many previously deployed plot devices it still makes for an enjoyable enough yarn, but its worth pointing out that (for me at least) this is the start of an overall dip in quality that isn’t really recovered until Five Get into A Fix some three books later...

[Julie2owlsdene]

Many similarities as you say, Maggie Knows. I always enjoy this book, it is one of my favourites, but then again, there are not many F.F books that I dislike. The only one I'm not keen on is the last one, Together Again, and Mystery to Solve, the plot was a bit thin for me on that one.

[Stephen]

Yes, I always thought they were very similar. I think the first time I read both was one straight after the other so it was even more noticeable. I think I slightly preferred FFIA because the baddies seemed that little bit more sinister, even deadly. But HPOF had this extra element of the American girl being disguised as a boy which was all rather interesting - even though now you mention it it's a ridiculous idea to have her stay with the Kirrins in the first place!

I had one of the later, Betty Maxey illustrated hardback volumes, so I always think of the children in this as looking very 1970s (and poor old Uncle Quentin looks oddly like Bobby Ball!) Actually, it's years since I read it, but I seem to remember the American scientist being described as "out of his mind with worry" when he thinks his daughter has been kidnapped, yet earlier in the book Uncle Quentin is very scornful at the thought of his colleague giving the secrets away should this happen. I can't remember if Quentin is aware that George goes missing, but it makes the character seem very cold and clinical.

[Nick]

I had one of the later, Betty Maxey illustrated hardback volumes, so I always think of the children in this as looking very 1970s (and poor old Uncle Quentin looks oddly like Bobby .

your so right!

I recall very little about this book, other than the cover of the 70's TV cover.

[pete9012S]

Uncle Quentin; Hardline until the fæx hits the fan!!

‘Don’t interrupt me,’ said Uncle Quentin. ‘Yes, Berta. Well, Elbur, her father, has been warned that she’s going to be kidnapped.’
‘Whatever for?’ said Julian, amazed.
‘Because it so happens that her father knows more secrets about a new scheme we’re planning than anyone else in the world,’ said his uncle. ‘And he says, quite frankly, that if this girl - what’s her name now...’
‘Berta,’ said everyone, obligingly.
‘That if this Berta is kidnapped, he will give away every single secret he knows to get her back,’ said Uncle Quentin. ‘Pah! What’s he made of? Traitor to us all! How can he even think of giving away secrets for the sake of a silly girl?’
‘Quentin, she’s his only child and he adores her,’ said Aunt Fanny. ‘I should feel the same about George.’
‘Women are always soft and silly,’ said her husband, in a tone of great disgust. ‘It’s a good thing you don’t know any secrets - you’d give them away to the milkman!’
This was so ridiculous that the children laughed. Uncle Quentin glared at them.
‘This is no laughing matter. It has been a great shock to me to be told by one of the leading scientists of the world that he feels certain he might give all our secrets to the enemy if this - this...’
‘Berta,’ said everyone again, at once.
‘If this Berta was kidnapped,’ went on Uncle Quentin

I won’t pretend I’m pleased at having a strange girl to join us these last three precious weeks - but I can see her father’s point of view - he’s scared for Berta, and he’s scared he might find himself spilling the beans if anything happened to her! It might be the only way he could get her back.’
‘To think of such a thing!’ burst out Uncle Quentin. ‘All the work of the last two years! The man must be mad!’
‘Now Quentin, don’t think any more about it,’ said his wife. ‘I’m glad to have the child here. I would hate George to be kidnapped, and I know exactly how he feels. You won’t even notice she’s here. One more will make no difference.’
‘So you say,’ grumbled her husband. ‘Anyway, it’s settled.’

The only fresh news that day was a worried telephone-call from Aunt Fanny. She was shocked and amazed at the news she had heard. ‘Your uncle has collapsed!’ she said. ‘He has been working very hard, you know, and now this news of George has been quite the last straw. He’s very ill. I can’t leave him at the moment - but anyway we couldn’t do anything! Only the police can help now. To think those horrible men took George by mistake!’
‘Don’t worry too much, Aunt Fanny,’ said Julian. ‘We’ve hidden Berta away safely, and I expect the men will free George as soon as she tells them she’s the wrong girl.’

[MJE]

     Gosh - I'd forgotten that passage showing Uncle Quentin's apparent contempt for women; I bet that didn't escape the censor's scissors in the revised edition. Was Quentin really that unpleasantly sexist - or was that really the kind of thing men generally would have said at the time?
     Especially if it was obnoxiously sexist, even by the standards of the time, I guess we can excuse, or explain, it by recalling that he was under immense stress. Few of us would be at our best in such a circumstance. What the book bowdlerizers seem to forget is that, in fiction, even overall positive characters can be shown saying or doing unpleasant or even despicable things on occasion, and it doesn't mean the author is endorsing or approving of that behaviour, or that the reader should do so.

     Again, I see people mentioning how similar this book and "Five Fall into Adventure" are, largely because of elements in common: like George being kidnapped in relation to scientific secrets, and even for a time being hidden in a caravan, and a circus man being involved, and the criminals ending up being locked in rooms - and again I hardly see anything *significant* that is similar, except maybe the kidnapping and scientific secrets theme - which is a broad enough theme with enough potential for variation that it doesn't matter to me. The other similarities are little more specific (just a little), but small enough that they don't seem to count much either. Taking the overall plots in mind, I never found any real similarities between them.
     Is there something wrong with me? Everyone else seems to find the similarities overwhelming, to the point of being a defect; yet I simply don't: to me, the many, many plot twists and settings that differ *far* outweigh these points of similarity.
     And I never found the houses in this book and "Five Get into Trouble" especially similar, either - old houses of various kinds are quite common in the Famous Five series, and common enough in real life that using them in several books really doesn't signify anything to me.
     Oh well - apparently things like this that others find problematical don't bother me - but there are plot or logic flaws in some Enid Blyton books that I find significant, which don't seem to bother anyone else at all (based on past discussions where these things have come up).

     One thing about the end of "Five Have Plenty of Fun", where everyone ends up locked in rooms, and the criminals still locked in when the Five finally escape: did those rooms have security bars on the windows? I don't recall this being mentioned; yet, if I recall correctly (not having read it for years), the criminals were still there when the police arrive, still securely locked up and waiting for them. I did have a bit of a credibility problem there, actually: criminals would be willing to do any amount of damage they are capable of to avoid arrest - yet they apparently couldn't break open the windows, or chose not to. Security bars would have helped the plot; but should have been mentioned in the story.
     Being upstairs probably wouldn't have helped (if I recall correctly, I have a feeling they weren't upstairs): it might have been possible for the crooks to take the risk of jumping out, if they were upstairs - or they could have fabricated a "rope" from twisted sheets to climb out on. Few bedrooms would be a secure prison for desperate criminals, even temporarily, without significant modifications being made to them.
     The same problems didn't seem to occur with the room Red Tower and his associates were locked in by Jo. If I recall correctly, this was high up in a tower, several storeys high, and so much too far to jump safely; the door was very stout (I think that was mentioned, wasn't it? - probably far stronger than the average bedroom door); and I don't think it was a bedroom, so things like sheets may not have been available to improvise a rope out of - which may not have been nearly long enough, anyway.
     But what about the ivy Jo used to climb up there earlier? Well, I don't recall whether she entered a window in the same room where the crooks were locked in later. If so, I suppose that's a problem; but maybe Red Tower and his henchmen couldn't climb down ivy, or would have been too heavy. If not, then I suppose ivy could have been outside one window, but not outside the other in the room where the crooks were locked in.

Regards, Michael.


P.S.:
     This series of posts by Maggie on specific Famous Five books seem to be bringing me back to life again. I usually have views on Famous Five books.

[Llywela]

I tend to read Quentin's early attitude in this book as naivety - he's totally absorbed by the immense importance of this project and can't conceive of anything being more important, and that focus blinkers him even to the point he can't acknowledge that a threat to the family might trump the state secret. It's an abstract concept to him, because it isn't his family being threatened. I work with a lot of scientists and engineers and they do tend to get very blinkered when a project is holding their attention absolute. The chauvinist language used is unfortunate - but at least it is followed up by Quentin's complete collapse when George is kidnapped. It was an abstract concept to him when someone else's family was at risk - easy enough then to scorn the idea of being so weak as to divulge state secrets for any reason, no matter the pressure, but a different matter entirely when it's his own family at stake. It's just a shame that the parallel between his very different reactions to the abstract and the actual isn't drawn out more strongly.

[Fiona1986]

I think the locked-in criminals were on at least the first floor as I remember Dick nearly twists his ankle tripping over the cat on the way back down the stairs.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Yes, the ciminals were on the first floor, and I think I remember reading that they wouldn't have chanced climbing out from the upstairs windows, just in case Timmy was lurking in the grounds. Can't remember if the Five actually said they'd leave Timmy on guard or not, so that would have been a deterent anyway!

[Poppy]

I have just finished Five Have Plenty of Fun and I have to say I very much enjoyed the book, despite it being quite similar to Five Fall into Adventure as well as a few other aspects of other plots in the Famous Five series, but in other elements, completely different. For a start Berta is has very characteristic and unique personality as an extra in this series; quite spoilt and annoying at first but she ends up being quite decent and brave. A very thrilling scene when she arrives in the middle of the night! It was also a good idea to dress her up as a boy, but of course, that caused upset with George, reminding me of Henrietta and her in Five Go to Mystery Moor. So the story moves on describing how Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin leave Kirrin Cottage for a business trip concerning Quentin's current work. Definitely similar how they are gotten out of the way in Five Fall into Adventure, and surely Aunt Fanny would question the fact a little more about leaving Berta with only the children and Joan - she was meant to be more or less in her care, afterall.
So the children and Berta - a child in clear danger of being kidnapped (!) are left with Joan, and by now they are aware somebody is mysteriously asking about them and spying from Kirrin Island on them. At this point, not remembering the outcome of the plot, I wondered if perhaps it might be Anne to get kidnapped in mistake for Berta; they seemed more alike in my point of view than George and Berta. Also, then it would have been less similar to Five Fall into Adventure with George being kidnapped, but then again, on second thoughts, Timmy would not have been to eager to 'follow Anne's trail' than his beloved mistresses; but otherwise, that might have been a better and more unique plotline. The Caravan mystery reminded me of The Mystery of the Missing Man and the house on the hill which George is taken to next reminded me of Owls Dene, yet slightly less characteristic, somehow. Very exciting when Julian and Dick go to find George in the dead of the night but then, the fact how Jo followed them an got them all out of a secondary problem is rather like Five Have A Wonderful Time . Overall, however, a brilliant book, if it wasn't so often very similar to an earlier happening in the series. Very much enjoyed it however - a great book and plot.

[Maggie Knows]

One hole in the plot is that however much they disguise Bertha, they still leave her in the company of her toy poodle !

I think one of my favourite parts is the figuring out the location of the enemy house by phoning around the garages and hotels. It was reminiscent of the Three Investigators I thought or, maybe, the Secret Seven.

It's not very often that the Five have to do some proper sleuthing, more's the pity.

[Julie2owlsdene]

It's not very often that the Five have to do some proper sleuthing, more's the pity.

This is true, the Five normally have adventures that don't really require sleuthing as such.

[Poppy]

One hole in the plot is that however much they disguise Bertha, they still leave her in the company of her toy poodle !

I think one of my favourite parts is the figuring out the location of the enemy house by phoning around the garages and hotels. It was reminiscent of the Three Investigators I thought or, maybe, the Secret Seven.

It's not very often that the Five have to do some proper sleuthing, more's the pity.

Um - isn't it Berta? You've been referring to Bertha throughout this thread which is puzzling me, slightly... I do agree with your point, however, it was very silly to let Berta keep the poodle - a fact that would have definitely tested the kidnappers suspicions if they were lurking near... There can't have been that many toy poodles in quiet old Kirrin; afterall Berta firmly suggests her dog cost a lot money in conversation at one point.

I enjoyed the detective work with ringing round the garages in order to track the car, too. Similar to how the Find-Outers would tackle that case, I'm sure, though I think my favourite scene was when Berta arrived in the middle of the night. Though it brought flooding back a lot of George's childishness and jealousy, it was a very thrilling and exciting point. I can imagine every detail; Enid describes it brilliantly.

[Maggie Knows]

Yeah sorry, Berta...no, Lesley...no, Jane...er...

[Lenoir]

It's funny, but I also thought of her as Bertha for some reason!

I like the humour in this book – Uncle Quentin forgetting Berta’s name and when he eventually gets it into his head he finds that it’s no longer her name!

What really sets it apart is the way the Americans are portrayed. Often, Americans and other foreigners don’t come across in a very positive light.
But Mr Wright is different: he is loud, but he is also genial and friendly and the children warm to him, especially Anne.

At first it seems as if Berta is going to be another “typical feeble foreigner” who probably can’t swim, etc. But no!
It’s only natural that she was a bit shaky at first of course, having being spirited into Kirrin Cottage in the middle of the night in a trip that involved a beach landing. Suddenly finding herself with people she had never seen before must have been unnerving as well, especially as George wasn’t exactly nice to her and her dog. But she pulled herself together with a bit of encouragement from Julian.

It then turns out that she is a fine swimmer and can swim far out with the boys. And George couldn't catch her in the water, which is quite a feat as she is younger than George, who is a strong swimmer as well. It’s quite surprising that Enid Blyton made this American girl get the better of George in this way, a character she based on herself.