Five on a Secret Trail: a Missed Opportunity?

[Rob Houghton]

Once again, I have to agree with Rob. Plenty Of Fun is definitely one of the better books in the latter half of the series. Going back to Secret Trail it would have been interesting to see how the story would have differed if Julian and Dick hadn't been involved. Malcolm Saville often left out key members of the Lone Piners in his books and I believe Secret Trail would have worked with only the girls and Timmy.

It would have been really interesting to see how the story worked with just the girls and Timmy. I think it would have worked well.

[Wolfgang]

I personally think it's annoying that George is so scared of the strange sounds and lights that she's willing to return to Kirrin Cottage until the boys arrived. In my opinion it's quite out of character, it would have worked as well if she had been determined to investigate things and the boys arrived in time to support her.

[Wolfgang]

There are only two sets of the blueprints in existence, so if one gets stolen that means there's only one set left. I would therefore have expected the author of the blueprints would have got in touch to ask that a copy be made or something so he can carry on working with them, or at least to warn Quentin make sure he doesn't lose them or destroy them by mistake (after all, his forgetfulness is legendary...)

Maybe he had forgotten that he was informed...

[pete9012S]

When I first read the book aged about nine I enjoyed all the build-up.I enjoyed learning what a 'ruff' was for the first time and I loved the fact that George could go and camp somewhere so nice right from her front door.

The boy seen in two places at once was a great plot device and I genuinely felt a bit 'frit' when the girls saw all the 'goings on' at night at the ruined cottage.

The parts of the book that puzzled me back then was the secret passage and why someone would even dream of leaving something so important in it. The entrances and exits to the secret passage along with the underground water in the passage also puzzled me.

This was one secret passage I just couldn't visualise in my minds eye for some strange reason.
I also found the blueprints and the fact that Uncle Quentin knew all about them a bit of a strange coincidence.

I decided to shrug all these problems off back then however and ploughed happily and eagerly into Five Go To Billycock Hill where normal service (to me at least) was immediately resumed!

[pete9012S]

Eileen Soper was a bit confused over Tim's collar. He was still wearing it in one illustration after it had been removed!

The illustration is just before they went into the gorse bush, and Timmy wouldn't fit with his collar, so they then removed it. From then on he wasn't wearing a collar in any illustration in my first edition.

Speaking of the gorse bush, (I'm reading this book at the minute) I'm surprised that all of them, including the dog can fit underneath the gorse bush! I've never really thought that they would be that big! I've even read in some of the Five books, the expression that - you can hide an army inside this gorse bush! Personally I always thought, even as a child. I don't think so!

Betty Maxey included loads of illustrations of Tim - with and without his collar:

http://share.pho.to/6PoSx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rob Houghton]

I love the picture of Anne and George hiding, and the man with the torch - he looks so ineffectual - who would be scared of him!?

[Nick]

Everything about this book annoys me. Another George strop, our heroes, usually so quick at solving puzzles, stumped by the twins, the gaping plot holes.
Gggrrrrrr..............

Well, I picked Secret Trail up yesterday for a quick reread and thoroughly enjoyed it. Having been on a Blyton hiatus of late, with the odd exception, a number of the repetitive plot points don’t seem as obvious and I found myself marvelling at the atmospheric cottage and Kirrin Common not to mention faces in windows and spooky lights.

Has anyone else changed their view on a book that they have previously not liked and now do?

[Nigel D]

No, not really. I can think of a couple that I used to really like but find less exiting now (Smugglers Top & Go To Camp, for example), but my feelings on the others have stayed fairly consistent

[kirstleecurry]

I had started an annual Dorset holiday - exploring Corfe, the Blue Pool, Studland etc, all "Enid" locations. I had always wondered about the Gorse bush thing, and after I went head over heels into one trying to avoid a cow pat, I had to seriously reevaluate the legitimacy of sheltering underneath one! They are lethal and truly evil things (they do smell nice though!)
That being said, whilst at the Blue Pool (apparent inspiration for Merran Lake) I certainly DID see bushes that would have made a suitable shelter for the FF... they were not however, Gorse Bushes!!!!! It's a weird thing I have whenever I go to Dorset on my hiking holidays, I examine every bush and every patch of heather and bracken for its suitability as an emergency camping spot!

[Lucky Star]

I think heather and bracken are too uncomfortable to be used as bedding. Enid may have been indulging in some wishful thinking when she created that idea.

Your Dorset holidays sound great though.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've read about heather and bracken beds elsewhere but Enid Blyton makes things sound simpler than they are in reality. In the first 'Young Sherlock Holmes' book by Andrew Lane (Death Cloud, 2010) there's a reference to bracken beds and it seems that a great deal of bracken is required per person: "Sherlock learned a lot about spending time in the wild, and not only surviving but prospering. Crowe even showed him how to make a comfortable bed by piling bracken up to shoulder height and then climbing on it and using his weight to squash it down to the thickness and softness of a mattress."

[Lucky Star]

Shoulder height?? It would take you all night to build your bed.

[Debbie]

And then you'd probably need to rebuild it every night.

After the amount they'd need on the Secret island they'd probably denude the island of heather and bracken fairly quickly.

[Moonraker]

Going back to Secret Trail it would have been interesting to see how the story would have differed if Julian and Dick hadn't been involved. Malcolm Saville often left out key members of the Lone Piners in his books and I believe Secret Trail would have worked with only the girls and Timmy.

Yes, that would have worked, but would have to have been a stand-alone and not part of the series, wouldn’t it? After all, it couldn’t be called Five on a Secret Trail.

[Wolfgang]

In that case I don't think it would have worked. The story would have ended with the girls returning to Kirrin Cottage without investigating any further.