Five on a Secret Trail: a Missed Opportunity?

[timv]

The members of the Famous Five were presumably carefully 'balanced' by Enid to appeal to both boys and girls, with two members of either sex - plus a dog for animal-lovers. This was presumably due to the success of the 'two of each' group in the Secret books, beginning in 1938, and after the first Five book (pub 1942) Enid was shortly to create another group of four, two of each sex - the Trents and the Mannerings in the Adventure series, with Dinah as a sort of grumpy and feisty tomboy like George and Lucy-Ann as more conventional like Anne. At around the same time Malcolm Saville was creating the slightly different dynamic of the initial core Lone Piners group - two boys (David and Tom) plus one girl (Peter/ Petronella - any influence on her boyishness from George Kirrin??) and a younger pair of twins (one boy Dickie, one girl Mary) for the younger readers. Mystery at Witchend was probably written 1941/2; then MS added another girl (Jenny) to match Peter in Book 2 (Seven White Gates), J being working-class to 'balance' private-school educated Peter as working-class school-leaver Tom balanced private-school-educated David . Then the extra pair of Jon and Penny Warrender followed for Book 3, The Gay Dolphin Adventure, in 1945. Later on (Book Ten, Lone Pine London) Harriet Sparrow , another junior, appeared. But Enid tended to introduce all the 'core group' at once, and even MS only once dared to cut his 'cast list' to the three Mortons alone (Book 13, Sea Witch Comes Home).

Quite apart from Malcolm Saville having a bigger 'cast' plus a group that did not refer to its members in its name, unlike the 'Five' books, I don't think Enid would have risked playing around with her 'core cast' by leaving people out, probably in case it put expectant fans off! All her series books seem as far as I can recall to feature the full 'cast' in each episode, except Sally's absence from part of Book 3 of Malory Towers. The habit that Enid followed in the Find Outers books of not putting the non-essential 'supporting' characters into more than one book though geographically the non-core characters did live near the 'main cast' (so they could be added if needed ) seems to follow the pattern in classic detective novels. The locals and the personal friends of Miss Marple and Poirot in Agatha Christie's books very rarely appear in more than one episode, except for close allies and the local detectives, and Arthur Conan Doyle kept his 'recurring characters' in the Sherlock Holmes stories to a minimum. Even SH's brother Mycroft only appears twice in 50-odd stories. This reduced 'cast list' is also characteristic of 1920-30s comics; were the publishers scared of confusing readers who had only read one or two of the series by making the story more complicated?

[Chrissie777]

I often decry this book at one of the worst in the series and, while I am not fundamentally changing my opinion, I was pleasantly surprised that it was much more enjoyable than I was expecting.


For me "Mystery Moor", "Caravan", "Camp", Finniston Farm" and "Billycock Hill" are by far the worst in the FF series.


Probably the first thing to say is that there is quite a lot that is novel about this book, and given that book 14 is criticised for being a rehash of Book 9 (with a bit of Book 8 thrown in) this has to be a good thing. So, we have George and Anne setting off by themselves, and we don't even see the boys again until about page 60 of my edition. So that's something different for a start.


I like "Five Fall into Adventure" and "Five get into Trouble", but never noticed any similarities between these three books (not even between "Fall into Adventure" and "Trouble").


The weird happenings on the moor at night outside the spooky cottage are interesting and well-described, and I found the scene where the villainess turns up in disguise to be a bit disquieting: maybe because the illustration makes the female character look a bit like the Woman in Black (original TV version, not the recent movie)...

Finally the boys turn up, and the adventure really gets going. However, where I think the author gets it wrong is when it turns into yet another stolen scientific secrets caper. There's a lot that is unsatisfactory about this: how on earth does the main villain (Paul) even know about these tunnels and underground hiding places, when even the archaeologists digging the site didn't find them ? And how come Quentin doesn't even know the blueprints are missing if he has the only other copy in existence ?

So, the Five join in with the twins and try and solve the clues that lead to the identification of the hiding place (no tunnels please, just an interesting hidey place). What we would have then is something akin to the 2nd story, where they are trying to make head and tail of obscure clues, but this time no Mr Roland to do the translation.

OK, all of this is still borrowing some elements from other plots, but at least the Five would have to use their brains, and it would get us away from another stolen secrets rehash....

"Five on a Secret Trail" was my very first FF book (and first EB book) which I read in the fall of 1965.
As I hadn't read any story on twins in other children's books before or on secret tunnels, both story lines just blew me away as a child.
The description of the Kirrin Common is one of the best descriptions I've read in any children's book.
For me this book is one of the best in the series even though I'm aware that most forumites consider it the weakest or one of the weaker ones.

[Chrissie777]

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...)

I think as a child reader that just wouldn't have entered my head, and reading it as a child, it didn't. I didn't question the plot at all!

Me neither!

[Chrissie777]

I'll tell you what I did enjoy when I read the book for the very first time;the fact that the Five could walk or cycle to camp from their own front door!
Did anyone else envy them that?

Yes, I did!

[Chrissie777]

To Enid's credit, mind you, it is extremely difficult for any author to maintain a consistent standard of plot quality and originality throughout a long series of books. I can't think of very many authors who've managed it even over six books, let alone twelve or more, so I would say Enid did incredibly well to keep up the high quality for as long as she did!

I've read a few series like the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes and she certainly couldn't keep it suspenseful in the long run. After the first 5 or 6 books it became boring.

However, Peter Robinson is/was capable of keeping up a high standard in his Alan Banks series.

Since 1988 I'm friends with an author who lives on the isle of Nantucket here in Massachusetts.
In the 1980's she wrote wonderful novels for women which had a lot of depth and protagonists to identify with. Then one of her books which took place on Nantucket, turned out to be more successful than the others. From that point on her publisher demanded from her to write Nantucket novels only.
Every year she publishes another Nantucket novel and I must say that they are not nearly as good as her first 5 or 6 books where she had differing locations.
It would probably help if she had 2 years in-between two novels, but her publisher pressures her into writing one novel per year plus a Christmas story on top of it.
Sadly I have to admit that I stopped buying her books.

[Chrissie777]

The absurd immaturity of Henry and George spoiled the story for me, too. Maybe we could re-write it and leave Henry out?!

Same here!
I never read it a second time.

[Chrissie777]

I remember really enjoying 'secret Trail' as a youngster of about 10 or 11 reading it back in around '71 - Armada paperback - they were always a treat, an event, when I was able to get a new one! I didn't read the FF books in any sort of order back then, it was whatever was available at Woolies or Smiths at the time, except that i know that I DID start the FF series with 'Treasure Island'!
As I was reading these out of order - may have read the final book before this one for all I can remember - I really didn't notice any dips in quality between books! Besides, I wasn't really equiped back then to be a more discerning critic back then; I enjoyed them purely for the adventure, the camping-out and scenic aspects of the books. This one ('Secret Trail') ticked all the boxes for me back then, and I'm afraid it's difficult for me to read these nowadays without suddenly losing 40-odd years and I find myself appreciating them with the same childish relish that I had back then!!
I think I mentally switch ages depending on books I read!
I enjoyed it back then, and still do.... I'll try and give it another go with a more adult-head on soon...

I fell exactly the same. Thank you, yarvelling!
Last year I re-read "Secret Trail" and it catapulted me right back into my childhood.

[Chrissie777]

I need to get more observant! I didn't notice the illustration or the hyphen use. Looking back over the text just now though, I see there is a big use of hyphens on quite a few words that are doubtful!

In old novels from the 1930's the word "tomorrow" was still written "to-morrow".

[Chrissie777]

When I was in Poole this march, I spent several hours in the Durlston Country Park. There were a lots of gorse bushes around. There it wouldn't have been a problem to hide 4 children and a dog. Although I don't know if it would have been one bush or 2 or more together.
If you enter gorse bush in google and go to pictures you will find some bushes you could have them hide in. Or at least this is my opinion.

Two years ago my husband played golf in St. Andrews, Scotland. There were lots of huge gorse bushes on the course.

[Chrissie777]

I've often wondered how the Five managed it with such ease as their so painfully prickly! it's bad enough getting pricked to bits trying to retrieve my dog's ball from them never mind squeezing into or under one .

I think they wrapped themselves in blankets/rugs, before they attempted to get in the center of the gorse bush.

[Lucky Star]

I think they wrapped themselves in blankets/rugs, before they attempted to get in the center of the gorse bush.

I still think Enid was indulging in some artistic licence when she wrote a lot of her character's sleeping arrangements. Most people who have any experience of camping have said it's impractical to sleep in heather and gorse.

[StephenC]

I recently reread both Plenty Of Fun, and Secret Trail, and while I have readjusted upwards, my opinion of Plenty Of Fun, my opinion of Secret Trail, remains the same. I once again found it disappointing and lacklustre. The twins were annoying, the crooks unbelievably incompetent, and the plot a bit thin of substance. The lack of strong support characters, is a considerable flaw, in my opinion. Mystery Moor had Henry and William, and Plenty of Fun had Berta and Jo, four solid support characters. For me, Secret Trail remains an aberration in the sequence of FF books that ran from Get Into Trouble (the first great FF book), to Get Into A FIx (the last great FF book).

[Nair Snehalatha]

All Enid Blyton's books make wonderful.reading, each in its own way.We become one with the characters, and.have a great time-- the beauty of the story makes up for the little flaws.if there are any

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[dsr]

The odd thing about bracken, heather, gorse (or who knows maybe holly, thistles or nettles) as bedding is - why bother? I'm 56 and I wouldn't fancy sleeping on the floor now. But when I was Famous Five age, or perhaps only a year or two younger, it was an occasional treat for the four of us to be allowed to sleep in sleeping bags in the corridor. Please don't ask me why! But at that age, sleeping on the floor was no hardship.

[Hannah]

If I recall correctly there are occasions where our adventurers sleep simply on a rug - so a bed made of heather would probably be very comfortable in comparison .

I agree with dsr though that things change . Until I was around 25 oder maybe even 30 I didn't mind sleeping on camping mat. But the last two or three times I tried where bad. I'd need at least a thick air matress or a camp bed.