Five Go Adventuring Again

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Deej92
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Deej92 »

Well spotted.
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Moonraker
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Moonraker »

Really annoying how Dawn French (George) refers to her father as Uncle Quentin. Maybe Deej wrote the script? :wink:
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Deej92
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Deej92 »

Moonraker wrote:Really annoying how Dawn French (George) refers to her father as Uncle Quentin. Maybe Deej wrote the script? :wink:
Trust you to think that :lol:!
Liam
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Liam »

Five Go Adventuring Again is one of my favorites. It’s the book which has the most emotional depth, where George’s moodiness is most genuine. I was quite moody as a kid, so I particularly related to this book. One day I’ll get around to putting the last sentence from the quote below as my signature:
George was full of mixed feelings. She disliked Mr. Roland so much now that she could hardly bear to look at him - and yet she did not dare to be openly rude and rebellious because she was afraid that if she was, the tutor would give her a bad report, and perhaps she would not be allowed even to see Timothy. It was very hard for a defiant nature like hers to force herself to behave properly.
To me it’s the most meaningful quote from the whole series. And the winter weather adds to the moodiness. Looking back at it now, I would have read this book for the first time around the time I was being tormented in my primary school, so that could explain my special attachment to it.
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Chrissie777
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Chrissie777 »

Deej92 wrote:Well spotted.
:wink:
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Chrissie777 »

Liam wrote:Five Go Adventuring Again is one of my favorites. It’s the book which has the most emotional depth, where George’s moodiness is most genuine. I was quite moody as a kid, so I particularly related to this book.
To me it’s the most meaningful quote from the whole series. And the winter weather adds to the moodiness. Looking back at it now, I would have read this book for the first time around the time I was being tormented in my primary school, so that could explain my special attachment to it.
It's a very compelling sequel.
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KEVP
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by KEVP »

Don't we know that George is an autobiographical character, i.e. based on Enid herself?
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Enid Blyton once told her literary agent, Rosica Colin, that George was based on herself - and it does seem that there are many elements of Enid's personality in George. According to her brother Hanly, Enid was a feisty, headstrong girl who could fly into a temper when provoked and who resented the fact that she was made to do housework while her brothers had more freedom.

However, in a Woman's Hour interview and in The Story of My Life Enid said that George was initially inspired by a girl she once knew. This is what she wrote in The Story of My Life:
George, who is in the Famous Five books, was also a real girl. You will remember that she is called Georgina but refuses to be called anything but George, because she so badly wants to be a boy. I think you must have felt she was real, because so often in your letters you say to me, "George is real, isn't she?"

Yes, George is real, but she is grown-up now. She had a dog, of course, and though he was like Timmy (the dog in the book) in character, the artist has not drawn him quite as he looked - but then, she had never seen him, so how could she?

The real George was short-haired, freckled, sturdy, and snub-nosed. She was bold and daring, hot-tempered and loyal. She was sulky, as George is, too, but she isn't now. We grow out of those failings - or we should! Do you like George? I do.
Enid could be recalling herself as a child, except for the fact that she didn't have a dog until she was an adult (unless she had an imaginary one, as Francis does in The Children at Green Meadows). So I can only conclude that George has characteristics of both the girl with the dog and Enid herself.
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by KEVP »

Technically, the excerpt from "The Story of My Life" doesn't say that the original George owned the dog while she was a child, so it is just possible Enid is indeed describing herself. . .
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by pete9012S »

Very interesting info Anita.Thank you.

Also,Barbara Stoney writes:
The Blyton children had never been allowed to keep pets – a deprivation which possibly accounted for Enid’s intense love of animals which remained with her all her life. She often recalled her sadness at parting from ‘Chippy’, a small, bedraggled kitten she had once found on a common near her home and kept secretly until it was eventually discovered and sent away, for Thomas was happy to see wild creatures in their natural surroundings but had little interest in those of the domestic variety and his wife even less.
Five On A Treasure Island:
...."I must go and get Timothy first," said George. She got up.
"Who's Timothy?" said Dick.
"Can you keep a secret?" asked George. "Nobody must know at home."
"Well, go on, what's the secret?" asked Julian. "You can tell us. We're not sneaks."


...She sat down on the sand and her dog cuddled up to her, licking her wherever he could find a bare piece of skin.
"I love him awfully," she said. "I found him out on the moors when he was just a pup, a year ago, and I took him home.

...."but the worst part of all was when Father said I couldn't keep Timothy any more, and Mother backed Father up and said Tim must go. I cried for days— and I never do cry, you know, because boys don't and I like to be like a boy."
" A kind heart always brings its own reward," said Mrs. Lee.
- The Christmas Tree Aeroplane -

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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

An interesting parallel, Pete. Enid must have been heartbroken when her parents sent Chippy away.
KEVP wrote:Technically, the excerpt from "The Story of My Life" doesn't say that the original George owned the dog while she was a child, so it is just possible Enid is indeed describing herself. . .
That's certainly possible. Enid would have realised that children would be eager to know whether the "real" George had a dog like Timmy, so she might have worded things ambiguously on purpose.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Rob Houghton
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Rob Houghton »

I've personally always read the passage from The Story Of My Life as Enid talking about herself in the third person. She may even be talking about herself as a young woman rather than as a child - when she became more independent and moved away from home. After all, she is only saying George is based on 'a girl' but she doesn't say how old the girl is, or when the girl had 'short hair' (I believe Enid's own hair was long until adulthood?) so I would presume Enid was indeed talking about herself as she saw herself as a young girl/woman, in quite an open and candid way.

Also, in The Story of My Life, the illustration of George and Timmy is right next to a photo of Enid with her dog - you can't get much more of a hint than that! :D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Chrissie777
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote:Also, in The Story of My Life, the illustration of George and Timmy is right next to a photo of Enid with her dog - you can't get much more of a hint than that! :D

Now you've made me curious, Rob!
Have to check out my copy of "The Story of my Life". :o
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by pete9012S »

Image

The picture for those that don't have the book.
" A kind heart always brings its own reward," said Mrs. Lee.
- The Christmas Tree Aeroplane -

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Rob Houghton
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Re: Five Go Adventuring Again

Post by Rob Houghton »

That's the one. And it happens to be the only photo in the section where she talks about her characters and if they were real or not! 8)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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