Five Go To Demon's Rocks

[IceMaiden]

That sounds like a superb day out Anita, especially if the weather's good. It's a lovely place isn't it? I remember going down all those steps to it and counting each one as I went to see if there really was 400 as it said . They seemed to go on forever and it felt like I was walking to the depths of the earth!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, it's an amazing place. We also had to walk across a swaying suspension bridge which some people found terrifying, but I loved it as it added to the feeling of adventure!

[IceMaiden]

Ah yes the swaying bridge! It took me ages to pluck up enough courage to walk on that as I was convinced it would suddenly break as I got to the middle!

[Katharine]

I've just started reading this book, which I seem to remember that I quite enjoyed as a child. Just a couple of chapters in, and I'm amazed at how many mistakes there are which I don't recall noticing before.

It starts with Uncle Quentin calling to Aunt Fanny to tell her that he's just received a letter from Professor Hayling to say he's coming to stay that day, and not in a week's time as originally arranged. However, in the next chapter Joanna tells the children that the professor had telephoned that morning to say he was coming.

The next mistake is Aunt Fanny's location. On page one she is dusting in a bedroom, but on the next page she "hurried up the stairs to get the rooms for the four cousins ready". I suppose it's possible there could have been a bedroom on the ground floor, or that the bedroom she was in was on the first floor and there was another floor above that which the children slept on, however I don't recall the house being that big from previous books, plus it doesn't tie in with the boys offering to sleep in the loft a few pages on.

Finally there is the description of the guest room. Firstly Aunt Fanny says the boys will sleep there as usual, but then she says that the professor can sleep there and they can make up a couch for Tinker. So does that mean that Julian and Dick normally share a double bed? Not something I remember from previous books, surely they slept in separate twin beds, and if so, why can't Tinker sleep in one and his father in the other?

Minor quibbles I know, and I know Enid Blyton didn't pay too much attempt to minor details as she was so busy dashing off her exciting plots, but surely a proof reader should have picked up these discrepancies.

Just another couple of little points I noticed which puzzle me, firstly that the boys offer to sleep in 'the loft', I would have thought the word attic would have been used, secondly that Joanna is pushing the vacuum along the landing, it seems too modern an invention for an Enid Blyton book.

I'm also curious about an obvious update to the version I'm reading (1997) where Tinker mentions being a Ford Fiesta. A quick Google informs me that particular car didn't appear until the 1970's - a good decade or more after the book was written. I wonder what the original car was, or did Enid invent a car model which just happened to become a real one?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Ooh - I love these little quirks and inconsistencies! Good catch about Fanny going upstairs when she's already upstairs (Quentin had run upstairs to show her the letter). I hadn't noticed that before, Katharine. I'm not sure whether I'd spotted the writing/telephoning discrepancy, though it rings a faint bell (pun unintended!)

I do recall feeling puzzled about the sleeping arrangements. In Five Go Adventuring Again Mr. Roland stayed at Kirrin Cottage while Quentin and Fanny, Joan the cook and all four children were there (and didn't he also have the two "artists" locked in his bedroom with him for at least one night?) so I don't know why Professor Hayling and Tinker can't be accommodated without any trouble.

My edition is a 1970 paperback (Betty Maxey cover and Eileen Soper internals). Joan (not Joanna) pushes a carpet-sweeper up and down the landing (Chapter 1) and Tinker pretends to be a Bentley car (Chapter 3).

[Fiona1986]

Doesn't Joanna have the loft/attic bedroom? She has Jo sleep in there with her at one point, and Berta too.

Kirrin Cottage must be a soap house. You know, the kind that can accommodate as many family members and/or waifs and strays as required at any time.

[Katharine]

Doesn't Joanna have the loft/attic bedroom? She has Jo sleep in there with her at one point, and Berta too.

Good point. Maybe that's the difference though, Joanna sleeps in the attic, and the boys have to sleep in the loft which is above that?

Anita, good point about Mr Roland having a bedroom. Maybe after the tree crashed on the house in Smuggler's Top they reconfigured the house to make less rooms?

Thanks for the info about the carpet sweeper and Bentley. Can't understand why they didn't leave it as a Bentley. Actually, can't see why they had to change to a vacuum either, carpet sweepers are still available from places like Argos.

Also interesting to see the name change from Joan to Joanna.

[Aussie Sue]

Five go to demon's rocks was published 1961.
We can expect to find errors in all of her book from this time onwards.

After living with dementia (my husband) for 10 yrs and lots of research and study of dementia during that time I think it was astonishing how well Enid continued to write during this period and beyond. My husband was able to continue with his art & sculpture during the first few years but always had stumbling blocks during this time, suddenly not remembering what to do next, or how to do a particular thing that he normally did without thinking.

Enid died in 1968 so it is most likely she was starting to experience problems from about 1960, which she may or may not have been aware at the time, probably thinking she was bit tired today or something. So I'm not surprised that there are criticisms of anything published after this time.
But seeing these errors makes me love her writing all the more knowing even with these errors these books are still being read and loved, she was one special lady. Sadly those who want to find problems with her work would love finding these errors, instead of being amazed they are so good despite being written by some one starting to experience dementia.

cheers
Sue

[Boodi 2]

Enid died in 1968 so it is most likely she was starting to experience problems from about 1960, which she may or may not have been aware at the time, probably thinking she was bit tired today or something. So I'm not surprised that there are criticisms of anything published after this time.
But seeing these errors makes me love her writing all the more knowing even with these errors these books are still being read and loved, she was one special lady. Sadly those who want to find problems with her work would love finding these errors, instead of being amazed they are so good despite being written by some one starting to experience dementia.

Excellent point Sue, with which I fully agree. I am sorry to hear about your husband as I too have experience of caring for someone with dementia (in my case an elderly neighbour) and the rapid progression of the disease is absolutely frightening. Our neighbour lived alone and cared for herself without any problem until about four years ago, but at that stage we began to notice that something was wrong and her condition has now deterioriated to such an extent that she can no longer do even simple things and requires 24 hour care, so I have moved from being a "hands on" carer to coordinating the professional carers.

[Aussie Sue]

Boodi, How lucky that lady is to have you as her neighbour. What a special person you are.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's understandable that Enid Blyton made more mistakes when she began to suffer from dementia although it's not uncommon to find continuity errors in long-running series, especially when each title is typically written over the course of a week or even a few days (as was the case with Enid Blyton), with other unrelated books being written in between. Even in early Famous Five books we have the Alf/James and Joan/Joanna slip-ups, not to mention the Kirrin surname confusion and the suggestion that the mother of Julian, Dick and Anne is Fanny's sister (as well as their father being Quentin's brother). There are inconsistencies in Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine series too (e.g. a major character's eyes changing colour) and in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series (e.g. Bridget ages more quickly than her siblings). I find these little oddities quite fun and they don't prevent me enjoying the stories tremendously.

[Moonraker]

Well spotted, Katharine! I must say I have never noticed these slips. However, vacuum cleaners became popular after WWI, so it is not that strange that Fanny used one in 1961. Like Anita, I rather like these inconsistencies.

[Boodi 2]

Boodi, How lucky that lady is to have you as her neighbour. What a special person you are.

Thanks Sue, although I feel a bit guilty about the fact that I sometimes really resent the situation and ask myself why we became so involved, as it entails a huge amount of work and responsibility, especially when my husband and I were the main carers. Now that she has a professional live-in carer 24/7 it has become a bit easier and the risk of her burning the house down by forgetting to turn off the cooker or placing lighted candles too close to the curtains is greatly reduced.

[Katharine]

Well spotted, Katharine! I must say I have never noticed these slips. However, vacuum cleaners became popular after WWI, so it is not that strange that Fanny used one in 1961. Like Anita, I rather like these inconsistencies.

I'm fairly sure I never noticed the slips when reading the book before, don't know why I picked up on them this time around. I also don't know why I noticed the change from carpet sweeper to vacuum cleaner, perhaps it seemed too 'modern' for Enid Blyton to have put into her books. I think my childhood version is the same as Anita's, which is maybe why I noticed the change.

I'm afraid little inconsistencies do niggle me, not enough to spoil a whole book, but I do like things to make sense - I remember as a child trying to work out how old the Famous Five were and finding it puzzling that they would have been in their 20s by the end of the series. Obviously if Enid's slips in this book were to do with her dementia, then that's different from someone who just didn't check/proof read. I think I'd find something like the Lone Pine eye colour change in a major character very frustrating.

All that aside, I'm really enjoying the book so far. I love the humour of Tinker pretending to be a car - although I'm sure he'd drive me up the wall after half an hour if I had to live with him. Little comments such as he had to pinch one of Joanna's buns because he couldn't get petrol, and pretending to be a bicycle but even making that noisy by pretending to ring the bell add a great atmosphere to the story.

I loved the scene where Joanna accidently throws a cup of water over Uncle Quentin, and Mischief targets everyone with raisins.

I can also feel the thrill the children must have felt at the idea of going to live in a lighthouse for a few days.

The chapter I've just finished ends with a typical Enid comment where she says something along the lines of how they shouldn't speak too soon about not having an adventure. That is one thing I've always enjoyed about her books, the way she often included the reader, it makes it feel very personal.

[pete9012S]

I know being a lover of the Betty Maxey editions I have no freedom of speech, but may I ask Katharine why you are reading such a modern version of Demons Rocks?