Julie2owlsdene wrote:Another thing I noticed more this time, was when the children were in the cave and they got caught by the tide, Ben said I hope your mother won't be worried about you, and they replied that she was out tonight. I wondered where she would go? Especially as she was on her own. It's not as though there would be a cinema in the small cove?
I also wondered where the children's mother went. I thought she might have got to know another holidaymaker or a local (most likely a well-heeled one) and gone round to their place. When I read the book as a child, it never occurred to me to wonder what Mother got up to. Her job was to provide delicious meals and otherwise keep out of the way so the adventure could proceed unimpeded!
Lucky Star wrote:I could scarcely believe some of the attitudes towards safety that Enid displays. The children scramble up and down cliffs, get cut off by tides, attack a collapsing tunnel roof deep underground; it's a wonder they survived at all.
Granted this is Enid adding to the childish excitement of the story but what a collection of dangers she conjured up. I was also surprised at the mother being so casual about renting a boat for her kids to go to sea in. Given that they didn't know the coast and were unused to the sea I would have rated it a very foolish thing indeed to give them a boat.
Yes, some of their activities are most alarming to read about! I bet their mother went grey at an early age!
Lucky Star wrote:The "He's only a fisher boy" comment struck a jarring note for me too. It sounds extremely snobbish to me and I think it unfortunately reinforces the stereotype that Enid's characters were snobs and elitists.
Alec, Hilary and Frances do go on to befriend Ben though, and their mother is perfectly happy about that and even invites him round to the cottage. Since the children are given a boat between the four of them at the end of the book (which Ben will surely get to use more than the others, living permanently in the village!) I imagine that they'll keep in touch and meet up again from time to time.
Having said that, I'm always shocked at the fact that George doesn't go to school in
Five on a Treasure Island. There is no Second World War to interrupt youngsters' education in the world of the Famous Five and the children of the fisher-folk, farmers and shopkeepers must attend a school in or near Kirrin. Even though George spends a bit of time with Alf/James, it appears that it's unthinkable for her to go to school with the working class children of her community!
Courtenay wrote:I would say the story is almost certainly set in Cornwall — the shopkeeper, Ben's grandmother, is called Mrs Polsett, and although I'm not sure if that is a genuine Cornish surname, it certainly looks like an attempt to sound like one!
I've always remembered how Enid introduces us to the saying about "Tre, Pol and Pen" in
Five Go Down to the Sea, and sure enough, almost all the characters and place-names in that book live up to it.
Ah yes - well spotted, Courtenay! That would seem to confirm that the story is set in Cornwall.
Rob Houghton wrote:It's interesting that when I first 'met' Smuggler Ben (at the age of 12 or 13 the paperback omnibus was one of the last Enid Blyton books I read until I was 22) I hated it. I thought this book, and Cliff Castle, as well as St Rollos and Children of Kidillin, which I read all at the same age, were really weak. I didn't realise their history then, and presumed that Enid Blyton had 'lost her talent for writing'. After these two omnibuses I read 'The Mystery That Never Was' and my feelings were reinforced. I felt I'd outgrown Enid Blyton and didn't read another of her books for about 10 years.
The Mary Pollock books (along with a couple of other Blytons) were also among my last Blyton books as a child. I found the Collins 2-in-1 editions at a junior school Bring and Buy Sale when I was eleven -
Mystery Stories (
Cliff Castle and
Smuggler Ben),
Adventure Stories (
St. Rollo's and
Kidillin) and
Dog Stories (
Three Boys and a Circus and
Scamp). At the same sale I also picked up
The Boy Next Door and
The Treasure Hunters. I remember paying 5 p per book.
The Boy Next Door was the best of the lot but I found the others disappointing at the time. I only bought two more Blyton books after that -
The Adventure of the Strange Ruby and
The Mystery That Never Was, neither of which I liked much either. However, if I'd come across them at the age of eight I'm sure I'd have enjoyed them a lot more.