The Enid Blyton Society

The famous five series has always been my favourite books since I was a kid in the 70's and I currently have 3 different set's of them,i read all the secret seven books as a kid but don't remember much about them,would they be worth buying again as I can get the full new new very cheaply.

Also what other series of books by Enid would folks recommend,mystery and adventure books were always my favourite.

Regards.........

I'd definitely recommend the Mystery series (15 Five Find-Outers and Dog books), Fred. Even if you've read them before, they are well worth reading again.

To ease yourself from Famous Five to another series, I'd recommend the Barney Mysteries.

I recommend Adventure series, Five Find-Outers series and Barney series.

The natural progression for me from the Famous Five books was the Adventure series. But, as others have said, the Find Outers and Barney Mysteries are equally as good.

Like others, I'd particularly recommend the Adventure, Barney and Find-Outers series.

Freddy Strang wrote:...i read all the secret seven books as a kid but don't remember much about them,would they be worth buying again as I can get the full new new very cheaply.

I can never resist reacquainting myself with childhood books, if I get the chance. The Secret Seven books have some very enjoyable elements although they're clearly aimed at younger readers so the mysteries are not too complex and the characterisation isn't as strong. I've always loved the cosy shed, the night-time sleuthing and the various tasks the children do, like looking for clues and shadowing people. For me, part of the enjoyment lies in revisiting the editions I had as a child so I'm not sure whether a brand new set would feel quite the same - though of course I'd rather have any copies than none at all.

I always loved The Secret Seven as a child and read many more of them than The Famous Five back then. I find them interesting as a series, mainly because they are probably the one series that I enjoy less as an adult. I still enjoy them, but I've come to realise that much of the detail in them was created in my own imagination and wasn't actually written in the text! I seemed to furnish the stories with many details - as Anita said, the cosiness of the shed, the crisp autumn days, smelling of wood smoke and dry leaves, the mysteries that seemed to stretch out through many days, furnished with many dangers. Although all these are still evident in the stories, somehow I seemed to have created much more detail in my own mind as a child than what is really there!

Freddy Strang wrote: Also what other series of books by Enid would folks recommend,mystery and adventure books were always my favourite.

Regards.........

Freddy, here's six books by Enid Blyton I really enjoyed reading when I was young.They are still among my favorites today.
It may give you a starting point to explore her other series/stories and see which ones you like:


..
..
..

I have re-read these books many times and never tire of them.Hope this short list gives you some possible choices for your next purchases.
All these books can be read and enjoyed as standalone stories without interfering with the series of books they are from.

Regards

Pete

(I'm sure others here could easily recommend different but equally good choices for you to consider too.)

I strongly agree with Pete's suggestion. They are strong entries in each series and stand alone novel. I would like to add The Boy Next Door, a one-off novel next to The Treasure Hunters.

I also love practically all the books on Pete's list, though I'm not as keen on The Treasure Hunters as I am on the others.

Regarding The Rubadub Mystery, I wouldn't recommend that people read it until after they've read The Rockingdown Mystery, The Rilloby Fair Mystery and The Ring O' Bells Mystery (in that order). The Rubadub Mystery was actually the first Barney title I read as a child (in the edition shown in Pete's post) but I wished I'd come to the books in order as there's a thread running through the first four volumes which is slightly spoilt by starting with Rubadub.

Great choice, Pete - although I confess that the only one of those I actually read as a child was the Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage! All the other titles I didn't come across until I was in my mid to late 20's! I feel quite ashamed to admit that!

Rob, I was over 30 when I first discovered the Adventure series — and it immediately became my favourite of all time and the one I'd most highly recommend to anyone — so don't feel ashamed!!

I'm pleased to have come across a number of Enid Blyton books for the first time as an adult, including some that gripped me so much I found them hard to put down (e.g. The Land of Far-Beyond, House-at-the-Corner, The Put-Em-Rights and some nature books and short stories). If I'd read everything as a child, I'd always wonder whether my deep appreciation of Enid Blyton was mainly a matter of nostalgia. However, I know it's more than that because, like Courtenay, I've found that some of the books I only discovered as an adult have become firm favourites.

Same here. Many of those I class as favourites, I read for the first time as an adult - the Rubadub Mystery, The Secret Mountain, The Sea of Adventure, The Circus of Adventure, House At The Corner, the Put-Em-Rights, The Mystery of the Strange Messages, and quite a few others!

There aren't many Blyton's I came to as an adult that I hadn't hunted down in my youth.
Two I read as an adult that I enjoyed for the first time were Spiggy Holes and The Secret Island..

Don't quite know how I didn't get them when I was a child,but it was great to find Blyton's that I had never read before!