Five Have a Mystery to Solve

[Bertie]

Completely agree with a lot of the recent posts about the negatives of Five Have A Mystery To Solve.

I haven't read it, or Five Are Together Again, for a number of years as I always end at Demon's Rocks nowadays. I find the final two books depressing to read, as the overall standard is just so poor; and irritating, as there's annoying contradictions - the fact they can now just cycle over to each others homes rather than it being a day trip by car; Timmy seemingly suddenly not going to school with George, etc.

Either they were written by Enid when she was still just about capable of writing some form of a book - but a very poor, contradictory one. Or they were ghost written by others, maybe from Enid's earlier notes, and who made a poor attempt at it. Either way, they're an awful addition to the series and I tend to avoid them nowadays.

[Anita Bensoussane]

They were definitely written by Enid Blyton. I think Tony has (or at least has seen) the typescript of Five Are Together Again.

In her 1964 notebook, Enid Blyton wrote an entry to say that Hodder had asked her to write another Famous Five book. The notebook shows that another Secret Seven and another Noddy were also planned, and she'd even thought of titles for those (Noddy Goes to the Moon and Good Luck, Secret Seven). Enid would clearly have carried on writing if she could, but her poor health prevented her.

[Courtenay]

Naturally, I had no idea as a child that Enid Blyton was suffering from dementia by the time she wrote Five Have a Mystery to Solve. Now I do know, I still find it astonishing that the publishers don't appear to have gone through her books and edited them to any great extent!

Well, they have, but only to "update" the language and bowdlerise anything deemed politically incorrect, not to fix up consistency problems in her late works...

[Anita Bensoussane]

I meant that it's surprising they weren't edited at the time, in conjunction with Enid Blyton, before publication. I've seen typescripts sent to publishers by Jacqueline Wilson (in a Jacqueline Wilson exhibition) and they're littered with notes by editors asking her to do things like rewrite the opening of a book to make it more arresting, change the order of key events, rework the ending, etc. Enid Blyton's publishers barely seem to have read what she submitted!

[Debbie]

Some of the things could have been explained really quickly-maybe a comment from Julian about how nice it was they'd moved close enough to be able to cycle over for the day. I suspect George would have liked that less as it would have meant they stayed over less maybe!

When I first read (as a child) Five have a Mystery to Solve though, what really hit me was the place was real. I found that very exciting, and, for me, it made the story feel very real.

[Bertie]

I think the trouble was though, that they're just unintentional continuity errors, brought on by Enid writing so many books of different series that these errors do crop up from time to time and then exacerbated in later books by her dementia. So they wouldn't have been explained as I don't think they were conscious changes - just Enid forgetting that they're meant to live a whole days car journey away, George would only go to school if Timmy was allowed, etc. Instead, she's writing them like the Find-Outers, who cycle round to each others house, and Buster stays at home in term time (I do often wonder why there's no mention of how long Bets spends with Buster during those months - you'd think, seeing she's the only one who goes to a day school, that she'd spend ages with him in the absence of Fatty - especially at weekends - but it's never alluded to).

The trouble for me as a reader is that, even as a child, I was alert to continuity errors that, for me, breaks the spell of the believability of the little world that's been created. It's far from just Enid, obviously. All writers I'm sure make continuity errors - I've certainly noticed it with other authors I love. And on many TV shows.

A perfect example of a huge continuity mistake in a TV show i watch is As Time Goes By - the original premise being that his letter to her goes missing when he's in the army telling her his address, and they both assume the other didn't write and don't meet up for 30+ years until where the show starts. The actual opening credits of each episode are him writing the letter, starting 'Dear Jean...' And yet throughout the shows 9 series they change who writes that letter a number of times - often they have Jean (Judi Dench) saying "my letter to you didn't arrive" etc. It's on the credits of every episode for heaven's sake, how do they get that wrong so often!?

I guess it's one of those things that annoy some and not others. In my family and friends, there's probably roughly a 50-50 split for those who, like me, notice them and are irked by them, and those who don't really notice or care about them.

[Boodi 2]

Despite the various inconsistencies I always enjoyed Mystery to Solve, especially the atmosphere on the island.

[Courtenay]

I meant that it's surprising they weren't edited at the time, in conjunction with Enid Blyton, before publication. I've seen typescripts sent to publishers by Jacqueline Wilson (in a Jacqueline Wilson exhibition) and they're littered with notes by editors asking her to do things like rewrite the opening of a book to make it more arresting, change the order of key events, rework the ending, etc. Enid Blyton's publishers barely seem to have read what she submitted!

Maybe by the time she was writing her later books, her editors figured that anything with Enid Blyton's name on it was guaranteed to sell like hot cakes no matter what, so they didn't bother making the effort to read through it, let alone suggest changes??

[pete9012S]

Mystery To Solve and Finniston Farm are the two weakest Five books in my opinion..
However, the beloved Junior will forever have a special place in my heart.

*Doesn't run quite fast enough to escape John and receive a hefty rear end wallop!!*

[Inspector Jenks]

I will just add that amidst all of this criticism, the scene where Timmy almost choked, Wilfred saved him, and George reacted with “He says he belongs to both of us now. I’ll share him with you. You saved his life” was one of the most terrifying, moving and memorable moments in the entire series.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Maybe by the time she was writing her later books, her editors figured that anything with Enid Blyton's name on it was guaranteed to sell like hot cakes no matter what, so they didn't bother making the effort to read through it, let alone suggest changes??

It does seem that almost anything was accepted by the end, as far as the Famous Five books were concerned.

We know that Macmillan continued to read Enid Blyton's submissions with some thoroughness and even rejected The Mystery That Never Was outright rather than suggesting amendments, though Collins were happy to snap it up!

[Wolfgang]

Actually I like "together again" and "Finniston Farm", but I can't stand "Mystery to solve" - as it was mentioned too many actions violationg common sense.