Famous Five Books

[Heather74]

Re: Famous Five Books

I read all of the Famous Five books over and over. Did you know they are on sale now with the original Eileen Soper illustrations in them -Smiths, Waterstones etc - as well as in more "modern" covers.

Geek fact - in the very first book, Julian Dick and Anne's mum is referred to as "Mrs Barnard". In a later book - ("Five on Finniston Farm" I believe, though I could be wrong), Julian introduces the group by saying "we're the Kirrins".

I devoured tons of Enid Blyton as a child - Five, Secret Seven, the Mystery stories (with Fatty, Lawrence, Pip, Little Bets, another girl and Buster the dog, enemies of PC Goon), the Adventure series (Mountain of Adventure, River of Adventure etc), St Clares, Mallory Towers, etc etc.

One recurring theme I never liked though was the dubious moral that poorer kids shouldn't suck up to rich kids, who will tolerate them kindly but don't really want them around. This was never more blatant than in The Put 'Em Rights, a one-off tale about a group of do-gooding kids who went round trying to interfere with and sort out the lives of people who didn't really want to be helped. You could always tell who the "undesirable" kids were because they said "Garn!" a lot. See also Six Bad Boys.

Kirrin is George's Family name, I think "Uncle" Quentin is the childrens mothers brother and she married.

Edit... after some research I see Quentin is actually the childrens Fathers brother.

Wiki
Note - There is debate about whether Julian, Dick and Anne share George's surname of Kirrin (as shown in Five on Finniston Farm), which would imply that their father was brother to Uncle Quentin, or whether their surname is Barnard (as their mother is referred to as "Mrs Barnard" in Five Get into a Fix).

[mazzer]

Re: Famous Five Books

Discrepancies? Plot holes? Enid Blyton was obviously the George Lucas of her day!

[mazzer]

Re: Famous Five Books

Just to throw something else into the mix, am I correct in thinking that Kirrin Island belonged to George via her mother's family? I which event Aunt Fanny's MAIDEN name would have been Kirrin, so what is Uncle Quentin's and George's surname? I guess if Quentin was brother to the others' dad, then Quentin and George should also be Barnards!
I could be wrong in my recollection, need to revisit Five On A Treasure Island to clarify.

[Richard1978]

Re: Famous Five Books

I read 1 or 2 when I was younger, & at primary school we had some talking books on them.

[HG]

Re: Famous Five Books

Just to throw something else into the mix, am I correct in thinking that Kirrin Island belonged to George via her mother's family? I which event Aunt Fanny's MAIDEN name would have been Kirrin, so what is Uncle Quentin's and George's surname? I guess if Quentin was brother to the others' dad, then Quentin and George should also be Barnards!
I could be wrong in my recollection, need to revisit Five On A Treasure Island to clarify.

George was definitely known as George Kirrin.

The Enid Blyton Society has lots of information on the books.

[ann22]

Re: Famous Five Books

This was never more blatant than in The Put 'Em Rights, a one-off tale about a group of do-gooding kids who went round trying to interfere with and sort out the lives of people who didn't really want to be helped. You could always tell who the "undesirable" kids were because they said "Garn!" a lot. See also Six Bad Boys.

I've a memory of an Enid Blyton book about a group of kids trying to do good deeds. I wonder was it 'The Put 'Em Rights'? The only good deed I remember was one of the groups a lazy girl, came across a lazy woman who had a rotten dirty house and a manky baby in a cot. The young one managed to clean up the house and baby and sort the mother out. Think the father was in the army or something...would that be the same book Mazzer?
I loved the Famous Five books too. They were always off 'bicycling' down to the beach to have picnics...what a pack of savages they were...everywhere they went they stuffed themselves...and always saying things like 'Golly, you're marvellous Julian, how strong and brave you are..not like meek little Ann....what a jolly gay day we're having! I jolly well hope Aunt Fanny has something nice for us for tea! We simply must bicycle as fast as we can, we haven't eating in a whole hour!'

[mazzer]

Re: Famous Five Books

Yup, that was the Put 'Em Rights alright! The working-class kid who'd blagged his way into the "nice" gang got soup poured all over him by an irate housewife because she found out her brood were being patronised by the gang who thought the dad of the family was in prison. Turned out it was the working class kid's OWN dad who was the jailbird!
Also, they tried to help a family who had a son who was mentally deficient in some way - he nicked a bicycle and the landlord was turning them out of their home. One of the posh kids had a surgeon dad and wanted to get him to help the boy, turned out surgeon dad was the unfeeling landlord!!!! (The dad of the mentally ill boy had taken the rap for his son instead of coming clean and saying the lad couldn't help it)