The Famous Five

[author3]

I know people normally reject the works of Enid Blyton these days
But has anyone else read the amazing Famous Five series
The series consists of 21 books
And features five main characters (surprise,surprise) Julian,Dick,Anne,George and Timmy the dog
I would highly recommend this series as it is most lkely my third favorite ever written ( my first being Discworld and second being Redwall )

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Nothing wrong with Enid - she's probably most people's intro into 'original' fantasy that wasn't Bros Grimm, Perrault or Andersen after all - Noddy had talking toys and dwarfs and Wishing Trees etc etc

FF and the Secret Seven are very much period series nowadays and positively unPC, but then so's Narnia and Tolkien too (in that most of the baddies are 'swarthy' men, the very worst of the orcs are all black and all the Elves are so pale-skinned they shine in the dark practically...) As for school adventures well she didn't do a magic one, but Mallory Towers and St. Clares were pretty spiffy in their time, if a bit upper crust

 

[author3]

I tried to read the St Clares books but thought they were so boring
I don't really like the Secret Seven either
But Famous Five and Five Find-Outers are brilliant

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

St. Clares was terribly dated even when I was a kid but it was fascinating to me to read about the children of rich parents working out 'in the colonies' shoved into boarding schools and playing lacrosse all the time - all very snooty and remote until I found out that lacrosse was originally played by Native Americans (not a million miles from Quidditch actually but without the flying of course) and I wished I could go to boarding school after that I suppose it was a bit like Vogue for kids in a way

 

[author3]

I used to want to go to boarding school as well until I found out I'd have to go to horrible one my dad went to so I quickly changed my mind

 

[Selkie]

I've read a few Blytons - Famous Fives, Secret Sevens, Mallory Towers but my favourites were the Adventure books - Island of Adventure, Castle of Adventure etc. I loved the Mallory Towers books until I found the Chalet School series by Elinor Brent-Dyer. I did sort of go to boarding school when I was 14 and it was nothing like what I expected from the books. Then again, this was in the 80's rather than the 30's and 40's.

 

[Tonyblack]

I had a few Blytons when I was a kid, but none of the Famous Five or Secret Seven. I did have some of her Brer Rabbit books though. I loved those.

 

[author3]

I used to have to loads of her books all The Famous Five (obviously)
all The Secret Seven all The Adventure books all the Five Find-Outers
and I had one Brer Rabbit book
But when I was about 10 I idiotically gave them all away to a second hand shop
So at the moment I'm building up my old collection of Famous Five's and Five Find-Outers but I probably won't be collecting the Adventure or The Secret Seven books again

 

[pip]

I used to have to loads of her books all The Famous Five (obviously)
all The Secret Seven all The Adventure books all the Five Find-Outers
and I had one Brer Rabbit book
But when I was about 10 I idiotically gave them all away to a second hand shop
So at the moment I'm building up my old collection of Famous Five's and Five Find-Outers but I probably won't be collecting the Adventure or The Secret Seven books again

My other half kept all hers and still has them now in her late twenties. Great collection to keep hold of.

 

[Dotsie]

I loved Enid Blyton as a kid, but I don't know if youngsters these days would be able to appreciate them. I loved all the above + The Naughtiest Girl books (also boarding school + lacrosse - ripper!).

I also loved the What Katy Did series by Susan Coolidge - similar sort of stories but centred around one girl who had to overcome a serious illness.

 

[pip]

My neice is reading Malory Towers at the moment and loving them so the classics diehard

 

[author3]

Well last year they re-released all The Famous Five books by editing it for modern children

 

[Dotsie]

My neice is reading Malory Towers at the moment and loving them so the classics diehard

Excellent!

Well last year they re-released all The Famous Five books by editing it for modern children

Hmmm. Not sure about this one - Enid Blyton is Enid Blyton - it doesn't need updating - if it's updated, it's not Enid Blyton!

 

[Temple_maiden]

I read Malory Towers and the Famous Five books, and the Adventure series. And what was that circus one with a dog called Lucky? I read that too.

I did read St Clare's and it was OK, but not as good as Malory Towers.

I also read the Naughtiest Girl in the School series - I bought those recently for my 10yo daughter and she loved them.

Love the Katy Did series. When I got my iPhone I downloaded a shed-load of free books and found out there was another book called Clover - so I read that too.

 

[Dotsie]

And what was that circus one with a dog called Lucky? I read that too.

I think it was Mr Galliano's Circus. Reddit

Although I had issues with the fact that the kid wants to join the circus, so his parents just pack a few things and off they go. I had trouble getting my parents to anywhere but Scarborough on holiday

 

[deldaisy]

I read all the above books as a kid (fan of Katy too) and my oldest daughter loved them too... although she always had a lust for reading so was reading Asimov and Grimm and whatever else at the same age.

They all sounded so "English".

We knew kids that went to boarding school as kids; mainly the station owners children (fact of living in isolated towns out west.. and its still why kids out that way still board; though nowadays the gov funds the remote area kids boarding), though my father was very much against boarding school, so my older brothers and sisters had the choice of "correspondence school" or travel 3 hours each way. Some of the primary schools would have a bit of classroom for the high school students in class.

Tom Browns book left me in horror of English boarding schools.

What were those large books that were like an "Annual"? Loved those.

We played Lacrosse at school.... that and Vigaro; though mostl of the times it was on a dirt field not a lawn one. I always thought it was an "English" sport.

One of my favourite books as a child was an English book called "Bunchie". Tracked it down about 20 years ago but it was for sale in some little villiage in England (no internet).

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Here in Germany, there was once a line of youth books called the "Burg Schreckenstein" series in the 70s & 80s.
I think it was popular, but Iä#ve never met fans of it (although I do know they are out there, because there i a web site on the series out there.

It's about a part of a vboys-only boarding school which must go into a castle because the school rooms have become too small.
And the boys decide to transform themselves by adaping rules they believe the "Knights" of the castle would have had : Honesty, truth and honour (well, partly).

Needless to say that on the other side of the lake the castle stands next to there is a girls-only bording school, and both parties often meddle with one another by playing tricks on one another.

Unfortunately there doesn't exist any English-language Wikipedia entry (which surprises me a little bit, given that the series was somewhat popular at its time) - here is the German-language entry : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Schreckenstein
I assume that translation progams might be able to translate it (like the google translation program, for example).

 

[WannabeAngua]

I know people normally reject the works of Enid Blyton these days
But has anyone else read the amazing Famous Five series
The series consists of 21 books
And features five main characters (surprise,surprise) Julian,Dick,Anne,George and Timmy the dog
I would highly recommend this series as it is most lkely my third favorite ever written ( my first being Discworld and second being Redwall )

Yes, I haven't read all 21 but I enjoyed reading the Famous Five series when I was young. We used to be able to take books we really liked to school so the teacher could read them to the whole class. My friend and I brought Famous Five books, think he read us 3 or 4 of them.

 

[TiffanyAching]

I use to read those - they were the only Enid Blyton ones I liked, except for one about a walking snowman and no, it wasn't walking in the air

 

[Tonyblack]

Never read any Famous Five for some reason. The only Blyton books I remember reading were collections of stories and her version of the Brer Rabbit books.