Famous Five

James M Sandbrook

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Among the most popular works of Enid Blyton, said to be one of the greatest children's authors of all time, was her series

The Famous Five.

The Famous Five stories are adventure books for children aged about six years and up. The stories are easy to follow but it's usually not easy to predict whats going to happen at the end, which children of this age range admire greatly.

The beginnings usually start with the Five getting together again, meeting at the train station as they come back from boarding school, planning what to do for the "hols" (school holidays). It may be reasonable to mention here that it would not be a good example of the Famous Five should they endeavour to find adventure separately while in school. Then we get involved in their holiday as they enjoy swimming and walks, until, out of no-where springs an adventure which begins slowly, then quickens to full blown excitement.

The series revolves around a group of fun children that anybody could easily relate to.

Their friendship is close-knit, and a perfect example of true friendship and loyalty to each other.

The eldest is Julian. A tall, fair, good-looking boy with twinkling eyes and a firm jaw. He is very responsible and reassuring, even to adults.

Next is Dick. A personal favourite of mine for his boyishness and fun, but he is still as practical as Julian. He and Julian are very good at getting out of scraps, and when a situation is too risky for the boys to want the girls to get into, Dick and Julian walk straight into it (this certainly does not exclude the girls from the adventures, as they are almost always trapped together).

Anne is the sister of Julian and Dick. She is not so keen on adventures as her relations, she likes to keep house and be good, and is really rather sweet. But she is not without a bit of spunk as we all learn by reading the series.

George is the cousin of Julian, Dick and Anne. She is an only child who lives at Kirrin with her mother (known as Aunt Fanny) and her Scientist father (Uncle Quentin). And yes, I did say she. George has always wanted to be a boy, but as she was born a girl the next best thing was to become a Tom-boy. She wears boys clothes, has her dark curly hair boy-short and acts like a boy in everything she does. She can swim and run and climb as fast as any boy, and takes great pride in it. Her real name is Georgina, but she won't answer if you call her that, so remember to call her George.

The last member of the Famous Five is a fun loving chap, he has the loveliest eyes and wears a lovely coat and loves to be petted. Yes, he's a dog, and his name is Timothy, or, more popularly, Timmy. George found him a few years back as a young mongrel roaming the moors and brought him home. Now he's as much a family member as any of the other Four, and he comes in very useful in their adventures. Thus we have the main characters of 'The Famous Five'.

The only other characters that are constantly in most of the adventures are Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin and Joanna. Joanna is Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin's cook, and a jolly woman who is a very good cook indeed.

Aunt Fanny is a lovely woman, who has ultimate patience for her forgetful, but brilliant minded husband and 'The Five'. Uncle Quentin is a world famous Scientist, which makes for an adventure or two. He is very bad tempered and hates the slightest noise, which often drives the Five out of doors.

Other characters are the bad guys, and usually one or two extra children are added into the adventure, such as wild Jo, Berta the American, Toby and Benny, and many other chaps.

There are a total of twenty one brilliant stories for Famous Five fans to read.

These are:

1 Five On Treasure Island

2 Five Go Adventuring Again

3 Five Run Away Together

4 Five Go To Smuggler's Top

5 Five Go Off In A Caravan

6 Five On Kirrin Island Again

7 Five Go Off To Camp

8 Five Get Into Trouble

9 Five Fall Into Adventure

10 Five On A Hike Together

11 Five Have A Wonderful Time

12 Five Go Down To The Sea

13 Five Go To Mystery Moor

14 Five Have Plenty Of Fun

15 Five On A Secret Trail

16 Five Go To Billycock Hill

17 Five Get Into A Fix

18 Five On Finniston Farm

19 Five Go To Demon's Rocks

20 Five Have A Mystery To Solve

21 Five Are Together Again

Now, I'd like to take one of Enid Blytons Famous Five stories and review it. So, here is:

Five Have A Wonderful Time

This story starts with the fiery George getting impatient to go and join "the others", meaning Julian, Dick and Anne, at their camping place.

George has always done what she liked, including bathing in the sea in April, and now she has caught a cold from it and is perfectly miserable at missing the fun of two weeks of holidays.

Julian and Dick have arranged to rent two caravans off a school friend from their boys boarding school, and now they are living in them out in some fields by Faynights Castle with Anne, waiting for George and Timmy.

The first sign of an adventure pops up when Julian rings the Kirrin family and asks if Uncle Quentin is alright, as two scientists have gone missing. But Uncle Quentin is just fine, until he hears the name of one of the missing scientists and realises he knew him. Quentin is quite sure that his scientist friend would not traitorously sell his secrets to some country, so he sets off to London to tell this to the necessary authorities.

When poor George finally does get to meet up with the others, they get some interesting visitors.

They're a group of fair-folk. There's a snake charmer and a man who bounces about like Indian Rubber, a Fire-Eater, and a man called Buffalo whos an expert with the whip, and many more intriguing people.

Unfortunately, the fair-folk don't get on with the Five, and take some measures to remove the Five from the field that they have set up camp in. Julian and Dick are in a fix until, most unexpectedly, Jo turns up. You will find Jo in a previous Famous Five adventure. She is a very lively tom-boy girl much like George.

Soon Jo, being the niece of Alfredo the Fire-Eater and his wife (Aunt Nita) , teaches the fair-folk a thing or two. And between Jo and Aunt Nita, they make the whole of the fair-folk start acting a little more kindly towards the Five.

However, Julian and Dick, quite rightfully, have their pride and refuse to stay on any longer and are planning to leave the next day...until they see an extraordinary thing. Looking through their field-glasses, they are looking at the castle on the hill and see a face in the window of a tower. How does the face come to be there? Why is it there? And whats more, on a tour of the castle they find that there is no way to get into the tower at all?

After talking to a witch-like old woman who takes the money and lets people into the castle for a look-around, they find out that two men from the Society for Preservation of Old Buildings have been visiting the castle. But when Julian rings the Society to see if they know any more information of the castle, they say that no-body from their Society has visited that building in over two years. What can possibly be going on?

From here the story quickens and we are showed who is in the tower, just before the Five get locked away themselves. Now it's going to take a bit of cunning, and excitement, to get them out.

The Famous Five teach us how to react in certain situations, and show that children can have adventures, not just adults.

I would recommend the Famous Five to anybody who wants a good and exciting read.

I have never seen a library that doesn't have at least a few Famous Five books in it, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting a hold of at least one. But if you can't get it from your local library, you could try sending away for it from another library, or try your local bookstores.

The Famous Five series was so popular that other authors have picked up and written their own series' on the characters, such as Claude Voilier's series notably called 'Famous Five'. I personally don't find them as good as Enid Blyton's stories, but well worth looking at if you are a big fan of the characters themselves.