Enid Blyton
File:Enid Blyton.jpg
Born	Enid Mary Blyton (1897-08-11)11 August 1897 East Dulwich, London, England
Died	28 November 1968(1968-11-28) (aged 71) Hampstead, London, England
Pen name	Mary Pollock
Occupation	Novelist, poet, teacher
Language	English
Nationality	British
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	Ipswich High School
Period	1922–1968
Genres	Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy
Subjects	children's literature
Notable work(s)	The Famous Five, Secret Seven, Noddy
Notable award(s)	Boys' Club of America for The Island of Adventure
Spouse(s)	Hugh Alexander Pollock (1924–42) Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters (1943–67)
Children	Gillian Baverstock Imogen Mary Smallwood
Relative(s)	Carey Blyton, Hanly Blyton
Influences Anna Sewell, Charles Kingsley, Louisa May Alcott, George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll
Signature
www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk

Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was a British children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.

She is noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups. Her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.^[1]

One of Blyton's most widely known characters is Noddy, intended for early years readers. However, her main work is the genre of young readers' novels in which children have their own adventures with minimal adult help. Series of this type include the Famous Five (21 novels, 1942–1963, based on four children and their dog), the Five Find-Outers and Dog, (15 novels, 1943–1961, where five children regularly outwit the local police) as well as The Secret Seven (15 novels, 1949–1963, a society of seven children who solve various mysteries).

Her work involves children's adventure stories, and fantasy, sometimes involving magic. Her books were and still are enormously popular throughout the Commonwealth and across most of the globe. Her work has been translated into nearly 90 languages.

Blyton's literary output was of an estimated 800 books over roughly 40 years. Chorion Limited of London now owns and handles the intellectual properties and character brands of Blyton's Noddy and the well known series the Famous Five.

Personal life[link]

Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 at 354 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London, England, the eldest child of Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a salesman of cutlery, and his wife, Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton (1874–1950). There were two younger brothers, Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–1976), who were born after the family had moved to the nearby suburb of Beckenham—in Oakwood Avenue. Blyton adored her father and was devastated after he left the family to live with another woman; this has often been cited as the reason behind her emotional immaturity. Blyton and her mother did not have a good relationship, and later in life, Blyton claimed to others that her mother was dead. After both her parents did die, Blyton attended neither of their funerals.

From 1907 to 1915, Blyton was educated at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham, leaving as head girl. She enjoyed physical activities along with some academic work, but not maths.

Enid Blyton's former house "Old Thatch" near Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, England

Blyton was a talented pianist, but gave up her musical studies when she trained as a teacher at Ipswich High School.^[2] She taught for five years at Bickley, Surbiton and Chessington, writing in her spare time. Her first book, Child Whispers, a collection of poems, was published in 1922. On 28 August 1924 Blyton married Major Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971), editor of the book department in the publishing firm of George Newnes, which published two of her books that year.( The couple moved to Bourne End, Buckinghamshire (Peterswood in her books).^[3] Eventually they moved to a house in Beaconsfield, named Green Hedges by Blyton's readers following a competition in Sunny Stories. They had two children: Gillian Mary Baverstock (15 July 1931 – 24 June 2007) and Imogen Mary Smallwood (born 27 October 1935).

In the mid-1930s Blyton experienced a spiritual crisis, but she decided against converting to Roman Catholicism from the Church of England because she had felt it was "too restricting". Although she rarely attended church services, she saw that her two daughters were baptised into the Anglican faith and went to the local Sunday School.

Since her death in 1968 and the publication of her daughter Imogen's autobiography, A Childhood at Green Hedges, Blyton has emerged as an emotionally immature, unstable and often malicious figure. By 1939 her marriage to Pollock was in difficulties, and she began a series of affairs. In 1941 she met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon with whom she began a relationship. During her divorce, Blyton blackmailed Major Pollock into taking full blame for the failure of the marriage, knowing that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image. She promised that if he admitted to charges of infidelity, she would allow him unlimited access to their daughters. However, after the divorce, Pollock was forbidden to contact his daughters, and Blyton ensured he was unable to find work in publishing afterward. He turned to drinking heavily and was forced to petition for bankruptcy.

Blyton and Dr. Darrell Waters married at the City of Westminster Register Office on 20 October 1943, and she subsequently changed the surname of her two daughters to Darrell Waters. Pollock remarried thereafter. Blyton's second marriage was very happy and, as far as her public image was concerned, she moved smoothly into her role as a devoted doctor's wife, living with him and her two daughters at Green Hedges.

Blyton's husband died in 1967. During the following months, she became increasingly ill. Afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, Blyton was moved into a nursing home three months before her death; she died at the Greenways Nursing Home, London, on 28 November 1968, aged 71 years and was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where her ashes remain.

Blyton's home, Green Hedges, was sold in 1971 and demolished in 1973. The area where Green Hedges once stood is now occupied by houses and a street called Blyton Close. Her daughter Imogen has been quoted as saying "The truth is Enid Blyton was arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind, and without a trace of maternal instinct. As a child, I viewed her as a rather strict authority. As an adult I pitied her."^[4] Elder daughter, Gillian, did not hold the same view toward their mother, and Imogen's biography of Blyton contains a foreword by Gillian to the effect that her memories of childhood with Enid Blyton were mainly happy ones.

Blue plaque on the site of her home in East Dulwich.

Most successful works[link]

• The Five Find-Outers (Also known as Enid Blyton's Mystery series)
• The Famous Five series
• The Adventure series
• The Noddy books
• The Secret Seven series
• The Malory Towers series
• The St. Clare's series
• The Wishing-Chair series
• The Magic Faraway Tree series
• The Barney Mystery series
• The Circus series
• The Mistletoe Farm series
• The Naughtiest Girl series
• The Young Adventurers Series
• The Adventurous Four Series
• The Family Series
• The Family Adventure Series
• The Secret Series

Other works[link]

Blyton wrote hundreds of other books for young and older children: novels, story collections and some non-fiction. She also filled a large number of magazine pages, particularly the long-running Sunny Stories which were immensely popular among younger children.

She used a pseudonym Mary Pollock for a few titles (middle name plus first married name). The last volumes in her most famous series were published in 1963. Many books still appeared after that, but were mainly story books made up from re-cycled work.

Blyton also wrote numerous books on nature and Biblical themes. Her story The Land of Far-Beyond is a Christian parable along the lines of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with modern children as the central characters. She also produced retellings of Old Testament and New Testament stories.

Enid Blyton was a prolific author of short stories. These were first published, for the most part, in Sunny Stories, an Enid Blyton magazine, or other children's papers.

She also used to explore the forests when she was a little girl and wrote of her dreams in a notebook kept by her bedside.

In February 2011, the manuscript of a previously unknown Blyton novel, Mr Tumpy's Caravan, was discovered in a collection of her papers which had been auctioned in 2010^[5] following the death of her elder daughter in 2007.^[6]

Subject matter[link]

Blyton's books are generally split into three types. One involves ordinary children in extraordinary situations, having adventures, solving crimes, or otherwise finding themselves in unusual circumstances. Examples include the Famous Five and Secret Seven, and the Adventure series.

The second and more conventional type is the boarding school story; the plots of these have more emphasis on the day-to-day life at school. This is the world of the midnight feast, the practical joke, and the social interaction of the various types of character. Examples of this type are the Malory Towers stories, the St Clare's series, and the Naughtiest Girl books and are typical of the times — many comics of the day also contained similar types of story.

The third type is the fantastical. Children are typically transported into a magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies, or other fantasy creatures. Examples of this type are the Wishing-Chair books and The Faraway Tree. In many of her short stories, toys are shown to come alive when humans are not around.

Controversies and revisions[link]

Enid Blyton's status as a bestselling author is in spite of disapproval of her works from various perspectives, which has led to altered reprints of the books and withdrawals or “bans” from libraries. In the 1990s, Chorion, the owners of Blyton's works, edited her books to remove passages that were deemed racist or sexist.^[7] The children’s author Anne Fine presented an overview of the concerns about Blyton's work and responses to them on BBC Radio 4 in November 2008, in which she noted the “drip, drip, drip of disapproval” associated with the books.^[8][9]

"Blyton bans"[link]

It was frequently reported (in the 1950s and also from the 1980s onwards) that various children's libraries removed some of Blyton's works from the shelves. The history of such "Blyton bans" is confused. Some librarians certainly at times felt that Blyton's restricted use of language, a conscious product of her teaching background, militated against appreciation of more literary qualities. There was some precedent in the treatment of L. Frank Baum's Oz books (and the many sequels by others) by librarians in the United States in the 1930s. There were numerous critical comments about Blyton: claiming that her vocabulary was too limited, that she presented too rosy a view of the world, even suggestions that little Noddy's relationship with Big Ears was "suspect", that he was a poor role model for boys because he sometimes wept when frustrated and the laws were politically incorrect.

A careful account of anti-Blyton attacks is given in Chapter 4 of Robert Druce's This Day Our Daily Fictions. The British Journal of Education in 1955 carried a piece by Janice Dohn, an American children's librarian, considering Blyton's writing together with authors of formula fiction, and making negative comments about Blyton's devices and tone. A 1958 article in Encounter by Colin Welch, directed against the Noddy character, was reprinted in a New Zealand librarians' periodical. This gave rise to the first rumour of a New Zealand "library ban" on Blyton's books, a recurrent press canard. Policy on buying and stocking Blyton's books by British public libraries drew attention in newspaper reports from the early 1960s to the end of the 1970s, as local decisions were made by a London borough, Birmingham, Nottingham and other central libraries.

There is no evidence that her books' popularity ever suffered: her response to criticism is said to be that she was not interested in the views of critics aged over 12.^[10] Blyton was defended by populist journalists, and others.

BBC bans[link]

In November 2009 it was revealed in the British press that the BBC had a longstanding ban on dramatising Blyton's books on the radio from the 1930s to the 1950s. Letters and memos from the BBC Archive show that producers and executives at the time described Blyton as a "tenacious second-rater" who wrote "stilted and longwinded" books which were not suitable to be broadcast. In 1936 Blyton wrote to the BBC suggesting herself as a broadcaster, pointing out that she had "written probably more books than any other writer." She was turned down. In 1938, Blyton's husband, Hugh Pollock, wrote to Sir John Reith, the then Director General of the BBC, pointing out that his wife was receiving letters from children from all parts of the British Empire, and that she should be allowed to speak to them via the radio. Jean E. Sutcliffe, of the BBC's schools broadcast department wrote, "Her stories...haven't much literary value. There is rather a lot of the Pink-winky-Doodle-doodle Dum-dumm type of name (and lots of pixies) in the original tales."^[11][12]

Enid Blyton tried to get her work on the radio again in 1940, but her manuscript was once more turned down, the BBC employee who reviewed it writing, "This is really not good enough. Very little happens and the dialogue is so stilted and long-winded...It really is odd to think that this woman is a bestseller." Eventually, in 1954, Blyton's works appeared on air for the first time. Jean Sutcliffe wrote of Blyton's ability to churn out "mediocre material", and that "Her capacity to do so, amounts to genius...anyone else would have died of boredom long ago." Michael Rosen, the former Children's Laureate, said of the BBC's ban on Blyton, "...the quality of the writing itself was poor...it was felt that there was a lot of snobbery and racism in the writing...There is all sorts of stuff about oiks and lower orders."^[11]

Dated attitudes and altered reprints[link]

The books are very much of their time, particularly the titles published in the 1950s. They present the UK's class system — that is to say, "rough" versus "decent".^[13] Many of Blyton's children's books similarly reflected negative stereotypes regarding gender, race, and class.

One incidence of altering this type of dated material might be the altering of a statement like "black as a nigger with soot" appearing in Five Go off to Camp.^[14][15] At the time, "Negro" was the standard formal term and "nigger" a relatively common colloquialism. This is one of the most obvious targets for alteration in modern reprints, along with the replacement of golliwogs with teddy bears or goblins. Some of this responses by publishers to contemporary attitudes on racial stereotypes has itself drawn criticism from some who view it as tampering with an important piece of the history of children's literature. The Druce book brings up the case of The Little Black Doll (who wanted to be pink), which was turned on its head in a reprint. Also removed in deference to modern ethical attitudes are many casual references to slaves and to corporal punishment - The Faraway Tree's Dame Slap was changed to Dame Snap and several references to characters in the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series being spanked were changed to them being "scolded". Blyton's attitudes came under criticism during her working lifetime; a publisher rejected a story of hers in 1960, taking a negative literary view of it but also saying that "There is a faint but unattractive touch of old-fashioned xenophobia in the author's attitude to the thieves; they are 'foreign'...and this seems to be regarded as sufficient to explain their criminality."^[16]

Similarly, some have suggested the depictions of boys and girls in her books were sexist. For example, a 2005 Guardian article^[17] suggested that the Famous Five depicts a power struggle between Julian, Dick and George (Georgina), with the female characters either acting like boys or being heavily put-upon. Although the issues are more subjective than with some of the racial issues, it has been suggested that a new edition of the book will "address" these issues through alterations, which has led to the expression of nostalgia for the books and their lack of political correctness.^[18] In the Secret Seven books, the girls are deliberately excluded from tasks such as investigating the villains' hideouts — in Go Ahead, Secret Seven, it is directly stated "'Certainly not,' said Peter, sounding very grown-up all of a sudden. 'This is a man's job, exploring that coal-hole'".^[19] In "The Adventurous 4, the two girls are often sent to do the cooking and washing up for the two boys. In the Famous Five this is less often the case, but in Five on a Hike Together, Julian gives similar orders to George: "You may look like a boy and behave like a boy, but you're a girl all the same. And like it or not, girls have got to be taken care of."^[20]

Film[link]

The story of Blyton's life was turned into a BBC film in 2009 with Helena Bonham Carter in the title role. Filming began in March 2009 and first aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Four on 16 November 2009, followed by a documentary on Enid Blyton. Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson played Blyton's first husband, Hugh Pollock, and Blyton's second husband, Kenneth Darrell Waters, respectively.^[21]

Statistics[link]

A shelf full of Enid Blyton reprints

• Blyton's books have sold more than 600 million copies^[22]
• In the decade from 2000 she was still in the Top Ten authors, selling 7,910,758 copies worth £31.2m in the UK alone.^[23]
• More than a million Famous Five books are sold worldwide each year^{[citation needed]}
• Her books have been translated into more than 90 different languages^{[citation needed]}
• The Magic Faraway Tree was voted no. 66 in the BBC's Big Read.^[24]
• In the 2008 Costa Book Awards, Enid Blyton was voted the best-loved author, ahead of Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Shakespeare^[25][26]
• 753 titles credited to her over a 45 year career with an average of 16 titles published per year^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

Children's literature portal

• Enid Blyton Society
• Enid Blyton's illustrators

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Enid Blyton (1952) The Story of My Life
• Barbara Stoney (1974) Enid Blyton, 1992 The Enid Blyton Biography, Hodder, London ISBN 0-340-58348-7 (paperback) ISBN 0-340-16514-6
• Mason Willey (1993) Enid Blyton: A Bibliography of First Editions and Other Collectible Books ISBN 0-9521284-0-3
• S. G. Ray (1982) The Blyton Phenomenon
• Bob Mullan (1987) The Enid Blyton Story
• George Greenfield (1998) Enid Blyton
• Robert Druce (1992) This Day Our Daily Fictions: An Enquiry into the Multi-Million Bestseller Status of Enid Blyton and Ian Fleming

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Enid Blyton

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:Enid Blyton

• Watch & Listen to BBC archive programmes about Enid Blyton
• Enid Blyton letters from the BBC archive
• Enid Blyton Society
• Enid Blyton Collection
• Newsreel footage of Enid Blyton at home with her family, 1946
• Seven Stories Enid Blyton Blog - behind the scenes with the Collection team at Seven Stories
• Enid Blyton Net

The Famous Five is the name of a series of children's novels written by British author Enid Blyton. The first book, Five on a Treasure Island, was published in 1942.

The novels feature the adventures of a group of young children – Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina (George) – and their dog Timothy. Blyton created several similar groups for her detective series, including The Secret Seven, The Adventurous Four (not to be confused with The Adventure Series) and Five Find-Outers, but the Famous Five is the best-known and most popular of these.

Blyton only intended to write about 6 to 8 books in the series but, owing to their high sales and immense commercial success, she went on to write 21 full-length Famous Five novels. By the end of 1953, more than 6 million copies of these books had been printed and sold. Today, more than two million copies of the books are sold each year, making them one of the biggest-selling series for children ever written. Over a hundred million books have been sold.^[1] Nearly all of the novels have subsequently been adapted for television.

A feature of the last page of the original books (and reprints) was an invitation to readers to join the Famous Five Club.^[2] Proceeds went to paediatric charities. Eileen Soper illustrated the original Famous Five series.

In 2008 Chorion, who now own the rights to Blyton's books and characters, published through Hodder's Children's Books the Famous Five's Survival Guide, a book that combines survival tips and facts with a story in which the grown-up characters revisit a case they failed to solve in their childhood.^[3][4]

Overview[link]

Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are brothers and sister. During their holidays, they are regularly sent to the seaside village of Kirrin to stay with their Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin, whose daughter, Georgina, is a tomboy who insists on being called George. George owns a large mongrel dog, Timothy, who is very much part of the group and a character in his own right. Timmy accompanies the four children on every adventure.

The stories always take place in the children's school holidays when they have returned from their respective boarding schools. Every time they meet, they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book. Sometimes the scene is set close to George's family home at Kirrin Cottage in Cornwall: "Kirrin Island", a picturesque island owned by George and her family in Kirrin Bay, for example, presents many opportunities for adventure. George's own home and various other houses the children visit or stay in are hundreds of years old, and often contain secret passages or smugglers' tunnels. In some books, the children go camping in the countryside, on a hike or holiday together elsewhere. The settings, however, are almost always rural and enable the children to discover the simple joys of cottages, islands, the English and Welsh countryside and sea shores, as well as the adventures, picnics, lemonade, bicycle trips, home-made food, Raspberry pop and ginger beer.

In some of the books, the four children and Timmy are joined by other children. Some of these newcomers start off being disliked by the four children including the gypsy girl Jo, and Henrietta, another tomboy; and some of them are friends from the start, including Sooty and Tinker, both sons of Uncle Quentin's scientist friends.

Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known: in her later life, she admitted that the girl was herself^{[citation needed]}.

Characters[link]

• Julian

  Julian is the oldest of the five, cousin to George and older brother to Dick and Anne. He is tall, strong and intelligent as well as caring, responsible and kind. His cleverness and reliability is often noted by Aunt Fanny. He is the leader of the group. He is very protective towards Anne. At the start of the series, Julian is 12 years old.

• Dick

  Dick has a cheeky sense of humour, but is also dependable and kind in nature. He is the same age as his cousin George, a year younger than his brother Julian and older than his sister Anne – 11 at the start of the series. Dick is very caring of Anne and does his best to keep her cheered up when she gets upset. He had a heroic role in Five On A Treasure Island. He also uses his wits in many adventures.

• George (Georgina)

  Georgina is a tomboy and insists that people call her George. With her short hair and boy's clothes she is often mistaken for a boy, which pleases her enormously. Like her father, Quentin, George has a fiery temper. She is fierce and headstrong, but very loyal to those she loves. She is sometimes extremely stubborn and causes trouble for her mother as well as her cousins. She is very possessive of Timothy (Timmy), her dog. George is cousin to siblings Julian, Dick and Anne and is aged 11 at the start of the series. In one interview Enid confessed that George was based on herself.

• Anne

  Anne is the youngest in the group, and generally takes care of their domestic duties during the Five's various camping holidays. As the youngest, she is more likely than the others to become frightened and does not really enjoy the adventures as much as the others. She is 10 years old in the first book of the series. As a small girl, she sometimes lets her tongue run away with her, but ultimately she is as brave and resourceful as the others. She likes doing the domestic things such as planning, organising and preparing meals, keeping where they are staying clean and tidy, be it a cave, house, tent or caravan. In Smuggler's Top it is suggested she is claustrophobic as she is frightened of enclosed spaces since it reminds her of bad dreams she has - however, this just shows how brave she really is as the adventures invariably lead the five into tunnels, down wells, in dungeons and other enclosed spaces.

Filmdog Coffey the performer of Timmy of the film Famous Five (2012) on the Schleswig-Premiere

• Timothy (Timmy or Tim)

  Timothy, sometimes called Timmy, is George's faithful dog. Timmy is the archetypal loyal mongrel – very clever, affectionate and loyal to the Five and to George in particular; he provides physical protection for the children on multiple occasions. George adores Timmy and thinks that he is the best dog in the world. In the first book of the series, George's parents have forbidden her to keep Timmy, and George is forced to hide him with a friend in the village. After the end of the Five's first adventure, her parents relent and she is allowed to keep him.

• Jo, the gypsy girl

  Jo, clever but wild, joins the Five on several adventures. (It is possible she has an obvious romantic interest in Dick.) She is approximately the same age as the children and is a tomboy like George. Her parents were in the circus, but her mother left and her father was imprisoned for theft.

• Aunt Fanny

  Fanny is George's mother, and aunt to Dick, Julian and Anne. Called Aunt Fanny by Julian, Dick and Anne, she is married to Uncle Quentin, and is, through most of Blyton's Famous Five novels, the principal maternal figure in the lives of the children.

• Uncle Quentin

  Quentin is George's father, and a world-famous scientist, who is kidnapped or held hostage in several of the children's adventures. He possesses a quick temper and has little tolerance for the children on school holidays, but nevertheless loves his family and is extremely proud of his daughter. In the first book of the series, it is established that he is the brother of Julian, Dick and Anne's father.

• Joanna

  Joanna is the lady help at George's house. She is an extremely kind woman who is often present at Kirrin Cottage when Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny go off somewhere. All the four cousins are extremely attached to her. She is sometimes referred to as Joan.

The characters, as is usual in Blyton's fiction, are outlined with very few words, and there is very limited description of scenes, but this style and the fast pace of the writing keeps children's attention and is seen by enthusiasts as fuelling their imagination and encouraging them to think for themselves. Blyton's characterisation, however, has also been much criticised as being stereotyped and encouraging sexist attitudes; and the books have as a result been extensively parodied.

Bibliography[link]

Original novels[link]

Enid Blyton wrote 21 Famous Five books; in chronological order they are:

1. Five on a Treasure Island (1942)
2. Five Go Adventuring Again (1943)
3. Five Run Away Together (1944)
4. Five Go to Smuggler's Top (1945)
5. Five Go Off in a Caravan (1946)
6. Five on Kirrin Island Again (1947)
7. Five Go Off to Camp (1948)
8. Five Get Into Trouble (1949)
9. Five Fall Into Adventure (1950)
10. Five on a Hike Together (1951)
11. Five Have a Wonderful Time (1952)
12. Five Go Down to the Sea (1953)
13. Five Go to Mystery Moor (1954)
14. Five Have Plenty of Fun (1955)
15. Five on a Secret Trail (1956)
16. Five Go to Billycock Hill (1957)
17. Five Get Into a Fix (1958)
18. Five on Finniston Farm (1959)
19. Five Go to Demon's Rocks (1960)
20. Five Have a Mystery to Solve (1962)
21. Five Are Together Again (1962)

She also wrote The Famous Five survival guide.

Blyton also wrote a number of short stories featuring the characters. These were finally collected together in 1963 as Five Have a Puzzling Time and Other Stories.

Other book series[link]

Claude Voilier[link]

There are also books written originally in French by Claude Voilier (the Five have long been extremely popular in translation in the French-speaking parts of Europe) and later translated into English. The Voilier titles are:

1. Les Cinq sont les plus forts (1971; English title: The Famous Five and the Mystery of the Emeralds)
2. Les Cinq au bal des espions (1971; English title: The Famous Five in Fancy Dress)
3. Le Marquis appelle les Cinq (1972; English title: The Famous Five and the Stately Homes Gang)
4. Les Cinq au Cap des tempêtes (1972; English title: The Famous Five and the Missing Cheetah)
5. Les Cinq à la Télévision (1973; English title: The Famous Five Go on Television)
6. Les Cinq et les pirates du ciel (1973; English title: The Famous Five and the Hijackers)
7. Les Cinq contre le masque noir (1974; English title: The Famous Five Versus the Black Mask)
8. Les Cinq et le galion d'or (1974; English title: The Famous Five and the Golden Galleon)
9. Les Cinq font de la brocante (1975; English title: The Famous Five and the Inca God)
10. Les Cinq se mettent en quatre (1975; English title: The Famous Five and the Pink Pearls)
11. Les Cinq dans la cité secrète (1976; English title: The Famous Five and the Secret of the Caves)
12. La fortune sourit aux Cinq (1976; English title: The Famous Five and the Cavalier's Treasure)
13. Les Cinq et le rayon Z (1977; English title: The Famous Five and the Z-Rays)
14. Les Cinq vendent la peau de l'ours (1977; English title: The Famous Five and the Blue Bear Mystery)
15. Les Cinq aux rendez-vous du diable (1978; English title: The Famous Five in Deadly Danger)
16. Du neuf pour les Cinq (1978; English title: The Famous Five and the Strange Legacy)
17. Les Cinq et le trésor de Roquépine (1979; English title: The Famous Five and the Knights' Treasure)
18. Les Cinq et le diamant bleu (1979; reprinted in 1980 as Les Cinq et le rubis d'Akbar; never translated into English)
19. Les Cinq jouent serré (1980; English title: The Famous Five and the Strange Scientist)
20. Les Cinq en croisière (1980; never translated into English)
21. Les Cinq contre les fantômes (1981; never translated into English)
22. Les Cinq en Amazonie (1983; never translated into English)
23. Les Cinq et le trésor du pirate (1984; never translated into English)
24. Les Cinq contre le loup-garou (1985; never translated into English)

Sarah Bosse[link]

Starting in 2004, an additional 21 new Famous Five novels written by Sarah Bosse have been published in Germany, but as yet, they have not been translated into English. The 10th Bosse book, published in February 2007, is numbered 50 in the German sequence, and is a two-in-one volume, although the second novel in the volume is a sequel to the first.^{[citation needed]}

Film and Television Adaptations[link]

Producers, Actors, Director and the dog Coffey on the Schleswigpremiere of the movie Fünf Freunde (translated into English The Famous Five Friends)

Films[link]

There exist two Children's Film Foundation films of the Famous Five books – Five on a Treasure Island, made in 1957, and Five Have a Mystery to Solve, produced in 1964.

Two of the Famous Five stories by Enid Blyton have been filmed by Danish director Katrine Hedman. The cast consisted of Danish actors and were originally released in Danish. Ove Sprogøe stars as Uncle Quentin. The movies are: De 5 og spionerne (Five and the Spies) (1969) and De 5 i fedtefadet (Famous Five Get in Trouble) (1970).

All four of the films have been released on DVD in their respective countries.

In 2012 the movie Fünf Freunde was released in Germany, with Marcus Harris in a small role.

Television[link]

1978 series[link]

The Famous Five 1978 television series was produced by Southern Television and Portman Productions for the ITV network in the UK, in 26 episodes of thirty minutes. It starred Michele Gallagher as Georgina, Marcus Harris as Julian, Jennifer Thanisch as Anne, Gary Russell as Dick, Toddy Woodgate as Timmy, Michael Hinz as Uncle Quentin and Sue Best as Aunt Fanny. It also starred Ronald Fraser, John Carson, Patrick Troughton, James Villiers, Cyril Luckham and Brian Glover. The screenplays were written by Gloria Tors, Gail Renard, Richard Carpenter and Richard Sparks. The episodes were directed by Peter Duffell, Don Leaver, James Gatward and Mike Connor. The series was produced by Don Leaver and James Gatward. Most of the outdoor filming was done in the New Forest and parts of Dorset and Devon.

Finnish punk rock band Widows (of Helsinki) made three different cover versions of the theme song, first one in early 1979, as did Irish indie outfit Fleur, in 1996.^[5]

Of the original 21 novels, 3 were not adapted for this series; Five on a Treasure Island and Five Have a Mystery to Solve because the Children's Film Foundation still had the film and TV rights to the books, while Five Have Plenty of Fun didn't fit in the production schedule.^[6] Due to the success of the series, Southern Television were keen to make another season of episodes, but the Enid Blyton estate forbade them to create original stories.^[7]

The 1978 series was originally released on video by Portman Productions with reasonable regularity between 1983 and 1999, many of which are still easy to find second-hand, although the sound and picture quality is not always what it could be. A four-disc DVD collection, containing 23 of the 26 episodes produced for the 1978 series (and two episodes from the 1996 series) was released in region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) in 2005. The box and disc art identify it as a release of 1996 series. (The distributor had licenced the 1996 series but due to an administrative glitch, it was supplied with master tapes and artwork for the 1978 series.) The error was corrected in a later release.

A 7 DVD set containing the entire series and extensive bonus material was released in October 2010 in Germany by Koch Media; although with an option choose either the original English or German dubbed versions, the English version had non-removable German subtitles across the bottom the screen on every episode. The same company is releasing the DVD set in England (without the fixed subtitles) on 25th June 2012.

A four DVD set containing all 26 episodes, without additional content, was released for region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) in late 2011, as Enid Blyton's The Famous Five: The Complete Collection.

1995 series[link]

A later series, The Famous Five, initiated by Victor Glynn of Portman Zenith was aired first in 1995, a co-production between a number of companies including Tyne Tees Television, HTV, Zenith North and the German channel ZDF (this was also shown on ITV in the UK). Unlike the previous series, this was a period piece, set in Wales, and also unlike the previous series it dramatised all the original books. Of the juvenile actors the best-known is probably Jemima Rooper, who played George. Julian was portrayed by Marco Williamson, Dick by Paul Child and Anne was portrayed by Laura Petela. Timmy the dog was called Connal in real life. In this series, because of the slang meaning of the word fanny, Aunt Fanny was known as Aunt Frances played by Mary Waterhouse. In some but not all recent reprints of the book, the character has been re-christened Aunt Franny.

The 1995 series was released in its entirety on video; only the adaptation of Five On A Treasure Island seems to have been released on DVD in the UK, although there are apparently some rare mainland European DVD releases of the series, available via certain websites in the UK (these are, of course, Region 2 DVDs). Fans of the series remain mystified as to why the rest of the series cannot be officially released in its entirety in the UK – the country in which it was made, and Enid Blyton's home country.

A three-disc DVD collection, containing 13 of the 26 episodes of the 1995 series, was released in Australia and New Zealand in 2005 (these are region 4 DVDs). This release followed the erroneous release of the 1978 series with 1995 artwork, and is marked "Revised Edition" to avoid confusion.

[edit] Famous 5: On the Case

See Famous 5: On the Case

A new animated TV series of the Famous Five began airing 2008. Famous 5: On the Case is set in modern times and features the children of the original Famous Five. These children are Max (the son of Julian and Brandine), Dylan (son of Dick and Michelle), Jo (daughter of George and Ravi, a tomboy who, like her mother, prefers a shorter name to her given name Jyoti) and Allie (daughter of Anne and John).^[8] It has not been stated whether their dog is the son of the previous dog, too. The new series was first announced in 2005, and is a co-production between Chorion (which currently owns all Famous Five rights) and Marathon in association with France 3 and The Disney Channel. Disney confirmed their involvement in December 2006.^[9] Stories were developed by Douglas Tuber and Tim Maile, who have previously written for Lizzie McGuire. Chorion claims on its Web site that "these new programmes will remain faithful to the themes of mystery and adventure central to Enid Blyton’s classic series of books."^[10] Blyton's biographer, Barbara Stoney, however claims it is nothing like the original stories.^[11] In total, there will be 130 episodes, and each episode will be 22 minutes long.

Reunion series[link]

On 28 August 2007, it was announced on the BBC News website that a revival of The Famous Five is being developed.^[12] Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina were all going to be in the story – now all as adults in their forties; they would also be joined by a descendant of Timmy The Dog. Co-developer Twofour states "casting and writing talent is still very much under wraps and no broadcaster is yet confirmed. However, some of the best-known acting talent in Britain is already under consideration."^[13]

Other Adaptations[link]

Audio dramas[link]

Hodder Headline produced in the late 1990s audio dramas in English, which were published on Tape and CD. All 21 episodes of the original books were dramatised.

The 21 original stories by Enid Blyton have been released in the 70s as Fünf Freunde audio dramas in Germany as well. The speakers were the German dubbing artists for Gallagher, Thanisch, Russell and Harris, the protagonists of the first television series.

For the sequels (not written by Blyton and decidedly more "modern" action-oriented stories) the speakers were replaced by younger ones, because it was felt that they sounded too mature. In addition to the original Blyton books, another 80+ stories have subsequently been released and published as radio plays and books in Germany. They are based on the original characters, but written by various German writers.

Theatre[link]

A 1997 musical was made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Enid Blyton's birth with the title The Famous Five and later released on DVD as The Famous Five – Smuggler’s Gold – The Musical.
Principal actors: Elizabeth Marsland, Lyndon Ogbourne, Matthew Johnson, Vicky Taylor, Jon Lee, Director: Roz Storey^[14] and also in the five

A brand new musical adaptation was premiered at the Tabard Theatre on the 8 December 2009 and played until 10 January 2010.

Gamebooks[link]

Two sets of gamebooks in a Choose Your Own Adventure style have been published. These books involve reading small sections of print and being given two or more options to follow, with a different page number for each option. The first series of these, written by Stephen Thraves, featured stories loosely based on the original books. They were issued in plastic wallets with accessories such as maps, dice and codebooks. The gamebooks were titled as follows:

1. The Wreckers' Tower Game, based on Five Go Down to the Sea
2. The Haunted Railway Game, based on Five Go Off to Camp
3. The Whispering Island Game, based on Five Have a Mystery to Solve
4. The Sinister Lake Game, based on Five On a Hike Together
5. The Wailing Lighthouse Game, based on Five Go to Demon's Rocks
6. The Secret Airfield Game, based on Five Go to Billycock Hill
7. The Shuddering Mountain Game, based on Five Get into a Fix
8. The Missing Scientist Game, based on Five Have a Wonderful Time

The second series, written by Mary Danby, was entitled "The Famous Five and You".^[15] These consisted of abridged versions of the original text, with additional text for the alternative story routes. The books in this series were based on the first six original Famous Five books:

1. The Famous Five and You Search for Treasure!
2. The Famous Five and You Find Adventure!
3. The Famous Five and You Run Away!
4. The Famous Five and You Search for Smugglers!
5. The Famous Five and You Take Off!
6. The Famous Five and You Underground!

Video games[link]

In 1990 an interactive fiction computer game based on the first of the books, Five On A Treasure Island, was released. It was programmed by Colin Jordan and first released for the SAM Coupé by Enigma Variations.

He originally started coding the game on the ZX Spectrum using his own "worldscape" technique. When the SAM Coupé was launched, he switched to it as the target platform while still hosting the code on the ZX Spectrum. He later ported it to the Amstrad CPC and completed the ZX Spectrum version. The game was also ported to the Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST by others.

Later Ravensburger published the interactive CD games Famous Five The Silver Tower, Famous Five Treasure Island, Famous Five – Kidnapped for the PC or Mac.

Comic books[link]

Six comic books created by Bernard Dufossé and scripted by Serge Rosenzweig and Rafael Carlo Marcello were released in France between 1982 and 1986, under the title Le Club des Cinq. Most of comic books in the series are based on Famous Five books created by Claude Voilier. Books were released by Hachette Livre. The first three of these volumes have also been released in English, under the name Famous Five.^[16] The titles included "Famous Five and the Golden Galleon" (which featured a sunken ship that was laden with gold with the Five fending off villains seeking to make off with the gold, "Famous Five and the Treasure of the Templars", where it transpires that Kirrin Castle is actually a Templar Castle that houses their hidden treasure which the Five ultimately secure with the help of members of the order, and "Famous Five and the Inca God" which was set in an antiquities museum and dealt with the theft of an Incan fetish.

Beginning in September 1985 a series of monthly Comic Magazine titles Enid Blyton's Adventure Magazine were published. Each issue published a full length illustrative comic book story adapted from Famous 5 Novels. The series came to end in the 1990s.

Parodies[link]

The Five also inspired the Comic Strip parody Five Go Mad in Dorset and its sequel Five Go Mad On Mescalin, in which the characters express sympathies with Nazi Germany and opposition to the Welfare State, homosexuals, immigrants and Jews, in an extremely broad parody not so much of Blyton but of wider perceived 1950s prejudices.^[17] The parodies were deliberately set towards the end of the original Famous Five "era" (1942–1963) so as to make the point that the books were already becoming outmoded while they were still being written, although the continuing popularity^{[citation needed]} of the books even in the 21st century may be seen to suggest otherwise. Both parodies made use of Famous Five set pieces, such as the surrender of the criminals at the end when Julian states "We're the Famous Five!", the arrival of the police just in the nick of time, and the appeal for "some of your home-made ices" at a village shop.

In the late eighties, Australian comedy team The D-Generation parodied The Famous Five on their breakfast radio show as a five-part serial entitled The Famous Five Get Their Teeth Kicked In. The parody was based on the first book Five on a Treasure Island.

A 2005 story in The Guardian' also parodies the Famous Five. It argues that Anne, Dick, George and Julian are caricatures rather than characters, portraying Anne as having no life outside of domestic labour. It highlights what the writer, Lucy Mangan, considers to be the power struggle between Dick, George and Julian while Anne is sidelined.^[18]

On 31 October 2009, the BBC program The Impressions Show featured a sketch where Ross Kemp meets The Famous Five. It was a parody of his hugely successful Sky One show, Ross Kemp On Gangs.

In the book The Big Goal by Rob Childs, Andrew mentions that a girls team won against 'some rubbish lot called The Famous Five'.

The Famous Five Effect[link]

The seemingly perpetual youth of the Famous Five who experience a world of seemingly endless holidays while not ageing significantly, known more generally as a floating timeline, has been highlighted by a number of contemporary children's fiction authors as an influence upon their own work. J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of books has been quoted as saying of the titular character: "in book four the hormones are going to kick in – I don't want him stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence like poor Julian in the Famous Five!"^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Famous Five Book Reviews & Articles
• An example of a Famous Five Spoof

This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary and should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (December 2011)

The Secret Seven or "Secret Seven Society" are a fictional group of child detectives created by Enid Blyton. They appear in one of several juvenile detective series Blyton wrote.

The Secret Seven consists of Peter (the society's leader), Janet (Peter's sister), Jack, Barbara, George, Pam and Colin. Jack's sister Susie and her best friend Binkie often make an appearance in the books; they hate the Secret Seven and delight in playing tricks designed to humiliate them, although much of this is fuelled by their almost obsessive desire to belong to the society.

Unlike most other Blyton series, this one takes place during the school term time because the characters go to day schools.

Books[link]

There are fifteen books, which in chronological order are:

1. The Secret Seven (1949)
2. Secret Seven Adventure (1950)
3. Well Done Secret Seven (1951)
4. Secret Seven on the Trail (1952)
5. Go Ahead Secret Seven (1953)
6. Good Work Secret Seven (1954)
7. Secret Seven Win Through (1955)
8. Three Cheers Secret Seven (1956)
9. Secret Seven Mystery (1957)
10. Puzzle for the Secret Seven (1958)
11. Secret Seven Fireworks (1959)
12. Good Old Secret Seven (1960)
13. Shock for the Secret Seven (1961)
14. Look Out Secret Seven (1962)
15. Fun for the Secret Seven (1963)

[edit] The Secret Seven (1949)

In this adventure, Jack finds some men taking a prisoner to the empty old house.The seven turned off to the mystery.Jack and Peter find the prisoner which was a beautiful racing horse, with the help of other five and handover the men to the inspector.They also made the job easy for them.

[edit] Secret Seven Adventure (1950)

In this adventure, a priceless pearl gets stolen and what's more the Seven witnessed the thief making his escape! This sets the Seven to indulge in the mystery, and Colin and Peter finally manages to get to the culprit with the help of the other five.

[edit] Well Done Secret Seven (1951)

The secret seven have a new meeting place - a tree house! But somebody else is using it too. The gang is furious, until they learn that the intruder is in big need of help. Can the secret seven come to the rescue?

[edit] Secret Seven on the Trail (1952)

Something mysterious is going on at Tigger's Barn, and the Secret Seven are intrigued. Peter thinks it's all just gossip, but Jack isn't so sure when he overhears a strange conversation. This is claimed to be the most popular book in the series.

[edit] Go Ahead Secret Seven (1953)

Peter is reminded by Jack's annoying sister, Susie, that the seven have not met for some time. Peter calls a meeting but the meeting is uninteresting as there is no mystery to discuss.

Peter decides the Seven should not be idle though and arranges jobs for all members. George follows a man with a wood hatchet and is caught and has to leave the society.

Pedigree dogs are going missing around the village. The seven observe men walking distressed dogs. Where are the dogs hidden?

[edit] Good Work Secret Seven (1954)

Peter and Janet's car was stolen for a while with them inside and without the thieves knowing. They leave the car somewhere and leave and the seven are determined to indulge into another mystery.

[edit] Secret Seven Win Through (1955)

The meeting place of the Secret Seven is destroyed by their gardener. The seven are angry but they find a good cave for their meetings.. But somebody else is using it too. It's Susie, Jack's annoying sister who helps them catch the intruder.

[edit] Three Cheers Secret Seven (1956)

When Susie's airplane lands in a locked up house. Peter and Jack go to fetch it back, and discover a gas fire burning in the house. Who could be there? The Secret Seven want to find out.

[edit] Secret Seven Mystery (1957)

The Secret Seven find that a girl, called Elizabeth, has disappeared! Will the S.S. find her, and solve the mystery, or will the police do it first?

[edit] Puzzle for the Secret Seven (1958)

The Secret Seven witnesses a house burn down, and after that a precious violin stolen. Are the two incidents related?

[edit] Secret Seven Fireworks (1959)

The Secret Seven make their plans for fireworks night. But a thief steals their money and guy. Can they stop the thief and have a bonfire night after all?

[edit] Good Old Secret Seven (1960)

Someone is hiding in the ruins of Torling Castle. The Secret Seven would be able to find out who, if only Susie and Binkie didn't keep interfering.

[edit] Shock for the Secret Seven (1961)

In this story,dogs are disappearing in their village.Scamper, Peter and Janet's golden spaniel becomes the latest victim. Jack finds the clue to end the mystery

[edit] Look Out Secret Seven (1962)

Now that the Secret Seven have Scamper safely back with them, they're beginning to appreciate what a clever and valuable dog he is - he's almost one of the gang! First he discovers an unwanted visitor - then he protects the Seven as they spy on a thief late at night in Bramley woods!

[edit] Fun for the Secret Seven (1963)

The Secret Seven helps Tolly,an old man who lives on the hill when his horse brakes it's legs and his master,a farmer threats to shoot his horse. The Secret Seven also appeared in seven short stories by Blyton, including a mini-novella explaining how the Secret Seven was formed. These were left uncollected until 1998, when they were released by Hodder under the title of Secret Seven: Short Story Collection.

Main characters[link]

• Peter - the society's leader and the most mature of the group. He has grown up with very strong ideas about right and wrong. Although he is a very strong and capable leader, he can be bossy and is occasionally downright unreasonable (particularly about wearing badges and remembering the password), reducing Pam and Barbara to tears, and on one occasion, causing Jack to temporarily leave the group. Jack, Janet and Peter are often more attached with each other than other members of the group. Scamper, Peter's dog, often hangs out with the Seven, but is not an actual member.

• Janet - Peter's sister and second-in-command to Peter. Janet is very good at noticing things and remembering them. She is a lot more headstrong than the other girls in the group and her arch-enemy is Susie. She is a lot braver than the other girls and also takes her work seriously. She is very good friends with Pam. She also gets well along with Jack. She thinks of many good ideas.

• Jack - Peter's best friend. He is one of the most efficient group members, and is frequently annoyed with his younger sister, Susie, who takes advantage of his tendency to forget the password. He gets along well with everyone in the group, especially Peter, but is also the only member who will willingly stand up to Peter when he feels that he is behaving unreasonably, to the extent that he once walked out on the group after an argument with him (although he reconciled with them at the end). He lives very near to Peter and Janet. He thinks Janet is lot better than the other girls and wishes Susie was like Janet.

• Pam - A girl at Janet's school. Her best friend is Barbara and she giggles a lot. She is best friends with Janet and Barbara. Her full first name is Pamela. She sometimes proves herself a worthy member of the Secret Seven by getting brainwaves.

• Barbara - Another girl at Janet's school. She and Pam generally work (and giggle) together when looking for clues or information.

• Colin - A boy at Peter's school. Colin is quite a valuable member of the society, though perhaps the quietest of the boys. He has a very large family, most of which live with him.

• George - A boy at Peter's school. His best friend is Colin. His father once banned him from the society, but he later realized his mistake and let George rejoin. Not much else is known about him.

• Scamper - Janet and Peter's pet dog and beloved companion. He is not an official member of the Secret Seven, but many members count him as one, due to his regular usefulness in the denouement of the stories. He has temporarily filled in for members when they have left the group for any reason. He is a golden spaniel dog.

Supporting characters[link]

• Susie - Jack's younger sister who frequently aggravates him and the Society which she enjoys humiliating and tormenting with her quick wit. However, this stems from her burning desire to join the Society, which Peter regularly refuses her. This is actually something of a disadvantage for Peter, as Susie is considerably more clever and cunning than some of the other members, especially Barbara and Pam, and would potentially be a more valuable member. The Seven occasionally make a temporary truce with Susie, and sometimes she helps them solve the mysteries.
• Binkie - Susie's best friend, who stays with her sometimes. Binkie is described as being very stupid and idiotic, but can sometimes make up very clever, but rude songs and poems about the Seven.
• Jeff - A friend of Susie's, who appears as her sidekick in a few of the earlier books. He plays a similar role to Binkie, who had not appeared at that point.
• Jack the farmer - Jack the farmer is Peter and Janet's father. He is not as strict as parents of the day, but has taught Peter some very strong ideas about right and wrong.
• Peter and Janet's mother - Peter and Janet's mother is very supportive of the Secret Seven and the good work that they do. She frequently provides snacks for the meetings.
• Jack's mother - Unlike Peter's mother, Jack's mother does not think the Secret Seven is particularly important and gets angry when Jack puts all his effort into fulfilling Peter's wishes although she does sometimes provide for the Seven.
• Matt the Shepherd - Peter's father's colleague, who works on the farm. He has a dog called Shadow who is stolen in a mystery.
• The Inspector - The police inspector who the Secret Seven always report the cases to. He has become a good friend of the Seven
• The Gardener - Peter and Janet's gardener, who has a very bad temper but can be witty.

French series[link]

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Evelyne Lallemand wrote an additional series of 12 books about the Secret Seven, nine of which were translated into English by Anthea Bell and published in paperback by Knight Books. The English translations were published between 1983 and 1986. The full French series is as follows:

1. Les Sept à la chasse au lion 1976 (English title: The Seven and the Lion Hunt; English no.: 1)
2. Les Sept font du cinéma 1977 (English title: The Seven on Screen; English no.: 6)
3. Les Sept et le magicien 1977 (English title: The Seven and the Magician; English no.: 3)
4. Les Sept sont dans de beaux draps 1978 (English title: The Seven Go Haunting; English no.: 2)
5. Les Sept et les bulldozers 1978 (English title: The Seven to the Rescue; English no.: 5)
6. Les Sept et la déesse d'or 1979 (English title: The Seven Strike Gold; English no.: 4)
7. Les Sept et les soucoupes volantes 1979 (English title: The Seven and the UFOs; English no.: 7)
8. Les Sept à 200 à l'heure 1980 (English title: The Seven and the Racing Driver; English no.: 9)
9. Les Sept ne croient pas au père Noël 1981 (English title: The Seven and Father Christmas; English no.: 8)
10. Les Sept saluent Lucky Star 1982 (The Seven greet Lucky Star)
11. Les Sept et la boule de cristal 1984 ( The Seven and the crystal ball)

Audio drama[link]

An English Audio drama adaptation with some episodes was published.

Noddy is a character created by British children's author Enid Blyton, originally published between 1949 and 1963. Television shows based on the character have run on British television since 1955 and continue to appear to this day.

Story[link]

Noddy[link]

Noddy is a naughty little wooden boy who lives in his own little House-for-One in Toyland. The first book explains Noddy's origins. He was carved by a wood carver but ran away after the man began to make a wooden lion, which scared Noddy. As he wanders through the woods, with no clothes, money or home, he meets Big Ears, a friendly brownie. Big Ears decides that Noddy is a boy and takes him to live in Toyland. He generously provides Noddy with a set of clothing and buys a build-it-yourself house for him. While Noddy is quite happy to be a toy, the citizens of Toyland are not sure that he actually is one. They put Noddy on trial and examine whether he is a toy or an ornament. Eventually, Noddy is declared a toy, but still has to convince the court that he is a good toy. The judge accepts that Noddy is good after a doll tells the court that he saved her little girl from a lion; and he is allowed to stay in Toyland. Noddy gets his car within a few books. It is given to him after he helps solve a local mystery.

Noddy loves driving his friends around Toytown in his little red and yellow taxi. The other toys can hear him coming by the distinctive "Parp, Parp" sound of his taxi's horn and the jingle of the bell on his blue hat. Often he uses his car to visit all of the places in Toytown. When his taxi business is not doing so well, or when he needs help, Noddy turns to Big Ears. Big Ears will often lend him what he needs. On occasion, Noddy will allow people to make his head nod, in exchange for small items, like his morning milk.

Noddy's constant companion and household pet is the exuberant "Bumpy Dog". Bumpy accompanies Noddy on almost all his adventures.

Noddy is kind and honest, but he often gets in trouble, either through his own misunderstandings, or because someone (usually the naughty goblins Sly and Gobbo) has played a trick on him. He is very childlike in his understanding of the world and often becomes confused as a result. For example, in the first Noddy book, Noddy and Big Ears are building Noddy's house for one. Noddy suggests that they build the roof first, in case it rains. With no understanding of gravity or of the need for roof supports, this is perfectly logical to him. As the series continues, Noddy becomes wiser but without losing his charm and lovable naivety.

Noddy's best friends are Big Ears, Tessie Bear, Bumpy Dog and the Tubby Bears. Tessie is a gentle hearted, gold bear who often wears a bonnet with flowers and a skirt. She is very kind and very loving towards all of her friends and neighbors. Bumpy Dog is Tessie's pet. He loves to run up and "bump" people over. Noddy frequently gets annoyed with Bumpy but still likes him. Whenever Noddy threatens Bumpy, Tessie gets upset, and sometimes even begins to cry. The Tubby Bears live next door to Noddy. They are gold and chubby teddy bears. Mr. and Mrs. Tubby Bear frequently help Noddy. It is clear that Mr. and Mrs. Tubby Bear are the superiors of Noddy, as if he were a child. Their first names are never mentioned and Noddy always refers to them as Mr. and Mrs. They have one son, also named Tubby, who is occasionally referred to as Master Tubby. Tubby is naughty and is usually in trouble for breaking rules, being rude, or doing something wrong. Noddy often attempts to scold or punish Tubby, with little result. On one occasion, Tubby gets tired of always being bossed around and being punished and decides to run away to sea. Noddy and Bumpy accidentally join with him. By the end of the journey, Tubby misses his parents and brings them back presents from his trip, as an apology.

Noddy has many run-ins with PC Plod, the local policeman. Some are caused by Noddy's lack of understanding of how Toyland works. Other times it is because of a case of mistaken identity. Mr. Plod is generally long-suffering towards Noddy and Noddy likes Mr. Plod and frequently goes out of his way to help him. Mr. Plod often catches the mischief makers on his police bicycle, by blowing his whistle and shouting "Halt, in the name of Plod!!" before locking the culprits up in his jail.

Characters[link]

• Big-Ears, a wise, bearded Brownie who lives in a toadstool house outside of Toytown.
• Mr. Plod (called PC Plod in some versions), the Toytown policeman. He is a good friend of Noddy and thinks Toytown can't live without him.
• Bumpy Dog, in the original books, lives with Tessie Bear, but accompanies Noddy on many adventures. Noddy first met Bumpy Dog in Toy-Dog Town because he was injured and Noddy used his scarf to help him. Noddy felt he was unable to have Bumpy Dog live with him, so Tessie Bear offered to keep him.
• Mr. Wobbly Man, a funny little man who cannot lie down. He has a round base which he wobbles about on. He rocks back and forth to get around.
• Master Tubby Bear, Mr. and Mrs. Tubby Bear's son, and is sometimes called Bruiny
• Mr Tubby Bear, Noddy's next door neighbour. First name unknown.
• Mrs Tubby Bear, Noddy's next door neighbour, it is clear that she, like Mr Tubby Bear are the superiors of Noddy, as if they are adults and he is a child, mainly because Noddy always refers to them as "Mr and Mrs Tubby Bear". First name unknown.
• Teddy Tubby Bear, Mr Tubby Bear's brother, Mrs Tubby Bear's brother-in-law and Master Tubby Bear's uncle, who appeared in the third book, Noddy and His Car.
• Clockwork Mouse, a toy mouse who often requires winding up.
• Dinah Doll, a china doll who sells all kinds of everything in the market. A later addition, not in the original books.
• Tessie Bear, A clever and kind teddy bear and a great friend of Noddy.
• Mr Sparks, Toyland's handyman, who can mend anything. His favourite catchphrase is "A Challenge? I Like it!"
• Mr Golly, in the books is the owner of the Toyland garage. He was replaced by Mr Sparks in the TV series in the early 1980s.
• Miss Harriet the Pink Cat (aka Miss Pink Cat), a cat who sells ice cream. She is portrayed as a fussy and neat cat with a French accent and no patience for foolishness, even her own.
• Mr Jumbo, an elephant friendly with Clockwork Mouse.
• The Skittles, a family consisting of Mrs Skittle and her many children of various sizes. Skittles are red and yellow in colour with black hands. The skittles are like bowling pins and love to be knocked down. They frequently run out in front of Noddy's car so he will hit them and knock them over.
• Twinkly, a star who appeared in the episode "Catch a Falling Star".
• Stinkly, A tramp who has never washed in his life.
• Little-Ears, Big-Ears' brother who looks just like Big-Ears, but his ears are much smaller. He lives in a very tidy toadstool.
• Bunkey, a thoroughly mischievous character, who purports to be half bunny and half monkey. He is later exposed as a fraudulent monkey who escaped from a travelling circus.
• Sly and Gobbo, are goblins who are very mischievous. They usually steal things such as ice cream, coins or Noddy's car.
• The Gollies were the villains in the original book series and were replaced by Sly and Gobbo for the TV series in the early 1980s.
• Clockwork Clown, a toy clown who makes funny tricks. He stands only using his hands not his feet because he has 'fused' feet like those of a sea lion.
• Martha Monkey, a mischievous tomboy who replaced naughty schoolboy Gilbert Golly.
• Miss Prim, the school teacher who replaced the slipper-wielding Miss Rap.
• Mr Milko, the local milkman.
• Mr Train Driver, train driver who drives the Toyland Express train.
• Sneaky and Stealthy, Sly and Gobbo's cousins, who appear in later versions of the television show.

Later in the television show, Eoin Wealan did voice acting for Big-Ears and Noddy.

Noddy books[link]

Early Noddy books have become collectibles, along with other Blytons. The total number is hard to count: the Noddy Library (Sampson Low) of two dozen titles, which became the New Noddy Library when revised, was just part of a big production in the 1950s, with Big Noddy Books of larger format, and strip books. There were numerous spin-offs, also. Widely-differing estimates can be found.

Sales of Noddy books are large, with an estimated 600,000 annual sales in France alone, and growing popularity in India, a large market for Blyton books. The Noddy character is owned by Chorion.

1. Noddy Goes to Toyland (1949)
2. Hurrah for Little Noddy (1950)
3. Noddy and His Car (1951)
4. Here Comes Noddy Again! (1951)
5. Well Done Noddy! (1952)
6. Noddy Goes to School (1952)
7. Noddy at the Seaside (1953)
8. Noddy Gets into Trouble (1954)
9. Noddy and the Magic Rubber (1954)
10. You Funny Little Noddy (1955)
11. Noddy Meets Father Christmas (1955)
12. Noddy and Tessie Bear (1956)
13. Be Brave, Little Noddy! (1956)
14. Noddy and the Bumpy-Dog (1957)
15. Do Look Out, Noddy (1957)
16. You're a Good Friend, Noddy (1958)
17. Noddy Has an Adventure (1958)
18. Noddy Goes to Sea (1959)
19. Noddy and the Bunkey (1959)
20. Cheer Up, Little Noddy! (1960)
21. Noddy Goes to the Fair (1960)
22. Mr. Plod and Little Noddy (1961)
23. Noddy and the Tootles (1962)
24. Noddy and the Aeroplane (1963)

On 17 November 2008, it was announced that Enid Blyton's granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood, is to write a new Noddy book to celebrate the character's 60th birthday. It will be illustrated by Robert Tyndall, who has drawn the characters in the Noddy books since 1953.^[1]

Television productions and incarnations[link]

• The Adventures Of Noddy (1955–1963)
• The Further Adventures Of Noddy (1963–1975)
• Noddy (1975–1982)
• Noddy's Toyland Adventures (1992–1999)
• The Noddy Shop (1998–2000)
• Make Way for Noddy (2002–2008)
• Say It With Noddy (2006)
• Noddy in Toyland (2009–present)

Adaptations[link]

The original Noddy stories featured Golliwogs – black-faced woollen dolls. These dolls were popular in the UK at the time the stories were written, but have fallen out of favour and some consider them racist. The main villains became two goblins named Sly and Gobbo in 1989.

In the two TV series and a new series of books, Noddy has been updated, with the original Golliwog characters replaced by other sorts of toys. For example, Mr. Golly who ran the Toyland garage was replaced by Mr. Sparks who in the new 2004 version of the series appears to be Scottish and the addition by the BBC during the 1992–1994 series of Dinah Doll, described as "a black, assertive minority female."

Noddy first appeared on stage at the 2660 seat Stoll Theatre in Kingsway, London in 1954. The very large cast were all children or teenagers, mostly from the Italia Conti acting school. There was a full theatre orchestra. The finale was a scene at the "Faraway Tree", with many of the children dressed as fairies, flying on wires. It is doubtful if this show would be possible now, because of the cost and due to legal restrictions on the working hours of children in shows. Some of the content would be considered offensive by modern standards, with the Golliwogs mugging people and Mr Plod hitting people with his truncheon at regular intervals (with sound effects from the pit). It ran for several years, but the Stoll was knocked down and replaced by an office block in the late1950s.^[2] The Peacock Theatre was built in the basement of the new building, but Noddy did not return.

In 1993, a stage production of Noddy opened at Wimbledon Theatre, followed by a long UK National Tour, including a Christmas season in London at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith and was released on VHS Video in 1994. The production was presented by Clarion Productions. The production was written and directed by David Wood with Scene & Costume Designs by Susie Calcutt. The original cast included Eric Potts as Big Ears and Karen Briffett as Noddy. The show was very well received among critics, audiences and even Enid Blyton's daughter Gillian Baverstock. David Wood adapted a successful sequel to the play entitled "Noddy and the Tootle" which opened at the Wimbledon Theatre and endured on a long UK National Tour in 1995-1996. Karen Briffett reprised her role as Noddy and Big Ears was played by Jonathan Broxholme. This production was too presented by Clarion Productions.

It returned between September 2003 and January 2004 for a new series, which was eventually named Make Way for Noddy. This was created by Chorion, on Five and the episodes were filmed from 2001–2004 externally.

In the autumn of 2004, a set of 100 new 2-minute TV interstitials were created by Chorion. These interstitials, entitled Say it With Noddy, feature Noddy learning words in a variety of foreign languages. They also introduced Noddy's new friend Whizz from Robot Village, who presses a button on his chest to play recordings of native speakers saying the new foreign words Noddy was to learn.

Make Way for Noddy is an animated series for children produced by Chorion of the United Kingdom in conjunction with SD Entertainment in the United States. Based on Enid Blyton's Noddy character, it originally aired in 12-minute segments as part of the Milkshake! programme on Britain's Five.

A new CG animated series, called "Noddy In Toyland", was made in 2009 by Chorion, produced by Brown Bag Films in Ireland. The series features much more detailed faces for Big Ears & Mr. Plod, a new wardrobe for Tessie Bear, and incorporates Whizz as a full-time character. Sly & Gobbo's cousins, Sneaky & Stealth, are introduced & usually work alongside their cousins.

In Alan Moore's series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Toyland is a real nation located in the Arctic Circle. The King and Queen of Toyland are Frankenstein's Monster and Olympia from The Tales of Hoffmann.

Film[link]

Amblin Entertainment, Lightstorm Entertainment, Bad Robot Productions, Centropolis Entertainment, Relativity Media, Moving Picture Company and Imagine Entertainment plan to make a CGI/live-action hybrid film distributed by Universal Pictures and released in 2014.

Other Media[link]

There was a spoof page of "Noddy-ana" in Hot Rod magazine (U.K.), in about 1976–78; Noddy had a Hot rod, and Big Ears smoked, and was very disrespectful to Mr. Plod.

In the book Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly, a character is nicknamed Noddy, while his best friend's nickname is Big Ears.

IDWs Transformers licensed comic books introduced the character of "Tappet" a robot who is based on Noddy visually and clearly transforms into Noddy's classic car.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Noddy, official website