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The Famous Five #10-12
The Famous Five Collection 4: Books 10-12
Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton's most popular series.
Five On A Hike Together
Dick is woken by a light flashing through his window. Is someone trying to send him a coded message? When the Famous Five hear of an escaped convict in the area, they are on red alert.
Five Have A Wonderful Time
The Famous Five are on an adventurous holiday in horse-drawn caravans. They discover a ruined castle that looks deserted. But is that a face at the window? Or is it a trick of the light? Just who is hiding in the castle?
Five Go To Mystery Moor
The Five find out about something dangerous out in Mystery Moor. They'll have to risk the treacherous mists and follow the trail if they want to find what's lurking in the shadows. Do they know what they've let themselves in for?
This 70th anniversary edition features the Classic editions of three Famous Five adventures (books 10-12) in one volume and contains the original cover art and inside drawings by Eileen Soper.
Five On A Hike Together
Dick is woken by a light flashing through his window. Is someone trying to send him a coded message? When the Famous Five hear of an escaped convict in the area, they are on red alert.
Five Have A Wonderful Time
The Famous Five are on an adventurous holiday in horse-drawn caravans. They discover a ruined castle that looks deserted. But is that a face at the window? Or is it a trick of the light? Just who is hiding in the castle?
Five Go To Mystery Moor
The Five find out about something dangerous out in Mystery Moor. They'll have to risk the treacherous mists and follow the trail if they want to find what's lurking in the shadows. Do they know what they've let themselves in for?
This 70th anniversary edition features the Classic editions of three Famous Five adventures (books 10-12) in one volume and contains the original cover art and inside drawings by Eileen Soper.
627 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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274 people want to read
About the author
Enid Blyton
5,133 books6,299 followersSee also:
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)
Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.
Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.
Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.
According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.
See also her pen name Mary Pollock
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)
Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.
Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.
Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.
According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.
See also her pen name Mary Pollock
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 17, 2023
Tremendous thanks to GoodReads and reviewers “across the pond” for bringing Blyton’s books to my attention once upon a time. I’m sorry I never encountered them during my childhood but, thanks to GoodReads, I’ve known about them for years and I finally splurged and purchased some of the Famous Five collections as, alas, I can’t find them in our local libraries here in the US and we’d worked our way through most of The Boxcar Children series and they sounded similar. Having read both now, I do think they are quite similar in many ways, though worth reading in their own right. Those interested in a deeper dive on my thoughts about the Famous Five v. the Boxcar Children can stay tuned through the entirety of this review. For those looking for a snapshot review, here are my thoughts on this collection
FIVE ON A HIKE TOGETHER: Coincidences abound, and some of it’s a little tedious, but this also has the atmosphere of the moors and the children are fairly clever at figuring out the mystery. (Though, if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice this is another instance where George is robbed of a shining moment. As my youngest remarked, we learned in a previous book that she is a very good swimmer and diver, yet she’s relegated to the boat while the boys do all the athletics. Boo!). For a more complete review, including spoilers, see Mark Lawrence’s, which is amusing and also spot-on.
FIVE HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME
This feels like a bit of novelty after some of the others, but that’s probably simply because we skipped a collection so this was the first time for us that circus folk appeared in a book with the Five (I later learned that a few books back there’s another book with circus folk, that one featuring a clown and a trained chimp, so thank goodness I skipped that one!) There’s still a lot of rehash with kidnappings, scientists-who-might-spill-secrets-to-the-enemy, ruined castles, secret passageways, etc. But, at least the carnival folk were interesting, and I appreciated how their various talents came into play in our final scenes against the enemy. (And nice to see a snake that isn’t portrayed as evil—it was actually very sweet how everyone cared for it.) The bad guy’s plan doesn’t make sense if you stop and think about it, though. And I found it kind of odd that we have another kid show up all of a sudden (I guess from a previous book, Jo) and her presence manages to completely solve a huge problem that the Five are having with the carnival folk—and all just pure coincidence, nothing resourceful or remotely interesting. I did feel it was at least somewhat authentic that George is a little jealous of Jo, but also secretly admires her, since she is also a tomboy. All in all, I found it a fun read but don’t think too hard about the plot.
FIVE GO TO DOWN TO THE SEA
I think I was getting Famous Five burn-out at this point, but the kids kept clamoring for more. This one blends together with so many of the others with the moors, midnight ramblings, strange farm folk who may or may not be crooks, old ruins, shipwrecks, etc. I did startle out of my stupor when drugs showed up – really wasn’t expecting THAT to be what was smuggled but I guess Blyton was keeping up with the times. Oh my. Anyway, Yan is memorable (wish the Five hadn’t been so rude to him!) and so is Clopper the “horse” from the barnies show. As a theater-lover, it was fun to read about the barnies show. Perhaps if I’d read this before some of the others, I would have liked it more. As it was, it’s fairly unmemorable. Also, what’s with the boys getting to go out on all the nighttime adventures while the girls have to stay in bed. BOO! Anne, I get you wouldn’t want to go out (though I’m annoyed how often you are teased for being less bold than the others) but I expected George to put up a fuss… I think she’s been at boarding school too long. PS. How old are the Five now!? From the illustrations, Julian and Anne are starting to look a bit like Ward and June Cleaver.
Boxcar Children vs. Famous Five
Both series feature four plucky children, two boys and two girls, and their faithful feline companion, having adventures (often out in nature) and solving mysteries (often by outsmarting grown-ups). The original Box-Car Children was published in 1924 but the version most people are familiar with was issued in 1942 so this is quite contemporary with Famous Five (Five on a Treasure Island, first book in the series, also published in 1942). So, there’s this lovely “old fashioned” vibe to the earlier books in both series and this self-sufficiency and nature-connection that the children have that seems so elusive to most youth today. I think they all would have been friends in real life. You just know Jessie and Anne would have had fun housekeeping together, Julian and Henry could commiserate on the responsibilities of being the oldest, and Benny would have dug in with great relish to the delectable feasts that the Five always seemed to enjoy (they certainly seemed to eat better than the Aldens, who somehow seemed to subsist mostly on bread and milk in many of the earlier volumes) Imagine Benny’s delight at ginger-beer and treacle tart!
As the Boxcar Children series progressed, we got away from a lot of the nature-based activities and gave the Aldens a greater breadth locals and this helped keep the mysteries from getting too stale. I admit I kind of liked this because, much as I loved the Five locations at first, I got just a little bit tired of moor or seaside or farmhouse for locations for the Five (ditto smuggling, kidnapping or treasure-hunting, which seemed the main plotlines, too). However, sadly, this meant that Watch wasn’t part of many of the Aldens adventures as the series went on, and I kind of hated thinking of him sitting at home with the housekeeper while his beloved children were galivanting around elsewhere. So, I do love that Timmy really is part of the Five (it’s only Four without him!) though the sensitive young animal lovers out there probably won’t like the number of times poor Timmy is threatened with being shot or poisoned by adversaries. I feel that Grandfather is a more loving guardian and at least is somewhat present in the books (I doubt the Five see their parents for more than a few days a year between boarding school and all these independent holidays they go on). Grandfather or another trusted adult is somewhat in the vicinity even though not directly involved in the mystery-solving. I wonder how realistic it was for four children to just go off camping, hiking though the countryside and staying at inns, or spending the hols in a caravan without any adult supervision? I realize this is 1940s/1950s, so was that common back then? (I know my parents had plenty of unsupervised time and were able to roam about the neighborhood or local parks/woods unaccompanied in the 50s/60s but I don’t remember anything quite so elaborately independent as the Five experience).
I like Blyton’s writing style much better than GCW’s (and the future “Gertrudes” who took over for her). I feel Blyton is more descriptive and evocative and I loved the characterization in the first book (especially George!) and felt that these were real three-dimensional children. That said, I feel some of the later Five books fizzle a little bit on the characterization and we especially lose George in some of them, so that was disappointing. Also, and maybe I should duck for cover before I say this, but I honestly think that the Five behave really badly at times. Their treatment of Edgar (aka “Spotty-Face”) in “Five Run Away Together” is just appalling. Far as I could tell, the kid’s worst crime was being born to two horrible adults and you’d think that would elicit compassion from the Five. That they continually taunt him, deride him, and finally outright terrify him (just to get back at his parents) is appalling. They aren’t much nicer to Yan in “Five Go Down to Sea”; sure, it’s annoying to have an unwanted tag-along, but they have such a smug superiority about them and it does feel rather class-based. The lesson of the first book is to try and make friends, even if you don’t feel like it, yet the children here just think Yan is some dirty, uneducated grandson of a shepherd and so they don’t give him the time of day. Throughout the books, they also use language that we don’t promote in our house, such as calling one another “stupid” or “ass” or “idiot” (even when speaking to one another). The Boxcar Children are nosey, sure (and there’s a whiff of holier-than-thou now and then) yet they are coming from a place of helpfulness and compassion which I don’t always find with the Five. I don’t want impossibly saintly protagonists, but there is nothing in the Five books that even hints that the way the children are behaving isn’t acceptable.
We’ve read six of the Five books now and my sons want more. My oldest said he loves the “old-fashioned British feel” of the Five books and that pleases me greatly. So, it’s definitely connecting with the target audience. I loved the first one but probably have stopped after a second or third myself, especially once the plots started recycling and George lost some of her George-ness. I’m curious to try some of the other Blyton series, though, and I do recommend the Five books to US readers who enjoyed the earlier Boxcar Children books.
FIVE ON A HIKE TOGETHER: Coincidences abound, and some of it’s a little tedious, but this also has the atmosphere of the moors and the children are fairly clever at figuring out the mystery. (Though, if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice this is another instance where George is robbed of a shining moment. As my youngest remarked, we learned in a previous book that she is a very good swimmer and diver, yet she’s relegated to the boat while the boys do all the athletics. Boo!). For a more complete review, including spoilers, see Mark Lawrence’s, which is amusing and also spot-on.
FIVE HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME
This feels like a bit of novelty after some of the others, but that’s probably simply because we skipped a collection so this was the first time for us that circus folk appeared in a book with the Five (I later learned that a few books back there’s another book with circus folk, that one featuring a clown and a trained chimp, so thank goodness I skipped that one!) There’s still a lot of rehash with kidnappings, scientists-who-might-spill-secrets-to-the-enemy, ruined castles, secret passageways, etc. But, at least the carnival folk were interesting, and I appreciated how their various talents came into play in our final scenes against the enemy. (And nice to see a snake that isn’t portrayed as evil—it was actually very sweet how everyone cared for it.) The bad guy’s plan doesn’t make sense if you stop and think about it, though. And I found it kind of odd that we have another kid show up all of a sudden (I guess from a previous book, Jo) and her presence manages to completely solve a huge problem that the Five are having with the carnival folk—and all just pure coincidence, nothing resourceful or remotely interesting. I did feel it was at least somewhat authentic that George is a little jealous of Jo, but also secretly admires her, since she is also a tomboy. All in all, I found it a fun read but don’t think too hard about the plot.
FIVE GO TO DOWN TO THE SEA
I think I was getting Famous Five burn-out at this point, but the kids kept clamoring for more. This one blends together with so many of the others with the moors, midnight ramblings, strange farm folk who may or may not be crooks, old ruins, shipwrecks, etc. I did startle out of my stupor when drugs showed up – really wasn’t expecting THAT to be what was smuggled but I guess Blyton was keeping up with the times. Oh my. Anyway, Yan is memorable (wish the Five hadn’t been so rude to him!) and so is Clopper the “horse” from the barnies show. As a theater-lover, it was fun to read about the barnies show. Perhaps if I’d read this before some of the others, I would have liked it more. As it was, it’s fairly unmemorable. Also, what’s with the boys getting to go out on all the nighttime adventures while the girls have to stay in bed. BOO! Anne, I get you wouldn’t want to go out (though I’m annoyed how often you are teased for being less bold than the others) but I expected George to put up a fuss… I think she’s been at boarding school too long. PS. How old are the Five now!? From the illustrations, Julian and Anne are starting to look a bit like Ward and June Cleaver.
Boxcar Children vs. Famous Five
Both series feature four plucky children, two boys and two girls, and their faithful feline companion, having adventures (often out in nature) and solving mysteries (often by outsmarting grown-ups). The original Box-Car Children was published in 1924 but the version most people are familiar with was issued in 1942 so this is quite contemporary with Famous Five (Five on a Treasure Island, first book in the series, also published in 1942). So, there’s this lovely “old fashioned” vibe to the earlier books in both series and this self-sufficiency and nature-connection that the children have that seems so elusive to most youth today. I think they all would have been friends in real life. You just know Jessie and Anne would have had fun housekeeping together, Julian and Henry could commiserate on the responsibilities of being the oldest, and Benny would have dug in with great relish to the delectable feasts that the Five always seemed to enjoy (they certainly seemed to eat better than the Aldens, who somehow seemed to subsist mostly on bread and milk in many of the earlier volumes) Imagine Benny’s delight at ginger-beer and treacle tart!
As the Boxcar Children series progressed, we got away from a lot of the nature-based activities and gave the Aldens a greater breadth locals and this helped keep the mysteries from getting too stale. I admit I kind of liked this because, much as I loved the Five locations at first, I got just a little bit tired of moor or seaside or farmhouse for locations for the Five (ditto smuggling, kidnapping or treasure-hunting, which seemed the main plotlines, too). However, sadly, this meant that Watch wasn’t part of many of the Aldens adventures as the series went on, and I kind of hated thinking of him sitting at home with the housekeeper while his beloved children were galivanting around elsewhere. So, I do love that Timmy really is part of the Five (it’s only Four without him!) though the sensitive young animal lovers out there probably won’t like the number of times poor Timmy is threatened with being shot or poisoned by adversaries. I feel that Grandfather is a more loving guardian and at least is somewhat present in the books (I doubt the Five see their parents for more than a few days a year between boarding school and all these independent holidays they go on). Grandfather or another trusted adult is somewhat in the vicinity even though not directly involved in the mystery-solving. I wonder how realistic it was for four children to just go off camping, hiking though the countryside and staying at inns, or spending the hols in a caravan without any adult supervision? I realize this is 1940s/1950s, so was that common back then? (I know my parents had plenty of unsupervised time and were able to roam about the neighborhood or local parks/woods unaccompanied in the 50s/60s but I don’t remember anything quite so elaborately independent as the Five experience).
I like Blyton’s writing style much better than GCW’s (and the future “Gertrudes” who took over for her). I feel Blyton is more descriptive and evocative and I loved the characterization in the first book (especially George!) and felt that these were real three-dimensional children. That said, I feel some of the later Five books fizzle a little bit on the characterization and we especially lose George in some of them, so that was disappointing. Also, and maybe I should duck for cover before I say this, but I honestly think that the Five behave really badly at times. Their treatment of Edgar (aka “Spotty-Face”) in “Five Run Away Together” is just appalling. Far as I could tell, the kid’s worst crime was being born to two horrible adults and you’d think that would elicit compassion from the Five. That they continually taunt him, deride him, and finally outright terrify him (just to get back at his parents) is appalling. They aren’t much nicer to Yan in “Five Go Down to Sea”; sure, it’s annoying to have an unwanted tag-along, but they have such a smug superiority about them and it does feel rather class-based. The lesson of the first book is to try and make friends, even if you don’t feel like it, yet the children here just think Yan is some dirty, uneducated grandson of a shepherd and so they don’t give him the time of day. Throughout the books, they also use language that we don’t promote in our house, such as calling one another “stupid” or “ass” or “idiot” (even when speaking to one another). The Boxcar Children are nosey, sure (and there’s a whiff of holier-than-thou now and then) yet they are coming from a place of helpfulness and compassion which I don’t always find with the Five. I don’t want impossibly saintly protagonists, but there is nothing in the Five books that even hints that the way the children are behaving isn’t acceptable.
We’ve read six of the Five books now and my sons want more. My oldest said he loves the “old-fashioned British feel” of the Five books and that pleases me greatly. So, it’s definitely connecting with the target audience. I loved the first one but probably have stopped after a second or third myself, especially once the plots started recycling and George lost some of her George-ness. I’m curious to try some of the other Blyton series, though, and I do recommend the Five books to US readers who enjoyed the earlier Boxcar Children books.
November 15, 2020
Sometimes I enjoy reading children's books. It's my way to escape the adult world and just drown into the innocence of childhood.
The book is sweet and easy to read. I love all the adventurers. They all seem to have distinct personalities, especially George. Surprise! It's a girl.. No spoiling, though. Read the story and enjoy unveiling some of its secrets.
I love it!
The book is sweet and easy to read. I love all the adventurers. They all seem to have distinct personalities, especially George. Surprise! It's a girl.. No spoiling, though. Read the story and enjoy unveiling some of its secrets.
I love it!
July 21, 2020
Great collection. Some slightly re-used ideas, but also some new and original story lines
March 30, 2021
My 7 yr old daughter loved me reading these to her. This collection is the strongest of the first 4 in my opinion (a little less predictable and less repetitive - more interesting and exciting)
May 14, 2021
An amazing for teenagers
February 16, 2022
4.75 :))
December 15, 2022
Five Go On A Hike was I'm sorry to say a disappointment. Very predictable with an abrupt end. Not EB at her best.
March 23, 2025
Thrilling, adventurous as usual…
January 20, 2022
Childhood favourites!
Used to read these when I was in school. Still like them. They are such a relaxing read at bedtime.
Used to read these when I was in school. Still like them. They are such a relaxing read at bedtime.
December 8, 2020
Typical Famous Five. I read these when I was small and I can see why. They are still good, obviously written for children but it was great to read them again.
February 16, 2017
Lovely to revisit Blyton on my Kindle :-)
March 23, 2023
So much nostalgia for these books. I remember getting super mad at the gender roles even as a child (like. girls can do everything boys can, so why do you have to treat the girls like they’re fragile and breakable. also Anne, make the boys help with doing the dishes and cleaning smfh).
Also, I’m sure Enid Blyton would have had an aneurysm upon the realization that she’d written a solid trans character without knowing it (: George always gets so happy when referred to as a boy, wears boys clothing, likes participating in traditionally “male” and refuses to answer to Georgina. I mean, come onnnnnnn, it’s waaaay past being a tomboy at that point.
Also, I’m sure Enid Blyton would have had an aneurysm upon the realization that she’d written a solid trans character without knowing it (: George always gets so happy when referred to as a boy, wears boys clothing, likes participating in traditionally “male” and refuses to answer to Georgina. I mean, come onnnnnnn, it’s waaaay past being a tomboy at that point.
January 15, 2019
Reading this took me back to my childhood days of reading every Enid Blyton book I could lay my hands on. While I feel that there is issues in these books relating to gender, racism and other stereotypes, I realise that a lot of that is a product of when they were written and I can see past it to see the genius in the writing itself. Simple plot lines and characters that embody the characteristics that Enid Blyton likes to bestow on her child/teenage protaganists.
I really enjoyed the throwback to a simpler time in my life and the feelings it engendered.
I really enjoyed the throwback to a simpler time in my life and the feelings it engendered.
November 28, 2010
A set of the timeless Famous Five, a good afternoon read
March 27, 2017
I love the Famous Five books. They are so gentle and easy to read, a great option after a stressful day, or when the world just seems too rough. There's a few outdated gender roles of course, and I occasionally take issue with how rubbish the grown ups are at being parents. But none of that is really all that important. I still love them. It's a comfort to know that no matter what sort of fix the five get into, they'll find a way out of it. And this collection is no exception. The perfect companion to a snugly blanket and a hot mug of tea.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews