Five at the Office Christmas Party

Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups

by Bruno Vincent

Enid Blyton's books are beloved the world over and The Famous Five have been the perennial favourite of her fans. Now, in this new series of Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups, George, Dick, Anne, Julian and Timmy are given the task of organizing the Christmas party for cousin Rupert's failing company.Join the Five as they set out to give the best office Christmas party ever, in the most traditional of fashions. Of course, true to form, things don't go quite according to plan . . .

Genres: Humor, Christmas, Fiction

112 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2017

About the author

Bruno Vincent was a bookseller and book editor before he was an author. His humour books for grown-ups, co-authored with Jon Butler, were national bestsellers and have been translated into seven languages. The TUMBLEWATER books are his first for children.

Reviews

[Paul]

My goodness, what an amazingly frustrating ending! Other than that, this was a pretty funny read, the slightly obvious jokes offset by the genuinely unexpected climax.

[Shauna]

A bit like a cheap firework, this had occasional bright flashes of humour and a very damp squib ending.

[Hastings75]

Really enjoyed this one.

I think the satires on the office environment are things I can relate to, given my day job, so makes for some extra amusement/appreciation.

Bring on the next one.

[Leonie]

I wished I liked this more...It is fun there is a series of books on the grown up version of our "famous five", but for me the writing style was a bit vague at some points (so I found myself not able to read for longer times)..

This was a start to my Xmas pile books, just hope the next one is more to my liking🙈

[Lisa]

Still funny but not quite as hilarious as some of the others

[Callum MH]

My teaching colleague thoughtfully gave this to me when she found out that the book gift, from the Secret Santa who was meant to have me, wouldn’t be arriving in time. She went to the touching trouble of altering all the names of the main characters in the text to those members of our own office! Within this spoofy novella from the ‘Enid Blyton for Adults’ series (written by Bruno Vincent), the now grown-up Famous Five embark upon the adventure of organising an office Christmas party and, suffice to say, mayhem ensues. It’s a quick, purposefully silly and parodic read, but the effort and sentiment behind its bequeathment gets five starts from me! Thanks George ♥️📕🐕

[Jess]

This review was originally posted on my blog ladybookdragon.com

I have read most of the Famous Five parodies by Bruno Vincent but I had been saving this one to read over the Christmas holidays and I was pleased I did. I read most of the Famous Five series when I was a child and have always enjoyed reading about the five’s adventures, especially George as I was also a tomboy when I was young.

The four children are now adults and are blundering along trying to get adult life correct. Timmy is now very mature and does not take such an active role in the adventures although he is still present, watching over the four. The story begins with Julian getting fired from his job and managing to get another job working with Dick, George and Anne at the business that their rogue cousin Rupert owns. None of them particularly enjoy their work apart from Julian who finds the simple data input work a lot better than his previous job as he used to over think that job.

Just before Christmas Rupert pulls the four into his office and asks them to organise the Christmas party to help raise morale in the company. This does not end well, especially when the workers sample Julian’s punch.

The story is hilariously funny and well written, Vincent has obviously done his homework and read a great deal of the original Famous Five books because he has each of the five perfect, their childhood characters come through in their adult life. Anne is still homely, petite and pretty, George is still stubborn, bad tempered and boyish, Julian a know it all but now has a drink problem, Dick who is always happy to follow everyone’s lead and is happy to just potter around playing Pokemon Go. Vincent has been nothing but respectful to Enid Blyton’s work and legacy and I think she would have rather enjoyed his version of the adult five.

The only reason this book did not get 5 dragons was because the ending was a little bit disappointing for me and it finished a bit too soon on a cliffhanger no less. This book was a brilliant read I would recommend for anyone who wants a good laugh over Christmas and who enjoyed the Famous Five series as a child. A big 4 out of 5 dragons from me.

[Chrystyna]

Five at the Office Christmas Party by Bruno Vincent in the style of Enid Blyton - OK

The next of my own bookish advent calendar (*)

An updated version of the Famous Five where John, Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy the dog are now adults and seem to have relocated to London where they all working in the same office and have been lumbered with organising the office Christmas party with little or no budget. Chaos ensues.

Funny enough but a bit confused at the end. Nice quick read.

#review

(*) every year I collect interesting looking Christmas themed books, wrap them up and then pick them at random during December. I never know what I'm going to get and I have some sweet treats wrapped for non-book days. Works for me!

[The Book Squirrel]

I give this one 4 1/2 stars! I laughed out loud when Julian was writing in Rog's card. The only reason it doesn't get a full 5 stars is because I thought the ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, and I don't see that the ending is picked up in another title (I may be wrong here).

I don't think you need to read these stories in order, but in this case, you should read this BEFORE Five go on a strategy away day.

[Mrs B]

Specifically, the Famous Five are charged with actually organising the office Christmas party. With patronising alcoholic Julian in charge of the budget, though, things quickly spiral downward, and the gang is forced to use all their 1940s-style creativity to pull off a crowd-pleasing event (whilst of course exposing a drugs cartel in the process!).

[Chelsie]

It wasn’t what I was expecting it to be and was a change from my usual genre. I expected it to have more of a Christmassy feel about it too. It won’t stop me from reading others in the collection though!

[DJ]

Enjoyed reading this whilst waiting to attend my own Work Christmas Party and painting my Nails! Dearie me the Kids are just the same...
Not my favourite of the series as not a fan of Cousin Rupert - Hey Ho!

[Sian]

Absolutely hilarious, if a little outrageous! After the Famous Five (particularly Julian) spend their budget on booze and restaurants they have to come up with an inventive way to pull off the best office party yet! With some bizarre outcomes and laughs along the way, this is a great seasonal read.

[Sara Eames]

One of the better, funnier Enid Blyton for grown ups series. A quick easy read with all your favourite Famous Five characters and a few smiles along the way. Recommended if you enjoy spoofs or grew up reading Enid Blyton's Famous Five books.

[Kingfan30]

I used to read Enid Blyton as a kid although I was more of a Faraway Tree fan so I wasn’t really familiar with the characters of this book. It as a mildly amusing read for me, the incident with the card was probably one of the funnier moments. The ending was very weird though.

[Caitlin]

Such a ridiculous fun little series. Was NOT expecting the building getting blow up at the end 😅

“Now he had been put in charge, Julian’s respect for the rights of the working man seemed to mysteriously melt away.”

[Annette O'grady]

this book was ok but again not to my taste and not the sort that you would put the famous five with in my opinion they are demeaning Enid blytons original famous five books. again i disappointed

[Xanthi]

More fun in this series, this time with a Christmas theme. And you don't need to be a big fan of the original children's books to enjoy.

[OWEN MURPHY]

Weakest 5 book so far

Not as funny as other five book s , boring even for its brevity, five give up the booze is much better

[Tim Corke]

Always a good giggle - the new era of Five go... have been brilliant and a great example of modern twist on an old classic. You won’t miss out reading this one but it isn’t quite what you think!

[Debbie]

Interesting conceit (the first of the series that I've read) but overly long for what is a one or two joke book

[Irene]

Missed a more Christmassy feel and it got confusing at the end, almost like two separate stories

[Maggie Barfield]

Trying way too hard and certainly not as funny as it thinks it is!

[Ruby]

😂😂really funny!! I love seeing how the five act in the workplace. Their organisation skills are really NOT en pointe...

[Lesley]

Mildly amusing. 2/5 stars.

[Clare]

Enjoyable, but didn't really live up to the originals and wasn't as funny as I was hoping

[Scott Gardner]

Amusing little book about the five all grown up

[Sally]

Best of these I have read so far, highly amusing. A perfect read-in-one-sitting holiday book.

[Sonja Persch]

I love this series but the ending of this book was simply a train wreck. Spoilt it entirely, for me

[Jennifer]

Another hilarious spoof on the Famous Five!!