I've finished The Secret Of Killimooin and got to admit that although I was rather hesitant to start it, I actually quite liked it! It was like an Adventure book but with a different cast. My biggest problem was not being familiar with any of the characters, but it was still perfectly accessible. O...

I've just finished FF20, Five have a mystery to solve . It's been a longtime since I last read it, I realised I had completely forgotten some parts of it. IMHO, not as awful as Together again , but definitely a weak one, really very poor. The main sensation is deja vu. An island, a castle, a cave, a...

Five are together again is really a mess. The plot is certainly ludicrous and makes no sense at all. I'm afraid that at this point of her life EB was unable to feature a decent story. I wonde if Prof. Hayling character was a reflection of what was happening to her? According to all accounted activi...

I like Five go adventuring again. It's a rather peculiar FF book. Unlike its predecessor, most of the action happens indoors and we have the bad guy at home since the very beginning. I find George a bit annoying sometimes with her obsession with Timmy but not in this book, I really sympathise with h...

Vanished Prince is an atypical FFO book that features one of the most hilarious moments I can remember in any EB novel: Ern and Sid watching Mr Goon in front of of the mirror repeating Ableddy Ableddy :lol:. Yes, Adventure Series may be the best but FFO is undoubtedly the funniest. Fatty and Mr. Goo...

I consider Mountain as the weaker book in Adventure Series but anyway far better than Five get into a fix. Adventure series, even its worst entry, is a different level.

I agree George is a really strong character with very good qualities and obvious flaws. She usually shows her "dark side" with people she see as rivals like Jo, Henry or Berta. Her flaws are deliberately depicted, her bad moods, her obsession with Timmy and her own insecurities. There's an...

I do love the Famous Five and I know they're not flawless, but neither are the children in other series. Yet we don't see anyone else acting this way. Well, I think it's not only the FF, we can find similar cases in other series. For instance, The Ship of Adventure and the way the children treat Lu...

It’s very interesting how EB describes the Five’s individual feelings about Jo in Five fall into adventure. We get a good portrait of each.

I have just finished Five get into a fix. We meet the Five from a different perspective: it starts at Dicks's place instead of usual Kirrin Cottage, it's wintertime (this only in happened in no 2), winter sports, illness… This is a snowy winter novel, something remarkable in EB. I just can renmember...

I've finished Five Go To Billycock Hill and enjoyed it very much. It's a very mixed bag of goodies. The idea of this Cold War espionage at a secret airbase connected with something as randomly quirky as a butterfly farm staffed by eccentric characters actually reminded me of The Avengers! I know th...

Its interesting that some of us view The Secret Mountain as 'really poor'. Not my impression at all, but we are all different, with different tastes. That's what makes life so interesting! I would definitely rate it amongst my top ten Blyton novels. Perhaps I was too hard, sorry! :wink: . I should ...

I can't remember any EB novel set in Africa other than Secret Mountain. this is a significant point. It's been decades since I last read it, but I remember it as a really poor one. Secret series has some of the first EB novels, prevIous to Adventure and FF. We find some interesting ideas better deve...

I have a problem with Secret Series: it's a matter of coherence, the books are too different. Take Island, Spiggy Holes, and Mountain, for instance, they share the characters, but they are completely different. Talking about Secret Mountain, I wouldn't rate that high, the main problem is that, in my...

I have just finished The Valley of Adventure, it 't just as I remembered it, a truly wonderful novel. Adventure series is Blyton's best, a step up compared with FF, Barney, Secret and others. Unlike most extended opinion here, I wouldn't consider Valley the best. My favourite is Island. I'd personal...