The Enid Blyton Society

Ugh and double ugh. Actually, Babette Cole's is a rather bigger ugh, but they're still both ugh.

Babette Cole has very carefully concealed which of the children is supposed to be Anne! I have just looked up Shirley Hughes on Google and she has just had her 87th birthday, these illustrators are a hardy lot.

I love Babette Cole for things like the Doctor Dog books and "The Trouble with my Mum/Gran/Uncle etc."

But not for the Famous Five!

Soper certainly always drew Julian with and Anne with fair hair and George and Dick with dark but I can't be sure if that features in the text. I have a feeling that Julian IS described as something like "Tall, blonde and determined looking," at some point though.

Tony Summerfield wrote:Okay, so you have had the sweetie - now comes the medicine, I hope it doesn't taste too bad!

Terrible! Babette Cole appears to have designed a cover for a book called Four Boys and a Giant Rat!

Tony Summerfield wrote:Another spoonful perhaps!!

I don't mind Polly Dunbar's cover as much as Babette Cole's. The children and dog look lamentably cartoony - and the gates of Owl's Dene, which are supposed to be formidable, are pathetic! However, the background is quite atmospheric and I like the moon and the owl.

Thanks for putting these up, Tony. It's strange that they're only just appearing now, almost two and a half years after the first five covers were redone by an assortment of artists.

I'm not as enamoured of the Shirley Hughes cover as most here seem to be. The one I assume is meant to be Julian with the blond hair looks too young compared to the others and the figure that I guess is supposed to be George in the orange jumper is downright ugly!

It's much better tham Babette Cole's effort though. That thing that looks like a cross between a shetland pony and a fresian cow is supposed to be Timmy I'm assuming, but why are the children so happy? They look as though they haven't a care in the world, yet this is one of the most tense and suspenseful scenes in a book that's filled with them. Incidentally, Anne has opted to stay at home at this point, instead of paying a visit to Red Tower, which would be why she's not amongst the characters in the illustration.

My favourite of the three would be Polly Dunbar's. Like Anita I find the children too 'cartoony', but equally I also like the atmospheric setting. But surely even Moonraker must agree that Betty Maxey's covers are better than these!

I've always liked Shirley Hughes' scribbly, flowing style, but I don't like her depiction of the Famous Five at all, or of Kirrin Island! Nothing about that cover would entice me, as a child, to try the book if I weren't familiar with Enid Blyton. And even then I would probably read it despite the cover!

Babette Cole's babyish cover is terrible. Will children really be attracted by it? It looks like a joke book for eight-year-olds, not a serious adventure story for ten plus! She couldn't have done a better job if she had been commissioned to mock and lampoon the Famous Five books. It certainly doesn't represent them, or the exciting adventure that they are about to have.

I'm rarely so severe about modern covers because I think that ultimately they have to appeal to today's children, as opposed to pleasing us Enid Blyton die-hards, but I find Babette Cole's cover insulting to the story, the characters and to today's children.

I like the The Polly Dunbar cover because it actually captures something of the adventure itself, and I too find it atmospheric. I think this cover is more likely to interest children.

Fiona1986 wrote:Soper certainly always drew Julian with and Anne with fair hair and George and Dick with dark but I can't be sure if that features in the text. I have a feeling that Julian IS described as something like "Tall, blonde and determined looking," at some point though.

Are you sure that wasn't Stef?... Just kidding, I think you are right. I'm sure Julian's hair colour is mentioned in Five on a Treasure Island When I get up I'll check.

That's interesting. I don't remember Julian's hair colour being mentioned, though in Five on a Treasure Island we're told that he has brown eyes. I think Enid Blyton describes Dick's hair as dark in one of the books, but I don't recall which one (and I might even be imagining it!)

Sorry, but I'm going to buck the wave of opinion in favour of this cover. Okay, I've seen worse, but they don't look like 1940s' children to me - and what about Kirrin Island? I've seen bigger rocks than that! As for the other illustrations, I'll just agree with the comments already made.

The tower looks as though it should have smoke belching from the top of it and factories all around!!!

Babette Cole's illustration, if that is a truthful description, is rubbish. The other one isn't much better. Timmy's ears are ridiculous, he looks as if he's about to take off.

What I think we sometimes tend to forget is that these books are being aimed at children and whether we like it or not the target age group is probably 8 year-olds now for the Famous Five. I think many of them will have come across some of these illustrators at an earlier reading stage and therefore wish to buy the covers by their favourites.

You're quite right, Tony and anything that keeps the books on the shelves is fine by me. But I still think the covers are rubbish.

Very much agreed with Tony. Nowadays, children love cartoonish covers.

You are correct Anita. Julian has brown hair, Dick and George have black hairs and Anne hasblonde hair.

The trouble is that many children seem to like rubbish, John, you only have to look at what has been showing in our cinema over the last month!

Five Fall into Adventure cover is just terrible. For me there's no other word for it. Is that giant rat suppose to be Timmy. I can't even see that cover appealing to the children of today, even.

Into Trouble isn't bad. Quite acceptable for todays market. And I like the atmosphere the illustrator has created.