If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may like...

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burlingtonbertram
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If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may like...

Post by burlingtonbertram »

If you enjoy the Adventurous Four and the Famous Five then you might like The Boynton Manor Secret by Annerley Wood (1944).

I bought a copy of this last year under the misapprehension that it was set locally (Boynton is a nearby village). This was reinforced by the fact that this particular copy had been given as a Sunday school prize, locally, in 1949. Hence, I paid a little over the odds for it. In fact it is set in Boynton-On-Sea in Devon.

The main characters are Dick Daniells (aged 16), the twins Shrimpy and Joyce (12) and their cousin Jack Carter. Jack and his Mother live with the Daniells as his father has died.

They were hoping to go to stay for the summer holidays with their uncle Dr Gregory Martin (a famous scientist) but can't get in touch with him. They decide to go there anyway as he wouldn't mind. Their mothers are looking forward to it because there no servants to be had in war-time so they can 'rough it'.

When they arrive they find that Boynton Manor is a big, old house – the kind of house with a priest hole not to mention a well that emits intermittent smells and noises. They do the usual things – picnic in the woods and explore the cave in the cove.

The first mystery is who owns the sack of biscuits, bread, cheese and tinned food left at the Manor? Then, who takes it away?

Who is moving about the manor at night?

The old, 'fey' man “Daft Charlie” saw a mermaid riding a dolphin in the mist, but surely he is mad?

Where is Uncle Gregory and does he have a laboratory anywhere where he works on his secret formulae?

Is the secretive fisherman in his hut really a black marketeer? That would explain the 7lb tin or treacle and half a side of ham the children see there. It would also explain why he has a revolver hidden away. Plus, why he tries to scare Joyce with tales of a ghost at the Manor.

Is the tramp - built like a gorilla - who has a strange accent, mixed up in all this? Perhaps Rabbits Teeth and The Cherub (two hikers on vacation from Oxford) are too? Who can they be with their old-world politeness and public school vocabulary?

During 1944, who might be the most dangerous enemy of all?

I would definitely recommend this book to Enid Blyton mystery fans if you can track down a copy. It is very Blytonesque indeed.

************************************************************************************************************************
1st edition 1944
Printed on economy war-time paper so some foxing to endpapers and outside edges.
Tightly bound.
No dust jacket.
Bright, clean colour plate frontispiece.
256 pp
Published by Frederick Warne & Co of London & New York
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Katharine
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by Katharine »

Sounds great, I shall keep my eyes peeled.
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by John Pickup »

So shall I.
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rosy_posy
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by rosy_posy »

Oh, I've got that! It came into the secondhand bookshop where I used to work... it's quite a fun read.
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by burlingtonbertram »

Excellent. I hoped I hadn't reviewed a book of which I had got the only existing copy!
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by John Pickup »

I was looking for this book last night on Abe books and, as well as being hard to find, it appears to be quite expensive with a dustwrapper. I shall look out for it in the second hand bookshops.
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by der5997 »

Hello all. I came across this thread just yesterday (April 10 2015) I'm glad that you have found my mother's one published work of fiction, The Boyton Manor Secret, to your liking. I really appreciated berlingtonbertram's review. (I wonder if you favour the 1900 Harry B. Norris version, or the 1915 William Hargreaves song. It does affect your morning wake up time!)
My wife was as amazed as was I that there was still interest after all this time. EB's works we can understand, but Annerly Wood? That Annerly BTW she used as a nom-de-plume thinking that a woman author would not be acceptable (it was after all scarcely 100 years since the Brontes, and Austen just a few decades before that! LOL) Anne Elizabeth Wood died in 1974, for the record.
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by Moonraker »

Most interesting. Thanks for that, der5997.
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burlingtonbertram
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Re: If you like the Adventurous 4 & The Famous 5 you may lik

Post by burlingtonbertram »

der5997 wrote:Hello all. I came across this thread just yesterday (April 10 2015) I'm glad that you have found my mother's one published work of fiction, The Boyton Manor Secret, to your liking. I really appreciated berlingtonbertram's review. (I wonder if you favour the 1900 Harry B. Norris version, or the 1915 William Hargreaves song. It does affect your morning wake up time!)
My wife was as amazed as was I that there was still interest after all this time. EB's works we can understand, but Annerly Wood? That Annerly BTW she used as a nom-de-plume thinking that a woman author would not be acceptable (it was after all scarcely 100 years since the Brontes, and Austen just a few decades before that! LOL) Anne Elizabeth Wood died in 1974, for the record.
That's really great; thanks for posting this. Well, I have to say that I very much enjoyed the book and I wish that she'd written more fiction. She could have had her own forum like this one, if she'd kept writing!

PS: quite brightened my day reading this.
"The days are long, but the years are short"
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