Five Find-Outers editions

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Gavin
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Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

I've just joined and I've done in my introductions in the appropriate forum so I'll leave it out here!

Anyway, I'd like to buy a new set of Five Find-Outers. "New set?!" I hear you gasp. Sadly I sold half of my EB collection a few years back and they included my favourite series. Still, out with the old and all that - looking at the Book Listing pages of this site is useful as I can see the various covers. I'd like a nice hardback set - I particularly liked the Dean Rewards series as a child, but it always baffled me why they only contained part of the Five Find-Outers series, not all 15. I see the latest editions of the F-FO are in hardback - does anyone have them? Do they contain illustrations (modern or older? I prefer the older style illustrations)? Are they revised? (i.e. Are words such as queer modernised? I'd kind of like to re-read the original text).

If anyone can help me, I'd be grateful! Otherwise, I might just go ahead and order a set from Amazon or Waterstones. Thanks.
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Moonraker
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Moonraker »

Hmm...in my humble opinion, the sheer joy of owning and reading the Mystery series, is to hold, feel and look at the original Methuen books. So, for me, it would have to be second hand dealers (Stella & Rose's Books is a great online example) or eBay.
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Gavin
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

Having done research for the last 2.5 hours since my post, I now totally agree with Moonraker. I have been reading about the many revisions and changes that have been made to EB's books over the years. There are a one or two I can understand - but I'd still rather read her original words. It's occurred to me that as a child of the early 80s, some of my childhood EB books may have been altered for damn political correctness. I also enjoy the early illustrations far more.

But yes, I agree Moonraker - I've now begun my quest for a set of Methuens. I don't think I'll go for first editions because, as someone has said on these forums, it's a slippery slope - I think I'll go for a compromise on price and age - would something like this be a good place to start?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/THE-MYSTERY-OF-TH ... dZViewItem" target="_blank
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Julie2owlsdene
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

EBAY is always a good choice I think, Gavin. I've picked up many a good bargain book by Enid Blyton, from here.

8)
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Lucky Star
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Lucky Star »

Ninety per cent of my old hardbacks have come from ebay and I've had little or no trouble. If you're not that fussed about having actual First editions then you can pick up great bargains with original text, illustrations and Dust jackets.
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Moonraker
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Moonraker »

Yes, Gavin, I'm with Lucky Star on this one. I bought a First Edition with d/j off eBay for about a tenner. I'm not that bothered about books being First's, I'd rather spend the cash on buying more books!

Unlike some of our friends, I'm no expert on the pitfalls of buying First's, so I would definitely put in a bid for Burnt Cottage. :D
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Gavin
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

Thanks for the advice guys and gals. I like the artwork on the Methuens so I'll be going for those. If you could all refrain from bidding on eBay for a month or two while I collect these books, that would be great :wink: :wink:
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Kitty
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Kitty »

You could try your local second hand book shops and charity shops too. Hardback FFOs don't seem to be that popular, so they're usually cheap, and do turn up quite often. My hardback Spiteful Letters is a (very) grubby 1st that only cost me 50p in a bookshop, but I don't want to upgrade - like Nigel, I prefer to have money to spend on different books when I can get them, and I'm fond of it. From memory, Banshee Towers was the only one I bought from eBay.
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Gavin
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

To be honest, I'm not going to be doing this as a "collector" per se. I will certainly be taking great care of them (as I've always done with my EBs) but I'll not be putting them on a shelf and leaving there - I intend to (carefully) enjoy them! I'm going for hardbacks because I guess they'll last a little longer, I'd like dust jackets because I like the artwork and I'm going for earlyish editions because I don't want my books to have been "politically-corrected".

The other reason I'm not going to go treasure hunting for mint copies of the very first editions is that I can have some quite compulsive charactertistics sometimes - I know that I if I start searching for mint 1st eds of FFOs, that I'll never stop until I get them all! Like Kitty and Moonraker, I'd rather spend the money on getting more books.

[I hope to start a family soon-ish. I'd like to buy my kids nice new editions of EB's books for themselves - I don't expect them to appreciate daddy's dusty old, yellowing books the way I do!]
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RDMorrell
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by RDMorrell »

I have just come across the latest Five Find-Outers hardbacks in NZ. There was a whole set of them at the Children's Bookshop, fairly near to where I live (I feel so fortunate living close to one of the best specialised children's bookshops in the country!). I bought the first three, to wit: The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat, and The Mystery of the Secret Room. I hope to be able to gradually pick up the rest over the next little while. They have the Dean imprint, but are published by Egmont. I see that they are copyrighted 2004.

Although I have a number of complete Enid Blyton series (Famous Five, Secret Seven, Adventure), I'm ashamed to say that I have never owned or even read a FFO book. But I intend to change this now. I suppose these Dean editions have revised texts. :evil: Still, it's a start, and they are rather nice. Certainly, the covers are an improvement on the rather cartoonish ones of the previous paperbacks!

While I was there, I noticed that Egmont has also published some sets of short stories under the Dean imprint - Five O'Clock Stories, Seven O'Clock Stories and Eight O'Clock Stories were titles I saw. Apparently, the Malory Towers series has also been published by Egmont/Dean, but I didn't see any of those, although there was a nearly complete set of MT paperbacks. The "O'clock stories" seemed to be mostly about pixies, elves and suchlike, which isn't my bag, so I left those. But I was interested to see these being reissued all the same. Now, if only someone would do what Applewood has done in the US with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books (well, some of them anyway) and publish facsimile editions of the original texts! I'd buy those in a heartbeat!
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Gavin
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

I loved the Dean books as kids - they were cheap, hardback and they had nice uniform covers but it always annoyed me that they didn't publish complete series of books - it seemed to be a mix-and-match from lots of series. I think Dean published something like 9 or 10 out of the FFO series (at least in this country).

And yeah, you should be ashamed :D I hope you enjoy the FFO (they get much better after the first couple!)

Gavin
Tony Summerfield
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Gavin wrote:I loved the Dean books as kids - they were cheap, hardback and they had nice uniform covers but it always annoyed me that they didn't publish complete series of books - it seemed to be a mix-and-match from lots of series. I think Dean published something like 9 or 10 out of the FFO series (at least in this country).

Gavin
No, this isn't correct, Gavin. Dean published all the Find-Outers books, if you look in our Book Listing you will be able to see the covers. The same applies to all other series that Dean have covered, they have always published the whole series. They are normally found in 'remainder' bookshops, which may of course not stock all the titles.
Gavin
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

I've no doubt you're correct but when I was collecting them as a kid, I've very vivid memories of always wishing they had published the whole series - maybe we're talking about different Deans here? I'm talking about the series they published in the late 80s/90s such as this: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/auth ... tage-8.jpg" target="_blank

I looked down the book list and it is missing several from the Dean series of this era, such as Disappearing Cat and Hidden House. Maybe you're talking about older or newer Deans?
Tony Summerfield
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Tony Summerfield »

This was the first series that Dean published, and any pictures missing from the Book Listing simply means that they are missing from my collection and I therefore haven't been able to provide scans, but I have seen all the books and I promise you they were all published. I am just waiting for someone to send me scans of any missing ones - but that doesn't often happen!
Gavin
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Re: Five Find-Outers editions

Post by Gavin »

In that case, I've no idea why I thought they didn't publish them all when I was a child but I'm glad to be corrected because they were nice little books. Thanks Tony.
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