Enid's longest book?/Award Books

[Philip Mannering]

Word Count:
1. Famous Five = 45,000 words or so.
2. Five Find-Outers = 40,000 words or so.
3. Adventure = 60,000 words or so.
4. Barney = 55,000 words or so.
5. Secret = 45,000 words or so.
6. Malory Towers = 45,000 words or so.

It might help to explain why, from a publishing/costs perspective, the Famous Fives, Secret Sevens, Five Find-Outers and the school stories have remained in print while the Adventure and Barney ones have disappeared.

Who'd have thought the Secret Sevens were longer than FFOs? They felt so much slighter!

Liz

Have the Barney and Adventure series gone out of print and disappeared? I don't think so! They're sitting safe in my bookstore with other Award titles (Award titles are many in the local bookstore.) However, I haven't seen the Secret series - are they in print? Amazon search reveals that they are; but there is no Secret title in the bookstore, why I can't fathom because they also are published by Award. So then....?

Anyway, as Robert correctly said, I was referring to the Secret series, not the Secret Seven series. I didn't count them because I have only a single title - which I'm certain will count no more than 20,000 words (I could be wrong, though.)

[Philip Mannering]

I think he meant the 'Secret' series (Secret Island, Secret of Spiggy holes, etc, rather than the Secret Seven.

Still surprised that the F.F.O are shorter than the 'Fives' and 'Secrets' though. Can't really believe that's true!

I have done the average of the Find-Outers series - got 42,000 words. What really surprised me was that some books (the later ones) have got word count of 43/44/45,000 words - Hidden House has 48,000! (Surprise, because I believed it was rather short.) The reason I wrote "40,000 words or so" in the Find-Outers word count was that at that time I didn't have the later books - just counted the earlier ones and they had about 38/40/41,000 words. Now, I'm attempting to cover up my mistake; and will update the Word counts later on. Currently making average of Famous Five...

The smallest book of the Find-Outers series is (as one can easily guess) Banshee Towers. Just 35,000 words! That makes it a novella, not a novel, since novels are usually at least 40,000 words long.

[Tony Summerfield]

Have the Barney and Adventure series gone out of print and disappeared? I don't think so! They're sitting safe in my bookstore with other Award titles (Award titles are many in the local bookstore.) However, I haven't seen the Secret series - are they in print?

I found your post very interesting, Philip. I am surprised that Liz thought the Adventure series had gone out of print. After the Famous Five they are probably the most popular books and they have never been out of print in the UK and can be found in all major book stores. They are actually one of the few series that still have the original publisher, Macmillan, who have kept the books permanently in print (There was a brief spell where the Thames editions were sold alongside the Macmillan editions). Even the Famous Five and Secret Seven had a brief spell of being published by Award.

I was particularly interested that Award books are readily available in India, as they can be quite difficult to find in the UK as they are not stocked by any major book shop. The last edition of the Secret Series came out six years ago in 2002 and I have never seen them for sale anywhere. I can tell you that Award are publishing a new edition early next year, when a sixth book will be added to the series with a cover illustration by Val Biro. I hope these books will be easier to find in the UK, but at least they will be available in India!

[Philip Mannering]

Have the Barney and Adventure series gone out of print and disappeared? I don't think so! They're sitting safe in my bookstore with other Award titles (Award titles are many in the local bookstore.) However, I haven't seen the Secret series - are they in print?

I found your post very interesting, Philip. I am surprised that Liz thought the Adventure series had gone out of print. After the Famous Five they are probably the most popular books and they have never been out of print in the UK and can be found in all major book stores. They are actually one of the few series that still have the original publisher, Macmillan, who have kept the books permanently in print

Is the Famous Five included in this (a series in which the original publisher still publishes them)? Today they are being published by Hodder; the original hardbacks were published by Hodder & Stoughton. Any difference?

I was particularly interested that Award books are readily available in India, as they can be quite difficult to find in the UK as they are not stocked by any major book shop. The last edition of the Secret Series came out six years ago in 2002 and I have never seen them for sale anywhere. I can tell you that Award are publishing a new edition early next year... I hope these books will be easier to find in the UK, but at least they will be available in India!

New editions of the Secret series? Sounds good to me! To me, reading the Secret series has been very difficult - I had to borrow them and it took up a while.

As for Award titles being readily available in the local bookstore, I don't know much except that the Adventurous Four series (which is also published by Award) is also available. Also, the new Young Adventurers (published by Award!) is available too. It seems that nearly all Award titles are available - except for two books which I have been searching for months - The Six Bad Boys and The Family at Red Roofs.

[Tony Summerfield]

Is the Famous Five included in this (a series in which the original publisher still publishes them)? Today they are being published by Hodder; the original hardbacks were published by Hodder & Stoughton. Any difference?

No difference at all, Hodder & Stoughton and Brockhampton Press simply became Hodder Children's Books. However, as I said in my first email, they did lose the hardback rights to Award for a while, but have always held the paperback rights.

Are you struggling with your avatar, or did you want just a small part of the Secret Island?

[Philip Mannering]

Are you struggling with your avatar, or did you want just a small part of the Secret Island?

Err, struggling with it. I don't know how to shorten the picture properly: the original was too big and when I shortened it the parts were gone.

Definitely time to remove it. I shall have to do without an avatar; the signature is enough for me. (This reminds me of the fable "The Fox and the Grapes"!).

Update: I have now removed it.

[Tony Summerfield]

I have put it back for you, if you want something different just let me know.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The last edition of the Secret Series came out six years ago in 2002 and I have never seen them for sale anywhere. I can tell you that Award are publishing a new edition early next year...

I haven't seen any Award books (Secret series or any others) for sale for a few years. The last ones I saw were some of the short story ones about three years ago, being sold in bargain bookshops and general stores like Wilkinson's.

It seems that nearly all Award titles are available - except for two books which I have been searching for months - The Six Bad Boys and The Family at Red Roofs.

Haven't you been able to read those two books at all then, Philip? Perhaps a bookshop could order them for you if you asked? They're both excellent - I'm sure you'd enjoy them.

I shall have to do without an avatar; the signature is enough for me. (This reminds me of the fable "The Fox and the Grapes"!)

I see Tony has now come to the rescue!

Anita

[lizarfau]

I haven't seen an Adventure book since I lived in the UK! Here in Australia (at least in my part of it) we have Malory Towers, St Clare's, Naughtiest Girl, Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Famous Five, Secret Seven and FFO still in print. Nothing more. And really the FFOs are token - I've only ever seen two or three of them on occasion in a bookshop.

[Philip Mannering]

I have put it back for you, if you want something different just let me know.

Thank you very much, Tony. For some time, I'll stay with this avatar.

[Philip Mannering]

It seems that nearly all Award titles are available - except for two books which I have been searching for months - The Six Bad Boys and The Family at Red Roofs.

Haven't you been able to read those two books at all then, Philip? Perhaps a bookshop could order them for you if you asked? They're both excellent - I'm sure you'd enjoy them.

No, I haven't been able to read those books. I plan to, however: The Family at Red Roofs is available from an online site which ships to India. I'll buy from that place. While for The Six Bad Boys...... That's a bit difficult. It's not available in the online site; and not available in the bookstore too. The only option left for me is contact the bookstore and order them.

[Philip Mannering]

I haven't seen an Adventure book since I lived in the UK! Here in Australia (at least in my part of it) we have Malory Towers, St Clare's, Naughtiest Girl, Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Famous Five, Secret Seven and FFO still in print. Nothing more. And really the FFOs are token - I've only ever seen two or three of them on occasion in a bookshop.

Strange that your part doesn't have the Adventure series. These are very popular everywhere, even here. (That's why they also remain in the local bookstore.) However, our bookstore doesn't have the Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair series. I had to borrow the former while I have never read the latter series.

The rest of the series you mentioned are all available here, although one from the St. Clare's series (The O'Sullivan Twins, incidentally the only one of the series I've never read) is not available. The Malory Towers series are available in hardback; the Naughtiest Girl in paperback (plus the sequels from Anne Digby); the St.Clare's series in paperback; all of the Famous Fives and Secret Sevens and Adventures; and most of the Find-Outers. In addition to this, we also have the Barney series, the Adventurous Four series (with it's sequel), some from the Young Adventurers series and some for younger readers such as "The Brer Rabbit" (the Popular Rewards books). I have never paid much attention to them.

[lizarfau]

You're lucky in India, Philip! All those Blytons ... I'm envious.

Enid Blyton isn't very popular with kids in Australia these days. The Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair stories do sell well, and I think booksellers stock the FF, SS, MT, SC and FFO in the hope that some of the kids will also read them. But I don't think many do. My son reads the Secret Seven and Famous Five, but only one other kid in his class of 20 does.

Captain Underpants is everywhere ...

[Philip Mannering]

We might have more Blyton books than Australia has, Liz, and Blyton might be popular here, but I can assure you that in the place I live the situation is similar to the one that you describe. There are a lot of books of Blyton; but I don't think that many people read them. No one in my class has ever heard of Enid Blyton, except one girl who says that she has read the Naughtiest Girl and Twiddle series (I haven't read the latter). Her favourite book is "Don't be silly, Mr Twiddle" (I ask, is this a name of a Blyton book?). Apart from her, nobody has heard the name of the wonderful author. I tried to introduc my friend to Blyton by giving him a Blyton, but he wasn't interested. Wasn't interested, I repeat. Kids these days....! I'm glad I'm different (although of course, I read Enid Blyton because I'm a book fanatic, not a silly TV fan!).

[Philip Mannering]

For those of you who have seen my word count, let me tell you that I've updated it. (I'll just put together the updates in a sentence.)

The Find-Outers series are longer than Famous Five: the former has got 42,000 average words whereas the latter has 40,000 words. More statistics are given in page 1.