The Enid Blyton Society

I absolutely LOVED the adventure series and can remember burning the midnight oil and reading the Castle of Adventure secretly under my covers by torch light!

I think these were particularly well written and I loved all of them.

Which was your favourite and why?

For me probably the Castle as it was to me probable that I could have that sort of adventure as a child. Going out on a walk, finding a castle and then finding it had rather more to it than you first thought etc.

Ship was also good. Also Mountain and River I remember well.

Have you read the reviews of the Adventure Series in the Books section Julia! It will bring it all back to you. These were kindly done by Anita Bensoussane who writes regularly for the Journal.

Eventually we hope to have reviews of all books in this section, but obviously this will take a while and a bit of patience is needed!

Best wishes
Tony

Thanks for the suggestion Tony, I've now just read them all.

It did bring it all back.

Her favourite seems to have been The Valley of Adventure and I read somewhere once that this is widely seen as Blyton's greatest book?

I personally preferred Castle of Adventure, Sea and Ship. Controversially for me, it seems, I thought Circus of Adventure the weakest.

I thought "Valley of Adventure" was her masterpiece. The cruel treatment of the refugee, the stunning scenery and the impossible feel of ever getting home, made an adventure not to forget.

This is one of my favourite series, along with the Barney stories.

I like just about every story but my favourite is "Island of Adventure". I love the way the two sets of children are introduced and run away back to Craggy-Tops. I love the sense of wind-swept isolation when they get there, with the mysterious Isle of Gloom in the distance. Later on in the story, the scenes underground are very claustrophobic and there is real tension at the end when the children's lives are at great risk.

After that, I like Valley, Castle, Mountain and Ship about the same for different reasons, each being memorable in its own way. Then Sea (I don't like how the children treat Horace Tripperlong, and I prefer the Adventurous Four stories which are also located off northern Scotland). Compared with the other stories, River and Circus would be my equally least-preferred (although Circus has a fantastic escape scene in it).

By the way, I read that Blyton wrote "River of Adventure" in one week, starting on Monday and finishing on Friday. Pretty amazing stuff.

For me the adventure books were without doubt the best. I like them all
but we all have our favourites. Mine are as follows.
1 The Castle.
2 The Sea.
3 The Island.
4 The Mountain.
5 The Valley.
6 The Circus.
7 The River.
8 The Ship.
Although i love cruising and are about to go on my third cruise in 3 weeks
time the ship of adventure is my least favourite.

The 'River' had a certain magic about it...a haunting quality that has stayed with me all the years since I first read it.

I read it around 1977 and yet I can remember so many details, I can't say that about many of the 'adult' books I went on to read.

Was there a character or a town 'Taury Hessian' or something like that?

Snakes that had had their tongues cut out? Or was that Five Have a Wonderful Time?

And a town that was actually assembled like a film set...?

Hi!

The River of Adventure had a town called Cine-Town in which fake buildings (only a front with no back) had been built for them to make a film for the cinema.
The RoA also had poisonous snakes that had both had their mouths sewn up or had the ducts that take the poison from the poison-glands to the teeth cut.

The Circus of Adventure had a country called Tauri-Hessia which Prince Aloysius / Gussy was from. This is where all the children went and the adventure was set.

Hope this jogs more memories

Certainly my favourites. They definitely had a different quality in many ways. These were the books in which EB sent her characters furthest away from their idyllic towns and villages. Some were almost surreal and were in my mind the most atmospheric. Loved 'Island', 'Mountain' is just trippy and 'Valley' is superb because I get such a sense of the confusion and devastation that WW2 must have left in its wake. There were definitely similar stories post war in real life that she must have been aware of.

I didn't like Mountain. Enjoyed Island, Sea and River .. also Castle. Can't remember much about Circus except that I did like it . Must buy some more Adventure books - I have a couple of 40s hardbacks but that's it.

It really is a co-incidence, but Ship has always been my favourite.

Being on a ship, travelling to strange and exotic destinations, and finding lost treasure - what more could you ask for?! I think Ship was also the first book I read in the Adventure series. River also comes to mind - possibly for similar reasons to Ship?

When I read through the series again, I would say Mountain was my least favourite - all a bit too implausible.

Belly wrote:I absolutely LOVED the adventure series and can remember burning the midnight oil and reading the Castle of Adventure secretly under my covers by torch light!

I'm the only person in my family who is shortsighted. I think it's because I too used to read books under chairs and table, by torch light etc

Heh I still DO read by torchlight at night .I have a perfectly servicable light but I enjoy reading clandestinely !

Island - The one I've read the most. Vivid scenery and dramatic occurrances. Villains who were prepared to KILL people. The whole well and tunnel under the sea really caught my imagination. I think Bill was never more scarier than in this one. You WANTED to believe he wasn't in with the baddies, but on first reading there was always that little bit of doubt. 10/10

Castle - Another vivid story with death defying events. Them all being trapped in the underground room because part of the castle had collapsed onto the entrance was terrfying. Philip's experience of being forced to disguise himself as a motionless suit of armour and then being captured by the spies was really horrible! 8/10

Valley - The first one I ever read. Absolutely stunning story. The cave beind the waterfall! The caves full of treasures! This would make a brilliant film. As a small boy, I thought it was just a big adventure (pun unavoidable!) but of course there was the real possiblity they might never get home again. 8/10

Sea - Despite the surreal setting, this action packed adventure was essentially James Bond for children. Guns, planes, speedboats, foreign criminals. Even a comedy figure of light relief - although I wasn't all that keen on their treatment of Horace. And yes, like Lucy-Ann I used to be scared the train might come apart when I walked between the carriages! 9/10

Mountain - The last one I read - quite a few years after the others, and it suffers because of it. Basically I knew everything about the children and this was essentially a "new adventure" as far as I was concerned. However, I do remember a vivid feeling of what I can only describe as jealousy when Philip was about to be made to fly. Essentially, why couldn't I experience these sort of adventures in my childhood? Odd the things that stay with you all these years! 4/10

Ship - Very different from the previous stories, though I liked it as a child. I really liked Mr Eppy who was suave, cool yet a nasty bit of work at the same time. 7/10

Circus - I never really cared for the espionage stuff as a child, but the images of Jack stowing away on a plane to a foreign country simply to rescue his friends really captured my imagination. I was both intregued and disappointed at the sword swallower having a shrinking sword with which to perform his stunt! 7/10

River - I haven't read this for years, hence the low score. I remember as a child being enthralled by the fact it was set in a country called Syria - a REAL place in the Atlas, but hundreds and hundreds of miles away! 6/10

I liked River a lot - hadn't realised it was meant to be set in Syria though. As a child I wondered where on earth this strange place with the strange people in it was! I can vividly remember the snake that Philip rescued, the one that had had its mouth sewn up - or had it had its poison ducts cut? Yes that was it because it managed to bite Mr Eppy .

Moose wrote:I liked River a lot - hadn't realised it was meant to be set in Syria though.

Now you mention it, I can't remember if it was the actual country of Syria or the city of Damascus they mention - it was so long ago. But I'm sure it was one of those places - and I thought it was quite impressive!