FF - Downhill after Hike?

[Nick]

Perhaps it's just me but having just finished re-reading the entire FF series for the first time in 25 years I couldn't help but notice something that passed me by as a kid.

After "Hike" the series goes down rapidly.

Rather than feel that glow of nostalgia run through my veins as I had with books 1-10 I found myself disappointed that the books were so weak.

Is there anyone out there that can "sell me" books 11-21?

[Belly]

When time I will have a bash at selling 'Five Have A Mystery To Solve' in my opinion there is a magic about this book that others in the series don't have.

[Enikyoga]

Yes, this book (Five Have A Mystery To Solve) has something to it, especially those frightful whispering winds which could fit a Hallloween scare

[Rob Houghton]

Without actually trying to sell anyone anything (I'm a hopeless salesman!!) I do genuinely believe that some of the latter Five books are some of the best.

I like a lot of the early ones, of course, but what about 'Five Go Down to the Sea' - a great tale about wreckers (historical stories) and smugglers, a brilliant place to hide the drugs; a great baddy, too.

I also really love the next one, Mystery Moor. I love the mists that suddenly sweep up, the brilliant atmosphere, the fact it is actually based on a real place (Hartland Moor in Dorset, where the old railway lines can still be traced)...the packages dropped at night from aeroplanes, Henrietta's rivalry with George, George stopping at home 'with a headache' while all the others go off across the moors - I love this book more than most.

I also love Five Get into a Fix: great winter setting, mysterious shimmerings: I love the way the car goes slower as it goes up and down the hill. Its great the way all the dogs come when they are called at the end,too.

Finneston Farm may have a slower plot, but its as near perfect a 'find the treasure' plot than any Enid wrote, and once again I like the fact it's set in a real place (the farm she owned). i also find the discovery of the treasure to be more realistic, and I like the wistful sort of feeling of the book: the fact the farm might have to be sold, and old Grandad's memories. so that's another of the latter books I like.

Lastly, Five Have a Mystery to Solve. I like it because, armed with the book, and reading certain passages, you can walk across 'Enid's' golfcourse and find many of the sites she mentions: the yellow gorse, the view down to the sea, the island in the big blue bay below, the stone cottage above the golfcourse. Its the most realistically set of any of Enid's books (apart from 'The Adventure of the Strange Ruby') and because of this I feel the book reveals more about Enid than many of her other books. The Whispering Island is also a real place, of course, and the story of the old recluse who lived there is also based on fact. I also like the idea of Anne breaking out of her shell and becoming a tiger!

[Julie2owlsdene]

After "Hike" the series goes down rapidly.

Sure you were reading F.F. Nick?

I have to say that I don't agree with you. These books are a good read for me right up to the very last two books, Demons Rocks and Together Again.

Book 11. Wonderful Time, is one of my favourites. The fair folk are so intriguing and we are re-introduced to Jo, the gypsy girl, a favourite character of the Five, I think. Buffloo was really interesting I always thought when I read this book for the first time, after the hundredth time I was totally in love with him, re-reading it constantly just to read about Buffloo
Book 13. Mystery Moor. This was another favourite for me, the Misty Moor and the tale of the Barkles and the plane dropping the American 100 dollar bills.

Book 14. Plenty of Fun, another great book, with Jo joining in the adventure to help George who was kidnapped.

Book 15 & 16. Great books, Secret Trail and Billycock Hill. Both good stories for me. I thought the tension in Billycock Hill was played right to the end until they found Ray and Jeff.

[Belly]

Would agree that the final one, Together Again, is very weak and disappointing. But as we know Enid was not well by then....

[Dick Kirrin]

Just like everyone else, I have some favourite books within the series. The top three are "fall into adventure", "get into trouble" and "go off to camp", which are all in the middle of the series.
However, there are some like "go to Demon's Rock", "get into a fix", "go to Mystery Moor" and "have a wonderful time" which I like very much. Some of the weaker ones for me are "run away together" (they are just too childish in it, but I like the 1970s version in the TV series) and "go adventuring again" (Quentin, you simply must see that there is something funny about Mr Roland!). They are the second and the third book of the series.
We ought to bear in mind that Enid Blyton didn't intend to write 21 episodes of the FF, she wanted to stop after "go to camp" if I'm not mistaken. Only when her fans rained her with letters begging her to go on, she wrote more. I think it is a bit unfair to say some of the later ones are very much alike, since there are limits to new ideas which fit into the Famous Five plot.
The mysteries must be something that the FF can solve without help, the mustn't be too brutal, but thrilling, nobody should be seriously hurt, and the villains cannot be too daft. The has to be some secret passage or tunnel or a mysterious place in it and so on.
As for flaws in the course of the series, the same is true for Harry Potter. After book 4, it is no longer a series for children at all. THe books got thicker and thicker, but they didn't get better, or so I think.
Besides Nick, I'd take the FF just like medicine: sip by sip. If you try and read them one after the other, of course, you will get tired of them.

[Rob Houghton]

I think the series was meant to finish with 'Five on Kirrin Island Again': a fitting ending to the series. therefore, 'Camp' was the start of another six books, and one of the best, fuelled by all those letters saying 'please continue', no doubt! The series was then due to finish with 'Five Go Down to the Sea' (if I remember correctly) but again a pile of letters arrived asking for more, rather as they did for the 'Adventure' series after 'Ship', which was intended to round it all off.

So after 'Sea', Enid dicided to go on and on, and I guess that's why the latter books are uneven in quality, even if I rather like most of them!

[Lucky Star]

I would describe the last eleven books as patchy rather than downhill. Five Have Plenty of Fun, Secret Trail and Billycock Hill were the definite lowest point of the series. (Sorry Julie you've just named them as some of the best ) However it recovered fairly well with Into a Fix, Demons Rocks and Mystery to Solve. Demons Rocks has long been a particular favourite of mine for its dramatic setting, sense of danger and just because I seem to like the Five best when they are at the coast, a location that Blyton evoked wonderfully whenever she set a book there.

In the latest journal John Lester makes a compelling case for Five on Kirrin Island Again as the best Five book ever but I feel that, had the series ended there, we would have lost much through not having books 7 - 10 which are certainly among the best of the series.

Its hardly surprising that the plots become a bit "Samey" when one reads all 21 books back to back. We should perhaps remember that when they were originally published it was at a rate of one a year. That year spent waiting for the next volume would have stoked up plenty of anticipation and pleasure among the readership, something which is rather lost today when we can pull them all from our shelves at any time.

[Fiona1986]

It's interesting, as always, to see the different opinions people have on the books.
For me, the only three famous fives I enjoy less are 'Billycock Hill', 'Mystery to Solve" and I really can't put my finger on why this is, and 'Together Again' which is just an overall weak story. (I thought this before I had ever read Rilloby Fair which, to me, is a better story revolving around the same sort of theft).
I love 'Demon's Rocks', 'Get into a Fix' and 'Down to the Sea' best of the later books.

[Anita Bensoussane]

However, there are some like "go to Demon's Rock", "get into a fix", "go to Mystery Moor" and "have a wonderful time" which I like very much.

Those are my favourites of books 11 - 21 too. Wonderful Time has an interesting castle setting and lively Jo the gypsy girl, Mystery Moor is atmospheric and mysterious and Get into a Fix has a number of memorable elements - the wonderful, cosy hut up the snowy mountain, the strange "magnetic" hill, the "shimmerings," little Aily and Morgan and his dogs. I have to admit that Demon's Rocks appeals to me mainly because I love the idea of staying in a lighthouse!

Books 1 - 10 are all cracking except Go Adventuring Again, which to me is a damp squib.

Anita

[Nick]

Books 1 - 10 are all cracking except Go Adventuring Again, which to me is a damp squib.

I'm rather partial to a bit of Go Adventruing Again. I love the feel of Kirrin at Christmas, Mr Roland pulling the wool over everyones eyes and Kirrin Farm (criminally under used in future stories).

As posted by someone else it's really interesting to read the views of others.

[Rob Houghton]

It is really interesting to read people's differing views, and it proves, if proof were needed, why the Famous Five series was and is so amazingly popular: each book appeals to a section of readers for a particular reason, so that every book that appeared over the years they were written would appeal to one or other section of Enid's large readership: something somewhere to please everyone!

[nlgbbbblth]

I ranked my FF in order some time ago. Will dig out the list and post it later.

[nlgbbbblth]

ok here we go

01 Five Go To Smuggler's Top
02 Five Get Into Trouble
03 Five Go Off In A Caravan
04 Five On A Hike Together
05 Five Run Away Together
06 Five Fall Into Adventure
07 Five Have A Mystery To Solve
08 Five Have A Wonderful Time
09 Five Go Adventuring Again
10 Five On Kirrin Island Again
11 Five Go Off To Camp
12 Five On A Treasure Island
13 Five Go To Billycock Hill
14 Five Get Into A Fix
15 Five Go To Mystery Moor
16 Five On Demon's Rocks
17 Five On Finniston Farm
18 Five On A Secret Trail
19 Five Have Plenty Of Fun
20 Five Are Together Again
21 Five Go Down To The Sea

Some points
- Just one of 11-21 makes the top 10 - Five Have A Mystery To Solve. The fact that it was not part of the 1970s series has enhanced its "mysterious quality" for me.

- I always found Five Go Down To The Sea to be a tough read. A labyrinthe plot and unsympathetic characters do not help.

- The top three are somewhat interchangeable and have been my favourites all along. The 1970s adaptations of all three are excellent with Caravan's Lou and Tiger Dan being supremely nasty.

- The standard of writing did decline after Mystery Moor - aside from the defiant "shot out of nowhere" that is Five Have A Mystery To Solve.