Errors in the books

[Debbie]

They definitely have the same surname as we're told in Treasure Island that Quentin was the children's father.

Quentin was George's father, but not Julian, Dick and Anne's. They are George's cousins and as they all have the same surname it sounds as if Julian and the others' father was a brother of Quentin.
Somewhere I read that Enid herself was asked about "Barnard" and she said it was a mistake.

Sorry! Missed a word out "Children's Father's brother !!

[Bertie]

Just re-reading the wonderful Five Go To Smugglers Top and loving it as usual. But one 'mistake' that I've always thought about the illustrations is when Julian and Dick are hiding behind the curtain as the signaller is walking past. They don't get a good view of him, and, although he's followed to Block's bedroom, you're meant to think at that stage, as they do, that it wasn't Block because he'd 'been in bed' all the time. Yet the drawing of the signaller coming down the steps is quite clearly Block, dressed in the same clothing as Block is always pictured in. The next illustration is better, with Dick following him and only able to see his back in the shadows. The other picture surely just gives away that it's Block, much earlier than it's meant to be revealed.
Sorry if that's been mentioned before. I haven't caught up with all the thread yet.

[pete9012S]

Great find Bertie, thank you.

I thought I would look up the illustrations and compare them with Betty Maxey's superb take on the same scene:






Betty nails it once again!

[Fiona1986]

I'm surprised that Maxey's Block can even walk as it looks as if Timmy has been mauling his legs.

[Lucky Star]

Plus he appears to be walking straight into a wall!!!

[pete9012S]

[Barnard]

He’s obviously blind as well as deaf if he can’t see he’s being watched.

[Splodj]

... and sketched.

[John Pickup]

You never give up trying, Pete, but come on, she couldn't draw a bath.

[pete9012S]

I'm hoping that after you have had your Ring O' Bells Opus published you can do a feature length Betty Maxey special for the Journal John.

You have the skill and the writing chops to pull it off!

[John Pickup]

I'm hoping that after you have had your Ring O' Bells Opus published you can do a feature length Betty Maxey special for the Journal John.

Sorry, Pete. Tony doesn't accept articles containing only two sentences. And what could he illustrate it with?

[Bertie]

Just reading The Mystery of the Secret Room.

One thing that I remember thinking as a child as well - the house agents thought Miss Crump still owned Milton House, and gave Fatty her address. But they gave him the address of Miss Crump's new house - the one she said she saw and bought after she'd re-sold Milton House to John Henry Smith. Why would the house agents know that address, if they didn't know she'd re-sold the house? They'd have her old address, the one she lived in before buying either Milton House or her current home, surely?

Not actually an error, but I always think the weak premise of this book would be stronger had the secret room been free of dust the first time Pip sees it - showing that people still visit that room in a supposed empty house. Seeing it furnished but completely full of dust, suggesting no-one had been there for ages, hardly screams 'mystery'.

[Judith Crabb]

This is not Blyton's error but she was apparently too busy to pick it up. In 'The Secret of Killimooin' Eileen Soper draws the golden-headed Peggy admiring herself in a mirror dressed in full Baronian national costume but the words below the picture are said by Nora, who has short dark hair like her twin brother. It's on p. 27 of the original Basil Blackwell hard-back editions.

[Anita Bensoussane]

That's one of the mistakes I spotted as a child, as my Armada paperback contains the same Eileen Soper illustration.

[Bertie]

This isn't exactly an error, just something that's often puzzled me and I wondered if anyone could clear it up...

Bets stays at home during school term, while Fatty is away at school. Fatty obviously can't have Buster with him at school like George can with Timmy - as he's usually on the platform to welcome Fatty's train back. So you'd think Bets would spend ages with him during term time as the only find-outer still at home - but it's never mentioned.

In fact, in 'Secret Room', it says: "Bets didn't go to boarding school as the others did, and she often felt lonely in term time... But now they were all home... and darling Buster would come to see her every day". But in many books, Buster, either alone or with Mrs Trotteville, goes to the station to meet Fatty when he's returning from school, so he's obviously at home during term time, so you'd think Buster would visit Bets, or vice versa, plenty of times?

It's only in Tally Ho Cottage, when Fatty had been abroad and the Hilton's look after Buster, that Fatty says to Bets "he feels he belongs to you as well as to me now" - but I'd have thought he'd already spend plenty of time with Bets every term time if they're both at home while the others are away at boarding school?

Maybe Mrs Hilton won't let Bets go to visit / walk Buster on her own when she's younger? Though she did in Burnt Cottage when Bets and Buster spot the tramp. And, even so, we know from other books that Buster is happy to trot around and make his own way home from places, so you'd think he'd often visit Bets while he can't see the others?

Can anyone add to that, as it's always seemed a bit in the air to me in terms of Bets and Buster during term time?