Why did the Secret Seven not want Susie?

[pete9012S]

* You seem to have a penchant for inferior illustrators, Pete. Have a word with yourself.

[John Pickup]

When you've got a club someone has to be in charge. Thanks to Peter, the SS kept together and focused on solving mysteries.
The members regarded Susie as an irritating outsider but I don't think she was ever especially spiteful or nasty. She was jealous of her brother being a member of a club she couldn't join

[Anita Bensoussane]

My last attempts at re-reading the Secret Seven usually ended when Susie showed up. I simply can't bear her spitefulness (it's not helping that her mother usually sides with her too if I recall correctly).

Of course her mother sides with her - it's what mothers do!

Hannah may have meant that Susie and Jack's mother tends to side with Susie over Jack, despite not being aware of the full story.

I can certainly recommend Daisy's follow-on stories, Hannah.

Ditto!

[Irene Malory Towers]

Playing devil's advocate here, I don't think Peter is that bad. To be the leader of a group one needs to be a bit bossy. Yes he can go over the top as he did in Shock for the Secret Seven but someone needs to take the lead, tell the giggling duo of Barbara and Pam off and be firm with Susie. Whereas Susie was not just irritating but constantly tried to undermine Jack and the Secret Seven and it wasn't just because she wanted to get in the grouip, it was because she was a bad loser and envious. She constantly tried to spoil things. She is not a real baddy but nevertheless not someone I would want as a friend or a colleague. So 3 cheers for poor old Peter, in my opinion.

[pete9012S]

[Moonraker]

Hannah may have meant that Susie and Jack's mother tends to side with Susie over Jack, despite not being aware of the full story.

Fair point!

[Moonraker]

When you've got a club someone has to be in charge. Thanks to Peter, the SS kept together and focused on solving mysteries.
The members regarded Susie as an irritating outsider but I don't think she was ever especially spiteful or nasty. She was jealous of her brother being a member of a club she couldn't join

Again, fair point.

[Hannah]

Hannah may have meant that Susie and Jack's mother tends to side with Susie over Jack, despite not being aware of the full story.

Fair point!

Yes, that's what I meant.

[Irene Malory Towers]

I think we should get Peter to stand as the next PM in fact. Shall I ask him ?

[Anjalli]

If Susie was a member of the Secret Seven, she would not have been portrayed the way she was: bossy, irritating, full of mischief and tricks, unafraid etc. She might have been a cross between Pam, Barbara and Janet. I think the series was enhanced by her character and brought more to it than the staidness. Having said that, I am going to re read that series.

[IceMaiden]

It seems pretty simple to me.

Pete is just highlighting some of the extremely bossy outbursts that shows just what Peter was like.

He has a very controlling character with potential psychotic undertones of a possible narcissistic personality disorder - a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others..

Come on that's a bit much! Peter's just a bossy boots who takes his job as leader a bit too seriously at times, he hardly needs a shrink's diagnosis! I'm not surprised he finally lost his temper with Jack really, Jack didn't seem to try very hard at stopping his awful sister constantly distrupting and spoiling the Seven's plans. Secretly the other members would probably be quite fed up about it too. A pity Peter didn't give Susie what for, he was obviously way more capable than Jack!

[pete9012S]

Come on that's a bit much!

Hear Hear!
Come on now Nigel.

Maybe the above title should have been the one that Enid chose, if only Barb & Pam had not been so powerful and dramatic members of the Society.

[Boatbuilder]

I haven't read the Secret Seven books for about 65 years but had a complete set delivered yesterday and read about half of the first book in bed last night. I hope to get through the complete set in about a month (no promises though. ) I want to try and interpret them in two ways - one from the viewpoint I would have likely had as a 7 to 10 year old, which would have been the age I originally read them, and the other from my current viewpoint as a 75 year old. I'm not sure how successful that will be of course, I shall have to wait and see. If successful, I will try and write something about it.

Before I started to read the first book I looked at the publishing details in the front of the book and noticed the following:

The text has been amended since the last edition (2016) to revert to the original text wherever possible

This also appears in them all. I don't know how much text had been changed in the Secret Seven books over the years, but I am wondering how it compares with the 'first edition' text.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's strange that "narcissistic personality disorder" should involve "a deep need for excessive admiration and attention" because the word "narcissistic" puts me in mind of Narcissus of Greek mythology, who is actually known for rejecting any attention from others and needing nobody but himself, gazing admiringly at his own reflection in a pool until he died!

John (Boatbuilder), that's very interesting about the 2018 Secret Seven books having reverted "to the original text wherever possible". I know that one of the editors at Hachette a few years ago used to contact Tony to verify phrasing and vocabulary in the short stories with the aim of returning to the original wording - and it's well-known that the heavily modernised language of the 2010 Famous Five books was soon discarded. However, I hadn't heard that the Secret Seven books had been revamped in 2018 in order to be closer to the original text. The Famous Five series was taken back to the text of the 1997 centenary editions (i.e. still modified but not excessively modernised) so perhaps the Secret Seven series has also been taken back to the text of the 1997 centenary editions - or as near as possible?

[John Pickup]

Ice Maiden makes a valid point about Jack. He was a bit wimpish with Susie and he should have taken more care in guarding the password from her prying eyes and ears.