Why did the Secret Seven not want Susie?

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » 04 May 2006, 20:26

Firstly, I must confess I've only read about half the Secret Seven books, so I might have missed the answer. But it seemed obvious to me that Susie was far cleverer than any of them. Peter, for all his loathsome arrogance had certain perceptive skills such as spotting the runaway girl disguised as a stable boy, but more often than not, Susie would fool the Seven either by leaving false clues or inadventently leading them onto the right trail. And to think that it was only the dog who realized it was her and not Jack when she disguised herself as her brother!

Annoying? Certainly - but she had good cause to be. They shunned her for no apparent reason. Peter allowed his sister to join, so why not Jack's? Was Peter too strong-minded - or was Jack too weak?

noddy13 · Post by **noddy13** » 05 May 2006, 06:56

Hey isnt the bad guy always one step ahead..? Guess the Seven needed a strong villain, or there would be no competition to their collective wisdom.

Susie is smart, sharp tongued, singlehanded and single minded in her determined pursuits to undermine the seven, my kind of tough girl. But hey, doesnt she ever get the better of the Seven.?

Moonface · Post by **Moonface** » 05 May 2006, 11:44

Good answer. Without her the stories would be rather dull. Heros and villians

Lenoir · Post by **Lenoir** » 06 May 2006, 19:06

I like Susie "“ she makes the books much more interesting than they might have been without her.
She wasn't a "˜villain' as such, just an annoyance, but a very clever one at that.

cherryaimless · Post by **cherryaimless** » 29 May 2006, 12:51

Susie didn't WANT to join their silly old society! She was so much of a control freak that only starting her own society would do...shame about her unimaginative literary skills though. The Troublesome Three... that's no name for a mystery solving society..then again, she devoted too much time to tormenting the secret Seven anyway. Besides, she was mean. And meanness was not a characteristic that Peter would have tolerated. Heavens, he wasn't even keen on Jack for a while.

And another thing, if the Secret Seven was such a secret society, Susie must have been awfully clever to have found out about it. That's what really brassed Peter off. He had Janet in his grasp, comPLETEly controlled Barbara and Pam...but he couldn't control Susie, and that hacked him off big time!

HeatherS · Post by **HeatherS** » 31 May 2006, 03:09

And another thing, if the Secret Seven was such a secret society, Susie must have been awfully clever to have found out about it.

Actually, everybody knew it existed - the children used to wear their badges to school. They just weren't allowed to discuss their doings with people outside the Society - the Super, Smashing Secret Seven Society as it was once described in the books.

Susie · Post by **Susie** » 26 Jul 2006, 15:11

If they let Susie in, then they would have to change the name of the books, and let her awful friend Binkie in, as well as her other friends.
I do think Enid could of let Susie to join the club at least once. Peter may of felt inferiority complex to Susie, and only let Jack in so that Susie could feel jealous of him. I remember once reading, where once of the Seven said Jack doesn't deserve to be in the club with that annoying sister of his.

cherryaimless · Post by **cherryaimless** » 27 Jul 2006, 10:13

But if they let in Susie, who had a brain, they could have dispensed with Barbara and Pam, who, quite frankly, were only there to giggle and get told off by Peter!

Binkie would have posed a problem though. I see the difficulties!

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 27 Jul 2006, 14:14

It is a bit weird, though. Imagine the Kirrins, all off on adventures, and Anne not being allowed to join in.

Oh, I don't know, though.

Only joking....

cherryaimless · Post by **cherryaimless** » 27 Jul 2006, 16:10

Oh my goodness! You CAN'T be comparing Anne to Barbara and Pam!!!

Post by **Keith Robinson** » 27 Jul 2006, 16:34

Just got through Good Work Secret Seven. Pam finally came up with a brainwave about what Q8061 might mean, and Peter said to her:

"I've sometimes thought that you're not as good a Secret Seven member as the others are -- but now I know you are... Why didn't we think of it before instead of messing about with K.E.W?"

Funny thing is, it was also Pam's idea that Q might be K-E-W...

In this same book there are a couple of sentences that I have to bring up here. One was how Blyton describes Peter's dad driving the car.:

He put in the clutch and and pressed down the accelerator; the car slid off down the road.

Um... Maybe it's just bad wording, but don't you let up the clutch and press down the accelerator? You put the clutch in to change gear, and let it up/out to start moving. Blyton did pass her driving test, right? I mean, she knew how to drive?

But this next sentence is a gem. Maybe it had some other, more innocent meaning back then, but I doubt it. Maybe a bad choice of words? It made me sit up straight and read it over and over. The Seven have a meeting in Colin's summer-house, and when Peter asks where Scamper's gone, Colin explains that Cook is making a stew, which Scamper smelt:

"He's gone into the kitchen to make love to our cook."

This is shocking! Now I have an image in my head that I DO NOT want there. Incidentally, in my later paperback version it simply reads, "He's gone into the kitchen to see our cook."

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 27 Jul 2006, 16:34

cherryaimless wrote:Oh my goodness! You CAN'T be comparing Anne to Barbara and Pam!!!

Nah, comparing Anne to Susie!

katherinef · Post by **katherinef** » 04 Aug 2006, 23:29

I think the idea was the Seven were Seven and so that was it. I think possibly Susie may not have been in that peer group - Janet, Barbara and Pam were friends and the boys were all friends and Susie probably had her own circle of friends so was outside of that set

Lulie · Post by **Lulie** » 05 Aug 2006, 10:15

Keith Robinson wrote:But this next sentence is a gem. Maybe it had some other, more innocent meaning back then, but I doubt it. Maybe a bad choice of words? It made me sit up straight and read it over and over. The Seven have a meeting in Colin's summer-house, and when Peter asks where Scamper's gone, Colin explains that Cook is making a stew, which Scamper smelt:

"He's gone into the kitchen to make love to our cook."

This is shocking! Now I have an image in my head that I DO NOT want there.

It did have a more innocent meaning in "the good old days" but it makes for amusing reading now! It used to mean something similar to 'sucking up' to somebody.

I first encountered the phrase in "The Silver Chair" (C.S. Lewis) where Jill is described as "making love" to all the giants in Harfang

Now that is a disturbing mental image!

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » 11 Aug 2006, 14:22

God, the Seven are so earnest! Susie is the best thing about those books. Agree that Peter couldn't possibly have let a smarter, wittier person into the SS - it would definately have shown up his leadership skills, and he wouldn't have been able to remain the, er, "brains" of the organisation. Personally, I'd swap Jack for Susie any day of the week!

Why did the Secret Seven not want Susie?

Why did the Secret Seven not want Susie?

Susie, susis