Five Have Plenty of Fun

[Julie2owlsdene]

Sorry Julie! You're right, I shouldn't poke fun at your mistakes, I'm prone enough to senior moments myself (and I'm not even that senior yet ) I even got confused by the very simple 'Who do you prefer?' thread in games the other day, so people in glass houses certainly shouldn't throw stones. I just thought it amusing you'd confused the two books given your avatar and signature. I hope this doesn't mean I'm due a thick ear.

Your ears are quite safe from me, Walter!

[John Pickup]

Your ears are quite safe from me, Walter!

I wish Nigel and I could say that.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I know you and Nigel, personally, John! I couldn't give someone a thick ear that I hadn't met!

[Courtenay]

I couldn't give someone a thick ear that I hadn't met!

Oh good. I'm safe too then.

[Julie2owlsdene]

@ Courtenay!

Both you and Walter are quite safe!

[Moonraker]

I couldn't give someone a thick ear that I hadn't met!

Oh good. I'm safe too then.

Of course, you could get the said thick ear a few minutes after you meet....

[Julie2owlsdene]

Of course, you could get the said thick ear a few minutes after you meet....

This is also true!

I wonder if that's why whenever I meet anyone for the first time they cover their ears!!!

[Rob Houghton]

I have just finished Five Have Plenty of Fun and I have to say I very much enjoyed the book, despite it being quite similar to Five Fall into Adventure as well as a few other aspects of other plots in the Famous Five series, but in other elements, completely different. For a start Berta is has very characteristic and unique personality as an extra in this series; quite spoilt and annoying at first but she ends up being quite decent and brave. A very thrilling scene when she arrives in the middle of the night! It was also a good idea to dress her up as a boy, but of course, that caused upset with George, reminding me of Henrietta and her in Five Go to Mystery Moor. So the story moves on describing how Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin leave Kirrin Cottage for a business trip concerning Quentin's current work. Definitely similar how they are gotten out of the way in Five Fall into Adventure, and surely Aunt Fanny would question the fact a little more about leaving Berta with only the children and Joan - she was meant to be more or less in her care, afterall.
So the children and Berta - a child in clear danger of being kidnapped (!) are left with Joan, and by now they are aware somebody is mysteriously asking about them and spying from Kirrin Island on them. At this point, not remembering the outcome of the plot, I wondered if perhaps it might be Anne to get kidnapped in mistake for Berta; they seemed more alike in my point of view than George and Berta. Also, then it would have been less similar to Five Fall into Adventure with George being kidnapped, but then again, on second thoughts, Timmy would not have been to eager to 'follow Anne's trail' than his beloved mistresses; but otherwise, that might have been a better and more unique plotline. The Caravan mystery reminded me of The Mystery of the Missing Man and the house on the hill which George is taken to next reminded me of Owls Dene, yet slightly less characteristic, somehow. Very exciting when Julian and Dick go to find George in the dead of the night but then, the fact how Jo followed them an got them all out of a secondary problem is rather like Five Have A Wonderful Time . Overall, however, a brilliant book, if it wasn't so often very similar to an earlier happening in the series. Very much enjoyed it however - a great book and plot.

Just reading this - one of my favourite of the famous five books set at Kirrin - and I agree with Poppy that its an exciting and enjoyable read. I also totally agree that if Anne had been kidnapped (as she would easily be mistaken for Berta) it would have made much more sense and altered the plot slightly from the previous scenario in Fall Into Adventure.

I did think given the fact aunt Fanny was well aware of the potential for kidnappers appearing on the scene that it was a bit daft that she decides to accompany Quentin on his trip to see Elbur, and also, as has been mentioned, why choose the home of his best friend and colleague Quentin as the place to keep his daughter safe from kidnappers? Soujmds a bit uj likely!

However, its a book I've always enjoyed, and I personally think it works better than Fall Into Adventure, and is somehow less serious and less bogged down in plot.

[Moonraker]

Soujmds a bit uj likely!

Been at the beer, Rob?

[Rob Houghton]

Seems my tablet likes making up words, Grrr! (hick!)

[Rob Houghton]

Its interesting that, after 13 books in which Enid tells us that George looks like a boy with her short hair, and in which many people have mistaken her for a boy, and in which her cousins have often remarked how much like a boy she looks, by book 14 Julian is admitting to Berta that 'you look like a boy in your boys things, but George doesn't...' . Much is made of the fact, in both Mystery Moor and Plenty of Fun that George doesn't look like a boy. Interesting how this changed as the books progressed...maybe by this time George was developing a bust!

[Courtenay]

...maybe by this time George was developing a bust!

If Soper's depiction of her one book earlier (Five Go Down to the Sea) is anything to go by...

[Stephen]

I recently re-read this and found it very good. It was one of my most read FF as a child, but hadn't touched it for years. As I agreed previous, it is very similar to FFIA. But this time round, I was reminded of Trouble as well. Isn't Trouble the one where "Pandemonium" suddenly becomes this fantastic new word introduced into the Blyton vocabulary as the children are trying to escape from a house? I haven't read that for a while either, but the way Plenty of Fun was progressing, I was expecting to see it here instead.

[pete9012S]

Original Hodder and the Knight 1975 Soper & Knight 1976 Maxey

I'm re-reading this book. The early editions have the 'Aunt Sally' mistake which is corrected in my Maxey 1976 edition.

Also, I didn't realise that my beloved 1970's Maxey editions had tampered and added to the text:

Original:

Chapter Five
IN THE MORNING

George took no interest in these remarks at all. She pulled on her shorts and went to wash in the bathroom. Julian and Dick were there, and there was a lot of yelling and shouting as George tried to make them hurry up and get out. Berta laughed.

Knight 1976 Maxey:

George took no interest in these remarks at all. She flounced off to wash in the bath-room, but Julian and Dick were there, and there was a lot of yelling and shouting as George tried to make them hurry up and get out. Berta laughed.

flounced Not in the original text - and never used by Enid Blyton in any other Famous Five book.
Wonder why it was added??

The famous Aunt Sally line has been removed in my 1976 edition, but it is still in every earlier edition I have, I think:

Chapter Six
A FEW UPSETS

Aunt Sally smiled to herself. Julian always knew the best thing to say and do. Now he would take Berta in hand and see that she didn’t upset the household too much. She was glad. It wasn’t easy to run a big family like this, with a scientist husband to cope with, unless everyone pulled together!

[Nair Snehalatha]

Aunt Fanny thinking more about Joan not washing up the dishes was because she must have known that George was safe.The big American came on his bicycle as his posh streamlined car racing down the road at night would be very noticeable. George mostly looked like a boy as she wanted to, -- though she was jealous of those who tried to be one like her. Five.have plenty of fun is one of my favourites.