Finniston Farm: really quite poor

The books! Over seven hundred of them and still counting...
Post Reply
User avatar
number 6
Posts: 4342
Joined: 11 Jun 2010, 17:12
Favourite book/series: Famous Five
Favourite character: George/Jo
Location: Robin Hood Country

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by number 6 »

I really don't mind the Finniston Farm story at all. However, I can see how it can get up people's noses a bit, but it ambles along just nicely enough for me. :)
User avatar
Deej92
Posts: 212
Joined: 03 Aug 2016, 00:08
Favourite book/series: Five Get into Trouble (Famous Five)
Favourite character: Dick

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Deej92 »

Rob Houghton wrote:I always think Enid's own personal dislike of Americans shines through in this story!
Not sure if it's a dislike on Enid's part though, Rob. Yes, the Americans in FInniston Farm are represented very negatively, but then in Plenty of Fun, Berta and her clever scientist father are portrayed in a very positive manner. I like your comparison of Mr Henning to Donald Trump though, Lucky Star. They are both so alike in how odious they are as people.
User avatar
Rob Houghton
Posts: 16029
Joined: 26 Feb 2005, 22:38
Favourite book/series: Rubadub Mystery, Famous Five and The Find-Outers
Favourite character: Snubby, Uncle Robert, George, Fatty
Location: Kings Norton, Birmingham

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Rob Houghton »

as I said above -

Of course, Enid would recognise there were all types of Americans and she chose to characterise them in different ways. I was simply going by the fact that she generally disliked America and the American way of life, as she visited America only once and wasn't a fan. She writes about it in 'The Queen Elizabeth Family' and its quite plain to see that she found America not to her taste and found many Americans to be overbearing and loud. Of course, the 'flashy, fast, garish, mercenary American stereotype was a common myth in England at the time.

Obviously, Enid didn't hate all Americans - but she wasn't impressed with many of them either. That's why she never returned to America after her initial visit. Of course, it had a lot to do with the fact that she couldn't break into the American market with her books, and she didn't ever become popular over there, which I'm sure coloured her opinion a little!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



Society Member
User avatar
sixret
Posts: 4130
Joined: 16 Aug 2006, 14:25
Favourite book/series: Five Find-Outers,Mr.Twiddle,Barney R
Favourite character: Mr.Twiddle,Fatty,Saucepan,Snubby

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by sixret »

I quite liked Finniston and Mystery To Solve upon recent rereading. But Trail and Together Again, not so. We *can* sort of, understand Together Again being written when Enid was in advanced stage of dementia but Trail, there were no excuse to be written in haphazard way. Nothing ever happen in Trail except rambling!
I stand with justice and the truth. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.

Learn the history. Do research.

The hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice and bigotry own by some people is so obvious.Shame on them!
User avatar
sixret
Posts: 4130
Joined: 16 Aug 2006, 14:25
Favourite book/series: Five Find-Outers,Mr.Twiddle,Barney R
Favourite character: Mr.Twiddle,Fatty,Saucepan,Snubby

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by sixret »

In between Trail and Finniston, there is a masterpiece i.e. Fix!
I stand with justice and the truth. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.

Learn the history. Do research.

The hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice and bigotry own by some people is so obvious.Shame on them!
User avatar
joanne_chan
Posts: 698
Joined: 04 Oct 2012, 12:51
Favourite book/series: The Naughtiest Girl, Malory Towers, Famous Five
Favourite character: Elizabeth Allen
Location: North-west Midlands

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by joanne_chan »

Remind me to read Finniston Farm from a HB 1965 edition tomorrow and I may venture an opinion.
User avatar
Deej92
Posts: 212
Joined: 03 Aug 2016, 00:08
Favourite book/series: Five Get into Trouble (Famous Five)
Favourite character: Dick

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Deej92 »

I'm not a big fan of Trail or Together Again either, Sixret, but Fix is one of my favourites. It's such an atmospheric book with it being set in the Christmas holidays in the Welsh mountains. I love all the characters - from the strange but likeable Aily to the stern but kind-hearted Morgan. Then you have the fantastic plot with the strange sounds and vibrations coming from the Old Towers and the bad men working secretly under the hills to exploit the very precious metal. Definitely one of the best books in the FF series for me. :)
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Moonraker »

joanne_chan wrote:Remind me to read Finniston Farm from a HB 1965 edition tomorrow and I may venture an opinion.
Reminder!
Society Member
User avatar
sixret
Posts: 4130
Joined: 16 Aug 2006, 14:25
Favourite book/series: Five Find-Outers,Mr.Twiddle,Barney R
Favourite character: Mr.Twiddle,Fatty,Saucepan,Snubby

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by sixret »

Deej92 wrote:I'm not a big fan of Trail or Together Again either, Sixret, but Fix is one of my favourites. It's such an atmospheric book with it being set in the Christmas holidays in the Welsh mountains. I love all the characters - from the strange but likeable Aily to the stern but kind-hearted Morgan. Then you have the fantastic plot with the strange sounds and vibrations coming from the Old Towers and the bad men working secretly under the hills to exploit the very precious metal. Definitely one of the best books in the FF series for me. :)
You have summed it up nicely, Deej. :D
I stand with justice and the truth. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.

Learn the history. Do research.

The hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice and bigotry own by some people is so obvious.Shame on them!
Liam
Posts: 295
Joined: 01 Jan 2013, 00:02
Favourite book/series: Famous Five
Favourite character: George
Location: New York

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Liam »

Maggie Knows wrote:Last night I got to the bit where Great-Granddad is talking about the old cartwheel, how its more than 200 years old, and how his Great-grand-dad made it and made him promise never to sell it etc.

Now, we know GGD is 90 years old, and supposing he was say 5 when he was told about it by his GGD, then that information was passed on 85 years before the time of the story.

Assuming his GGD was about 20 when he made the wheel (it's a big wheel, I cant see how anyone younger would have the skills or strength to make such a thing) then unless his GGD was at least 135 years old at the time of telling the story to his great-grandson, the numbers don't seem to add up...
I remember the first time this post was written, I did not get it. What does that say about my math skills? (And I actually started out in university as a math major, intending to be a mathematician or theoretical physicist! No wonder I gave it up. I don’t do word problems very well. Does that mean that math skill is really language/reading skill?) It is definitely a reading comprehension problem, something that was clearly stated in Maggie Knows’ post, but which for some reason my brain was not seeing. That something is whether Great-Granddad met Old Granddad. We get the 200 years for the cartwheel only if we don’t factor in the fact that the two DID meet when Old Granddad was 5.

If Old Granddad was 90 in 1960 when the book was written, he would have been born in 1960 minus 90 = 1870. His Great-Granddad would have been born in 1960 minus 200 (age of cartwheel) minus 20 (age of Great-Granddad when he built the cartwheel) = 1740. So for Great-Granddad born in 1740 to have spoken to Old Granddad at 5 years old, he would have had to live to 1875 (5 years after Old Granddad was born), making him 1875 minus 1740 = 135.

So the 200 years is possible only if the two generations did not meet (1740 + 20 - the time the cartwheel was built - straight to 1960 = 200), if instead it was his Grandad or dad who had told old Granddad about the wheel.

Maggie knows indeed!
Last edited by Liam on 01 Oct 2016, 14:47, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
joanne_chan
Posts: 698
Joined: 04 Oct 2012, 12:51
Favourite book/series: The Naughtiest Girl, Malory Towers, Famous Five
Favourite character: Elizabeth Allen
Location: North-west Midlands

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by joanne_chan »

I guess to me it's kind of slow getting going when it comes to the actual adventure taking off and overall I'd say it was more good than great.
The strong point is the characters, not just the Famous Five themselves but the Harry's, the oh so grateful would do anything to oblige Mrs Philpot and the cantankerous Great-Grandad not that perhaps he has good reason too as he feels strongly they not lose the family heirlooms especially if they were to be sent halfway around the world.
From what I understand of it there was mania around the period Enid wrote this of well to do Americans shipping sometimes entire structures to be re-erected and of fixtures being used in otherwise modern buildings.It may be she was tapping into this and some of the resentment around it.
Junior and only to slightly lesser extent Mr Henning are really uncouth, brash personalities to whom I will say not all Americans are as someone who's not native to the UK but there are some to whom sadly the stereotype fits only too well. What Bill feels Junior is badly in need of I'd have to say I'd agree completely with. :idea:
User avatar
Nick
Posts: 1418
Joined: 05 Feb 2009, 19:00
Favourite book/series: Five on a Hike Together/Secret Seven
Favourite character: Dick & Susie
Location: Retford

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Nick »

I've been on a Blyton Break of late. Apart from the Journal and the Weekly Serial, I've not sat down with a Blyton for a good year or so. For what ever reason I've not been in the mood, often picking one up reading a few pages and then putting it down. Perhaps a case of familiarity breeding contempt as I've, seemingly, been on a continuous read/re-read since joining these forums?

Anyway, I picked up FF a few days ago. I've always liked FF. Rated it as good not great but it never really excited me. During this re-read however I found myself completely falling in love with the book. The idyllic start to the book i wonderful and wonderful escapism. Even the characters are relaxed - Anne calls George, Georgina and old George doesn't even notice, let alone object!

The descriptions of the farm are vivid and End paints a picture of a place that she must have really loved - I'm sure I read that she based it on a farm that she owned?

The adventure does seem to happen all very suddenly but when you have such wonderful escapism for the first 9-10 chapters does it really matter? Loved it this time around.
Society Member
User avatar
Anita Bensoussane
Forum Administrator
Posts: 26768
Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 23:25
Favourite book/series: Adventure series, Six Cousins books, Six Bad Boys
Favourite character: Jack Trent, Fatty and Elizabeth Allen
Location: UK

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Interesting thoughts, Nick. Although Finniston Farm isn't a favourite of mine, mainly because the story lacks pace, I do enjoy the sense of history and the strong attachment to the farm. You're right that it was based on Manor Farm in Stourton Caundle, which Enid and Kenneth owned from 1956 - 1962. They used to visit it on their Dorset holidays, though they never lived there.

It can be eye-opening to read a book in isolation, instead of as part of a read-through of a series. It means the book can be appreciated on its own terms rather than constantly being compared with other titles.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


Society Member
timv
Posts: 925
Joined: 31 Jul 2015, 10:06

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by timv »

Great-Granddad may have been based on a real person who Enid met or at least had heard tales about. I read in a local collection of memories and photographs of Stourton Caundle village that a Mr William Douch was the farmer at the farm which Enid later bought from c. 1890 to 1928, when he retired in his sixties, and he lived to the early 1950s when he was 91. It was his nephew from whom Enid bought the farm in 1956.

Possibly the latter or the workers who Enid relied on to run the farm told her about him and he was so intriguing that she put him in the book? Or did she know Stourton Caundle before she bought the farm? She clearly used the ruined chapel turned barn and the legends of a former castle somewhere on the farm for the book, and put its medieval owners the Lords Stourton into the book as the 'Lords Finniston'.

This book has a rare mention of a real place in a Famous Five book under its real name, ie Dorchester. But I suspect that Dorchester is behind Enid's creation of the town of 'Ravens Market' in Five Fall Into Adventure, ie the town near the gypsy camp where George is held prisoner by Jo's father. It is a market town and probably fairly large as it has a bus connection to 'Kirrin'; it is too far from the latter for the Five (minus George) to walk back there easily once they get lost in the woods and miss the last bus, but the tougher Jo thinks nothing of walking to the nearby woods from Kirrin and she takes the Five back on foot next day. Also, is Enid's mention of the nearest place to Red Tower's home (on a rocky coast like the 'Isle' of Portland) as 'Port Lynne' a hint at the nearby peninsula and naval base/ village of Portland?
Society Member
User avatar
Rob Houghton
Posts: 16029
Joined: 26 Feb 2005, 22:38
Favourite book/series: Rubadub Mystery, Famous Five and The Find-Outers
Favourite character: Snubby, Uncle Robert, George, Fatty
Location: Kings Norton, Birmingham

Re: Finniston Farm: really quite poor

Post by Rob Houghton »

I have a real soft spot for Finniston Farm. It may not be the best FF title, but I love the atmosphere and the emotional side of things.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



Society Member
Post Reply