Famous Five Annual 2016

[Daisy]

Brilliant but naughty Pete!

[Rob Houghton]

I suppose that the upside of not having a fourth Famous Five annual is that they pretty much escaped being blighted by Betty Maxey artwork...and...other things!

[Lucky Star]

I think the Famous Five annuals could only go so far and we have probably reached that point as Tony says. What would be great would actually be an Enid Blyton Annual. There is after all, an absolute wealth of material which could be brought in from the other series' and the short stories, poems etc. It would be a great thing for the 120th anniversary as well. I don't suppose it will happen at this stage but it's a pity nobody planned for it earlier.

[pete9012S]

Hear Hear!
That would be something to look forward to.

[Eddie Muir]

I agree with you totally, John and Pete.

[Courtenay]

Maybe Tony could twist a few arms?? I'm not nearly enough of a fan of the Famous Five to be interested in an annual for them, but if it could be an annual devoted to a wider range of Enid's work in general, I would definitely consider it.

The main problem I can see is that Enid's whole oeuvre covers such a huge range of different ages and tastes that it'd be hard to know which age group to pitch it at. You could have everything from Noddy, the Faraway Tree and the Wishing-Chair, through the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Find-Outers, to the Adventure series and Barney mysteries... with a potential age range of about 4-13 across all those, which would the publishers choose? Or perhaps they could publish two different annuals, a "junior" one for the younger kids and another one aimed at (say) ages 8 and up?

[Rob Houghton]

I think the Famous Five annuals could only go so far and we have probably reached that point as Tony says. What would be great would actually be an Enid Blyton Annual. There is after all, an absolute wealth of material which could be brought in from the other series' and the short stories, poems etc. It would be a great thing for the 120th anniversary as well. I don't suppose it will happen at this stage but it's a pity nobody planned for it earlier.

Swatisaid earlier!

It's a pity no one took advantage of the 120 years thing (even though that's not really an anniversary people usually celebrate!) and didn't think of producing an 'Enid Blyton Annual' with all sorts of snippets from her Magazine annuals, or other books featuring games and puzzles, as well as a few short stories or out of print 'strip stories'. There must be a wealth of material out there...I can't really believe that they ran out of Famous Five stuff - surely there is still lots of stuff that hasn't been used in the previous three annuals?

[Chrissie777]

...but if it could be an annual devoted to a wider range of Enid's work in general, I would definitely consider it.

I would order it in a heartbeat!

[Rob Houghton]

The contents of the Enid Blyton Magazine annuals of the 1950's are perfect - aimed at all ages, with strip-stories, Noddy, Famous Five, Amelia Jane, Secret Seven etc, games, puzzles, things to do - covering the whole range of ages, so something along those lines would work well, I think.

[Courtenay]

Sounds good to me. Mind you, if they did have both "younger" and "older" kids' annuals, I would buy both!!

[pete9012S]

We need to balance things up and have a 95% Betty Maxey themed annual for the lost 1960's & 70's generation.
I know without even asking that John P & Nigel will be on board.

[Courtenay]

We need to balance things up and have a 95% Betty Maxey themed annual for the lost 1960's & 70's generation.
I know without even asking that John P & Nigel will be on board.

Yep.

[Francis]

Now that we know there will be another one next year we are all passionately waiting to
read the contents. Brilliant cover Pete - you have a natural talent for creative anarchy and mimicry!

[Courtenay]

Maybe — with the talents of Pete and anyone else who wants to get on board — we could design and publish (at least online) our own Famous Five Annual for 2017??

[Francis]

We need to balance things up and have a 95% Betty Maxey themed annual for the lost 1960's & 70's generation.
I know without even asking that John P & Nigel will be on board.

Not so sure about this cover - but I am of the 1950s generation. I would still buy it though - and you never know,
I might even become a Maxeyite!