The Enid Blyton Society

Not to everyone's taste, but I saw these talked about in the Sky News press preview - continuing the 'adult' ladybird books, they are releasing two or three Famous Five ladybird books - the first one comes out later this year - 'Five Go Gluten Free'

Joking aside, the illustrations look great!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Five-Go-Gluten ... for+adults



As I say, these won't be to everyone's taste...and probably are more like 'bad taste' - but it's interesting to see them even so! Other titles will include 'Five Give Up the Booze', 'Five Go Parenting' and 'Five Go On A Strategy Away Day' -- not for the faint hearted, maybe!

Oh dear. I've read a few of the "adult Ladybird" books — there's quite a variety, ranging from hilarious to a bit off, so it will be interesting to see what they do to the Famous Five. I hope it's affectionately tongue-in-cheek rather than crass.

I'll be very interested in reading this book and hope that will be a tongue in cheek look at the Famous Five's meals, rather than a dig at people with a gluten intolerance.

Twice recently I've heard comedians poking fun at people with a gluten intolerance, one was criticising them, saying that people in developing countries would be grateful to eat bread rather than dying of hunger, the other made a comment along the lines that something inflated 'quicker than someone with a gluten intolerance'. Normally I'd like to think that I'm fairly broad minded, but I felt both jokes were completely unacceptable, I really should have written to those concerned and complained (and to the TV channel that showed the 'jokes'). Would someone make a joke about someone going into a diabetic coma or collapsing with an anaphylactic reaction? For people with a gluten intolerance it can be a debilitating illness, not just a 'faddy' lifestyle choice.

There was an interesting article on the BBC's website some months ago about the rise of gluten-free diets — it made the point that while there are people who definitely do have severe reactions to gluten, there's also been a perhaps slightly worrying increase in people who are choosing gluten-free diets in the belief that these are somehow "healthier" or more "natural", when there's actually no medical reason for them at all to avoid gluten and the health benefits for them are probably negligible. For example the article quoted a family whose young son has coeliac disease and becomes very ill if he eats even a small amount of gluten, so his parents need to explain this regularly when they're eating out. At least one waiter at a restaurant responded with something like "Oh, you mean he's really gluten intolerant? Most people who ask for our gluten-free menu take a look at it and then choose something from the regular menu."

Hopefully that "health fad" attitude is what the Ladybird book will be satirising, not people with genuine reasons to avoid gluten, as you say.

Interesting Rob.


I find it strange that Enid Blyton's official signature logo/trademark is to be allowed on this series of books,as if she herself is the author??

https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/search.p ... no+Vincent" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was also struck by that, Pete. How did they get the copyright to use her signature? Obviously they paid to use it.

I spoke on the phone to Chris Hasting on Friday evening, and for once I haven't been misquoted!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... tment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He read out the full blurb of one of the books to me and although the cover picture doesn't make it clear I got the impression that the Five (or four!) are actually adults in these books, but I may have got the wrong impression.

I asked him to use the word 'surprised' if he quoted me, but it certainly wasn't my initial reaction, had this been April 1st I might have been more understanding.

I can't help feeling that this kind of thing has already been done to death - in newspaper articles and fanfiction about the Five as well as the Comic Strip series.

It is ironic that the cover of Five Go Gluten Free is more in keeping with the ambience of the Five (apart from the food!) than most of the current covers of the 21 children's books!

Hope you don't mind, Rob, but the books aren't anything to do with Ladybird (they've simply been compared to the adult Ladybird books that came out recently) so I'm changing the thread title to reflect that. Quercus are a publishing division of Hodder, which explains why they're able to use Enid Blyton's signature.

On your last line Anita, I think you mean Hachette, this has nothing to do with Hodder at all.

I looked on the Quercus website and it says, "Quercus Publishing Plc is an international trade publisher with offices in London and New York, and is a distinct publishing division of Hodder & Stoughton, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hachette UK Group":

https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/Informat ... %20Us.page" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is a subtle difference here between Hodder & Stoughton, who now just published adult books, and Hodder Children's Books who publish just what it says on the 'tin'. They all belong to Hachette as does the 'Enid Blyton Estate' (if that is the name they are still using), and the decision to publish these books must have come from them. With covers like that they are going to be bought by children!!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I can't help feeling that this kind of thing has already been done to death - in newspaper articles and fanfiction about the Five as well as the Comic Strip series.

It is ironic that the cover of Five Go Gluten Free is more in keeping with the ambience of the Five (apart from the food!) than most of the current covers of the 21 children's books!

Hope you don't mind, Rob, but the books aren't anything to do with Ladybird (they've simply been compared to the adult Ladybird books that came out recently) so I'm changing the thread title to reflect that.

No problem at all, Anita - I somehow imagined they were being done by Ladybird, as this is what the 'press preview' on Sky News seemed to be intimating...so obviously I got the wrong end of the stick!

I agree this sort of thing has probably been done to death...but anything revolving around the Famous Five - or any Blyton creation - can only be a good thing - if it keeps people talking about Enid Blyton - for better or for worse!

It struck me, also, that the cover design is much more in keeping with the traditional Famous Five covers - unlike the present crop of covers. Shows they are aimed at nostalgic adults maybe.

Saying all that, I wasn't keen on Five Go Mad In Dorset - and I don't really like the themes of these new books. They sound totally ridiculous now I've read some of the 'plots'. It's a pity they couldn't have been written as parodies of typical Famous Five plots, rather than going to such extremes as having Anne exorcised and Julian thinking he has pancreatic cancer - please! That's no laughing matter.

Tony Summerfield wrote:With covers like that they are going to be bought by children!!

Hmmm! Not according to most people on this site, who suggest children aren't attracted to such realistic depictions these days... Children surely prefer the less human looking depictions?

Tony Summerfield wrote:There is a subtle difference here between Hodder & Stoughton, who now just published adult books, and Hodder Children's Books who publish just what it says on the 'tin'. They all belong to Hachette as does the 'Enid Blyton Estate' (if that is the name they are still using), and the decision to publish these books must have come from them. With covers like that they are going to be bought by children!!

Good point about the covers possibly attracting children, Tony - though according to research, children these days apparently prefer cartoon covers as Rob said!

I never understand exactly what is meant by "division", "subsidiary", "imprint", etc. in the world of publishing, and who is in control of what!

I still get letters and emails from children thinking that Enid Blyton is alive, here is one I got two days ago:-

hi iam a big fan of your books and I would like to ask a few questions
q1, will you be writing any more far away tree books?
q2, what book was your favourite to write ?
q3, how many more books are you still going to write?
q4,what is your favourite book that you read as a child ?

Surely if new Famous Five books come out, just looking at the cover is going to make some think that these books are new books written by Enid Blyton. In my opinion this is disgraceful use of a dead author's name, surely the Ladybird books didn't do that.