Sickness/illness/injury in the Famous Five Books?

[Hannah]

Timmy getting injured is also important to the story in Hike.

[Bertie]

Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten that - probably because Hike is by far my least favourite of the first 11 and I don't read it as often.

Extending it to another series, one of the most upsetting injuries for me is always poor Micky the Monkey in Ship of Adventure. It just reminds me each time how many poor animals face such a sad, cruel life like that - and very few have a saviour like Philip to take them away from it (at least until the end of the Adventure, anyway).

[Inspector Jenks]

The most oddly specific (and also convenient) advice given by any doctor in the books must have been this prescription from "Five Get Into A Fix":

“Will they be well enough to go to school, Doctor?” asked Mrs. Barnard anxiously.
“Well, yes - they would - but they ought to get rid of those coughs first,” said the doctor. He looked out of the window at the snow. “I wonder now - no - I don’t suppose it’s possible - but...”
“But what?” said Dick, pricking up his ears at once. “Going to send us to Switzerland for a skiing holiday, Doc? Fine! Absolutely smashing! ”
The doctor laughed. “You’re going too fast! ” he said. “No - I wasn’t actually thinking of Switzerland - but perhaps somewhere hilly, not far from the sea. Somewhere really bracing, but not too cold - where the snow will lie, so that you can toboggan and ski, but without travelling as far as Switzerland. Switzerland is expensive, you know!”

[Moonraker]

Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten that - probably because Hike is by far my least favourite of the first 11 and I don't read it as often.

How we all differ! Hike is one of my all-time favourites. I love the atmosphere of Dartmoor, the bells, the escaped convict, the burned-out house, the two villains....and we are away from the almost ever-present Kirrin and Island. I love the non-Kirrin stories.

[Bertie]

We definitely differ on all of that, yeah.
I don't like the gloomy atmosphere of Hike at all, or the fact that they've only got a couple of days off school for it (I love the feel of 'the start of the Holidays' in so many of the books).

I also love the feel of Kirrin and Peterswood, so never see it as an advantage when the FF books are set away from that type of cosy village setting. It's OK when they go to similar types of scenic places, but almsot all the Hike settings are so gloomy and miserable. I'm so glad that all the FFO books stick to Peterswood!

[Lucky Star]

The shortness of the Five's break does lend a more rushed feeling to the book but beyond that I too love it's darker and more atmospheric setting. As a child I thought it added an extra, rather delicious, thrill to the plot and as an adult I think that since most of the FF series are set in sunnier, more pleasant places it does no harm to have Hike occur in a more gloomy setting. I would agree though that my very favourite place for the FF to be is Kirrin.

[Moonraker]

I'm so glad that all the FFO books stick to Peterswood!

We certainly don't differ on that opinion!

[Bertie]

[John Pickup]

My favourite fives are Trouble, Hike and Smugglers Top, none of which are based in Kirrin. That doesn't mean I don't like the books set in Kirrin, they just aren't my favourites.

[Bertie]

I love Five Get Into Trouble and Smugglers Top as well. And Five Go off To Camp...

There's some very good books set away from Kirrin, yeah. I was just responding to Moonraker's comment about Hike: "and we are away from the almost ever-present Kirrin and Island. I love the non-Kirrin stories."

Which made it sound like moving away from Kirrin was a real positive to the books. I'd never go that far, as I love the descriptions of Kirrin and Peterswood - and, if anything, I wish Enid had described more of Kirrin and it's village, shops, and inhabitants, as she does Peterswood. I like it, for example, in Run Away Together when they're going to the shops to buy things and wish they'd done things like that a lot more in Kirrin. They do often pop into lovely sounding shops on their travels, which is always nice, but I do love the 'feel' of getting to know a village like Peterswood and Kirrin.

[pete9012S]

My favourite book is Five On A Treasure Island and my second (at the moment is either Hike or Fix).

I love the underwater swimming in Hike. That's all I've done all my life, swam in wild lakes, rivers, sea.


Fix had the snow and that sublime hut. So cosy and well stocked with tasty snacks, even though the weather was wild outside.


But really I love all the books. Even the later ones. I sort of knew as I got older they weren't going to last forever.
So, I tried to slow down and savour them all - I needed my fix and even as an adult I still like the whole twenty one.