Rereading the Find-Outers books

[Moonraker]

I gave up wondering about book-characters' ages decades ago!

[Boodi 2]

It never really bothered me and I did not think much about it. Realistically they must have aged by several years from the first to the last book, but there is almost no reference to the passage of time other than the fact that Fatty's voice broke.

[Inspector Jenks]

This year I've started re-reading the Find-Outers series in chronological order. (Great fun.) I've just finished the Hidden House, and noticed some discrepancies in the characters' ages over the first six titles. Can anyone direct me to a post or review which deals with this (or a Journal article for that matter as I now have access to Aussie Sue's complete run)?

The general idea of a “floating timeline” (which Enid was an enthusiastic user of) is explained here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_timeline

[pete9012S]

This year I've started re-reading the Find-Outers series in chronological order. (Great fun.) I've just finished the Hidden House, and noticed some discrepancies in the characters' ages over the first six titles. Can anyone direct me to a post or review which deals with this (or a Journal article for that matter as I now have access to Aussie Sue's complete run)?

Bothersome Timelines
Article by Keith Robinson

Bothersome Timelines
Article by Keith Robinson


The problem with writing an ongoing series about children is that they grow up. With one mystery book a year, Blyton had to avoid a "real" timeline otherwise the Find-Outers would have aged fifteen years over the entire series! So Blyton slows things down by having one mystery per holiday, about three per year: Summer, Christmas and Easter. Sometimes a book mentions a specific month like April or January, other times it's "a hot summer's day," or "a cold winter." But more often than not it's "the summer hols" or "Christmas" or "Easter."

This would make things easy to work out except that some of the books skip a holiday period, making things a little fuzzy. The Five Find-Outers always seem so adamant about having a mystery every hols, and yet some hols have been skipped. After a quick scan through the books, here's what I could glean...

https://www.enidblyton.net/mystery-seri ... lines.html

Best Wishes

Pete

[Judith Crabb]

Very sensible, Moonraker and Boodi 2, ignoring distractions from the story - I see from Inspector Jenks's link that Rex Stout would have agreed with you. And Pete, the Keith Robinson article confirms what I had worked out, so thanks to all.

[Moonraker]

It also goes to show that Peterswood had a particularly high crime rate for a small village!

[Boodi 2]

I was probably helped by the fact that I did not read the books in chronological order. My parents allowed me to choose a book as a treat every Friday after school and I tended to grab whatever Blyton book was available and if there were several I would opt for the book with the cover that most appealed to me! The first FFO book that I read was "The Mystery of the Invisible Thief", which my mother gave me when I had finished most of the available Noddy and Brer Rabbit books. I suppose I was about 7 or 8 years old at the time and felt very grown up as it was quite a step up from what I had been used to reading. I actually found it a bit difficult and did not really grasp all the finer points until I read it again about a year later. However, it has remained one of my favourite FFO books.

[Boatbuilder]

It also goes to show that Peterswood had a particularly high crime rate for a small village!

Only surpassed by Midsomer.

[Nair Snehalatha]

Mystery of the hidden house, Tally ho cottage, Secret Room, strange messages, are all set in winter-- I love to read the books set in winter. Mystery of the.missing man.is set in.Easter. -- spring time.--A lovely lot to read.--.ad the.winter ones are.during christmas
.

[Judith Crabb]

After my previous Covid booster put me in bed for a day or two, this time I decided to Be Prepared: large tumbler of water, a packet of panadol and a heap of five books on the desk next to my bed, the Blyton component being 'The Mystery of the Strange Bundle'. A wonderful day to spend in bed (with a clear conscience), it was the first truly wintry of Autumn, by South Australian standards: temperature degrees centigrade max 15, min 7.3 and buckets of rain including hail which heaped the gutters and put mini icebergs on the lawn. With my mild flu-like symptoms I felt in total sympathy with those of the convalescing five Find-Outers, and of course I recalled all those childhood ailments which got me out of school and into the undivided attention of my mother. The opening chapters recalled exactly what it was like to be a child and sick - snuggling into the warmth of bed but still a little resentful - what a waste of the Christmas holidays.
I note something which has not struck me before, probably because the illustrations do not suggest it - Fatty has dark hair.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry about your flu-like symptoms, Judith, though The Mystery of the Strange Bundle is the perfect accompaniment as you say. The opening chapters, full of fun and wintry cosiness, are just the ticket for anyone feeling below par.

Fatty has always had dark hair in my imagination. My Find-Outers paperbacks have an assortment of illustrators - Mary Gernat, Jenny Chapple, Treyer Evans, Lilian Buchanan, Peter Archer (some covers) and Paul Wright (some covers) - so with all that chopping and changing I wasn't unduly influenced by the pictures.

[Splodj]

I think Strange Bundle is the most consistently fun mystery, lurching from one entertaining incident to another. This more than compensates for it being full of plot holes, as detailed on the dedicated thread, although I note that the Bets/sock error near the end has now been corrected.

[Bertie]

I love the Find-Outers books, and still regularly re-read them more than any of the others.
I enjoy the first two, but they have a different feel with Fatty not being the leader, and no disguises or humour with Goon. So '... Secret Room' always feels the point where the series as I love it really begins.
It's probably my favourite series. And only the final book, Banshee Towers, often gets left out of my many re-reads. The others I love. Especially books 4-7, with Missing Necklace probably my favourite.

[Judith Crabb]

Thanks, Anita, I'm feeling much better. Suddenly my cup of tea this morning doesn't taste like an infusion of cardboard! Fatty's renewed appetite is so true to life. There are so many accurate touches in Blyton's work - near the beginning of 'The Mystery of the Strange Bundle' Mrs. Trotteville, instead of her usual polite keeping-up-appearances 'Frederick', replaces it with 'FATTY-BUSTER-FATTY' as she attempts to be heard through the blankets and above the barking of the dog she is wanting him to remove from his bed. The further I get into my re-readings the more impressed I am.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm glad you're able to enjoy your cup of tea again, Judith.

I love all the little touches, quirks, lively speech patterns and humorous incidents in the Find-Outers books. No wonder so many of us are drawn back to Peterswood again and again, even though we know the solutions to the mysteries.