Thoughts on the Secret Seven series

[Daisy]

Like some others here, I had read the Famous Five and the Adventure books when I first read the Secret Seven. I found the stories simpler and not so gripping. I did find writing stories about them a bit easier than about the others though!

[Wolfgang]

What makes thing a bit absurd for me, what's the point in having a "Secret" Society if anyone can see you're a member of it?
I also dislike Susie immensely and unlike others I don't think she'd have been a valuable addition to the club. Yes, she's smart, but she's no team player. If I remember correctly she started two clubs of her own, but they didn't last long. Her ambition is to destroy the fun of others if she can't share it, and was insulted when others took her by word though she actually didn't do it.
I also started to read them when I was too old for them and stopped at some point. At least I can say I have read them at least twice by now - in English and in German.

[Katharine]

Good points Wolfgang. I suppose the Society is classed as Secret because no one else knows what they discuss at their meetings?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who disliked Susie, although in her defence, I can remember one occasion where she felt guilty for getting Jack into trouble. On the whole though, I agree that her ambition seemed just to destroy the others' fun which I think is a particularly unpleasant trait. Although Peter is rather bossy, I'd rather have someone like that, than Susie who just wanted to laugh and jeer at the others.

Of course the books would probably have been rather colourless if Susie hadn't featured in them, a bit like P C Goon in the FFO.

[Lucky Star]

I dislike Susie as a person however she is a great addition to the books! Her antics provide plenty of humour, spice and rivalry top what is otherwise a very worthy but occasionally very dull society. Like others I read the series after having read all of the other major series' and so was not much interested in them. In fact I think I only read about four or five of them as a child, the rest I read as an adult. The titles are so generic it's hard to remember much about them. I know I loved the first book; Janet's blackcurrant tea stayed with me for life.

I haven't re-read the entire series for years now. I'll probably return to it at some stage but not in the near future.

[pete9012S]

Because Peter is so blinking pompous I find myself drawn to Susie.
I think she would desperately like to join The Secret Seven, but I feel Peter knows she would run rings round him with her intelligence.
She would also not allow him to talk down to her the way he does with just about everybody else!

[Nair Snehalatha]

Susie adds more excitement to the Secret Seven
-- Yes--she started two rival clubs of her own-- The Famous Five and The Tiresome Three-- and both fizzled out.Susie and her giggling friend Binkie add humour to the stories--as in Puzzle for the SS--where Susie makes up a rude poem about the SS-and Colin retaliates by making up one about Binkie--I think it was Binkie who made up the poem with.Susie giving tit bits-- In Look out SS-- Susie and Binkie help the Seven to escape.from the Bramley.Woods with Wily's alsatian guarding them.Susie may be a tiresome girl but as a sister.she was fond of her brother, Jack.

[IceMaiden]

I like the Secret Seven books (though read them way after the intended age!) but unlike most I liked Peter and didn't mind his bossiness but HATED Susie with a passion. Rarely does a character make me get really riled but she was so irritating I wanted to slap her!

[John Pickup]

It's a pity so many only read these books after they'd read the FF and other series. I'm grateful they were the first books by Enid I read although in no particular order. It was a natural progression into the Fives and Find Outers which helped me to appreciate all the series separately.
I didn't find their society dull at all. Especially in the first seven books, I found their adventures exciting and the use of passwords made me feel a part of their club as I was aware of them too.
But I was only six when I first read them, the right age to fully appreciate the stories.

[Barnard]

I would like to have known the surnames of the Secret Seven.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I read the Secret Seven books at the same time as I read the Famous Five books, aged about 7-9. Even as a child, I appreciated the "homely" aspect that Katharine mentions. It was fun to see the Secret Seven exploring their local neighbourhood, meeting in a garden shed and doing things like celebrating Bonfire Night, setting out a train set and playing Red Indians. My sister and I did all of those things with our own friends so we felt that the Seven's world was very much like ours.

Of course, we wanted to do what the Famous Five did too. However, our parents couldn't be persuaded to let us go off in a couple of horse-drawn caravans, or stay at a lighthouse or camp on an island by ourselves!

[Boatbuilder]

It's a pity so many only read these books after they'd read the FF and other series. I'm grateful they were the first books by Enid I read although in no particular order. It was a natural progression into the Fives and Find Outers which helped me to appreciate all the series separately.
I didn't find their society dull at all. Especially in the first seven books, I found their adventures exciting and the use of passwords made me feel a part of their club as I was aware of them too.
But I was only six when I first read them, the right age to fully appreciate the stories.

I agree with you, John. I think I read the SS books (or some of them) before going on to the FF's and FFO's as I had joined our local library when I was about six or seven, so was about the same age as yourself when I read them and I couldn't put them down once I started reading a new adventure.

[Irene Malory Towers]

Like many others I came to the series quite late on and as is meant for a younger audience I found it rather an anti climax compared to other wonderful adventures of the Famous Five, Five Found Outers etc. But rereading them as an adult I appreciate them more ! In comparison to other adventure stories for kids of that age they are very good, having read others for my own children. Yes the characters are not that well developed and Susi is annoying and Peter bossy, but the group works well as a whole. And many of the adventures are really cleverly thought out. There is a real sense of danger in a few of them, but it is not ridiculously over the top. There is a lost innocence, in that kids are much free-er compared to now, but yet we glimpse some of the poorer areas in town and there are ruffians abound ! I don't like the illustrations by Tony Ross though. The earlier ones are much better, even if they are outdated in their attire.

[vsudik]

I have 1962-63 editions of the Secret Seven Adventures, #3, 4, 7, 9,10,11, 13, 14, 15 that I purchased back then when my father was stationed in England. They all have their dust jackets. Why I have kept these for 60 years, I have no idea. But I would like to send hand them off now to anyone who is interested. I will ship them at no cost.

[Bertie]

I was already familiar with the Famous Five, the FFOs and probably also the Secret series and the R/Barney mysteries before I first read the Secret Seven series, which meant that I found it disappointing and a bit of a let-down compared to the others and thus never bothered collecting the books or reading them to my son. Perhaps had I read them at an earlier stage I might have become fonder of them.

That's very similar to my experience with them as well.
My mum read Enid Blyton to my older brothers, and I joined in listening at a very young age and have carried on with them all my life. They didn't really read Secret Seven - more so the series' that you list: Famous Five, the FFOs, 'Secret' series and the R/Barney Mysteries. And those are the main four that I still go back to on a regular basis. And they bring back such nostalgic memories of reading them throughout my lifetime.
But I don't have that with the Secret Seven. I've read the series a couple of times in the last few years, and they were OK. But they just felt like inferior versions of The Five Find Outers books - not as complex mysteries, not as well solved without the genius of Fatty, and far less funny. And they didn't bring back the same feeling of nostalgia as the others, as I don't really remember reading / being read them when I was younger.
I probably preferred Jack of all the children. And, as an animal lover, I always love the pets in the group so I was very fond of Scamper as well. Whereas I found Peter and Susie the most annoying.

[Boodi 2]

Glad you agree Bertie! The Secret Seven made such a weak impression on me that apart from Scamper and Susie I cannot really distinguish between the other characters.