Secret Seven's Slippery Slip

[Lucky Star]

Hi gang I've just read Well Done Secret Seven, the third book in the series and was surprised and intrigued to find mention of the Faraway Tree's Slippery Slip. It occurs in Chapter 3. When Colin complains of tearing his shorts while getting down from the treehouse Barbara replies "I should think so, going down the tree as if it was a slippery slip". I know Blyton references the Famous Five books elsewhere in the SS series. Were there any other such references to other series throughout her work? Lets see if we can come up with some.

[Stephen]

In one of the 'Wishing Chair' books, Chinky speaks of going to the Faraway Tree and meeting the various charcters - to which either Peter or Molly replies that they've read the books and always wanted to visit everyone there. So this is suggesting in the Wishing Chair Universe, books about the Faraway Tree aren't actually fiction, but an account of real people!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Barbara has just gone up in my estimation if she was a fan of the Faraway Tree books!

In The Twins at St. Clare's, some of the girls go to see Galliano's Circus.

Twins David and Delia in House-at-the-Corner apply to go to Whyteleafe - the school attended by Elizabeth Allen, the "Naughtiest Girl."

The Saucepan Man makes an appearance in The Book of Brownies and a couple of Noddy books, as well as being a main character in the Faraway Tree series. The Noddy folk mingle with Mr. Pink-Whistle, several Faraway Tree characters, the Three Golliwogs and Mary Mouse in the play Noddy in Toyland.

Anita

[Tony Summerfield]

I'm sure I remember an article in a Journal about this written by David Chambers. There are actually quite a number of 'crossovers', particularly with the fantasy characters - Mr Tumpy, Josie, Click and Bun etc. I also remember Noddy giving Amelia Jane a lift in his car!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, the article ("In the Beginning") is in Journals 14 - 15. Mr. Tumpy in particular is described as "a key figure for get-togethers," having encounters with Three Golliwogs, Mary Mouse, Moon-Face and the Saucepan Man, Chinky, Mr. Pink-Whistle, Noddy and Josie, Click and Bun.

David Chambers also mentions that Brer Rabbit turns up with the Faraway Tree characters, the Three Golliwogs and Big-Ears at a party of Mr. Pink-Whistle's thrown for two children. There are quite a number of similar encounters.

Re-reading David's article I'm also reminded of The Yellow Fairy Book, in which the Faraway Tree, Moon-Face and the red squirrel appear, and Tales of Toyland, in which Tiptoe and Jolly meet the Three Golliwogs and Josie, Click and Bun. There's also the short story "You Simply Never Know," where Moon-Face and the Saucepan Man find a boy's kite caught in the branches of the Faraway Tree and return it to his house.

Mr. Pink-Whistle once cheers up a girl who is ill and has to miss her outing to Galliano's Circus.

I've read a couple of short stories about characters who borrow Enid Blyton books from each other but I can't remember where those stories are to be found.

Anita

[Anita Bensoussane]

One short story which mentions Enid Blyton books is "The Boy Who Borrowed" (I have it in The Little Brown Bear and Other Stories, Award.) Benny borrows books from his friends and fails to return them, including The Island of Adventure, The Secret Seven, Five on a Treasure Island and The Boy Next Door.

In Mr. Meddle's Muddles, in the story "Mister Meddle's Umbrella," Meddle goes to the book shop to buy a copy of Sunny Stories, saying to his aunt, "Oh, I simply must have that. Why, I might be in the book this week." I remember reading that as a child and asking my mum if we could buy Sunny Stories. But she said she'd never heard of it and it probably didn't exist. My copy of Mr. Meddle's Muddles, a Dean&Son hardback, is inscribed "Anita, Xmas 1975," so it was probably in December 1975 that I asked about Sunny Stories - rather too late to subscribe anyway!

Anita

[dsr]

Mr Galliano's circus appears in one of the St Clare's books, doesn't it? Though I wonder if a "slippery slip" was a family phrase in the Blyton household that found its way into two eseperate books by coincidence.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I was reading the story 'No Fish for a Pie' from The Adventures of Pip (Dean & Son) when I came across the following passage: "Pip didn't want to go to the fish-shop. He wanted to read his new adventure book about a treasure island. 'All right - I'll go in a minute!' he called." As 'No Fish for a Pie' was first published in the Sunday Graphic in 1945, I expect that the book Pip the pixie was reading was Five on a Treasure Island, which came out a few years earlier! I wonder if he had a pixie-sized version?

Anita

[pete9012S]

Enids characters referencing other characters....

In one of the secret seven books(im sure a clever forum member will know which book straight off the top of their head!),
it is mentioned by one of the seven(Colin??) that they will put their 'Famous Five 'collection on display,for use by the rest of the members,(was it in their shed /their tree house /or cave??..............)



Anyway,is this the ONLY EXAMPLE of one group of Enids characters referencing another group in all of her stories?............................

Edit: I've merged your thread with an older one, Pete90125. The Secret Seven book in which Colin brings his Famous Five books to the Cave (where the children are meeting temporarily) is Secret Seven Win Through. If I remember correctly, crook Albert Tanner even borrows one or two of the books to read!
- Anita

[pete9012S]

Thank you for that informative merger!

Most of the references seem to be from the books for younger readers,but the crossovers are still interesting..............

So for crossovers/references from the books for OLDER READERS, its just the Secret Seven referencing the Famous Five and the school books attending the circus????
Have we overlooked anything else?

[shadow]

There's also Adventure of the Secret Door (I think) where one of the characters can't read a secret seven? book. This book comes under the younger readers category though. Not too sure about all the facts, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Fiona1986]

I think you mean Adventures of the missing necklace perhaps? The bigger, older boy pretends to have read a SS book when infact he can barely read at all.

[pete9012S]

Hi All.
Just found another reference to the Famous Five,made by Janet of the Secret Seven in the last Secret Seven book,Fun For The Secret Seven,published in 1963.

Chapter 12,
In The Middle of the night,

'You'll get a jolly good scolding in the morning when you own up to the time you put out your light! called Peter,putting his out.'Good night,bookworm,'
Janet's book was certainly very exciting,She forgot all about the time.In fact,she forgot she was in bed,she was so sure she was in the smugglers' caves with four children and their dog Timmy'................................................

I wonder which Five book Janet could have been reading,'Demons Rocks'??.......................

[Lucky Star]

I wonder which Five book Janet could have been reading,'Demons Rocks'??.......................

Probably. Either that or possibly Five Go Down to the Sea which also features smugglers caves. The Secret Seven do seem to have the lions share of the cross references. I have always thought that Blyton may have been doing a little of what we now call "product placement"; ie encouraging the younger readers to move on to The Famous Five when they had finished reading their SS books.

[MJE]

I wonder which Five book Janet could have been reading,'Demons Rocks'??.......................

Probably. Either that or possibly Five Go Down to the Sea which also features smugglers caves.

     Surely the most obvious possibility here is "Five Go to Smuggler's Top"?
     I remember reading this probable Famous Five reference many, many years ago, and was going to suggest it before I read the post I'm replying to, only I didn't remember enough detail to mention it.
     I've never read "Fun for the Secret Seven" since then, maybe 40 years ago. It seems to be impossible now to find Secret Seven books in reasonable condition, in hard cover editions with dustjackets, and I've almost given up hope of ever finding them. I do have a few which I've found here and there, most in appalling condition, which I just got as a stopgap because I wanted to read them now, but didn't regard them as my permanent copy. And "Fun for the Secret Seven" is one I have not found yet, in good or bad condition.
     Do I have a hope in the world of ever getting a complete Secret Seven collection, and will it cost me an arm and a leg? (I had a complete collection in the 1960s, and now wish I'd kept it.) Or, for that matter, a complete Famous Five collection?

The Secret Seven do seem to have the lions share of the cross references. I have always thought that Blyton may have been doing a little of what we now call "product placement"; ie encouraging the younger readers to move on to The Famous Five when they had finished reading their SS books.

     Not quite something I regard as seemly for an author to do, somehow. Am I a bit puritan? - but I wouldn't feel comfortable about self-promotion actually within a book, which is meant to be set in a world of its own.

Regards, Michael.