PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Mystery Series by Enid Blyton

I finished the whole box set of the Enid Blyton Mystery Series. It's also called The Five Find-Outers Mystery Series. Each book features the investigative team of Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bets and Fatty's Scottie dog, Buster. Fatty's the ringleader and the brains behind the outfit. He's a bit of a cheeky character who's got a good range of knowledge in his clever bonce. The other kids contribute what they can, often something they say or find out triggers Fatty's noggin and out pops the solution.

Fatty had a tendency to brag about himself at first but Larry and Pip often took the mickey out of him and he stopped. They eventually come to value his brains and look up to him. There's a whole crew of characters in each book, the kids parents make an appearance, Mr Goon the local policeman, Inspector Jenks, Mr Goon's poetry writing nephew Ern, and the oodles of new people for each book. You can read more about the series at The Enid Blyton Society.

Fatty's nickname is based on his initials, Frederick Algernon Trotteville spells FAT, and his somewhat portly figure. The 2016 edition I read, the one in that box, has a little note on the copyright page that says all the references to Fatty being fat have been removed and his nick name is just based on his initials. This was done by Enid's daughter. I have several of the books in other editions so I'm not too bothered. It doesn't really effect the story. Sadly, Fatty isn't that keen on his nickname, even his mom uses it.

I find the series entertaining and a nice quick breezy read, even after having read most of them once or twice already.

The covers in the series are all by Timothy Banks. This is the third time they've been used and the first time the paintings appear without the edges being cropped. I think the covers look better on the new editions, except for the Mystery Series bit that covers the bottom right corner.

The 2014 Egmont edition on the left and the 2016 Hodder edition on the right. The 2021 Hodder edition covers are below.

 

The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage 1943

The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat 1944

 

The Mystery of the Secret Room 1945

The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters 1946

 

The Mystery of the Missing Necklace 1947

The Mystery of the Hidden House 1948

 

The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat 1949

The Mystery of the Invisible Thief 1950

 

The Mystery of the Vanished Prince 1951

The Mystery of the Strange Bundle 1952

 

The Mystery of the Holly Lane 1953

The Mystery of the Tally-Ho Cottage 1954

 

The Mystery of the Missing Man 1956

The Mystery of the Strange Messages 1957

The Mystery of the Banshee Towers 1961

Enid Blyton For Grown Ups by Bruno Vincent

Enid Blyton For Grown Ups by Bruno Vincent

In the fall of last year I picked up a whole lot of misc Enid Blyton books by scouring the cheap booksellers on eBay. Most of them were $3-5 with free shipping. They arrived with minimal wrapping but usually the books were in fine shape. A couple of the books I bought were in the Enid Blyton For Grown Up series. I wanted to try a couple to see if I might want to continue reading the series. I liked the first one I read and decided to order the lot. Like the other Enid Blyton's I had picked up cheaply on eBay I got most of these for the same $3-5, for some reason the last couple were harder to find on eBay and wound up costing in the $15 range.

There are 15 books in the series. Five were released in 2016, nine were released in 2017 and the last one in 2020. Even though Enid gets credit for the series on the cover the books were really written by Bruno Vincent, except for the one by Sophie Hamley. Bruno's the better writer of the two and I came to enjoy the adventures of the Famous Five in their late 20s. There's usually something odd going on and there's plenty of sarcasm. I often laughed to myself and several of the books had a gag that made me laugh out loud. Each book is based on an activity or an event in their lives, the titles give you a good idea on what's on offer. They go sober for a month, try dieting, deal with housing, Brexit and their families. I'd recommend them but if you don't know anything about the Famous Five it seems like it could be a waste of time to read them. Mostly I just wanted to post all the covers in one lump.

 

Five Give Up the Booze 2016

Five Go Gluten Free 2016

 

Five Go On A Strategy Away Day 2016

Five Go Parenting 2016

 

Five On Brexit Island 2016

Five Forget Mother's Day 2017

 

Five Lose Dad In The Garden Centre 2017

Five Get Beach Body Ready 2017

 

Five At The Office Christmas Party 2017

Five Escape Brexit Island 2017

 

Five Get Gran Online 2017

Five Get On the Property Ladder 2017

 

Five Go Bump In The Night 2017

Five Go Down Under 2017 Sophie Hamley

Five Go Absolutely Nowhere 2020

What I Read In February 2017

Here's the books I read in February 2017. Twenty one in total but I'm only keeping about a half a dozen of them.

 

Star Trek - Mission To Horatius by Mack Reynolds. An OK ST novel that I kept so far. I used to be a Mack Reynolds fan but haven't read anything by him in over 20 years.

The Unusual Mind Of Vincent Shadow by Tim Kehoe. A novel about a child inventor. Fun but not I'm not going to bother reading it again.

Professor Gargoyle by Charles Gilman. The first in the Tales From Lovecraft Middle School. Not bad, not great, not a keeper, though I would go on and read the other three from the library. The books come with a nice wiggle picture cover that switches between the normal looking person and the monster within. Nice graphics.

Once Upon A Toad by Heather Vogel Frederick. A fun read. I haven't followed up with more of her books but who knows. I should see what the library has but at this point it's not going to happen. I occasionally think about going back and seeing what I missed when I read the earlier books in a series but I have so many books piled up right now I can't see doing that. My too read shelf is nearly 20 feet long and there's a lot of unread books in boxes too.

The Slither Sisters by Charles Gilman. Here's the second book in the Lovecraft Middle School series. A bit of a scare with monsters inhabiting a school. Like the first it was entertaining enough but not a re-reader.

Red Ryder And The Riddle Of The Roaring Range by Jerry McGill. Good adventurous Western. Put on the keep pile back then, it'll get purged in the coming months.

Twilight Tales by Enid Blyton. Another collection of short stories. I picked up so many books int he last couple of years I'll have Enid books for years to come that I haven't read. There's used bookstore in Winnipeg that specializes in children's books and I cleaned out their paperback books by Enid and I've picked over the hardcovers looking for the cheapest ones. I even found several of the Secret Seven Annuals and Famous Five Annuals there.

Wally Wood - Galaxy Art And Beyond by Roger Hill. A nice collection of art from Galaxy magazine. I'm a big Wally Wood fan, have been for 50 years. I've been picking up collections of his art of late. There seem to be a great number of comic related art collections coming out, I only buy the ones I really want, I can't keep up. Mind you, you can't go wrong with Wally. At his best he's terrific. If you're going to collect his work, start with the EC Comics collections.

Teacher's Pest by Charles Gilman. Here's the third book. Danger at the Lovecraft Middle School. My high school in Winnipeg was dangerous, the students had a smoking lounge.

Gene Autry And The Ghost Riders by Lewis B Patten. A good fun read with Gene up to some good deeds with guns. There's plenty of baddies int he old west and guys like Gene are kept pretty busy rounding them up.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I wasn't that fond of the novel. I didn't think I was going to follow up on the series. I haven't so far but years mean nothing between books.

The Odd Squad - Bully Bait by Michael Fry. It's an anti-bullying book. OK but not a keeper. Better it be out in the wild, inspiring some other kids to help stop bullying.

Substitute Creature by Charles Gilman. The fourth and perhaps last book in the Lovecraft Middle School series. It came out in 2013 and there haven't been any more int he series. I got the first one at Half Price Books, remaindered and most of the other turned up there too. Pretty sure that means no more in the series.

The Clue In The Diary by Carolyn Keene. The 7th book in the Nancy Drew series. Nearly done the lot of them. Mildred Wirt Benson wrote the first 7 novels and returned to the series with book 11 for quite a few more. As usual a good read.

The Sixth Form At St Clares by Pamela Cox. Here's a lady continuing the Enid Blyton series. As if we need more Enid Blyton books, I don't know. I'm keeping it with the Enid books but not searching out more right now. The St Clare's books aren't my favorites.

The Secret Seven 14 - Look Out, Secret Seven by Enid Blyton. I'm not as big a fan of the Secret Seven as I am of the Adventure series, the Mystery series and the Famous Five. That Peter is a bit of a dick. Not sure which cover I have and I'm too lazy to got look. I picked on by Tony Ross. He's the guy who illustrates the David Walliams books.

The Forest Fire Mystery by Troy Nesbit. Another good southwest adventure novel with a couple of kids and their horses solving a mystery. I've liked all the books by Troy that I've found. He writes good kids.

Enid Blyton's Storyland by Enid Blyton. Another large book collecting short pieces originally written for her magazine. The stories are supplemented with puzzles and games and activities. There are plenty of color illustrations that, like the cover, are slight but pleasant. I prefer her stories in the regular size book collections.

The Third Round by H C McNeile. Another in the Bulldog Drummond series. I don't dislike them but McNeile's writing doesn't support his imagination.

The Secret At Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene. The fifth book in the Nancy Drew series and this is also by Mildred Wirt Benson. We meet Bess and George for the first time. The girls are out at a ranch when a mystery comes upon them. That and a mountain lion.

High Adventure with Enid Blyton by Enid Blyton. Another large size collection of older stories with puzzles and activities to do between the stories.

What I Read In September 2016

I think that 25 books for the month is probably a record for the number of books finished in a month. I read 20 in December 2015 which is fitting as it was the first full month of retirement. Possibly as many as 20 are keepers and only one of them was a book that was more art based than text based.

The Case Of The Fenced-in Woman by Erle Stanley Gardner is the 81st Perry Mason novel. It was published after Gardner died. Perry gets involved in a property dispute. The house has been divided with barded wire and then a dead body shows up.

The Clue Of The Black Flower by Carolyn Keene is the 18th Dana Girls mystery. The girls get a new mystery when a fake black orchid is stolen. Who would steal a fake flower? The Dana sisters will find out. A good read, about the same as the others.

Mr Pinkerton Finds A Body by David Frome is set in Oxford College. Mr Pinkerton finds a body and Inspector Bull comes to investigate. I've read a couple of Mr Pinkerton books before and they were ok but I found Mr P kind of annoying. Not a keeper.

The Short-Wave Mystery by Franklin W Dixon is the 24th Hardy Boys novel. A pile of stuffed toys, stolen from an estate sale, leads the Hardy brothers to a new mystery.

The Lone Ranger And The Secret Of Somber Canyon is Whitman 712 and it doesn't have a writer listed. The Big Little Book site thinks it might be Fran Striker. They list the artist as Charles Flanders. It's an unusual size for a Big Little Book, 3 7/8" x 5 1/2" x 5/8, and the illustrations are at the top of the page with text below. It was an OK story.

Killer Pizza - The Slice by Greg Taylor is a quick read but not a keeper. Some kids work for Killer Pizza which is really the front for a monster fighting organization. They get sent to New York for a special mission.

Star Trek - Faces Of Fire by Micheal Jan Friedman was OK but I'm not going to keep it. I'll never re-read it.

A Pals In Peril Tale - He Laughed With His Other Mouths by M T Anderson is a fun space romp with kids and aliens and spaceships. I'm debating keeping it.

The Mystery Of Cabin Island by Franklin W Dixon is the 8th Hardy Boys novel. The Hardy brothers join Biff and Chet for a camping trip to Cabin Island. They get right into a mystery concerning the island and a missing boy.

The Clue In The Old Album by Carolyn Keene has Nancy involved with gypsies. Being poisoned won't stop our brave heroine from solving the mystery in the old album.

Gene Autry And The Redwood Pirates by Bob Hamilton puts Gene in redwood country stopping some baddies. A good read.

Attack Of The Vampire Weenies by David Lubar is a collection of short silly stories. A fun enough read but not a keeper.

Escape From Mr Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein was a fun book about a special new library and a mystery hidden inside. There's a sequel that I'll pick up someday.

The Land Of Stories 2 - The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer is another good read. I'm keeping the series so far and have 3 and 4 waiting for their turn.

The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene is the 2nd of the Nancy Drew novels. Nancy investigates a haunted mansion for the two old ladies that live there.

While The Clock Ticked by Franklin W Dixon has the Hardy Brothers help a guy who's been getting death threats in his safe room.

Harry Potter - The Artifact Vault is a collection of props and the like from the movies. Lots of pages of color pictures and some text. I lucked out and got the book for under half price, brand new, at Half Price Books. They take 20% off a new book and the 50% coupon makes the book really reasonable.

The Case Of The Singing Skirt by Erle Stanley Gardner is the 60th novel. Perry helps a singer at a gambling club in a sleazy town run by shady dicks. Soon someone was dead and the singer is a suspect. It was a good one, lots of running just ahead of the peace.

The Case Of The Terrified Typist by Erle Stanley Gardner is the 49th novel in the series. A young woman comes to Perry's office, types some pages and then disappears when the police come to inquire about a diamond robbery in the building.

Emil And The Detectives by Emil Kastner is one of my favorite kids books. I enjoy Emil's trip to Berlin every time I read it. I'd recommend it highly. I recently watched the BFI DVD of the 1931 German film and the 1935 British film. I like the 1964 Disney adaptation too.

The Secret Of The Old Clock by Carolyn Keene is the first of the Nancy Drew series. Nancy helps the Turner sisters recover an inheritance.

he Case Of The Angry Mourner by Erle Stanley Gardner is the 38th Perry Mason novel. A guy is killed and a mother and her daughter suspect each other. They turn to Perry for some help. I like that the novels are short and move the story along quickly. 

The Case Of The Long-Legged Models by Erle Stanley Gardner is the 55th Perry Mason novel. He juggles guns to keep a young woman from going to the death chamber.

Ulysses Moore 2 - The Long Lost Map by Pierdomenico Baccalario wasn't much to my liking. I'll be tossing it.

Summer Term At St Clare's by Enid Blyton is the 3rd novel in the St Clare's Girl School series. Each book the girls deal with new students and the trials of boarding school life.

Well, another month closer to being caught up. In my dreams anyway.

The Enid Blyton Secret Series

The Enid Blyton Secret Series was produced by the same people, Cloud 9, that made The Enid Blyton Adventure Series. Like the previous series they filmed this one in New Zealand. The DVDs present the story in a series of five 90 minute films which Cloud 9 also makes available in 30 minute versions for syndication. They use the same house the production built for TEBAS, after it's been redressed, as the Arnold family home. Jennyfer Jewel, who plays Peggy is this series, was also a carry over from TEBAS where she played Lucy-Ann.

There's a new set of characters in this series. That's Mr Thaddeus Arnold and his future wife Charlotte (Charlie) Clancy. He's is a widow with three kids, Peggy, Laura and Mike, then the series starts. She's a photojournalist who agrees to travel with him on an around the world cruise in his sailboat. Mr Arnold adopts Jack in the third story. The adult's romance builds slowly until they get married in the last story.

There are 5 books in The Secret Series and the first one, The Secret Island, came out in 1938. It was Blyton's first full length adventure novel. There's also a book by another author called The Secret Valley. I haven't read them but I'm thinking of ordering a set from the UK. From the synopsis on the Enid Blyton site it looks like the novels are quite a bit different. A lot of Enid's books have had several editions and copies can be fairly cheap. There's postage of course but they would still be as cheap or cheaper than a modern paperback Sadly, Enid's books are hard to find in the US.

Here's the list of episodes in the order they appear on the DVD:

• The Secret Island
• The Secret of Spiggy Holes
• The Secret of Killimooin
• The Secret of Moon Castle
• The Secret Mountain

I was as entertained by the series as I was TEBAS. There's some adventure and a bit of danger. The villains are about as hokey as the other series. There's some threat of danger but you know that the kids will survive.

The Enid Blyton Adventure Series 1996

I ordered the DVD of The Enid Blyton Adventure Series from the UK. It's only available in a PAL DVD. I was interested in it because the Adventure Series is my favorite of Enid's nearly countless books. There are 8 books in the series and the first one came out in 1944. Here's the list from the Wikipedia.

• The Island of Adventure 1944 AKA Mystery Island (US, 1945)
• The Castle of Adventure 1946
• The Valley of Adventure 1947
• The Sea of Adventure 1948
• The Mountain of Adventure 1949
• The Ship of Adventure 1950

Originally, the series was supposed to end after this episode, but under the great demand of dedicated fans, Blyton wrote two more episodes:

• The Circus of Adventure 1952
• The River of Adventure 1955

I read the books as a teen. I got them from the library and read them a couple of times each. I might have had personal copies of my own but if I did they went in the big purge that happened when I moved out of town just as I turned 25. After I had read the first 3 Harry Potter books I had been visiting Winnipeg. As i was preparing for the trip I had gotten to thinking that I should look and see  if the Adventure books are still in print in Canada. They aren't in print in the US for the most part. Hardly anything of Enid's is available here unless it's an import. The HP books reminded me of the Blyton books in some way and I wanted to re-read them again. Sure enough they had a set at one of the bookstores and I picked them up. I started right away, read them all in one big gulp, and really enjoyed them. It was like I was reading them for the first time. It had been 40 or so years since I had last read any of them and I had forgotten all the details. It's about about 10 years since I re-read the series and it seems like I should read them again, especially now that I've seen the 1996 TV series.

The stories were originally televised in 24 half hour slots. Each of the eight books had three episodes to tell the story. The DVDs have the 3 episodes and edit them into a 75 minute movie. They've kept the basic plot from each book but moved it into the mid 1990s. It doesn't hurt the stories any. Oddly, there were novelizations of the TV versions that came out in 1997. I didn't know about those but I don't think I want to spend the money to order them. I can't imagine they'd be expensive but I suspect that they aren't as good, or as entertaining, as the original. Not that I think there's much point in reading them. Read the originals.

That's the Mannering house, Craggy-Tops, in what's supposed to be Scotland. It's really New Zealand. The British company shot the whole series there, in 6 months, and used the varied landscape for a whole bunch of other places around the globe. In the book Craggy-Tops is owned by an Aunt and Uncle, in the TV show Mrs Mannering and her two children Philip and Dinah live there, with an elderly Uncle. In the reality of the TV world the production company bought the bottom story of the house, moved it by truck to the location you see above, and built the second story and tower on site. I saw that in the 45 minute "making of" featurette that makes up the only extra on the DVD.

That's Philip Mannering on the left, next to him is his sister Dinah. The other two are Lucy-Ann and Jack Trent, cousins to the Mannering kids. The parrot is Jack's pal Kiki. He helps out in the adventures and he's a bit of a laugh at times. Philip and Dinah live with their widowed mother, Alison, in Craggy-Tops. Jack and Lucy-Ann are orphans who live with an neglectful uncle. In the first story they've come to Craggy-Tops on vacation.There's an island just off the shore that is home to some bad guys. The kids get involved with that and send the crooks to the jail. On their adventure they meet up with Bill Cunningham who turns out to be an agent for the government. He's been on the trail of the crooks for some time. There's a bit of danger but the crooks are often kind of bungling and cartoon like so there's usually not much to their death threats.

Over time Bill and Alison fall in love and they marry at the end of the 6th book. The family adopts Jack and Lucy-Ann. And Kiki. They have a couple more adventures before the books run out.

I liked the series and was glad to have picked up the DVDs. The kids are alright, most of them haven't acted before, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. All the locations are nice to look at and New Zealand does a great job filling in for all the other settings. The criminal activities are varied, counterfeiting, stealing treasure, selling a dangerous stolen bio-warfare liquid, a secret radioactive rod enrichment business and an anti-gravity machine. Much more SF than the original series of books, that's for sure. There's plenty of running about and oodles of critters. I've been happy with all the Blyton adaptations that I've seen so far. There are a couple more to get through. Sometime soon, maybe.