Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
In my childhood years, Enid Blyton was my favourite author. There were several adventure and mystery series she had penned including the five find outers, the famous five, the secret seven, besides the foursome with their parrot Kiki in tow, who kept walking into adventures. Then there were also the classroom series like St Clairs and Malory Towers in addition to multiple versions of the “Naughtiest Girl in school”.
Of all, my favourite pick was the adventurous four, namely Jack, his sister Lucy Ann, Philip and sister Dinah. One of the reasons I felt attracted to this lot was that it had a combination of a bird-lover, namely Jack and an animal enthusiast Philip. Jack’s parrot Kiki used to provide welcome entertainment with her cheeky responses that at times threw up awkward situations.
The book I loved the most was The Valley of Adventure. The four had boarded a wrong flight and were clueless about it till their plane took off to an undisclosed destination with the men in the cockpit unaware of the children’s presence. The story of how they landed in a valley that was devoid of any human occupation other than their plane’s cockpit crew made exciting reading.
Other series that was refreshing was that of the five find-outers, namely Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pips and Bet. The amusing twists to the narratives were provided when the kids confronted a jealous police constable by name Mr. Goon. To give it a flip side, the kids were friendly with Goon’s higher up Inspector Jenks. Besides, Fatty, the eldest of the find-outers, had empathy with the youngest, namely the little girl Bet. Just like the famous five series had Timmy as a canine accomplice, the five find-outers had their version of the species named Buster.
The Famous Five was different from other series, with one of its constituents, namely George, aspiring to behave like a boy without any girlish tendencies. The four, Julian, Dick, George and Annie along with Timmy the dog made good reading especially in the adventures that were set up against the backdrop of beaches. There was also a sharp contrast between the behavior of George and the youngest Annie. Annie was somewhat like Jack’s sister, Lucy Ann in the adventure series, always getting scared and prone to crying.
The Malory Tower School series had Darryl Rivers as the protagonist and snobbish Gwendoline Lucy Mary as the adversary. It also provided a fair share of lighter moments when the girls played tricks on the French teacher. School series, apart, it’s observed in most of the adventure/mystery type novels, the author portrayed the kids as weak in studies and more interested in nature and good food. In fact, the kids having breakfast or lunch used to be elaborately described shedding light on British cuisines like ham, bacon, sausages, besides beverages like ginger beer.
Among the elders who used to provide a support role to the kids was Uncle Quinten, a scientist with the famous five and Bill Cunningham in the adventure series. To recap on how I managed to cover the entire gamut of Enid Blyton thriller series, I always used to hide her books inside my school books to ensure uninterrupted reading at home, when mom or dad used to pop up in my room.
