Famous Five 90s Style – Our live reactions to Five Go to Smuggler’s Top part one

Posted on April 26, 2026 by Fiona

We are back with another talk-along as we watched Five Go to Smuggler’s Top. Stay tuned to read how we compare clothing to ice-cream flavours and discuss how much makeup Block is wearing.

[The episode opens with men in historical soldiers’ uniforms trying to stop some men who were unloading barrels from a boat.]

Stef: I like the scene setting.

Stef: A bit of background is good.

Fiona: It’s like a historical reenactment.

Fiona: Quicksand!!!

Stef: Very very quicksand.

Fiona: Life just doesn’t contain as much quicksand as children’s TV would make you believe.

[Kirrin Cottage. It’s very windy. Julian wakes up and looks out of the window before yelling to everyone to get downstairs as a tree is coming down on the cottage.]

Stef: Oh no the storm!

Stef: How can anyone sleep through Timmy barking?!

Fiona: Sorry Marco but you don’t do the book lines justice there.

Stef: No, not enough urgency.

Stef: How does Julian know that tree is falling?

Fiona: HE CAN HEAR ITS TERRIBLE GROANS AND CREAKS.

Stef: They’re in the study!

Fiona: I wasn’t looking, sorry. [Obviously I was too busy quoting the book to be watching the screen]

Stef: Looks like Miss Havisham’s house

Stef: All the lace flying everywhere.

Stef: WHY IS FRANCES ALLOWED TO GO UPSTAIRS FOR BLANKETS WHEN THERE IS A STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ISSUE?

Fiona: Hahaha.

Fiona: She’s expendable.

[Quentin pulls out a letter from Mr Lenoir and decides the children can go and stay with him, though there’s an argument about Timmy not being allowed.]

Fiona: Pete [as opposed to Sooty] ugh.

Stef: Look at UQ coming up with an idea.

Fiona: Foisting the children on someone else is probably always on his mind.

Stef: Ugly Pull Over time

Stef: Why can’t J, D & A’s parents have them?

Fiona: George has her mint choc chip cardi on.

Stef: Matching set.

Fiona: Frances must have gone back up again to get all the clothes.

Stef: How stupid do they have to be to realise that George won’t go without Tim?

Fiona: Isn’t the bathroom upstairs too?

Stef: Probably

Fiona: I know, but it’s the same in the book.

[They head off sans Timmy to Smuggler’s Top.]

Stef: Open boot for the car!

Stef: They really don’t care about Tim

Stef: Good old Alf.

Fiona: They barely went round the corner.

Stef: Cursory Alf sighting.

Fiona: The book makes it seem much more sneaky.

Stef: Yes it does.

Fiona: WTF is that?

Stef: Which bit?

Fiona: “Smuggler’s Top”

Stef: Yeah it’s bad.

Fiona: It ain’t smuggly and it’s not top.

Stef: Nope

Stef: Mr Barling

Fiona: Also unconvincing marshes.

Stef: Looks like a castle. Thanks Dick, took the words right out of my text.

[Arriving at Smuggler’s Top and go through a very visible hole in the wall which is apparently a secret passage, then up to ‘Pete’s’ room via a more secret secret passage.]

Fiona: Looks better on the inside.

Stef: They aren’t subtle about hiding Timmy!

Stef: No Mirabelle.

Fiona: Ohh I remember now how annoying Sooty’s voice is.

Stef: Yes. Is not the best Sooty.

Stef: Anne not quibbling about secret passages for a change.

Fiona: They do love a whacking great open hole instead of a secret passage.

Fiona: That’s better. Actually secret.

Stef: Julian with a torch handy as always.

Stef: HOW DOES HE MISS THE HANDLE! HE’S GOT THE TORCH!

Fiona: Indeed. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a rope about him somewhere too.

Stef: Wound around his waist!

Fiona: Sooty’s room is very small and cluttered.

Stef: Yes. For a whole wing to himself.

Fiona: But at least it has a window seat.

Stef: Why did she bring Timmy in the first place when she knew Mr Lenoir doesn’t want Timmy there?!

Fiona: Mr Barling looks insane.

[Block comes to tell them they are expected downstairs.]

Fiona: Block is pretty decent.

Stef: This Block is very creepy.

Fiona: Hahah @ Dick.

Stef: “Ever since they dug him up.”

Fiona: He does look like something out of an old horror movie.

Fiona: Maybe more desiccated vampire.

Stef: Yes, loudly shout about your father’s temperament.

Stef: She’s very robust for Mrs Lenoir.

Fiona: I was just thinking that.

Fiona: Not sure George is looking her most boyish despite the clothes.

Stef: Agreed.

Stef: George taking all the sandwiches for Tim.

[At this point Stef sends me a voice memo which is her attempting to imitate Sooty except I can’t work out what on earth it is cause it’s just noise.]

Fiona: Also isn’t it catacombs not catacoombs?

[Pete shows them the catacombs so Timmy can go out for a walk.]

Stef: Rather sensible for Julian asking if Pete knows the way.

Fiona: Real caves/tunnels.

Stef: Julian always grabs Dick’s jumper to help out of the holes and tunnels.

[They bump into Mr Barling in the town.]

Stef: Barling isn’t eccentric enough.

Fiona: I’d say he is quite eccentric.

Stef: They are too loose lipped. Why isn’t Julian correcting them both?

[Meal time because the Five always have to eat.]

Stef: The door hadn’t closed before he said he’d get some for Timmy.

Stef: What happened to raiding the larder?

Fiona: How is he going to sneak a bowl of stew?

Stef: EXACTLY

Stef: They buy Timmy meat in the book don’t they?

Fiona: Yeah I think so.

Fiona: Though I think they also say it would be suss to go buying meat.

[Julian and Dick wake Pete to show him a light flashing from the tower, and they go to check it’s not Block.]

Stef: Worried stare out the window from Julian again. Becomes a bit of a trade mark.

Fiona: He’s EMOTING.

Fiona: Or constipated.

Stef: That’s not a sleeping person.

Fiona: Why would there be a guest in Block’s room?

Stef: I don’t understand how they have seen that light because the layout of this house isn’t clear!

Stef: FFS, the moment I saw that silhouette I could see that was Block.

Fiona: In the book there’s only one place the tower can be seen from because of the angle it’s built at. Riddle that also.

Stef: Exactly.

Stef: Julian didn’t get caught in the curtain either.

Stef: And suddenly the door squeaks.

Fiona: Yet Dick is getting to be heroic.

Stef: Foreshadowing for Julian being in plaster.

Stef: Pete only mentions the repeated flashing NOW.

Fiona: you followed Block to his room fgs.

[Breakfast. George is annoyed at missing all the fun and Timmy starts barking in the distance.]

Fiona: And you’re GIRLS.

Stef: Tiiiimmmmyyyyyyyy.

[Mr Lenoir: Do you think I am a fool?]

Stef: Yes you are a fool.

[Block hides badly behind a curtain and the Five go on the attack.]

Stef: So very very hidden.

Fiona: Do we think the actor is naturally that pale?

Fiona: Or is that a ton of makeup?

Fiona: It doesn’t look cakey.

Stef: Very loud whispering… Spose they think he’s deaf.

Stef: I think it’s makeup.

Fiona: Probably.

Fiona: Otherwise he probably wasn’t at all well.

Stef: Anne being told to stay back.

Fiona: Anne, you get to have good ideas but you don’t get to carry them out.

Stef: Chaos reigns.

Fiona: Control your dog, George!

Stef: Exactly.

Stef: That’s not a dog bite!

Fiona: I’m glad they included all that stuff. [Meaning Block getting attacked and Sooty/Pete pretending he may have bitten him.]

Fiona: They probably wouldn’t if it had been a one-parter.

[Uncle Quentin rings Lenoir to say he’s coming tomorrow, and he’s to stay in Pete’s room.]

Stef: That’s right, leave Fanny alone to deal with the house.

Fiona: The noise will be driving him mad.

Fiona: A house that massive and they’re running out of bedrooms.

Stef: Don’t they have enough rooms to give Quentin a different room?!

Stef: I know it’s plot but…

Fiona: It’s the opposite of those houses in soaps where all the waifs and strays move in.

[End credits]

Fiona: How is it George who ends up carrying Anne?

 

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Letters to Enid part 82: From volume 4, issue 19.

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 19.
October 10th – 23rd, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Margaret Robin and her friends Christine, Jacqueline, Ann, Roger and David, Battle, Sussex.
Dear Enid Blyton,
Some of my friends and I decided to hold a fete to collect some money for the Spastics. So we found a lot of our old toys and books and put them together. With these we had a lucky dip and a jumble sale. Others we gave for prizes at a hoopla stall. We had some sticks in a box of sand and the people took these out, and won whatever it said on the bottom of the sticks. There was also a refreshment stall. Everything cost one penny, apart from some of the jumble sale articles. We had a raffle as well for a cake, and the second prize was meringues. The tickets were twopence each. We dressed up as gipsies, and altogether we collected £3 10s. od. for the Spastics.
Yours sincerely,
Margaret Robin and her Friends.

(I have chosen your letter, Margaret, for my letter-prize this week, because you described your fete so well, and I am sure it will help other children to try to run one too. You are a kind little band of children. Well done!)

Dear Enid Blyton,
Maureen and I were in a field when we saw a hurt jackdaw. We took it home and put it in a big box. After tea we took it to the vet, and he told us how to look after it. After a few days it got stronger. We fed Jack on bread and milk, cooked eggs and meat. We took him into the garden for a few days, and he began to fly.
Best wishes from
Christine Cox and Maureen Barton
(Busy Bees)

(What an interesting letter, children! I’m proud of two such kind Busy Bees!)

Dear Enid Blyton,
I thought you might like to hear about my doll’s house. My great-grandfather made it. It has four rooms downstairs and three attic rooms. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom (with cold running water), one dining-room, one nursery and a kitchen which has a fitted dresser going from ceiling to floor. It has a stable at the side. I have it on a table on a green cloth, which looks like a garden.
Love from
Glennys Flodman.

(What a lovely doll’s house, Glennys. You must be very proud of it!)

Two letters on popular themes this week – one a fundraiser, and the other an animal rescue.

We’ve seen a lot of bird-watch letters in the past but recently quite a few on rescuing wild birds. There are almost always fundraising letters too, as Blyton probably hoped they would inspire other children to copy the ideas in them!

Glennys’ letter is slight more unusual. Her doll’s house sounds great – especially the running water! (I’m fairly sure if I’d had that in my doll’s house I’d have gotten it all damp and ruined it.)

As a side note, for some reason the ‘letter from’ details are missing from the last two letters. Perhaps just to fit everything in, but it’s unusual!

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Monday #787

Posted on April 21, 2026 by Fiona

Schools are back this week so it’s back to ordinary life. At least it was sunny today instead of rainy like the forecast promised!

Letters to Enid part 82

and

Five Go to Smuggler’s Top, 90s style

Bizarely Stef never reviewed Five Go to Smuggler’s Top from the 90s series back when she did the other episodes. You’ll have to make do with her reviews of the 70s series instead!

Famous Five 70’s Style Five Go to Smugger’s Top, part 1

Famous Five 70s Style: Five Go to Smuggler’s Top, part 2

Famous five 70s uncle quentin smuggler's top

 

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Five Go Off in a Caravan: The graphic novel

Posted on April 18, 2026 by Fiona

I’ve found these graphic novels to be a mixed bag. One decent-ish one, and three which were disappointing in various ways.

A misleading beginning

The first page shows us the Five lounging about on a sunny afternoon in the garden at Julian et al’s house. The garden slopes down to the road. So far so good. Dick is lying out on a tree branch, which is an amusing twist. I had reasonable hopes…

A waste of paper

Two pages are spent on jokes about Dick’s perch and him jumping/falling out of the tree.

Four pages are dedicated to the circus, though there are only about two panels which actually further the story, with Nobby suggesting they follow the circus. The rest are spent showing Nobby flipping around doing circus tricks.

Five pages pass while they persuade their mother to let them go, mixed with Dick doing acrobatics in a tree.

We are a quarter of the way into the book at this point and we see the caravans for the first time. Three pages later they set off.

While in the original novel we of course enjoy their meandering route, a further 16 pages of this graphic novel are used before they reach the circus. Several of those pages are used to show them nearly crashing into a cyclist (which seems to be a popular plot point in these adaptations).

Even Dick questions why they’re then hanging from a tree while claiming to be helping the cyclist.

So we’re over half-way through, and leaving less than 30 pages for the main adventure…

The long-awaited adventure?

Sadly, no. Instead we get nine pages of trampolining, elephant tennis, a chimp which looks like a small monkey… Again, lots of fun in the book where we had enough pages to dedicate to fun and jokes. It feels utterly wasted when we only have 64 pages.

Then it’s noted that Lou is missing and this is bad. Dan (not Tiger), uses eight pages to tell us that Lou’s in debt and was supposed to be paying it off with a cheque, having been recognised in a will after rescuing a woman from a fire.

We see his memory of Lou arriving back in the middle of the night, and he is very clearly the cyclist the Five ran into earlier.

Three pages are wasted as they realise that Lou is in his caravan, and then he smashes out of the door instead of just opening it like a normal person.

He rages a bit. Timmy runs off. Timmy returns later with Lou’s wallet and the cheque. End of story.

It’s not just Lou who’s raging

While the other graphic novels in the series annoyed me with pointless changes, this one makes them look like fine literature.

This is an atrocious adaptation which removes 99% of the original story and replaces it with tripe. Obviously fitting a 180 page novel into 64 pages with 4-6 panels on each requires a lot of abridgement, but the entire story has been abridged out of existence here, and replaced with a plot barely worthy of a short story. The storyline is so thin it can’t even support a graphic novel without dozens of pages of padding where nothing happens except people turning upside down then the right way up again. Oh and a three page argument about macaroni, don’t forget that.

 

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Review – The Magic Faraway Tree film

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Fiona

On a somewhat rainy Saturday afternoon, Brodie and I finally went to see the film I’ve been talking about on here for ages.

First, we argued about where to sit. I wanted one of the pairs of seats that run down the side, then nobody could sit beside us, or ask us to stand up so they could get in or out. Brodie insisted we sit right at the back, at the top of the stairs, so that nobody could sit in front of him. Annoyingly, he won, and I booked the awful top of the stairs seats. The seats I wanted to pick stayed empty, as were the ones in front…

But anyway. We went, and he was very excited as this was the first time the two of us had gone alone together. We’d already picked up some bottles of juice and some popcorn, so I said he could have some pick and mix. I put some in a bag for myself and clearly failed to supervise him well enough because the total was £11.10 – at least 2/3s of which was down to him.

So what did I think?

I’ll start with the easy bit first – I actually liked the film. Which is weird, as I hate the recent Famous Five adaptation with a passion, and it’s probably got at least some similarities to that. Perhaps if I’d been an avid reader of the Faraway Tree books I’d feel differently.

It is not a straight adaptation of the book(s). While what we all dream of is a 100% accurate recreation of the book, it’s just never going to happen. Even the best film adaptations of books (LOTR, The Wizard of Oz, etc) make big changes, and often for the better. Sometimes something professing to be a faithful adaptation is even more disappointing than something which knows it’s only loosely based on the source material.

What’s it about?

Some parts may be vague, because I failed to write anything down after I saw it and it’s already getting hazy.

Mum (Claire Foy) has lost her job because she has discovered that the intelligent fridge she designed has a camera in it that’s tracking everyone’s eating habits. (How she could not know this as she’s the designer I do not know.)

Dad (Andrew Garfield) says great, let’s go live in the country. He is determined he’s going to make a living from making an Italian pasta sauce out of home grown tomatoes, despite them not being in Italy. Or being Italian? Though he perhaps thinks he is? I didn’t really get that bit.

This pasta-sauce plan forms the background of the story. When they visit The Land of Birthdays they all made bad wishes (which most of them undo after doing battle with Mr Oom-Boom-Boom. Beth wishes the tomato farm will fail so they can go home.

Only when it does fail, she regrets it massively as she’s started to enjoy their new life. And so that’s the reason they go off on another adventure – via the five-headed wise man, a yellow plane, Dame Snap’s school, and finally a magical market to get a spell to revive the tomato crop.

What worked well?

The acting was great – even the kids. Beth in particular perfected the teenage distaste for everything without becoming unlikable. (In fact I related a lot to Beth. I’d have been furious to go on a holiday and discover no electricity and no wifi let alone to a permanent residence.)

The scene where Granny arrives because Beth has written to her was so well done. You could see that Beth regretted it and was coming around to living there, and her parents were disappointed, but nobody attacked her. Instead they formed a united front against Granny.

Nicola Coughlan was great as silky – whimsical and mischievous with a lot of heart. Saucepan Man added little moments of comedy throughout as he misheard people.

I was surprised at the way Moonface was played at first – mistrustful of humans and unwelcoming to the children – but it was part of a deeper story that made sense as the movie went on and was actually quite touching.

I loved Dame Snap’s reference to previously being called Dame Slap, but having to change it because of a school inspector. That’s obviously a nod to all the old-school fans who lamented the change.

What didn’t work so well?

I thought the opening few minutes were a bit weak as they tried to make a believable reason why a family would suddenly move to a ramshackle barn. It may have been better to skip that part and say nothing more than Mum lost her job. I know they were trying to establish Mum’s abilities as a designer/inventor, Dad’s dreams from the dream book and so on, but it seemed a bit disjointed and not very believable.

I could have lived without the cheesy family song and the music/dancing when the lands arrive, but those are more personal preferences than criticism.

Other than that I wouldn’t say there was anything bad about the film.

Was it Blyton?

I think it was very Blyton. It was a new story, set at a different time but it still retained some of what I’d expect in a Blyton book.

The lands were strange and whimsical, the characters were funny – or nasty like Mr Oom-Boom-Boom who was her usual kind of pantomime fantasy villain.

There were lots of lovely moments that I thought embodied Blyton’s way of weaving morals into the stories. She always focussed on honesty, kindness, fairness, friendship and so on.

The first of these ‘moment’s is when Franny – having been warned not to be greedy – tries to stay in the Land of Goodies too long so she can get a marshmallow when she’s already got a full basket of treats. This means the others have to come to her rescue and they escape without any goodies at all.

Later, Beth is relieved when Dad says they have power and wifi and immediately gets on her tablet to chat to her friends. The conversation is not the delight she had imagined as her friends laugh at the flower in her hair, which she got while up the Faraway Tree. She’s then upset when the power goes out, but she finds her father cycling on a stationary bike to produce the electricity. She doesn’t say anything but she slips away, looking ashamed of herself. At the end when her friends come to the grand pasta sauce opening gala, they embrace her new life.

I’ve not explained it all very well, but there was a lot of subtle stuff in there about people not always being who you thought they were and Beth clearly does a lot of reflection even if it isn’t verbalised.

Also good was Silky wishing herself to be ‘the fairiest fairy’ with sparkles and wings because Beth had criticised her for not looking like a fairy. She undoes her wish and later Beth is very glad as she comes to realise that Silky’s perfect the way she is.

Of course there is a happy ending – the children risked themselves and their friends in various dangerous ways, and everything turns out well. I got a bit teary at the end, in fact.

What did Brodie think?

He gave it two thumbs up but said it wasn’t as good as Project Hail Mary. His favourite part was when they were trapped in Dame Snap’s school and they all had to annoy her enough to send them to detention. If I say that the warning at the beginning mentioned ‘rude humour’ you can probably guess why he liked that so much.

The rest of the audience seemed to appreciate it too, the children were all entranced enough to be sitting quietly at any rate.

Over all it seems to have done quite well, making £2.8m on its opening weekend, and doing well enough that is has secured a US release on August 21st. It’ll be interesting to see how well it does (or doesn’t do) in the US where Blyton never became the same household name as she did in other parts of the world.

On a final note – the slippery-slip looks TERRIFYING and I cant believe anyone went down it.

Has anyone else seen it? If so, what did you think?

 

 

 

 

 

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Monday #786

Posted on April 13, 2026 by Fiona

It’s currently the school holidays and as I took last week off work I thought I’d take a week off blogging too. We were lucky to have some decent weather so we were out and about most days. The weekend was not so great so that’s when Brodie and I finally went to see The Magic Faraway Tree film! Thoughts to follow, of course

Review – The Magic Faraway Tree film

and

Five Go off in a Caravan – the graphic novel

For anyone who loved the movie – or would like to know the story without going to see it – there’s a novelisation of it out now. It’s £5.99 at Waterstones, so a bit cheaper than a cinema ticket (and you can imagine the characters looking however you like).

 

 

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Famous Five 90s Style – Our live reactions to Five Run Away Together

Posted on April 5, 2026 by Fiona

Another frightening glimpse into our brains this week with the transcript of our conversation as we watched Five Run Away Together.

Stef: Now do we want to mention the fact that the age of the characters jump significantly in this one?

Fiona: Well you just did.

Fiona: No takebacksies.

[The opening scene shows a little girl greeting a man in a military uniform]

Fiona: Kids watching be like ‘that’s not one of the five’

Stef: At least the episode provides context to the issue.

Fiona: True

[Kirrin Cottage in a scene of chaos as Quentin shuffles paper on the floor while on the phone to Fanny about needing a housekeeper, and the boys are back and forth with laundry.]

Stef: George dusting?

Fiona: It does seem unlikely.

Stef: WHY IS HE WORKING IN THE HALL?!

Fiona: Replacing Joan who we’ve barely met.

Fiona: Just seen her back.

Fiona: Cause its CHAOS.

Stef: That’s a whirlwind and a half.

[Quentin asks Fanny if she knows how hard it is to take care of four children]

Fiona: Well actually I do.

Fiona: Damn right.

Stef [quoting Anne]: Linear functions!

Stef: Where’s all that laundry come from?!

Fiona: Julian doing the laundry….

Fiona: Bound to go well.

Stef: Anne being sarcastic is a mood.

Stef: Probably starched it.

[Mrs Stick arrives in regard to the help wanted ad in the paper, Edgar in tow.]

Fiona: She looks more trashy rather than rough.

Fiona: Is that Anita Dobson?

Stef: Yes. It is.

Fiona: Did he [Quentin] just call him Eggbert?

Stef: Yes.

[I missed it at the time but he also calls Mrs Stick Mrs Wood approximately thirty seconds after she introduces herself. And several more times during the episode.]

Stef: Julian looking dishevelled.

Fiona: He’s been working hard lol.

Stef: And the front door is left open.

[The children take Mrs Wood, er, Stick to the kitchen and Anne tells her breakfast is at 8.30 to which Mrs Stick says that’s early. She also says she won’t do ‘an ‘ot lunch and ‘ot dinner’ never mind tea for them every day.

Stef: 8:30?! Early?!

Fiona: What are you going to do as a COOK then? If you’re not serving hot food.

[A brief scene where the girl from the opener is kidnapped very noisily Her kidnapper trips and lands on the bed and then gets battered by her teddy.]

Stef: Pa Stick is hopeless.

[George complains to Mrs Stick that mother always puts the milk in first.]

Stef: Jeez you can put your own milk in!

Fiona: Ew milk in first.

Stef: The toast is burnt!

Fiona: And I say that as a non tea drinker.

Stef: Yeah you got that right

Fiona: She’s not a cook she’s a kidnapper.

Stef: Milk first is a crime.

[They go for a walk and decide to keep out of Mrs Stick-in-the-mud’s way, by having picnics, then go to see Quentin about that. Mrs Stick is not impressed.]

Stef: Anne being practical.

Stef: Anne could make sandwiches. It’s not outside reason. She’s done it dozens of times before.

Fiona: It’s hardly a picnic without sandwiches.

Stef: Gosh. She’s laying it on.

Fiona: What do you mean you can’t manage sandwiches??

Fiona: They’ve all got to eat.

Stef: UNCLE QUENTIN SANDWICHES

Stef: She’s not a cook.

Stef: Wrapping sandwiches in his secret papers… And they suddenly look very neat.

Fiona He’s had the tunnel filled in? I mean what about Kirrin Island Again??

Stef: Out of sync remember?

Fiona: Oh.

Fiona: So are we watching in the wrong order series-wise?

Stef: Yes.

Fiona: Well that’s just confusing.

Stef: But the right order book-wise.

Stef: You didn’t correct me!!

Fiona: I DIDN’T KNOW!

Fiona: I’m not the 90s obsessive.

Fiona: Erm expert.

Fiona: Ew blood sarnies.

Fiona: That’s a very small packet of them. For the Five.

Stef: Indeed.

[The Five head to the beach and open the packet of sandwiches, but are ‘saved’ by George noticing smoke coming from her island. Except Dick…]

Stef: BEST BIT OF THE SERIES!

Fiona: Hahah my god what is that.

Stef [perfectly quoting Anne before she says anything]: Tomato juice. He’s mixed tomatoes with marmalade. And that’s lemon curd in with cheese.

Fiona: Dick wouldn’t have a problem.

Stef: He won’t have an issue.

Stef: That’s a very straight plume of smoke.

Fiona: That’s not a fire or a steamer.

Fiona: Dick!!!

Stef: Pilchards and apricot jam. 🤮 [She left off the mention of pickle]

Fiona: Gross.

[Pa Stick on Kirrin Island.]

Fiona: Wtf is this never seen before mill stone?

Stef: Pa Stick is obvs the comic relief in this one.

[Back at Kirrin Cottage George discovers her father has gone off to see Prof Hayling.]

Stef: Edgar is a brat.

Stef: Hope Dick tripped him.

Fiona: He is but he looks rather sweeter than book Edgar.

Stef: If you say so.

Stef: That’s a good eye roll.

Fiona: Well he’s not spotty and long-nosed.

Stef [quoting Edgar]: Big headed toffs.

Fiona: The fact that Fanny’s not seriously ill and her father’s not gone for ages kinda takes some of the seriousness from this ep.

Stef: Just a touch.

[Mrs Stick brings them bread and jam for supper. They are not impressed.]

Stef: Jeez all they do is eat.

Fiona: Why are they all wearing shirts and blouses like they’re at school?

Stef: Cause middle class?

Fiona: True but normally they break it up with some colour.

[Julian goes downstairs and finds Mr Stick in the kitchen and gets chased off.]

Stef: Ooo old man slippers.

Fiona: Well it IS Julian.

Stef: Trust Dick to think about his stomach.

Fiona: Julian, beaten??

Stef: Yeah, not sure what happened there.

Fiona: Where’s the jam tart to the face?

[The next day they go to see George’s boat which is still being painted.]

Stef First it’s “our” island then it’s “my” island.

Fiona: I was surprised earlier when she said OUR island. Usually when she’s mad it’s HERs.

Stef: Good point.

[They row to Kirrin Island and struggle with the mill stone.]

Stef: Not securing the boat…

Fiona: ikr? [I know, right?]

Fiona: Poor effort.

Stef: Pa Stick can move that, but the four of them can’t? It’s also a plastic rock.

Fiona: Forgotten cave… right.

Stef: Dick’s eyes going up and down when George turns away? Hormones?!

Stef: Looked like he was checking George out.

Stef: Oh look, there’s a hole!

Fiona: Who’s gonna fall down it?

Stef: It’s a bloody massive hole. How did they miss that?!

Stef: Only Julian looks mucky.

Fiona: Where did they get all their picnic stuff?

Stef: Must have been in the boat.

Fiona: But before that. Mrs Stick obvs didn’t make it all up.

Stef: No idea.

Stef: THAT’S NOT HIDING.

Fiona: Nope not even remotely.

Stef: THAT’S REALLY OBVIOUS THAT THEY’RE THERE IF THE STICKS HAD TURNED AROUND.

Fiona: Timmy FGS shut up.

Stef: Anita Dobson pitter pattering in heels.

Stef: Julian is still the only grubby one.

Fiona: Bye bye, Edgar.

Stef: How did she not see Edgar fall down the hole?!

Fiona: He practically flies down it.

Stef: They didn’t chose to kidnap Edgar. They got lumbered with him.

Stef: Why didn’t they go down the well shaft?

[They discover Jennifer in the “dungeons” and have a nice chat.]

Stef: They are very good at looking gormless.

Fiona: Very comforting, George.

Fiona: Just stand and chat, why don’t you?

Stef [Quoting Jennifer]: Of course I’m a general’s daughter.

Fiona: Never mind escaping.

Fiona: Edgar’s nice lady legs.

Fiona: Why did I expect him to say “Hello mum!” cheerily?

Stef: Cause that would have worked.

[They take Jennifer to the police and bump into Uncle Q, then return to Kirrin Cottage. Fanny and Joan(na) say they’d better not go away at the same time again.]

Stef: That’s a good mugshot for someone whose missing.

Stef: Aunt Fanny is back.

Stef: And Joan/na.

Joanna and Fanny look at each other. Caption reads "Oh Joanna. I'm so glad you're back. That ghastly Stick woman put the milk in last, can you believe it?" Joanna's reply is "You just can't get the staff these days, ma'am."

Fiona: I mean they get up to all sorts when you’re both there.

Fiona: But at least the sandwiches are better.

Stef: Exactly they are the most important thing.

[End of episode, but not quite the end of the chat.]

Fiona: This time the algorithm went for Down to the Sea pt 1.

Fiona: So it’s getting better.

Stef: I got that one too!

Fiona: Oh mind you this time I picked the episode from the playlist so duh it will move on to the next one.

Fiona: Brodie will be really confused if this stuff comes up in his recommendations.

Stef: Better than Minecraft!

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March 2026 round up

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Fiona

That’s us in April already. No April fools today – this is a genuine round up of what I got up to in March. It’s far too dull to be made up!

What I read

Not quite so much as I barely read anything while I had the cold.

Quick stats:
14 books read
46 out of 150 so far
10 ahead of schedule
1 (!) BABAL* (One about journalism, and one which happens to have a library in it but is about a university overall.)
2 Val McDermids
1 new author
3 library books

March’s 5 star reads:

None!

March’s 4 star reads:

Crack Down (Kate Brannigan #3) – Val McDermid
Kate’s roped her partner Richard in to help her investigate some dodgy dealings at local car sale lots. Then a load of cocaine is found in the car they just bought, and Richard gets arrested for it. Lots of seemingly unconnected things happen but in the end they are all brought together really cleverly.

Union Jack (Lindsay Gordon #4) – Val McDermid
(Also known as Conferences Can be Murder) Lindsay is back in the UK and it isn’t long before there’s a murder. Somehow it all ties in with the death of a friend of hers at another journalists’ union conference a decade ago. A union conference may be boring but the mystery is anything but.

Tough Guy (Game Changers #3) – Rachel Reid
I’m expanding my almost non-existent ice hockey knowledge with each of these books. This time I learned about ‘enforcers’ who are basically there just to be intimidating and keep their better players safe. Ryan Price is an enforcer, but he also has massive anxiety issues. He bumps into Fabian, whose family he stayed with when they were teens, and the same chemistry flares up between them. I really felt for Ryan – who has this big physical presence and reputation as a hard guy, but is really struggling inside.

Role Model (Game Changers #5) – Rachel Reid
Although each of these books is a stand-alone story they’re all set in the same world so we already know Troy Barrett as a pretty awful guy, and best friend of even worse guy Dallas Kent. Except things aren’t always what they seem. Troy has been traded to another team after calling Dallas a rapist on the ice. He’s now hated by a lot of players and fans for not supporting his team mate. The pairing here is Tory and Harris who is the team’s social media manager. I think the trope would be grumpy/sunshine, which I enjoy. Plus there’s a lot of Ilya from book 2 as he’s on Troy’s new team.

The Long Game (Game Changers #6) – Rachel Reid
I feel like I should upgrade Heated Rivalry to 5 stars, because I didn’t enjoy this one as much – even though it’s my favourite pairing of Shane and Ilya. Yet it was better than a three star book. Shane and Ilya are still secretly dating even though there are a few out players now. I wanted this to be a 5 star book, but it lacks the passion of their first story and reading what keeping it all secret does to Ilya was hard going. I also felt annoyed at Shane for his lack of awareness and empathy. It did have a happy ending at least.

One Fine Fae (Mystic Bayou #6) – Molly Harper
This one’s a novella though oddly isn’t considered book 5.5. Midwife Charlotte comes to Mystic Bayou to deliver Jillian’s dragon/phoenix shifter baby (in egg form, no less), and is only slightly distracted by cursed League assistant Leonard. Luckily she’s fae and it’s a fae curse, so she can do something about it for him. I liked this pairing, though the novella format meant we didn’t get to explore it in the same depth as others in the series.

Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic #1) – Sophie Kinsella
(Also known as The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic) I’ve read this a few times and thought why not revisit as it was included in my Audible plus catalogue. Its still amusing though honestly I do find Becky wildly annoying as she keeps spending ridiculous amounts of money on absolute rubbish all while wailing how she’s horrendously in debt. I now appreciate the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) digs at banks/money lenders etc for their part in Becky’s problems more so than I did when I first read it.

A Deadly Deceit (Bookshop Mysteries #4) – SA Reeves
For Gemma and Mavis this starts out as a simple amateur detective job. Find evidence to prove whether Penelope’s husband – a prominent local publisher – is having an affair or not. But then the husband turns up dead and there’s more than one mistress to suspect. A good mystery with lots of twists and turns but the ‘cosy’ elements are a bit saccharine and annoying at times. The ending also relies on the ‘keep them talking until help arrives’ trope which feels repetitive now.

March’s three star reads:

Murder at St Margaret (Oxford Key Mysteries #1) – Lynn Morrison
Natalie Payne takes a job at the University of Oxford as Head of Ceremonies. This is all within her area of expertise. But her plans for an autumn gala are thrown into disarray as a college chef is murdered. If that wasn’t bad enough, when Natalie unlocks her office desk she discovers that Oxford is full of magic. The cat she has inherited from the previous Head of Ceremonies is actually a talking wyvern. The portraits come to life. Ghosts of previous staff roam the halls. Definitely a fun book with an interesting mystery – but even for a cosy book it feels a bit shallow.

Burglary at Barnard (Oxford Keys Mysteries #2) – Lynn Morrison
Natalie has another event to plan and there’s another dead body in the way, and a secret chamber full of artifacts. The Oxford magic lore is expanded further and Natalie’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with one of the professors gets a bit warmer.

Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues (Mystic Bayou #3) – Molly Harper
Another novella which means it lacks depth. I liked Ingrid – 500 year old nymph, recently turned ice-cream seller and known for being the milkmaid in a bunch of dairy adverts. Rob, data scientist… well, I barely remember anything about him, apart from Ingrid’s suspicion of him as she doesn’t like scientists. Not a convincing pairing for me.

Shifters in the Night (Mystic Bayou #7) – Molly Harper
I liked half this story a lot. Lia works for a construction company which is in Mystic Bayou to build houses for all the magique flocking to the town. Lia is doing her best but is being sabotaged by, weirdly, her own boss. She falls for Jon Carmody – who I don’t mind, but has he’s Will’s brother, this means he’s also a selkie so there’s nothing new there. I also think I sort of wrote Jon off as the older, less attractive, not very interesting brother when he was a side-character in Will’s book. So I found it difficult to mentally shift him (pun intended) into the hunky main character role.

Common Goal (Game Changers #4) – Rachel Reid
This one I rated lower as the main trope is age-gap romance and I’m not the biggest fan of that. Eric – nice as he is – is 40ish (so my age) and is approaching the end of his hockey career. Kyle is 25, and he is a graduate student, but all the student references make him seem younger. There’s also a heavy reliance on the failed communication trope. Eric thinks Kyle is too young and just looking for fun. Kyle thinks Eric is just looking for an intro to the gay scene. A lot of time is wasted by them not talking about things, but if they’d talked the book would probably be only half as long.

Road Trip With a Vampire (My Vampires #3) – Jenna Levine
I wanted to love this as I really liked the first two books. It fell a bit flat, though, as I’m not sure I was convinced by the pairing. Zelda’s a witch who’s sworn off vampires and magic as she tends to get carried away and sometimes people get hurt. Then Peter – amnesiac vampire – shows up. Sounds exactly the sort of thing I would love. For some reason Zelda decides to take a road trip with him, looking for anything that might unlock his memories and they fall for each other though not through any convincing means that I could see.

March’s two star reads

None as even though I have complained a lot about my three star reads they all had some parts that were enjoyable.

Not yet rated as I didn’t finish them in March:

  • Alchemised – SenLinYu
  • The Rockingdown Mystery
  • Arson at the Ashmolean – (Oxford Keys Mysteries #2) – Lynn Morrison
  • Dear Miss Lake (Emmy Lake #4) – AJ Pearce

What I watched

I’ve barely had the TV on recently.

  • We’ve watched a few episodes of The Simpsons as a family (but not enough for Brodie to understand why I said Hi, Dr Nick after he burst into the room shouting Hi everybody. He’ll get there.)
  • I watched a few episodes of All Creatures Great and Small but haven’t finished the series yet.

What I did

  • We did our first geocaching walk of the year and found four caches. One of them had a wee ‘haggis’ inside so Brodie swapped it for a little plastic dinosaur.
  • As Brodie has been playing Two Point Hospital on the Playstation I bought Theme Hospital for my laptop. I’ve played it loads of times but not for ages. I also bought the original Sims with all the expansion packs, so I’ll be very busy building once I’ve finished managing hospitals.
  • I took Brodie on my recent favourite short walk and we both brought our books.
  • After ten years of working in a library I finally thought to use a book stand to prop up my Kindle at lunch time. In my defence the first year I don’t think I had any lunch breaks as I worked shorter shifts, then I had nearly a year of maternity leave. So really, it only took me eight years.
  • We celebrated mother’s day and my dad’s birthday with a pizza lunch at my parents’ house. Brodie got me this cute little trunk that opens up to reveal a miniature world inside.
  • I built the other spray of my Lego flowers and also the typewriter, which is super cute and even has moving parts.

How was your March?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

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Monday #784

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Fiona

Last week got derailed as I came down with the cold. I can now breathe through my nose again (mostly). I haven’t gone to see the Magic Faraway Tree film yet, mostly because of my cold, but also because Brodie had already agreed to go and see Project Hail Mary with his dad.

March round up

and

Five Run Away Together 90s style as watched by Fiona and Stef

Here’s what Stef thought of Five Run Away Together from the 90s series when she reviewed it a while ago.

Famous Five 90s Style: Five Run Away Together

 

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River Island x Enid Blyton

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Fiona

While both island and river are words you might associate with Enid Blyton I never thought I’d be writing about a collaboration between the high street store River Island and Enid Blyton.

Stef sent me a link a week ago and I honestly thought it was fake, and was double-checking that it wasn’t April first. It’s real though! My first response to Stef was that I need them all, but there are definitely some I’d like more than others. Truthfully, I never use any of these styles of bag anymore – I use a backpack if I’ve got a lot of stuff or anything heavy and a small cross body bag if I’ve just got a few things. I’m also very rarely in a situation where a clutch would be needed. But they’re so lovely I want them anyway.

All but one are currently sold out, but fingers crossed they restock as they have obviously been really popular. It’s pretty amazing to see Blyton going viral and selling out in a high street store.

Here they are in order of my least to most wanted.

6

In last place is the Five Have a Mystery to Solve tote. It’s one of my less favourite books to start with. I often appreciate what you might call tactful or classy options when it comes to fandom items and I can see how this might appeal to people as it’s a bit more grown-up. I don’t think it has the same visual appeal as some of the others, and I know it’d be filthy within about five minutes of me using it.

Five Have a Mystery to Solve tote £44

5

Up next is the other classy option (what does that say about me?) the Magic Faraway Tree shopper. Although the navy wouldn’t show dirty marks, I didn’t read the Faraway Tree books until I was an adult, so this doesn’t give me the same nostalgic kick the others do. The whimsical stitching is very fitting for the book, and I prefer that to the cutesy bows.

Magic Faraway Tree  shopper £46

4

It gets harder from here to put them in order but next is the Five Go Off to Camp shopper. it wins points for the Eileen Soper cover image – and I even like the moorland flowers bursting out around the edges, but it loses points for the impractical colour. (Obviously if you don’t put your bag on the ground at the park all the time and/or always seems to spill things/pick up mysterious smudges from nowhere, you’d be all right.)

Five Go Off to Camp shopper £46

3

Also in the not so practical colour of white is the Five Go Off in a Caravan clutch. However I think clutches are generally there to look nice and not be all that practical as they a) barely hold anything and b) are often heavily embellished. This is the only one with text on it and I really like how bookish that makes it feel.

Five Go Off in a Caravan clutch £39

2

Blue is more practical but wouldn’t be my top choice for a bag – but this is so quintessentially Blyton. The blue is actually the perfect colour for the Five On a Treasure Island tote as it’s the colour of the sky on the book cover.

I happen to have bought this for Stef’s birthday (she knows so it’s OK for me to post this!) and she was generous enough to say I could unwrap it and take some pictures before I post it to her. I’ll do a proper review of it shortly.

Five On a Treasure Island tote £44

1

And of course in the top spot is the Five Go to Smuggler’s Top clutch. My most favourite of all Blyton’s books and they’ve even used the second edition dust jacket image which is the one I had as a child. Poor Anne is hidden amongst the flowers but I think they are a nice touch that elevate it beyond simply printing the cover on a rectangular bag.

Stef has ordered this for my birthday already, even though it isn’t for another nine months. Just as well seeing how fast they sold out! I’d have been gutted if I missed out.

Five Go to Smuggler’s Top clutch £39

I think there have been mixed reactions to the bags – at least in the groups I’m in. Some folk loved them, others didn’t like the addition of the flowers etc. Other thought they were far too expensive.

Having seen one up close I’d say they were good quality and the images/text are all embroidered on not just printed so the price is justified.

I would say that there’s not a lot of variety, and I’m surprised that the Magic Faraway Tree doesn’t feature more prominently given that the film comes out in a few days. I suppose they thought the Famous Five was guaranteed to sell, though. I’m already dreaming of a second collection with some Tresilian Adventure Series bags…

What do you think? Did you manage to snag one or are you hoping the come back in stock?

Posted in Purchases, Vintage Style | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Monday #783

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Fiona

Both kinds of spring have arrived and we even had a pleasant few days. I’ve managed to wear trainers a couple of times and even go out without a coat. But now it’s colder again and I’m glad I didn’t put away my winter clothes just yet.

River Island x Enid Blyton

and

90s Famous Five as watched by Stef & Fiona

Is Snubby my lost-long brother? – Brodie

As you can probably guess we are reading the Barney mysteries right now, having started with The Rockingdown Mystery. We are finding a lot of similarities between Snubby and Brodie (always messy, always talking for starters) and now he’s convinced they’re related. I’m just waiting for us to reach Rat-a-Tat and Snubby with the bear rug because Brodie just got a brown faux fur rug for his bedroom because he’s been begging for one for ages. (It was a fiver in Aldi, for context.) I can just see him draping it (small though it is) over himself and pretending to be a bear.

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A closer look at the second Magic Faraway Tree film trailer

Posted on March 21, 2026 by Fiona

In December we got the first trailer for the new film which you can watch below:

And I wrote rather a lot explaining it, though it was under 3 minutes. Then a couple of weeks ago another one came out.

Hopefully I won’t write as much this time.

New plots revealed

The first trailer showed us the family moving to their new house and touched on the reasons for their move. It also gave us some brief hints at what is to come after the children discover the Magic Faraway Tree and the lands which arrive at the top.

This trailer naturally has to cover some of the same ground and therefore contains a few of the same clips, but the rest is new.

It elaborates on the idea that the parents are trying to get their children away from screens and technology. The dad says their childhood is slipping away.

So he appeals to the mum (who appears to have some sort of corporate job) that they “need this” and he shows her a folder with “dream binder” on the first page.

It makes me wonder if the “we’re poor now” from the first trailer isn’t true at all. And it makes me wonder what Dad knows about the Faraway Tree already. The painting in the binder looks like two people sitting at the base of a tree.

There’s also more of Jennifer Saunders as their grandma. She says “I will get them back to the city if it’s the last thing I do,” and I’m sure by that time none of the children will want to leave.

We also see Michael Palin and Lenny Henry as two of the heads of… well I’m not really sure what it is. Five wise heads on one body?

It is reminiscent of a previous Michael Palin character – the Three Headed Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Only Palin is on the other side. And there’s two extra heads.

It is Palin’s head who gives us one of the movie’s plot points – “You wish to travel across the lands to locate a spell to save your house from your evil grandma?”

Dame Washalot warns the children not to get left on a land if it is leaving the top of the tree so I’m sure that’s going to be relevant too.

 

Other glimpses

We see a little more of the Land of Goodies (where the punch has quite a kick to it).

And inside the giant cake in the Land of Birthdays.

Plus a look at this unnamed Land. The Land of Prisons? The Land of Forts?

Brodie and I are planning on going to see it soon. I don’t know how much of a review I will manage because I’ll have forgotten half of the details by the time I get home. Still, hopefully I’ll be able to write about my impressions at least and do a fuller review once it’s on a streaming platform.

Posted in Blyton on Screen | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Famous Five 90s Style – Our live reactions to Five Go Adventuring Again

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Fiona

As we watched Five on a Treasure Island together in-person and did a live-reaction blog we decided to try watching in our separate homes and chatting via Facebook Messenger. NB I do not recommend using Facebook Messenger for any chats you want to then use, because it is horrendous to copy & paste from, and exporting chats is also awful and leaves you with a ton of extra stuff to remove around each message.

Aside from that, it at least saved me from having to try to type everything we both said. Instead I just have to remove the extra stuff and correct our awful typing. Well, it’s mostly my awful typing as I was using my laptop and I suspect Stef used her phone with autocorrect on. I will also have to try to provide some sort of context because 90% of our comments make no sense otherwise. You could always watch along while reading – it’s on YouTube. I’ll try to add some timestamps to help.

Fiona: Not winter then is it.

Stef: Nope

Fiona: Snow costs too much I know.

Stef: All the winter ones are not in winter.

[From 0:28 Quentin reads a letter from his brother saying the children’s school reports are terrible. Julian is unsurprised and declares he wants to be a painter. A tutor will have to be found.]


Fiona: Not his PHYSICS.

Stef: And maths!

Fiona: YES YOU DO.

Fiona: Want to be a physicist.

[Context: we have Julian studying physics as an adult in our fanfic so I am outraged at this blatant plot hole.]

Stef: And the painting never gets mentioned again.

Fiona: No just a convenient plot point.

Stef: It’s just like cooking.

Fiona [addressing Quentin who, for obvious reasons, cannot hear her]: Put the advert in yourself lazy bones.
Stef: Of course Fanny has to do the donkey work.

Stef: I swear it was a joint decision in the book

[From 1:46 Mr Roland arrives at Kirrin Station]

Fiona: I’d forgotten entirely that’s what he looked like

Stef: And German?

Fiona: Obviously bad then.

Stef: Timmy is the first to know a bad guy.

Stef: What’s with the harpsichord music?!

Fiona: Pastural England? I dunno.

Fiona: Pastoral?

Stef: Both

[From 04:15 They visit the Saunders’ house and Timmy knocks open a secret panel, the boys barge in first. They find the old map.]

Stef: Mrs Saunders isn’t old enough.

Stef: She’s a lot more ruddy faced than I would imagine.

Stef: Seriously Julian! Manners!

Stef: Bossy boys.

Fiona: It’s Timmy’s discovery!

Fiona: Gosh anne is manically thrilled.

[From 06:02 Back at Kirrin Cottage they examine the map]

Stef: It doesn’t look that old or faint.

Fiona: Timmy’s smart enough to know chocolate isn’t good for him.

Stef: Like julian’s art Dick’s language skill is never mentioned again.

[From 07:05 Julian is asleep and muttering via occulta – or possibly that pullovers are stylish.]

Stef: Dreeaaaaammmm sequence

Fiona [very late with this argument]: They would have been learning latin at school though. Cause dead languages are endlessly useful.

[From 07:35 they join Mr Roland for his first lesson. Timmy is under the table. Then they have lunch]
Stef: He’s not exactly a hands on tutor is he?

Fiona: It’s a massive table. There’s loads of room for Timmy to not be right on top of his legs.

Stef: And they all get the giggles.

Fiona: I swear he wasn’t that jolly in the book.

Stef: No. He wasn’t.

Stef: Anne wouldn’t be allowed to take [Quentin] tea!

Stef: Manic Anne again.

[From 9:25 They show Mr Roland the map]

Fiona: Straight to showing him the whole thing… suppose we’ve only got 24 minutes.

Fiona: Is that Joan/na?

Stef: Yes it is

[From 10:05 Someone is creeping about at night. George and Timmy go to investigate.]

Stef: Bad filter on the camera site might time.

Fiona: Yep.

Fiona: Bad tug-of-war game dressed up as a fight.

Stef: Timmy was exactly right to do that. He is a guard dog after all and the study is full of secrets.

Fiona: Just like Quentin’s hair?

Fiona: I don’t know where Mr Roland keeps his [secrets] in that case.

Stef: Yes you can have Roland upset. He’s horrible.

[From 12:00. Dick stares out of the farm window. Anne bakes with Mrs Sanders. The artists arrive.]

Stef: Pondering!

Fiona: Looking at the catering van more like.

Stef: Having met Paul that is very very likely.

Stef: There’s Anne helping with the baking.

Fiona: Wow. That’s some artist look.

Stef: Oh good Julian with the artists.

Stef: They are creepy.

Fiona: And clearly know nothing about art.

Stef: Not convincing at all.

Fiona: While Julian is a walking art dictionary.

[From 13:40 they are back at Kirrin Cottage, telling George about their lack of success. George tells them she saw the artists with Mr Roland. Mr Roland bursts in to say he’s sorry they didn’t find anything, but he enjoyed meeting the artists and then shuts the door again.]

Stef [Focussing on the really important stuff as always]: She’s wearing shoes on the bed!

Stef: That’s random from Roland

[From 14:10 Timmy is out in his kennel in the rain. George rescues him and takes him into the study where they fall asleep. Quentin finds them in the morning and discovers pages missing from his workbook, and an old towel on the floor.]

Stef: Poor Timmy.

Stef: They could make a pullover out of that carpet.

Fiona: Hahaha.

Stef: Why not take the whole book?!

Stef: Never understood that bit.

Fiona: My note is gone and I have a dirty rag instead oh no.

Fiona: Towel. Sorry.


[From 15:35 Quentin takes the towel to challenge the children about his missing pages.]

Stef: Roland is not surprised.

Stef: And they were not well removed.

Fiona [Going completely off topic] Why are Quentin’s glasses so narrow?

Fiona: They barely fit his face.


From 16:15 Quentin has George in his study to berate her]

Fiona: Look at that super obvious 8 panels.

Fiona: At least in the book the whole room is panelled.

Stef: Yup.

Fiona: It makes me wonder are they there in all the other books. [I meant episodes].

Stef: Jeez you would think that the newest the person in the house was the most suspicious.

Fiona [Still stuck on set design]: Did they plan them in when they filmed FOATI or whatever they filmed first?

Stef: Hmm. Would have to go back to and check. [Spoiler, we did not go back and check.]

Fiona: Not sure we see the room from that angle in the first eps.

Fiona: Mostly just his desk and the cubbyholes.

Stef: No that’s true.

Stef: I wouldn’t mind being sent into my room.

Fiona: Being sent to your room is fine as long as you’ve got stuff there to do.

[From 18:10 The children sneak into the study and immediately manage to open the secret way. Julian tells Anne she should stay at the Kirrin Cottage end of the passage.]

Fiona: Why is it always so easy?

Stef: Because….

Fiona: Surely Fanny would have found that polishing it years ago.

Stef: Dick first for a change

Stef: Maybe she knows about it already cause her family owned the two places.

Stef: Why is Timmy inside?

Fiona: There’s Anne’s fave underground exploration cream cardi.

Fiona: Always practical.

Stef:
Oh yes! Anne’s going to hold off any bad guys.

Fiona: She’s a tiger you know.

Stef: Only 20 books in.

Fiona: Theyre in some hospital basement.

Fiona: This is not a secret passage

Stef: No. It’s a secret corridor?

Fiona: Not even that secre4t seeing as someone painted it.

[From 20:15  They reach Kirrin Farm, hear the “artists” talking and then make a right ruckus retrieving the papers, while Timmy barks madly below. Then they are chased back by the artists.]

Stef: Suddenly they’re German.

Fiona: Well they were trying to hide it.

Fiona: It’s nearly as big as Narnia back there.

Stef: Tou’re all in the room ffs you all need to take care.

Stef: DICK!

Fiona: Thats it Timmy, draw attention to yourself.

Fiona: Hahaha that run!

Stef: Hahaha!

Stef: Good old Timmy.

Stef: Why is Anne filthy?!

Stef: She’s just been stood there.

Fiona: It’s cream knitwear it attracts dirt.

Fiona: They all look like they’ve been up a chimney.

Fiona: God Julian could you show emotion instead of just shouting?

Stef: I think that’s his only emotion under pressure

[From 22:25 they make it back to Kirrin Cottage and meet Fanny and Quentin who have been pondering the big hole in the study floor.]

Stef: Aunt Fanny is less than surprised about the tunnel.

Fiona: I mean after their first adventure I think it would be hard to surprise her

Fiona: OMG [Quentin’s] admitting he was wrong

[Quentin says he will have to reform]
Stef: Yes reform!

[End of episode]

Fiona: Ok Youtube tried to make me watch a Minecraft video next.

Fiona: What kind of algorithm is this?

Stef: Mine tried to take me to Hike

Fiona: Closer at least.

Posted in Blyton on Screen | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Monday #782

Posted on March 17, 2026 by Fiona

We are mid-way through March and I don’t think it’s going to be the sort of March which resembles an early (and sometimes only) summer. I’m down to one pair of boots as two (!) pairs sprung a leak this year and I am desperately waiting for trainer weather to come as we all know  the shops stopped stocking boots months ago and are all full of sandals already.

90s Famous Five as watched by Stef & Fiona

and

The new trailer for The Magic Faraway Tree film

Not so much post of the week as a load of posts. As the new Faraway Tree movie comes out at the end of the month here are all the reviews and other posts about the series that have appeared on the blog over the years.

Faraway Tree Series posts

 

 

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Putting Enid Blyton on the Map

Posted on March 6, 2026 by Fiona

Last week I was on Google Maps looking for Blyton Close (I was wanting to know how far it was from Shipton for this letters page) but I forgot it was just Blyton close and I typed Enid Blyton Close.

I ended up in America. In Waldorf, Maryland to be precise. Where there’s a street called Enid Blyton Place….

Enid in her rightful place

Enid Blyton Place is a modern cul-de-sac located in a sprawling sub-division of similar streets. I think it must have been recently built when the satellite images were taken of the area as it’s very barren looking.

I’m thoroughly impressed that she has been honoured in this way – especially as she never made it as big in the USA as she did in other parts of the world.

What I think is even more amazing is that Enid Blyton Place is entered via George Orwell Place, which in turn is connected to Charles Dickens Drive. Streetview isn’t available for the street itself, but you can see the two signposts at the corner and get a view up the street from Charles Dickens Drive.

These street names have obviously been chosen to honour authors of note, and Blyton is on the map alongside a range of literary greats, who she is rarely considered equal to.

In the area is:

  • Dorothy Sayers Place
  • Shakespeare Circle
  • Evelyn Waugh Court
  • Emily Dickinson Place
  • Ian Fleming Lane
  • JK Rowling Court
  • Charlotte Bronte Lane
  • Conan Doyle Place
  • Lewis Carroll Drive
  • Mary Shelley Place
  • Jane Austen Lane
  • John Keats Place
  • Tolkien Avenue
  • Beatrix Potter Place
  • Wordsworth Place

and more.

Definitely a collection of literary greats!

Living (on) the Enid Blyton Way

I noticed that there were other Enid Blyton results on the list so I had to explore them, of course.

The next one was Enid Blyton Weg in Winsen, Germany. Weg translates to street, road or way. The street was still under construction in 2016 when the Google Maps car went by but looks like a nice little cul-de-sac from the air.

Like in Maryland Blyton’s name is used for a street in a neighbourhood of literary streets, though I only recognised three of the other four.

  • Erich Kastner Weg (Emil and the Detectives)
  • Astrid Lindgren Strasse (Pippi Longstocking)
  • Michael End Weg (The Never Ending Story)
  • Otfried Preußler (The Robber Hotzenplotz)

Then I found another Enid Blyton Weg, also in Germany, but in Eving this time.

Nearby streets included

  • Erich Kastner Ring
  • Selma Lagerlof Strasse (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils)
  • Theodore Storm Strasse (Poet and writer of literary realism)
  • Heinrich Heine Strasse (Poet, writer and literary critic)
  • Luise Rinser Weg (Novelist)
  • Nelly Sachs Strasse (Poet and playwright)
  • Astrid Lindgren Strasse Weg
  • Michael End Strasse
  • Johanna Spyri Weg (Heidi)
  • Theodor Fontane Strasse (Novelist and poet)
  • Bettina von Arnim Weg (Writer and composer)

So again Blyton is being honoured alongside a variety of famous authors and those dear to children’s hearts.

Enid Blyton is the street where you live

Enid Blyton Strasse is also Germany, this time in Hennef. At first I wondered if this was ‘our’ Blyton as I couldn’t see any obviously names streets around it. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, I thought. (Then of course my brain decided this needed a Friends quote and said Joincidence. Or I suppose in this case an Enidincidence?)

However, a few streets, or strasses away are

  • Selma Lagerlöf Strasse
  • Nils Holgersson Strasse (a Lagerlöf character)
  • Carlo Collodi Strasse (Pinocchio).
  • Astrid Lindgren Strasse
  • Lise Meitner Strasse (Physicist)
  • Henrich Von Morungen (12th century poet/musician)

The area is a bit different, as although the first German neighbourhood we looked at only had five streets they all connected. These ones are spread out with non-literary streets in between. Still a worthy group to be part of, and as with several other areas Blyton is the only British author.

Enid Blyton house

Also on the list is Enid Blyton House which initially I assumed was an office building, home to the Enid Blyton company. It’s not, though. It’s a block of flats in Aylesbury, next door to Anne Boleyn House. Unfortunately the other blocks are accessed via footpaths and not roads so I can’t see their names via street view.

I found this look at the inside of one of the Enid Blyton House flats – and sadly it’s quite poky.

Enid Blyton Corner

Annoyingly Google maps only shows the top five results for a search, so short of searching specific areas or guessing full street names it’s luck whether new ones show up. I did find this in Droitwich, though.

I’m not sure why it’s called a corner as it’s a T shaped cul-de-sac, but never mind. Around it are

  • Charlotte Bronte Drive
  • Charles Dickens Close
  • William Shakespeare Place
  • Geoffrey Chaucer Walk

Unfortunately both the houses near the entrance to the Corner are blurred on Google so I can’t get a look at the street sign.

Enid Blyton Ring

And we are back in Germany again, Salzgitter this time, – who knew Germany had named so many streets after Enid Blyton? (Well, you might if you live in Germany!)

This is more of an A-shaped street than a ring.

Nearby are a couple of common street names and some we’ve not seen before, at least not in the vicinity of Blyton.

  • Michael Ende Ring
  • Astrid Lindgren Weg
  • Gebruder Grimm Web (The Brothers Grimm)

It looks like this area was under construction when the satellite image was taken and the street view car hasn’t been there yet.

Blyton Close to home

And of course let’s not forget the place I was looking for before I fell down the Google Maps rabbit hole. Mind you, when I searched for Blyton Close five came up, which I was not expecting. In Birmingham, Wickford, Newark and Lincoln as well as Beaconsfield. It’s hard to know if the others are named after Enid Blyton as there’s a place called Blyton in Gainsborough and other people also had it as a last name!

The Blyton Close I meant is built on site of Green Hedges in Beacondsfield, Enid’s home from 1938 until she moved into a nursing home before her death in 1968.

I don’t need to get a Google Map street view for this, as I’ve actually been there myself.

Blyton Close signpost
Blyton Close – No mystery down here!

There are possibly more Enid Blyton streets out there given the limitations of the Google Maps search function. If you know of any – maybe you’re even lucky enough to live on one? Please let me know!

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February 2026 round up

Posted on March 3, 2026 by Fiona

Despite being a short month February always seems to drag. When will it be Spring?? (I wrote that a couple of weeks ago – but just as February ended the sun finally came out along with the crocuses and snowdrops, so I feel a bit more hopeful now.)

What I read

One good thing about lousy weather is staying home to read.

Quick stats:
18 books read
33 out of 150 so far
10 ahead of schedule
7 BABALs* (Though the book shop barely features in one of them)
1 Val McDermid
4 new authors
7 library books

February’s 5 star reads:

A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire (Glimmer Falls #3) Sarah Hawley
Eleonore has been trapped in a crystal for most of her adult life, only brought out when her witch captor needs an assassin. And then Ben buys the cheap plastic crystal while browsing eBay in a drunken haze. Another fun trip to Glimmer Falls, a magical town full of witches, werewolves, pixies and more.

Broken Ground (Karen Pirie #5) – Val McDermid
The cold cases team expands from two to three, but their new member is Karen’s boss’s lap dog and can’t be trusted. The three are working on solving an old assault case in 1980s Glasgow but then Karen gets involved in another case where a body has been found buried in the Scottish highlands, alongside two motor bikes. The thing is, the motorbikes have been down there since the end of the second world war, but the body only since the 90s… I finished this in less than a day as I couldn’t put it down.

February’s 4 star reads:

Hurrah for the Circus (Mr Galliano’s Circus #2)
More circus goings on including Jimmy making friends with tigers and Lucky being stolen.

Secret Seven Adventure (Secret Seven #2)
A mystery which involves a stolen necklace, strange circular marks in the ground and a pair of red and blue socks.

The Crooked Tome (Curse Breaker Witches #1) – Claire Robyns
I read all three books in this series really quickly. Maddie has to take over her aunt’s bookshop in Stratford-upon-Avon, and she’s not that thrilled about it. It’s not just having to give up her job and move, it’s the fact that the shop has opinions and isn’t afraid to share them, and she won’t only be selling books but breaking curses for a swathe of England. Besides that she has to work with Detective Ross Hamilton who doesn’t believe in magic despite working for a special magic taskforce, and his alternate theories are really quite funny.

The Avon Mirror Curse (Curse Breaker Witches #2) – Claire Robyns
Maddie has another curse to break as the river seems to be attracting magical victims. Detective Ross Hamilton is on hand to make sure she doesn’t drown herself in the process, but he still refuses to believe it’s magic.

The Widow Kiss (Curse Breaker Witches #3) – Claire Robyns
Beatrice Finch’s wealthy husband has died. This is the third time this has happened to her. Ross is wondering if it’s just bad luck or if something untoward is going on, so he asks Maddie to have a look. At first she doesn’t find anything but then she sees Beatrice tending to a very unusual and definitely magical orchid. Or a rare and toxic orchid if you’re Ross.

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) – Rachel Reid
I picked this because I planned to watch the TV series, having seen fans of Red White and Royal Blue would like it. Just shy of ten hours, I listened to this in two days. Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have always been hockey rivals. The fans, the media, even their nearest and dearest go wild when they play against each other. The only thing is, they don’t actually hate each other, and haven’t for a long time as they are secretly in a relationship.

Slippery Creatures (Will Darling Adventures #1) – KJ Charles
A golden-age pulp-fiction style spy novel. Will has been struggling since the end of the war, and is glad inherits a bookshop from an uncle. It’s a disorganised mess, but trying to sort it out has to come second to the sudden visitors who come in demanding a mysterious letter that Will knows nothing about. Will isn’t inclined to help either side, but he does accept the help of Kim Secretan, that is, until he finds out who Kim really is. Very twisty and turny and nothing is clear right until the end.

The Sugared Game (Will Darling Adventures #2) – KJ Charles
Will has sworn he wants nothing to do with Kim Secretan after Kim walked out of his life, but then Kim suddenly turns up again and asks for his help. Will decides to trust him but starts to wonder if he’s being double crossed again. Another story full of secrets, lies, half-truths and relief as the dénouement finally takes place and it all begins to make sense.

A Legacy of Lies (Bookshop Mysteries #3) – SA Reeves
Bookshop owner Claire is invited to a will reading of a man she didn’t know and is given a clue to start her off in solving a mystery. The man swore he would never tell anyone this secret, but he figured that giving someone a few clues wasn’t the same as telling it. Claire soon discovers a mystery involving an old case of a headless body dumped in the woods, a police detective’s suicide and a whole lot more twists and turns.

Selkies are a Girl’s Best Friend (Mystic Bayou #4) – Molly Harper
Another snarky, funny and action-packed story from Molly Harper. Mystic Bayou is a town full of magique, people with magical powers and abilities including shape shifting. There’s a rift in the woods which seems to be accelerating the development of magique abilities, and possibly turning dangerous. Sonja works for the League – an agency monitoring the rift – while selkie Will has returned to the Bayou to work as a doctor. They have to work together with other league staff to try to resolve the situation while falling for each other.

Always Be My Banshee (Mystic Bayou #5) – Molly Harper
This time both Cordelia (a touch psychic) and Brendan (a banshee) are new to Mystic Bayou, having been called in to assess the artifact found within the rift by Sonja and Will. Cordelia normally can’t touch anyone without being bombarded with visions, but Brendan is technically dead, and so she’s safe around him. Well, apart from the fact that he’s flirting with her and she hasn’t dated in a long time.

February’s three star reads:

Emma – Jane Austen
My first classic of the year, this took me a long time to get through (about three weeks) but for the 15 hour audiobook. It required more concentration than a ‘regular’ book so I tended to listen in smaller chunks. Emma is not very likeable – but I think that’s rather the point – as she goes about assuming she knows best and meddling in the romantic lives of her friends and neighbours and generally getting it wildly wrong.

Five and the Smuggler’s Code (New Famous Five #2) – Chris Smith
I have reviewed this here and here, but in short, Maddie, Fran and Tom end up at Castaway Hill with Anne to try to rescue George, and end up chasing stolen treasure down in the catacombs.

Well Done, Secret Seven (Secret Seven #3)
A slow start where the Seven build a treehouse before meeting a boy with a strange tale about red pillows and Emma Lane. They do figure out what these mean but hand it all over to the police to deal with.

Game Changer (Game Changers #1) – Rachel Reid
I’m not all that sure I would have read book 2 if I’d happened to read this first, and hadn’t known about the TV series. The plot isn’t as interesting – Kip works in a smoothie shop and Scott is a hockey star. There are no out hockey stars so they have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, but it takes a toll on them both. Also Kip had the weirdest accent, it was supposed to be from the Bronx but I thought it sounded more German while a lot of other people guessed a variety of countries… I sped this up to get through it in three days.

February’s two star reads

The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove – Kim Nash
Another one that on paper I should have loved but didn’t. I like an enemies-to-lovers plot but Dennis is just plain rude and tries to claim they got off on the wrong foot a few too many times. Meanwhile, Nancy has opened a bookshop without a single clue about how to run a business. I actually agree with her about being kind to the planet and not pushing a hard sell on customers, but she’s insufferable about it.

Not yet rated as I didn’t finish them in February:

  • The Official Reading Companion & History Briefings for the Chronicles of St Marys – Hazel Cushion
  • A Deadly Deceit (Bookshop Mysteries #4) – SA Reeves
  • Road Trip With a Vampire (My Vampires #3) – Jenna Levine

What I watched

  • We finally finished Only Murders in the Building, and have watched some more of The Simpsons.
  • I’ve continued with Byker Grove and Call the Midwife but also watched all of Heated Rivalry and started on the latest series of All Creatures Great and Small.
  • My sister and I finished Girl Bands Forever.
  • We watched The Desolation of Smaug one weekend when it was raining (again) and Brodie loved it.

What I did

  • For a lot of the time we were hunkering at home hiding from the rain, but a couple of times the sun came out and I went out for a walk, stopping off on the hill nearby to enjoy the view. We also made it to the beach for a walk and I collected a few bits of glass and pottery and a glass medicine bottle. I don’t think it’s very old but it’s in one piece, and it make a nice little case for some of my mini Lego flowers.
  • Made some soup with Brodie’s help
  • Took Brodie to the park on the inservice day and we read our books together.
  • Built one set of Lego flowers (the dandelion) and half of another flower set. Brodie built me a vase to put them.
  • We started playing the original Broken Sword (a remastered version) and it’s worrying how much I remember considering I first played it at least twenty years ago (but I did play it three, maybe four times?).

What I bought

I have finally added one more magazine to my collection, meaning that I only need three to complete it. I got Volume 4 issue 24 when the seller finally dropped the price. He was selling 3 for £15 which is decent enough, but I only needed one and he had been listing the same 3 at that price for about a year without selling them. They went down to £10 and I thought I’d better grab them before someone else did.

How was your February?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

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Monday #781

Posted on March 2, 2026 by Fiona

February is over and we are into March. We are wondering if we can cast aside the puffer jackets now and wear just raincoats. Best not to, though, it could start snowing next week after all.

February round up

and

Putting Enid Blyton on the map

There’s a new trailer out for The Magic Faraway Tree film. Some of the clips are the same but there are plenty of new glimpses of the world they have created.

You can watch it on here:

And I’ll probably do a post on it like I did for the last trailer but I’d better hurry up as it comes out at the end of the month!

 

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The New Famous Five: Five and the Smugglers Code part 2

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Fiona

In my previous post I talked about the characters – and I was glad to see some comments agreeing with me about Anne – and the general story.

Retcons all round

For those of you unfamiliar with the term retcon is short for retroactive continuity, which basically means a new installment/episode of a book, tv or film series introducing material which contradicts earlier information given.

Sometimes these are plausible(ish) like Moriarty coming back from the dead after the Reichenbach Fall (or Dirty Den returning after being shot and falling into the canal, if 1980’s soap references are more your thing).

Other times they are much less possible and open to nitpicking like Dr Grant mentioning Ian Malcolm’s funeral at the end of Jurassic Park, yet him being alive in the next book.

Anyway, there are various things in this book that come off as a bit unbelievable or sometimes plain wrong if you’ve read the original books.

First up there’s a hidey hole in the hallway of Kirrin Cottage (yes, I said cottage, not farm.) George apparently just keeps on finding new ones. I picture the cottage like the room Gerald Whinfrey stays in in Whinfrey’s Last Case from Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns. There he finds 23 different secret passages which reveal themselves one after another and he has a hard time deciding which one to escape via (also yes, I have referenced that episode in another Famous Five context – Peril in the Night Train.)

Do we really believe that the Five never found any of these when they were younger? The way it’s written implies that George is still finding them to this day.

The whole catacombs map thing is also exaggerated (and I’m not sure it makes sense when you think about it).

First Anne thinks that Clay couldn’t be using the catacombs as they’re dangerous and there’s no known map. Then she remembers that

There used to be one! It’s been lost for countless years, but George must have worked out a clue about where it was hidden.

So it is known, then?

Then we get the flashback portion of the book, set just after the events of Five Go to Smuggler’s Top.

‘Didn’t you say something about a map of the catacombs, Sooty, the very first time we climbed down into the passages from the trapdoor in Marybelle’s bedroom?’ asked George.

‘Yes, there’s supposed to be a secret map hidden somewhere’, [Sooty] replied. ‘That’s what the old stories say. But it was lost long ago.’

I couldn’t even remember them discussing a map of the catacombs before, but it is there – one single throwaway remark.

‘Well, I told you this hill was full of tunnels,’ said Sooty. ‘This pit is down in the hill and these tunnels lead into the catacombs. There are miles and miles of them. No one explores them now, because so many people have been lost in them and never heard of again. There used to be an old map of them, but it’s lost.’

From this point on everyone behaves as if this one map is an established fact.

I’ll save the rest of the not-making-sense for my main nitpicks later.

Inside Smuggler’s Top scenes are set in a tower which does not resemble the only tower mentioned in the original book – where Block was smuggling from. I was going to be generous and say that the house could have more than one tower. But I actually checked the book.

‘That must be Smuggler’s Top, right at the summit,’ said Julian, pointing. ‘It’s like an old building of centuries ago—probably is! Look at the tower it has. What a wonderful view you’d get from it.’

and

The house’s one tower stood sturdily at the east side of the house, with windows all round. It was not a square tower, but a rounded one, and ended in a point.

rather prove my point.

Then we have what’s more of a nitpick than a retcon where George refers to the bedroom with the window seat/secret passage as ‘that bedroom my father stayed in all those years ago‘ and later ‘my father’s room‘. Surely she means Sooty’s bedroom, which Uncle Quentin happened to stay in for a brief period that one time?

Anyway, this room is directly below the tower room that George and Anne were locked in. There’s never any suggestion in the book that the tower is directly above Sooty’s room or that Sooty’s room is in the tower. It doesn’t expressly say it’s not, but given that Sooty’s room is down a long corridor, and the tower has a landing and then a spiral staircase… it seems unlikely at best.

The nitpicks

Now there are certainly nitpicks in the original books. And there are specifically nitpicks that this book tries to avoid and makes almost worse.

In Five Go to Smuggler’s Top they put Timmy into a big laundry basket as obviously he can’t climb down a rope ladder. Yet there are other scenes (which I can’t remember off the top of my head) where Timmy magically appears at the bottom of a ladder without explanation.

This book tries to make sure that doesn’t happen. So Fran puts Gilbert inside her jacket for the first long ladder – but let’s remember that Fran’s a child and Gilbert is a border collie, not a chihuahua. She later abseils down a rocky cliff with him tucked under her arm.

Later George climbs down a slippery ladder with a torch in her teeth, but she and Gilbert land at the bottom with no mention of her actually having picked him up.

On a related note we are also supposed to believe that George, alone, can carry a burly guard up a ladder.

The map/catacombs/train/port thing makes very little sense. To be fair it makes about as much sense as the original spook train in Five Go Off to Camp. To modernise the book we have a proper port with goods presumably being checked as they enter it. To avoid this Clay has built a train track from a warehouse at the port all the way into the catacombs of Smuggler’s Top. And nobody at the port notices them loading their boat (a yacht, not even a cargo ship…) with way more goods than came in the gate? Or the extra people who keep appearing out of the warehouse? Also; wow what an expense that must have been.

To return to the map, well, why are they after it exactly? To stop Clay who they suspect is using the catacombs – but they already say he must have added new tunnels thus changing the layout. Yet the original Five navigate the catacombs several times without the map – including that time in the flashback where they seem to walk straight to the hidden clue to the map without any wrong turns at all.

Which leads me to why did whoever own the map decide to paint over it and hang it in Smuggler’s Top, then leave a clue in a journal in the catacombs?

Minor niggles include:

  • Smuggler’s Top having had lots of high tech security features added but the locks being easy to pick. (There was an element of a trap being laid, so I can let no alarms blaring slide.)
  • The children and Anne having a lengthy conversation right in front of Clay while he presumably waits politely for them to finish, and more conversation during what’s supposed to be a fight scene
  • Belle is said to be acting weird without any sign of her acting weird
  • The secret passage in the Mermaid Inn is accessed by turning a coat hook the right way up. Surely that’s far too obvious and would lead to accidental access?
  • In the heat of the adventure Anne meekly goes back to the inn to call the police. There’s no suggestion of finding a phone at Smuggler’s Top, using a mobile or trying a neighbour, but I suppose they wanted her out of the way so that George and the kids could be the heroes again?
  • Clay takes Gilbert as a prisoner, as in puts him in a crate and loads him onto the train to take to the port. Why? Sure, lock him up to keep him from being a nuisance (obviously they can’t kill him, it’s a children’s book) but it makes no sense to try to smuggle him out with all the valuable goods.
  • The number of times the crown with the big diamond is mentioned. The crown which is always just loose. Not in a box or anything to protect it, just sitting on a pedestal underground and then being carried about in the open.

The illustrations (aside from using a style I’m not keen on) also have a couple of issues. One shows the stolen loot as if it was gold coins and gems spilling all over the floor. While I wouldn’t put this past the folk who keep a crown loose, it doesn’t match the description in the text.

Towards the end there’s an illustration of them having a picnic and Dick has his walking stick next to him, only it’s so short it would never reach the ground if it was in his hand.

Do I have anything good to say about this?

I think Brodie would have enjoyed it, as he has all the discerned taste of an 8 year old and is the target audience.

There’s a nice call back where Alf is looking after George’s dog like he used to look after Timmy.

It was good to reunite three of the five, characterisations aside, and to see Marybelle again. It was almost good to see Smuggler’s Top though the security systems and the modern lift spoiled it, as did much of the plot.

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Letters to Enid part 81: From volume 4, issue 18

Posted on February 25, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 18.
September 26th – October 9th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Susan Herrin, Shiplake, Oxon.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I am very pleased to say that I have saved every magazine from the very first issue. Not long ago, I and my friend Susan and my father, constructed a kite. We bought a six-foot cane, and cut it into two lengths, one 2 feet long and the other 3 feet. One foot away from the end of the longer cane we fixed the shorter one as a crossbar. We bound them together with some strong string. Then we cut slits at each end of the canes, and went round and round the canes with the string, fixing it in the notches. We went round four times, and then knotted the ends together. Then my father cut a piece a little larger than the kite out of his old parachute (the piece was the same shape as the kite). Then I stuck it on to the kite, the extra pieces folded over like a hem. We made a very long tail and fixed it on. We got some kite string and tied it on, and then we went to Christmas Common and the kite flew beautifully.
Good luck to you from
Susan Herrin.

(I have printed your excellent letter, which wins my prize, because I think other children may like to make a kite like yours, Susan!)

A letter from Morag Park, Kirkcaldy.
Dear Enid Blyton,
In our garden there lives a black- bird that we nicknamed Blackie. He sits on Mummy’s knee and chirps a song to her. He has two babies, who can just fly. When they were hatched Blackie brought them to show Mummy. One day we threw some cherries on the grass, and Blackie picked two up and stuffed them into his babies’ mouths, and nearly choked them! Love from
Morag Park.

(You are lucky to have a tame blackbird, Morag. I wonder if anyone else has.)

A letter from Mary Browne, Aviemore.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I had a garden tea some time ago at my grandmother’s house. Along with four friends I worked as a waitress, and my granny and mother baked all the cakes and scones for the teas. I send you £2 Is. od. for your Children’s Home for children who are not so lucky as I am.
Love from
Mary Browne.

(You must have had great fun Mary-and I think you are very kind.)

I had not heard of Oxon before but looked it up to discover it’s short for Oxfordshire. It turns out I’ve been near to Shiplake before as it’s only five miles (by road, less as the crow flies) from Loddon Hall where the Enid Blyton Society Days used to be held. It’s also only about fifteen miles from where Blyton lived at Old Thatch, though she had left there fifteen years before this letter was written, and about 20 miles from Green Hedges where she would have been living in 1956.

The other two letters come from nearer to me than Blyton. Kirkcaldy is in Fife and Aviemore is in the Cairngorms and I’ve been to both many times.

But enough geography lessons as I’ve just wasted a good twenty minutes looking at random places on Google maps!

I really wanted a Mary Poppins let’s go fly a kite quote in there, but this is ten years too early for the film with Julie Andrews. I’ve read the first PL Travers book and don’t recall there being kite flying in it, but apparently in the second book has Michael pulling Mary Poppins down from the clouds with a kite.

Mary’s is the first fund-raising in a wee while – since August 1956 in fact.

Although different to the tame bird letter in our previous letters page I thought this a good place to share info on what to do if you find a young or injured wild bird in your garden or out and about. A commenter on the previous post was right in saying that it’s often not the best idea to swoop in and ‘rescue’ it. Advice is different depending on the age of the bird (nestling vs fledgling) and also depends on where the bird is and if it is in danger.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/if-you-find-an-injured-bird

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Monday #780

Posted on February 23, 2026 by Fiona

I’ve had to take my sunglasses out with me for a few times recently. The crocuses and snowdrops are out. Spring may be just around the corner! (Or we may plunge back into deep winter. I’m not ruling anything out at this point.)

Letters to Enid part 81

and

The New Famous Five: The Smuggler’s Code part 2

All things Spring as the title suggests!

 

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