Mischief at Midnight by Esme Kerr

and

Blyton’s bothersome best

“Clear orf, you! Clear orf!”

Mr Goon says clear orf so often that the Find-Outers nickname him Old Clear-Orf.  Bets remarks in The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage that that’s what he always says to children. I’ve never heard him say anything else. That might have been true on page two of the series but by the end they’ll have heard him say quite a lot – mostly involving that toad of a boy – but nothing as often as CLEAR ORF!

The Buttercup Farm Family is the fifth Caravan Family story, aimed at younger readers. In it, Mike, Belinda and Ann stay at their Uncle Ned and Aunt Clara’s farm while their parents are off in America. It doesn’t break new ground in terms of stories about farm-life but it has a simple charm and it shows how far the children have come since the first book in the series.