While writing a guide to our recommended authors if you like Blyton, I had jotted down some other names. These names were of people who had written books featuring Blyton’s own characters, and in the end I decided that these really belonged to a separate category.

Most of the books as sequels, set after the events of Blyton’s own books, but there are a few prequels and some which are set in between the original novels.

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Adventurous Four Trapped! by Clive Dickinson (1998)

Given the title this one’s obviously a continuation of the Adventurous Four series. It’s actually only a partial continuation, though. The first four chapters form the short story Off With the Adventurous Four, first published in Enid Blyton’s Omnibus (1951). Clive Dickinson has then added another seven chapters to extend the story.

This is now on my very long list of books to get ahold of as I am intrigued as to how Clive Dickinson has extended a story that had a resolution already written.

Enid Blyton’s Enchanted World by Elise Allen (2008-9)

This is a continuation of the Faraway Tree series with seven books.

• Silky and the Rainbow Feather
• Melody and the Enchanted Harp
• Petal and the Eternal Bloom
• Pinx and the Ring of Midnight
• Bizzy and the Bedtime Bear
• Silky and the Everlasting Candle
• Melody and the Gemini Locket

These have obviously been written to appeal to young girls, as the covers all feature the female fairies that are the main characters.  I found Bizzy and the Bedtime Bear at work and having flicked through it can be fairly sure that Jo/Joe, Bessie/Beth and Fanny/Frannie don’t appear, and it doesn’t seem like Moonface, the Angry Pixie, Dame Washalot or any other main character (except Silky of course) appear, though I could have missed a brief cameo.

It would seem that these stories have a single storyline rather than the Faraway Tree’s multiple stories, often one per chapter. They are around 160 pages, which doesn’t sound a lot less than the original books 190 pages but the text is much larger as are the spaces between the lines so the stories are in fact much shorter.

I hope to review Bizzy and the Bedtime Bear at some point, I will add a link here when I do.

Famous Five for Grown-ups by Bruno Vincent (2016-17)

Fifteen of these have been written and they are slightly more of a parody than a straight continuation. Each is very short, set when the Five are all adults. I’ve only read one, Five Go on a Strategy Away Day, so I’m not sure what, if any, continuity there is between the 15 books. They are, however, all set in the present day!

The titles are:

• Five Go Gluten Free
• Five Go On A Strategy Away Day
• Five Give Up the Booze
• Five Go Parenting
• Five on Brexit Island
• Five Forget Mother’s Day
• Five Lose Dad in the Garden Centre
• Five Get Beach Body Ready
• Five Get Gran Online
• Five Get On the Property Ladder
• Five Go Bump in the Night
• Five Escape Brexit Island
• Five at the Office Christmas Party
• Five Go Down Under
• Five Go Absolutely Nowhere

The best thing about these are the covers by Ruth Palmer as she mimics Eileen Soper’s style so well.

The Famous Five by Claude Voilier (1972-75)

Claude Voilier translated some of the later Famous Five books into French, and then later wrote 24 continuation books to the series. 18 of these have been translated into English by Anthea Bell (in the mid 80s). The English 18 were not published in the same order as the French ones.

1. Les Cinq sont les plus forts /The Famous Five and the Mystery of the Emeralds
2. Les Cinq au bal des espions / The Famous Five in Fancy Dress
3. Le Marquis appelle les Cinq / The Famous Five and the Stately Homes Gang
4. Les Cinq au Cap des tempêtes / The Famous Five and the Missing Cheetah
5. Les Cinq à la Télévision / The Famous Five Go on Television
6. Les Cinq et les pirates du ciel / The Famous Five and the Hijackers
7. Les Cinq contre le masque noir / The Famous Five Versus the Black Mask
8. Les Cinq et le galion d’or / The Famous Five and the Golden Galleon
9. Les Cinq font de la brocante /: The Famous Five and the Inca God
10. Les Cinq se mettent en quatre / The Famous Five and the Pink Pearls
11. Les Cinq dans la cité secrète / The Famous Five and the Secret of the Caves
12. La fortune sourit aux Cinq / The Famous Five and the Cavalier’s Treasure
13. Les Cinq et le rayon Z  / The Famous Five and the Z-Rays
14. Les Cinq vendent la peau de l’ours / The Famous Five and the Blue Bear Mystery
15. Les Cinq aux rendez-vous du diable / The Famous Five in Deadly Danger
16. Du neuf pour les Cinq / The Famous Five and the Strange Legacy
17. Les Cinq et le trésor de Roquépine / The Famous Five and the Knights’ Treasure
18. Les Cinq et le diamant bleu
19. Les Cinq jouent serré / The Famous Five and the Strange Scientist
20. Les Cinq en croisière
21. Les Cinq contre les fantômes
22. Les Cinq en Amazonie
23. Les Cinq et le trésor du pirate
24. Les Cinq contre le loup-garou

The English books in order are 3, 1, 4, 5, 8, 7, 2, 14, 9, 12, 16, 11, 6, 19, 15, 17, 13, and 10. As above titles 18 and 20-24 were not translated.

From the titles it seems that the Five have become more well-travelled as well as making a jump into the technology and sci-fi filled 1970s. The only one I’ve read is The Famous Five Go on Television and I remember very little about it other than being quite disappointed that it was not, in fact, a real Enid Blyton book that I’d just discovered.

This isn’t a post about cover art, but this series went certainly through several different styles!

(Famous Five) Return to Kirrin by Neil and Suzy Howlett (2018)

This is an unofficial novel, but it has been properly published in both paperback and ebook format. Set in 1979 it follows the four human members of the Five as they reunite after a long time apart.

Return to Kirrin

Just George by Sue Welford (2000)

This is a prequel to the Famous Five, with six books featuring a 9 year old George and Timmy her puppy.

• George, Timmy and the Haunted Cave
• George, Timmy and the Curious Treasure
• George, Timmy and the Footprint in the Sand
• George, Timmy and the Secret in the Cellar
• George, Timmy and the Stranger in the Storm
• George, Timmy and the Lighthouse Mystery

We interviewed Sue Welford about writing this prequel series a while back, and you can read that here.

Five on a Great Western Adventure by Mandy Archer (2019)

This is a tie-in to the marketing campaign for Great Western Railway. It is a 54 page story about the Five chasing a jewel thief (presumably by rail!). It was given away free for World Book Day in March 2019, and I’m not sure how easy it would be to find a copy though I’d very much like to.

Malory Towers by Pamela Cox (2009)

Adding to the six original Malory Towers books, Pamela Cox has written another six. They pick up the year after Darrell has left the school, with Felicity moving into the third form. There are two books in the third form, one each one each for the fourth and fifth and then two for the sixth.

The books are:

• New Term at Malory Towers
• Summer Term at Malory Towers
• Winter Term at Malory Towers
• Fun and Games at Malory Towers
• Secrets at Malory Towers
• Goodbye Malory Towers

I have read the first two, and although they are not bad books they don’t capture Blyton’s style or stand up to the originals.

New Class at Malory Towers by various authors (2019)

This contains four stories by Patrice Lawrence, Lucy Mangan, Narinder Dhami and Rebecca Westcott and it set during Darrell’s time at Malory Towers. There are plenty of terms not written about by Blyton so it should be easy to slot in a story to one of them.

The Naughtiest Girl by Anne Digby (1999-2000)

There are more Naughtiest Girl books by Anne Digby (author of the Trebizon series of boarding school books) than there are by Enid Blyton! Blyton wrote three novels and one story (Here’s the Naughtiest Girl) which was published in Enid Blyton’s Omnibus and then published as a separate book in 1997.

Anne Digby has then written another six:

• The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret
• The Naughtiest Girl Helps a Friend
• The Naughtiest Girl Saves the Day
• Well Done, the Naughtiest Girl!
• The Naughtiest Girl Wants to Win
• The Naughtiest Girl Marches On

I have found all six of these in my library (I was briefly confused by the numbering, as I was calculating 3 original books + 6 continuations = 9, but it is 10 if you include Here’s the Naughtiest Girl as #4, which the latest publishing run has) and I couldn’t resist borrowing them all and I have so far reviewed the first three.

New Adventures of the Wishing Chair by Narinder Dhami (2009)

There are also more Wishing Chair books by Narinder Dhami, than there are by Blyton. Dhami has written six (rather short) titles while there are only two by Blyton. They are not a continuation of Peter and Mollie’s stories but the Wishing Chair is found (presumably a very long time later) by Jessica and Jack who also have adventures with it.

The books are:

• The Island of Surprises
• The Land of Mythical Creatures
• Spellworld
• Giantland
• The Land of Fairytales
• Winter Wonderland

Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle by Sophie Smallwood (2009)

Sophie Smallwood is Enid Blyton’s granddaughter (by her daughter Imogen), and she wrote the 25th Noddy book, which I thought was very good if not a seamless entry to the series.

Secret Seven by Evelyne Lallemand (1976-82)

Lallemand wrote 12 new Secret Seven books in French, nine of which have been translated into English – by Anthea Bell again.

The ones in English are:

• The Seven and the Lion Hunt
• The Seven Go Haunting
• The Seven and the Magician
• The Seven Strike Gold
• The Seven to the Rescue
• The Seven on Screen
• The Seven and the UFOs
• The Seven and Father Christmas
• The Seven and the Racing Driver

Despite the rather wild titles it would appear that the Seven don’t stray from their little town in these books and the plotlines don’t sound that far from the originals either.

Secret Seven by Pamela Butchart (2018-19)

Two books continuing the Secret Seven books have also come out in the past few years.

• Mystery of the Skull
• Mystery of the Theatre Ghost

I gave Mystery of the Skull a fairly bad review but acknowledge that if it was a children’s mystery with new characters I would have rated it more highly.

St Clare’s by Pamela Cox (2000-8)

As we know, the St Clare’s series follows an odd format. There are three books set in Pat and Isabel’s first year at St Clare’s, one in the second form, one in the fourth form and one in the fifth form.

Pamela Cox the gives us some gap-fillers, a books for the third and sixth forms, and another which isn’t clear.

They are:

• The Third Form at St Clare’s
• The Sixth Form at St Clare’s
• Kitty at St Clare’s

The description of Kitty at St Clare’s says she joins the third form, but as it is published after all the others I assume that Pat and Isabel are in the sixth form and we haven’t jumped back in time.

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This list does not include every book written by other authors and based on Blyton’s works. There are other continuations in other languages but as they have not been translated into English I haven’t included them.

Then there are other books like the Adventure series books based on the TV episodes, or The Diary of the Naughtiest Girl but I feel these are alternative tellings of existing stories and not books continuing a series. I’ll cover these in a separate post which I plan to call Unnecessary retellings of Blyton’s Work.

I will update this post in the future if new books come out (I suspect Pamela Butchart will write more for a start) or if I get around to reviewing anything else already listed.

Has anyone read any of these books? If so, what did you think of them, did they meet your expectations?