Last time I got as far as 1987 which means we are heading into the 90s and the sort of covers which were around when I was a kid.

But first…

I missed this last time – the mystery of the Chivers edition. Secret Seven Mystery (an apt title here) has 16 editions. Every other book from #3 onwards has 15 – so where did an extra one creep in?

In 1986 when Chivers published this version, which is just the 1984 Knight edition with a different coloured background. I can only assume that this book was more popular than expected, and/or they didn’t print enough Knight copies, and someone else had to produce some. Still, a bit weird. Imagine buying this one and never being able to find matching copies of the rest of the series? Mind you, it is one of the ‘bad hallucination’ covers where a giant boy is spying a smaller version of himself, so maybe few children were desperate for more!

The Secret Seven, 90s style

There were four different versions published in the 90s, three of which you could probably describe as 90s style, and one which is both 90s and not 90s, and yes I’ll explain that enigma later.

First up was Hodder in 1990 with a series of uncredited covers. These are in a similar style to the 1991 Knight Famous Fives with the metallic title and 90s fashions.

An attempt is made (on some of them) to include action and movement. The text (probably worse on these small images) is a bit hard to read against the backgrounds, and the repetition of Secret Seven makes the titles sound silly – ie Secret Seven Go Ahead Secret Seven… or the best/worst one – Secret Seven the Secret Seven. (This is a problem on several others sets, but some are worse than others.)

Then between 1991 and 1993 Award produced a set of books – I’m pretty sure these were hardbacks – with covers first by AWP (books 1&2) and the rest by Dorothy Hamilton. These aren’t too bad and actually look to me as if they could be older than the 90s. Apart from a few which have modern clothing the others are fairly timeless.

After that it’s back to Hodder in 1993 for another set. If the art style looks familiar, that’s because David Barnett also illustrated the 1995 Hodder Famous Fives. Lots of brightly-coloured 90s clothes here, though at least the children and scenery are realistic.

I’m having deja vu here!

And now for the 90s-but-not-90s, which are 1996 Hodders and which feature the original artwork. They are not the original covers, though, they are the 9o0s version which means cutting the original down to a square and adding banners top and bottom for the title etc. Again this style is familiar and has been used on the Famous Five.

As the first ten books had a large title banner at the top it means the illustration isn’t cropped too much – though the last five start to look a bit squashed and the final book has a horse with a missing ear.

I actually don’t mind these as they at least retain most of the original, era-appropriate covers.

Next time: the Secret Seven hit the new millenium!