I’ve reviewed the main story here, so now it’s time for everyone’s favourite part two, where I viciously dissect the book and point out all the plot holes and mistakes.

The illustrations

First up, a few points about Eileen Soper’s illustrations. We’re on book number 12 now, and the children have gradually been growing older.

All of a sudden, though, Dick seems very bulky and strong-jawed (the latter being used to describe Julian, usually). In the text Dick says he’s all skin and bone which I’m sure is an exaggeration, but there’s little to choose between he and Julian in size and age. Just check out the cheekbones on him below:

It’s a far cry from the 11 year old boy in Five on a Treasure Island,

It’s even a change from Five Fall Into Adventure (3 books back) or Five on a Hike Together (2 books back.)

Dick hits Jo in ‘Five Fall Into Adventure.’

But anyway, Dick’s bulk aside, there is one detail in the illustrations that doesn’t match the text. Yan is described as wearing a shirt with no sleeves or buttons, but he has sleeves in the illustrations (his top is sleeveless in the magazine illustrations, though. Perhaps Soper forgot that detail when she redid them).

Also, Yan is described twice as wearing pants. Soper depicts those as loose trousers, though boys his age would normally wear shorts.

George as a boy

Anne offers to help Mrs Penruthlan  (Mrs P from now on) shell peas before they go to church, and Mrs P accepts but says the boys needn’t help. George immediately goes on the defensive I like that! How unfair! Why shouldn’t they, just because they’re boys?” I think she has a point!

Dick takes the sting out by saying he and Julian will help, of course, as they like podding peas. I imagine he wouldn’t say the same if it was a more arduous or feminine task, though! And it doesn’t tackle the fact that Mrs P was the one to say the boys didn’t have to help, but it makes George simmer down anyway

Interestingly both girls were hats to church and they both add a sprig of honeysuckle, which sounds very un-George like to me. She looks more masculine than Anne in the illustration which appeared in the magazine version, though.

Yan’s Old Grandad refers to George as Little Master when they go to visit, and I think that’s the only time George is mistaken for a boy. The Penruthlans know she’s a girl certainly.

Signs of the times

I always like looking out for little things that really place the books back in time.

In this book it mostly has to do with the trains. When they go to catch the train from Kirrin the porter labels their luggage and says the train will wait until he’s done – you’d never see that happen these days, and yet the trains run later and later!

Also, their other luggage has been sent on already. I’ve seen this quite a few times in Blyton books. I understand that a child or children, especially when cycling, doesn’t want to be encumbered with cases or trunks. However, I can’t work out exactly how it all works!

I assume an adult drops heavy trunks etc at the station and a porter puts them on a train with a note saying which station they are for. There was guard for the luggage van so he would be organised and know which luggage was to be passed to a porter at the other end… and then? Someone has to deliver or collect them? In this case someone from Tremannon Farm would come with a pony trap or old Land Rover and pick up the cases, then wait until the next train arrived for the Five to get off and then cycle over?

Why couldn’t the Five have been dropped at the station with their luggage instead of sending it on an earlier train? I appreciate that four bikes are cumbersome, but they could have cycled behind Fanny’s pony trap, and at the other end they could have been greeted by the luggage collector and given directions etc.

Also, at their stop the guard finds them and reminds them they want to get out as they hadn’t realised they had reached their destination. Something else you’d be unlikely to see today unless you have specifically asked for a reminder, and even then you’d probably be out of luck.

Blyton’s writing

People criticise her writing all the time and yet there are absolute gems to be found, on top of all the descriptions of scenery and her fast-paced adventures.

The old shepherd was sitting outside his hut, smoking a clay pipe. He wasn’t very big, and he seemed shrivelled up, like an apple stored too long. But there was still a sweetness in him, and the children liked him at once – he had Yan’s sudden smile, that lighted up eyes that were still as blue as the summer sky above them.

His face had a thousand wrinkles that creased and ran into one another when he smiled. His shaggy eyebrows, curly beard and hair were all grey – as grey as the woolly coats of the sheep he had lived with all his life.

The bit about the apple I thought was particularly good – that’s the bit I jotted down as I read but the whole description is pretty good too!

She also refers to hungry rocks when talking about ships being wrecked, how many times have we heard rocks being likened to jagged teeth?

The Wreckers’ story isn’t as strong as the one in Five Go to Demon’s Rocks, but it was clearly the precursor which she reworked for the later story. In Demon’s Rocks the tale is more lively the wreckers have names and personalities and it’s helped by their descendants still being present. Saying that, Old Grandad’s is a spooky tale especially with the reveal that the light still flashes to this day!

I think she also learned from her baddies here, going forward to Demon’s Rocks, as none of them are fleshed out. We know a little about the Guv’nor but barely anything, and nothing about anyone else. Who was the man on the boat, and the two men who go out to it? Who locked them in the room? I guess Blyton had to be vague on their identities as we had to believe Mr P was one of them but it’s a shame they were all just shadowy figures in the dark.

The food

There isn’t an awful amount of food in this book. But there is an enormous high tea when they arrive at Tremannon;

A huge ham awaited gleaming as pink as Timmy’s tongue; a salad fit for a king. In fact as Dick said, fit for several kings, it was so enormous. It had everything that anyone could possibly want.

“Lettuce. Tomatoes. Onions. Radishes. Mustard-and-cress. Carrot grated up… And lashings of hard-boiled eggs.”

There was an enormous tureen of new potatoes, all gleaming with melted butter, scattered with parsley. There was a big bottle of home-made salad cream.

“Look at that cream cheese, too… And that fruit cake. And are those drop-scones or what? Are we supposed to have something of everything, Mrs Penruthlan?”

“Oh yes. And there’s a cherry tart made with our own cherries, and our own cream with it.”

I saw someone say recently that they weren’t impressed when a high tea was dominated by a salad, but I think that one sounds pretty good! I love hard boiled eggs and salad cream (or mayo, though).

There are also lashings of peas and new potatoes at a lunch later on, along with cold boiled beef and carrots, with a dumpling each, followed by a truly magnificent fruit salad and cream. They still manage a large afternoon tea picnic and a high-tea the same day, but without any descriptions.

Random things I noticed

• Blyton speaks directly to Julian on page 138 Careful now, Julian – there may be somebody lying in wait! I always find it slightly odd when she does that in the middle of a book.
• Considering the title is Five Go Down to the Sea, they spend very little time in or near the actual sea! They briefly visit the beach but that’s about it. It might have been better named Five on Tremannon Farm (but then Blyton would have to have come up with something more original for Five on Finniston Farm) or Five Go Down to Cornwall. Or something vague like Five Have an Excellent Holiday.
• Before they do Julians says We mean to bathe, and hire a boat, and fish, and bike all round about. The only thing they do is bathe once! Though perhaps they do more after the story ends as that only tied up 5 days or so.
• Julian says We don’t wear much on holidays. I wonder how much they wear on non-holidays? It out me in mind of them in very skimpy holiday clothing. Who wears short shorts?
• There’s a scientist who is worse than Uncle Quentin, apparently. He came to stay and was as thin as a rake but went away as fat as butter. Mrs P says he said ‘no’ to just about every meal, so she would take the tray away, and return it ten minutes later as if it was the first time. And he’d never notice! She took the tray in three times one meal.
• Dick says he’s pretty good at a spot of conjuring which I wish had been explored more!
• The Five bargaining with Yan over sweets reminds me of bargaining with Brodie. They tell Yan he can have sweets if he helps shell the peas, but he must wash his hands first. All right. Don’t wash your hands. Don’t shell the peas. Don’t have a sweet. I’m forever saying he can have a biscuit if he eats his fruit, or he can play with something if he puts something else away first. He’s as stubborn as Yan, though… It made me wonder how old Yan was but the only clue we get is that he is supposed to be in school but rarely goes. So he could be anywhere from five to fifteen! He seems quite a bit younger than the Five but he is probably underfed. He looks a little older in the some of the magazine illustrations, I think.

Turns out I wrote so much about random things from this book that I’ll have to put the nitpicks in a separate post!

Next post: Five Go Down to the Sea part 3

We have reached another of my favourites with book #12, this came fourth in my definitive (personal) rankings of the 21 books.

[It has just come to my attention two weeks later that I accidentally skipped book #11, Five Have a Wonderful Time… I will finish my review of Sea in part two then go back!]

A story in three parts

How to divide this one?

1. The Five head to Tremannon and spend a day or two just having fun
2. They go to visit Grandad and hear about the wrecker’s way and have a run in with Mr Penruthlan
3. They investigate the old ruin, get trapped underground then return to Tremannon to solve the mystery

This is quite a slow build as the main action occurs in the last part of the book. It’s page 125 before they go to the old ruin, and page 143 before they go underground. There are only 191 pages in the book!

A look at the general story

The Five are off to stay with the Penruthlans at Tremannon Farm in Cornwall for a nice holiday. As Anne doesn’t want any more adventures they all agree to say pooh-pooh to any adventures that come up.

They begin with typical Blyton holiday activities; eating vast quantities of home-made food and going to the beach for a bathe and a poke around the caves. They pay a visit to an old shepherd – the great grandad of a boy called Yan who hangs around the farm – who knows all about the coast and can tell tales of wreckers from years ago.

Old grandad’s father used to light a lamp which would lure ships onto the rocks to be wrecked and plundered.

There have been no wrecks, and there’s a new lighthouse along the coast anyway so the Five aren’t entirely sure whether to take it seriously or not when he says he’s seen the lights this year, but Julian and Dick think it’s worth a little night-time trip. They don’t make it far, though, as they run into a brute of a man who grabs hold of Dick – a man who they realise is Mr Penruthlan. What’s he doing out on a stormy night, and why has he lied to them and his wife about tending a sick horse?

There’s then a diversion from the mystery as the Barnies – a travelling group of performers – arrive.

Ju and Dick go out again that night, and this time make it to the hill but they need Yan to show them the light flashing. And flashing it is! They see Mr Penruthlan again when they come back, and this time he’s searching through the Barnie’s props and belongings.

The Barnies have their show the next evening, and there’s a huge meal after. Julian and Dick take the surly Guv’nor of the Barnies his meal and discover Clopper, the horse costume is just lying around. In one of Blyton’s funniest scenes ever Julian and Dick don the costume, caper around and then get stuck inside it.

The book was originally serialised in Enid Blyton’s Magazine and Eileen Soper illustrated that, then did fresh ones for the book. Some are very similar, others we get completely different scenes or the same scene a little differently. Below is Clopper falling over from the magazine.

The next day they have decided to pooh-pooh at pooh-poohing adventures, and take a picnic and go off to investigate the ruins where the light flashes. There are four empty rooms and one tower with a great view and a lot of spilled oil drops. Someone’s certainly been signalling from there recently, but who? And why?

Naturally they hunt around and find a not very well hidden hole in the chimney which leads to an underground passage (a lot of Blyton’s passages start in chimneys). Timmy has gone on ahead so instead of following one passage down to the sea they have to head down the other in a more inland direction. That leads them to a storage room where a mystery figure locks them in.

Thankfully Yan is exceptionally brave and comes down the passage – in the dark no less – to rescue them. It is the middle of the night by now and they head down to the beach and see Mr Penruthlan taking a small boat out to meet another one. Yan leads them along the cliffs a little way to another passage, and this one takes them to a barn on Tremannon Farm!

In order to foil Mr Penruthlan they cover the trapdoor with heavy objects and – after running into the Guv’nor who is hanging around in a rather suspicious manner – they tell Mrs Penruthlan the unfortunate news that her husband is a no good smuggler.

Well, I do love Julian but I still love this scene as Mrs Penruthlan boxes his ears for saying such terrible things. She doesn’t know where her husband is – everyone else is out hunting for the lost Five but not him – but he’s a good man and certainly not a smuggler.

Spoilers follow as to the identities of the criminals, you’ve been warned!

Mr Penruthlan then turns up and reveals that a) he wasn’t on the beach earlier and b) he isn’t a smuggler, he has been working with the police to try to catch the smugglers.

So if he wasn’t on the beach, who was? They rush to the trap-door but it has been opened and the men are gone.

The next day the Barnies are moving on, but Julian remembers how the Guv’nor was hanging around the night before. Mr Penruthlan has long suspected someone with the Barnies to be involved in the smuggling, but has never been able to prove it. Suddenly Dick goes utterly mad and races off with Clopper’s head!

Well, Dick may appear mad but actually he is clearly the only one with any brains. The Guv’nor has had Clopper’s head guarded almost every minute they’ve been at Tremannon. And why? Because the smuggled goods were hidden inside.

So it’s a happy ending as the Guv’nor is locked in a barn to await the police and the Barnies head to their next engagement without a surly (and criminal) boss.

The characters

There are several strong supporting characters so I thought I would have a look at them separately rather than bogging down the above summary/review with lots of character detail.

Mrs Penruthlan is, for the most part, Blyton’s typical farmer’s wife. Her children are all grown so she loves to welcome holiday makers and feed them up. She’s happiest when baking or cooking vast quantities of food then watching people devour it – partly why she loves the Barnies coming so much too!

Mr Penruthlan, on the other hand, is a bit of an enigma. As I’ve said above he seems jolly – he laughs his head off at Clopper and he’s the one to rescue Julian and Dick from the costume, but they’ve proven he’s a liar and a sneak.

An interesting side-story with Mr Penruthlan is that his speech is completely unintelligible. He’ll say nothing more than ooh or ock and Mrs Penruthlan will reply implying he’s just said a whole sentence. It turns out later that when he puts his teeth in he’s perfectly capable of regular speech!

Of course he is revealed not to be the baddie at all, it’s a classic case of misdirection just like Mr King in The Rockingdown Mystery. Perhaps Blyton wanted to keep him mysterious by not having him say anything understandable for the majority of the book!

The other character we see a lot of is Yan. Yan is a bit like Tassie from The Castle of Adventure. He doesn’t have a way with animals but he’s grubby and wanders the great outdoors all day. Unlike Tassie, he isn’t welcomed into the group. He seems quite a bit younger than the Five but his age is never given, only that he is of school age.

Yan as he appears in the book

He lives with his great grandad who is more than 80 years older than him and doesn’t seem to have any other relatives or friends. He is dressed in ragged clothes and probably underfed and plays truant from school almost every day. He tags along after the Five constantly but as he is younger, has poor conversational skills and has nothing to offer the Five in the way of amusing them or informing them, they find him very annoying.

Yan as he appears in the magazine

Mrs Penruthlan gives him a bath at one point and threatens him with sorting him out with new clothes but I wonder that she hasn’t done that before or taken him in a little, it seems like he has a pretty awful life, though his great grandad isn’t deliberately cruel to him. Obviously his great grandad has taken him in (presumably the parents are dead) but it’s no life for a little boy. (I must be going soft due to my own little boy as I’ve never thought this much about Yan before!)

A surely rare example of nudity in Blyton’s works? Yan getting a bath from the magazine serialisation.

The Five (apart from Timmy who loves him) are actually quite hard on Yan. He’s not a fat-headed trouble maker like Richard Kent, or a mean boy like Edgar Stick, his only crime is sneaking around following them as he’s probably fascinated by these well-dressed kids. They tell him to get lost in various different ways, then Julian calls him a little idiot and gives him a shake to send him off.

It doesn’t deter him, though, and he climbs up to nosy in Julian and Dick’s bedroom window after that! (I would accept some harsh words would be necessary at this point, but before it seems unfair).

What’s worse is when Yan follows them to the beach and the caves they just go and leave him as the tide is coming in. They assume he knows the caves and cliffs and will be fine, and only when they realise the beach is gone and the caves flooded with no sign of him having escaped do they worry. Of course he is fine, he does know the coast like the back of his hand, but they didn’t know that! They’re so relieved he is safe that they give him sweets and are rewarded with a bright smile in return, a smile which suddenly makes Yan seem an awful lot less annoying and a lot more sweet.

They are more accepting of him after this – and of course he proves his worth by rescuing them later and taking them safely back to the farm.

Next time; my nitpicks (there are actually quite a lot!) and other things I noticed and wanted to mention.

Next post: Five Go Down to the Sea part 2