Five Get Into Trouble: Book 8 (Famous Five)

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Timmy serves as a buffer between the criminals and the children. An attempt (one of about a dozen in the series) is made to poison him. The rest of them go into the kitchen to eat (again?), bringing Timmy with them. Hunchy threatens to get Rooky, but George says Timmy will just bite his other hand, and anyway, won’t Rooky be surprised to see Timmy alive? George, I wouldn’t taunt these people too much or one of them might shoot Timmy. Richard’s paid the price for lying to Julian and sneaking away from his mother, because as he came away from his aunt’s house he ran straight into Rooky, his father’s former bodyguard who’s vowed revenge for being fired. Rooky and the two men he was with chased Richard, who crashed his bike and had to run for it. The men split up, and Richard got away. Aily – The shepherd's illiterate daughter. Knows the hills well and often plays truant. Speaks broken English and often reverts to Welsh.

Being trapped behind those gates and the brutish villains in this book gave quite a creepy feeling of anxiety when read under the bedclothes. urn:lcp:fivegetintotroub0000blyt_m5t9:epub:c8bb6dc0-daff-462e-acb9-a694045792fb Foldoutcount 0 Identifier fivegetintotroub0000blyt_m5t9 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t59d6nm85 Invoice 1652 Isbn 0340796227 Speaking of Richard, from the beginning Julian is quite harsh with him. Perhaps a bit too harsh. It's clear that the boy is spoiled and too used to getting his way when he really shouldn't, and perhaps a little bit cowardly (although under the circumstances I can't really blame him for being scared... not every twelve-year-old boy is used to fighting criminals and kidnappers, Ju!). you know what? Even my current, quite lovely, relationship could have been entirely predicted based on my teenaged self’s love for Dr. Watson and James Herriot. How disturbing is that?) Julian: " I shall stop you!"A good part of the adventure takes place in a mysterious old mansion called Owl's Dene which is miles away from nowhere and you enter through wrought-iron gates controlled from within. The image to which I related was that of the Health Clinic near the beginning of the James Bond film — Thunderball. A large old manor can lend plenty of atmosphere because all kinds of strange happenings can take place within the confines — apart from any legitimate activity which might be on offer. The seclusion itself adds to the intrigue and of course there are the remote-controlled gates which are essential.The scene with the police Inspector strolling in and being all familiar and chummy with the convicts, while Mr. Perton suavely smokes a cigarette and lies his head off, was very Georgette Heyer. I can picture it perfectly, right down to the double-breasted suits and the polished wing-tips. But the poor escaped convict mostly just seems bewildered to have three kids and a dog shoved in with him into what sounds like a very small space. Timmy growls and drives him up onto the bed, and Julian warns him to stay quiet so the police won’t find him. Apart from Richard Kent, the big hero of the book is Julian. He is the one who continually confronts the bad guys (with Timmy's help!) and finds the secret passages and everything. And finally Julian is able to do a Poirot-style walk through, incriminating the baddies and exposing the hidden man with the diamonds. Overall it is pleasantly sinister book with a darker tone than usual. Surely after this adventure none of the parents will allow the Five to go off unsupervised on any more holidays?

That reminds me, I’ve forgotten the title of this book. Let me look again. Five Get Into Trouble. Oh, brother! Usually the guest child has an awful father figure who is a criminal. However another rule of Famous Five stories is that rich people are not criminals. Just as in an Agatha Christie novel, the murders are purely the preserve of upper class and upper middle class characters, so criminal activities in the Famous Five are carried out by lower and lower middle class folk. It's true that I already heard of the importance of food in children's books. As you can read on this blog: "In Blyton’s books, eating food is the central focal point that brings children together. This in turn ingrains the value of having a bond with family and friends."

However he is not superior in personality to the Five, being something of a spoilt brat who makes trouble for his parents and bodyguards, and he is also a coward. So I guess Blyton sets a medium standard for our heroes. Poor children are not in the same class as the Five, but rich children are brats. So our heroes set off with plenty of provisions and camping equipment and (of course) ginger beer. There must have been a larger supply of ginger beer in Enid Blyton’s time than is found nowadays. I wondered what happened to it. Maybe the Five drank it all.

There’s something just a little too knowing about all of that. It’s dangerously close to being a skit about the Five instead of a Five book. And the whole chapter keeps up that tone, somehow. (Also, when I was fourteen-through-sixteen, I’d not have appreciated being lumped in as “the children.”) Then the police gets to Owl's Dene. The bad guys try to play it cool, but to their dismay Julian thwarts them by telling the police every little bit of the criminals' devious plot, since the children had found all the relevant clues during the adventure.Anne is kinder than Julian (and also kinder than me, because I’d have left him in the woods by now), and tells him not to be a baby, and that Julian will get over being mad at him. urn:lcp:fivegetintotroub0008blyt:epub:5deac76e-b1f8-4fe3-8b27-f11845484303 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier fivegetintotroub0008blyt Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t45r42h9f Invoice 1652 Isbn 0340681136 Perton and Hunchy are such great adversaries. You have smooth talking Purton who is far scarier for his calm, but you can feel ruthlessness underneath it-to his friends as well as his enemies. And Hunchy who is angry, threatens violence and you also feel will do whatever he thinks is needed. There are lots of situations that aren't credible to begin with: young children from 10 years old who go on camping trips all alone, they can buy cigarettes, …

In the end, Richard redeems himself by taking part in an escape plan that will bring help, and just in time as he was due for a beating (the captors’ words, not mine – I think the Five are also due for a beating). Aha—our friend Rooky, I see,’ he said, genially. ‘Only a day or two out of prison, Rooky, and you’re mixed up in trouble again. Where’s Weston?’ They decide the next place they’ll go is Middlecombe Woods, which Julian helpfully points out on the map. Richard asks to come on tour with them, saying he’ll call his mother from his aunt’s house, but Julian squashes that idea. If they find that a difficult amount of things to choose from, I’d love to take them to Costco. [ Dove: Take ’em to Bar Burrito or Subway. Watch their brains implode at the constant barrage of questions.]The children discover that a man is hiding in a secret room in the house. This provides the "treasure" element so common in the series. The baddies kidnapping children is not sufficient. Treasure must be recovered, and in this case it's a bag of 'sparklers' in the possession of the escaped convict. The story ends with Richard's parents inviting the children to their home. Richard's father says his son acted very foolishly, and Julian agrees but then says that he redeemed himself by his bravery and determination during the escape. Everything ends well! That made me laugh. Okay, even when I was sixteen I wouldn’t have been allowed to go “I’m not sure where” while my parents went to “we don’t know where we’re staying yet.” Maybe aging them up doesn’t totally spoil my sense of envy at their freedom. I cannot stop worrying about Aggie. You know, for all the cosiness and lettuce, the dark undercurrents in these books are seriously dark. Every second kid the Five encounter is being beaten, and Aggie’s trapped in some sort of evil domestic servitude.