According to WordPress, this is my 1000th post! The first post appeared in 2014 when I was blogging about my life in Japan (this blog has undergone many changes, including a move from blogger to WordPress). I don’t know if it’s my true 1000th post, but I still thought it would be fun to celebrate it by talking about a childhood favourite.

As it turns out, although I’ve read more than my fair share of Famous Five stories when I was a kid, I never actually read them in order. I didn’t even know that there was an order! So it was a pleasant surprise when I cracked open this collection, ordered from BookXcess purely because of the cover (more on that soon), and discovered that Five on a Treasure Island is the first book in the series and is basically the origin story of the Famous Five!

The three books in this volume are Five on a Treasure Island, Five Go Adventuring Again, and Five Run Away Together, all set around Kirrin, Geroge’s home. While I enjoyed all three, the one that I want to talk about in this post is is Five Run Away Together, which reminded me of the first two books in the secret series.

The first two books in the secret series are The Secret Island, where Peggy, Mike, Nora, and their friend Jack run away from Peggy, Mike, and Nora’s abusive aunt and uncle to live by themselves on an island, and The Secret of Spiggy Holes, where the four go on a holiday and end up rescuing a prince!

Given that Five Run Away Together was published in 1944 while The Secret Island and The Secret of Spiggy Holes were published in 1938 and 1940 respectively (thanks Enid Blyton Society for having the information!), I think it’s plausible that Blyton was combined elements of the two books into Five Run Away Together. Similarities I noticed includes:

• The coming of abusive guardians: Mr and Mrs Stick, who take over Joanna, the cook. When George’s parents are called away suddenly, the Sticks take advantage and start denying the children food and generally being as nasty as they can. One difference is that Julian does stand up to the Sticks, while Mike, Peggy, and Nora can not.
• A deserted, hard to reach island: Kirrin island in this case
• A kidnapped child: This child is Prince Paul in The Secret of Spiggy Holes and Jennifer (daughter of a millionaire) in Five Run Away Together.
• Living in caves: To be fair, Mike, Peggy, Nora, and Jack only do that during winter in The Secret Island, while this is the only habitable place for the Five, but the Five are only on Kirrin island for a week
• Bad guys get stranded behind: George smashes up a boat, while in The Secret of Spiggy Holes, the gang also manage to strand Prince Paul’s kidnappers on their island.

To be clear, Five Run Away Together does not feel derivative or like it’s a mashup of the two books. It builds on the relationships formed in Five on a Treasure Island and Five Go Adventuring Again and creates an enjoyable tale where the children overcome the situations they find themselves in. But since I reread the Secret Series in June, I found the similarities between the books interesting and wanted to share.

What about you? Have you noticed this or any other similarities between different Enid Blyton books?