The Book... by Jenny Hickson

The next guest post in my series on the books that have changed our lives. This one is from Jenny Hickson.


The Books... I'll pass on to my children.

The scariest 'Five' book. Image courtesy of amazon.

For many years of my childhood I read little that hadn't been written by Enid Blyton. In particular I read, read again and re-read Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' series. As much as I loved the adventures that Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy The Dog had, and their uncanny ability to escape from every inept smuggler and kidnapper haunting the south of England, I think it was the freedom of their simple holidays that captured me most. 

They would spend every school holiday eating picnics on the beach, rowing around the bay, cycling to camp in a different place each night, and sleeping in horse-drawn gypsy caravans. I loved that whatever cave they became stuck in, Anne would always arrange their tins of food neatly in a corner, and gather heather for them to sleep on. Their existence would possibly be deemed a little too idyllic if it wasn't for the bad guys they would stumble upon (always of course, at the crucial point of a plan) creating a peak of excitement as one of them would always manage to escape to bring help. 

Having got so much enjoyment out of these books myself as a child, I look forward to the day that I can pass them on, and hope that my children will get as much from them as I did.

Thanks, Jenny. Famous Five were definitely my most-read childhood books too. What was it about Enid Blyton - who wasn't the best writer, was she? - that so captivated children? Do you have any favourite Blytons?

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Jenny Hickson lives in Chepstow with her husband, two chickens and two bantams. She's an electronic engineer by day and by night crochets, knits, paints, reads, sings... She also has the dubious pleasure of having all my draft stories and novels foisted on her as my most loyal reader!