Stella & Rose's Books

Enid Blyton adventure series started with The Island of Adventure published in 1944, just two years after starting the Famous Five series.

The series contains 8 books which are pictured and listed on this page.

All the wrappers pictured are illustrated by Stuart Tresilian. The books are all published by Macmillan and Co.

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A series of twelve books published between 1949 and 1960.

 

 

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Although Blyton wrote many 'series' stories (The Mystery, Secret Seven, The Adventure, Barney, St. Clares, Malory Towers) it is the Famous Five series which appears to be the most popular.

The first book appeared in September 1942 (dated August 1942) and was so popular that it was reprinted almost immediately in September and October of the same year. The book was illustrated by Eileen Soper, who was to illustrate all 21 titles, and whose drawings were so 'just right'.

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A series of 12 books published between 1946 - 1957.

Some titles were republished with less or different stories. 

 

 

A collection of various story books by Enid Blyton.

Some titles were re-published later with different jacket designs.

 

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There are 15 books in the Mystery Series.

The first book in the series, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, was first published in 1943 and the last story, The Mystery of Banshee Towers, appeared in 1961.

 

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There are 24 numbered Noddy books, all pictured below, as well as many associated Noddy books. This series of Noddy books was illustrated by Beek. The first title Noddy Goes To Toyland was first published in 1949 by Sampson Low, and the last Noddy and the Aeroplane was published in 1964.

 

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The Secret Seven series of 15 books, by prolific author Enid Blyton, follows the adventures of a strictly secret society made up of 7 children, who like to solve mysteries that they happen upon, or actively go looking for!

 

 

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A series of sixteen books.

Some books were originally published under different titles.

 

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Enid Mary Blyton, born 11th August 1897 and died 28th November 1968, was probably the twentieth century's most successful writer of children's books. A phenomenally prolific author, she wrote an estimated 800 books during a literary career that spanned more than forty years. In 2007 she was the fifth most popular author in the world, placing her ahead of Shakespeare.

 

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After reading other Enid Blyton titles (mostly Secret Seven and Famous Five), I discovered in my local library another series penned by Blyton - the Adventure Series. To me the titles in this series felt more grown-up and exciting than the other books I'd read by Blyton and they quickly became my favourites (with perhaps the exception of 'The Secret of Spiggy Holes' - my favourite Blyton title of all time!).

 

 

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Noddy is 70 years old this year. And, I think you would all agree, he does not look a day older than when he was first created! He probably needs no introduction but nevertheless...View Article

Even nowadays there cannot be many children who do not read Enid Blyton, and who would not know who the Famous Five were. During my childhood I loved these stories and they, together with Biggles, were my introduction to the world of reading for pleasure. When my own children were small and we were away on our camping holidays, it was always a Famous Five chapter which formed part of the bedtime story.

 

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Eileen will inevitably be most famous for her illustrations in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five Series , but there is so much more to be told. At one point she was running three careers in parallel; that of a respected wildlife author, a noted children’s illustrator and a commercial artists for among others The National Association of Mental Health Education and the Central Council for Heath Education.

 

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PART 1 INTRODUCTION

Collectors of the Famous Five (FF) series will know that a total of 21 titles were published by Hodder and Stoughton (H and S) between 1942 and 1963. What is less commonly known is that 24, rather than 21, first edition dustwrappers are known to exist - so the question is why are there 3 extra dustwrapppers?

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PART 2 THE DOUBLE-VERSION DUSTWRAPPERS

FIVE GO OFF TO CAMP

The first edition was published in 1948 and the second impression in 1949. Two different dustwrappers have been found accompanying first edition books and one further dustwrapper is associated with the second impression book.View Article

PART 3 THE DOUBLE BLOCK (DB) REPRINT DUSTWRAPPERS

When all 23 dustwrappers were examined in detail, it soon became evident that a significant number of inconsistencies were present. To reproduce this research here would be too long and detailed for the purposes of this article so, as a compromise, only selected examples will be described. Note that with some examples, the first edition dustwrappers are included to provide a complete picture of the DB era.

 

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SINGLE BLOCK DUSTWRAPPERS.

Figure 40 - Five Run Away Together 1st ed. 1944  

Figure 41 - Five Go To Smuggler's Top 1st ed. 1945.View Article

The Secret Seven series of 15 books, by prolific author Enid Blyton, follows the adventures of a strictly secret society made up of 7 children, who like to solve mysteries that they happen upon, or actively go looking for!View Article

Stella & Roses Books were delighted to participate in the Enid Blyton’s Society Day meeting at Twyford, UK on 7th May.View Article

Stella & Rose's Books were delighted to attend the Enid Blyton Society Day, held this year (2006) on May 13th at Lodden Hall, Twyford, Berkshire .View Article

As this was my 1st Enid Blyton Day, I had been anticipating it for some time. To increase my knowledge of our stock for weeks I had been cataloguing and pricing any Enid Bylton books which were sitting in our store room. There was also great excitement as this website was being built all with the 12th of May in mind as a launch day. At times it was touch and go to see if everything was going to be ready in time, thankful everybody pulled together and Stella and Rose's Books were ready for the fair 1 only week early, which is most unusual.

Many of us are familiar with Enid Blyton's childrens novels and their characters, for example: Famous Five, Malory Towers, Noddy, Secret Seven.

Perusing our rare books shelves, I came across an obscure spiral-bound title: The Enid Blyton Handkerchief Book. This piqued my curiousity as it is a title I have never come across elsewhere during my many years of working as a bookseller.View Featured Book

The first edition of Child Whispers was published in 1922 and was issued in orange cardwraps. For the new edition/first edition thus published the following year, the format was changed to a brown, octavo sized hardback with a dustwrapper. Only one other title was published in this same format, namely the first edition of Real Fairies, also in the same year.

As collectors of early Enid Blyton titles will know, copies of these hardback books without a dustwrapper do occasionally turn up on the open market, whereas a copy with a dustwrapper is rarely offered for sale. For this reason it is probably not widely known that there are two different versions of the Child Whispers dustwrapper and that the differences are only found on the rear panel.View Featured Book

Real Fairies is a collection of 33 poems with all but one written specifically for the book. The exception is a poem entitled "Pretending" which was first published in the Punch magazine. There are no illustrations inside the book although the colour wrapper from the first editions and the later card cover black-and-white illustrations are by Phyllis Chase.

The Secret Seven series of 15 books, by prolific author Enid Blyton, follows the adventures of a strictly secret society made up of 7 children, who like to solve mysteries that they happen upon, or actively go looking for!

Although many may think, like I did before doing this research, that The Secret Seven - the first title in this series - is the first time we are introduced to the seven, this is not the case. In 1947, At Seaside Cottage a small volume was published by Brockhampton Press and featured the main characters of Peter and Janet, with their golden spaniel, Scamper. View Featured Book

One of the joys of working in Rose's Books is rediscovering books of my childhood! Our customers obviously share this joy if the comments ("A trip down memory lane" or "I had that book") are anything to go by! One such rediscovery I shared with Katie my 13 year old daughter - The Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton. We avidly read the whole series together and would indulge in long conversations about the characters, plot and the language ('the hols', 'my people' 'school cert') to the frustration of the rest of the family who had no idea what we were talking about!