29th August 2026

The Secret Seven gather again for a new school holidays, with the usual mystery in the offing, trouble with Susie and Binky, and a big dollop of coincidence to help things out.

I still can't help thinking as an adult reader that Susie is really the hero of these stories, and it will be interesting when I get onto the non-Blyton continuation novels whether that continues.

As a modern reader, I'm not sure this book always teaches the best lessons to children on how to behave around strangers, and there's a good amount of sneaking out at night. Unlike previous novels, the girls are allowed to take part more, but still there's a sense of sexism in how they react in some situations.

It's also got some quite serious peril for the characters that I didn't remember from the series. In fact I have very little memory of this one of the stories at all, and am wondering if perhaps I didn't read it as a child... though I thought I had read or listened to them all.

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25th July 2026

It's the usual chaos at Linbury Court as Jennings and his somewhat unwilling accomplice Darbishire set of on an adventure inspired by a fishing rod.

If you've read any Jennings novels before then this is more of the same - things that seem entirely reasonable to schoolboys become perplexing to their teachers, and the reverse.

There was one moment which, reading again now I'm older, made me properly cringe - which isn't a reaction I think I've had to these books before.

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9th August 2025

The Secret Seven are so bored that infighting has become a regular occurance, particularly between Peter, whose temper has reached extreme levels, and Jack, who is starting to realise that he may well actually be better off spending time with his sister Susie, who is clearly cleverer and more personable than most of his friends. Until a dog thief starts up business in the town, and the remaining Six are required to don their SS badges again and hunt down the enemy of the people.

It's a weird balance of a book. It's one of the best mysteries of the series, with lots of action, lots of clues, lots of investigation, and a really nice resolution (although the kids could be more present for the final action). But coupled with it almost feeling like the characters are fed up of being the archetypes that Blyton has created for them.

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2nd August 2025

Jennings and Derbishire get up to their usual adventures in this boarding school novel from the 1970s (although my copy has the 1990s updates, one of which possibly got missed leading to an odd situation where lemonade turns into orange squash).

This time it all starts out when their tennis racquets are broken, which sets into play a sheep rescue, amongst other comedy twists.

I don't feel like this has retained all the magic of the early novels in the series, and shows perhaps more antagonism between the boys than usual.

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1st June 2025

In their 23rd adventure, the Three Investigators are hired to look into the theft of a small statue, but very quickly get drawn into a bigger and spookier set of mysteries.

I liked that there was a lot going on, and it needs real investigation work. However it must be a sign of the changing times (this is 1975 and the series is now 11 years in) that the teenage protagonists now have guns drawn on them by police several times, which didn’t feel right to me.

The paranormal elements of the plot are more prevalent than in others, and felt presented quite differently to before, which again I’m not sure felt right for my perception of the series.

The mystery is a good one, and it was only as the climax approached that I remembered from when I read as a child what was about to happen. Otherwise the plot has entirely left my brain, so it was fun to revisit.

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11th January 2025

The Secret Seven come into possession of a Telescope, and as well as spying on their neighbours finally get to visit the Enid Blyton classic venue of a ruined castle.

As I read through the Secret Seven novels I’m more and more convinced that they are terrible children.

They bully Susie relentlessly, and I am almost always finding her a much more sympathetic character than I think I’m meant to be.

The boys in particular are really sexist again in this story, which is a weird counter to how other women in this story are presented. But the girls are even joining in with the sexism in order to hate Susie even more. It’s bizarre, especially with the knowledge of how girls are treated in later Blyton novels.

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28th December 2024

The seven reappear for another Bonfire Night. My copy is from the 90s so the currency at least has been decimalised, and I don’t know if that means other changes have been made too.

It’s just a bit of a nothing. There’s the usual conflict with Susie (who as an adult I increasingly identify with), biscuits for Scamper, sexism against the girls in the group.

But the plot is just a string of coincidences - it doesn’t feel like there’s any agency on behalf of the main characters that helps it along (with maybe one small exception right near the start), and this makes it a disappointing mystery.

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