posted on 21 May 2017

The Famous Five 70th Anniversary Editions

In 2012 Hodder Children’s Books in co-operation with The House of Illustration celebrated the 70th anniversary of five of Enid Blyton’s renouned and much collected Famous Five series – Five On A Treasure Island, Five Go Adventuring Again, Five Run Away Together, Five Go To Smuggler’s Top and Five Go Off In A Caravan. Produced in new paperback editions, these copies are distinguished by covers that have been commissioned from some of the UK’s very best illustrators.

Quentin Blake, who also takes on the role of overall factotum for the series of five books, providing a common introductory foreword to each one, has illustrated the cover for Five On A Treasure Island. He has produced a characteristic illustration of the Five in a row boat as they approach the treasure island of the title. Blake makes excellent use of white space to give a fresh feel to the overall drawing and his use of blue watercolour is very much a trade mark.

Oliver Jeffers has provided the illustration for Five Go To Smuggler’s Top and his drawing is full of action as a villain who has one of the Five tied to a chair is confronted by an uncharacteristically fearsome Timmy the dog. Five Go Off In A Caravan illustrated by the Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell, has a striking blood red cover and shows two of the five in a confident pose, accompanied by a quizzical-looking chimp, staring out at the reader.

Helen Oxenbury’s Five all appear on the cover of Five Go Adventuring Again and these children are very much more in the model of what you might think of as old-fashioned, traditional children. Exploring with torches one of the boys is wearing a school uniform and shorts and Timmy looks a considerably more reassuring family pet than that shown by Jeffers. By contrast, Emma Chichester-Clark gives us a group of very modern children running across a grassy hillock on her drawing for Five Run Away Together.

Each of the books carries a short endorsement for the project and for The House of Illustration on the inside front cover. It wasn’t until 2014 that Quentin Blake’s idea for a public gallery for illustrators actually opened its doors to visitors in the Kings Cross district of London. Projects like these books were an important part of building awareness for the need for such a gallery and, no doubt, made a contribution to its funding.

They are a lovely set and you’ll be able to buy the individual copies for quite modest prices and they are well worth collecting if you’re a fan of children’s book illustration.

Terry Potter

May 2017