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Blow those timelines!Article by Ian Mander and Keith Robinson (December 2, 2005)This was sent in by Ian Mander, who clearly doesn't share Enid Blyton's happy delusion than children stop aging when they get to their teens... Five on a Treasure Island Five Go Adventuring Again Five Run Away Together Five Go To Smuggler's Top Five Go Off in a Caravan Five on Kirrin Island Again Five Go Off To Camp Five Get Into Trouble Five Fall Into Adventure Five on a Hike Together Five Have a Wonderful Time Five Go Down to the Sea Five Go to Mystery Moor Five Have Plenty of Fun Five on a Secret Trail Five Go to Billycock Hill Five Get Into a Fix Five on Finniston Farm Five Go to Demon's Rocks Five Have A Mystery To Solve Five Are Together Again Thanks for that list, Ian. I always saw Julian as thirteen or fourteen throughout all the books, but in fact he grows to at least the ripe old age of sixteen as pointed out by Uncle Quentin in Five Fall Into Adventure. Beyond that the details become fuzzy as the series continues to grow. This is probably a good thing, because the idea of Julian at twenty-three years old in the last book and STILL without a driver's license or girlfriend... well, it's just not right. And besides, he frequently puts on his "most grown-up voice" to cower the bad guys, such as in the nineteenth book, Five Go to Demon's Rocks. And in various books, the boys make hints (and direct comments) to indicate that they're "still just children"... That's not to mention any of the illustrations throughout the series, which clearly show children in the beginning, young men towards the middle, and then children again towards the end. Confused? I am. Another interesting point added by Ian is that Tinker is 9 years old in Five Go to Demon's Rocks and 11 in Five Are Together Again (as you'd expect since there are clearly two years between the two stories). So apparently Blyton did advance the ages of some of the characters when it suited her! Ian adds: I'm wondering if an "optimised" series listing could be made, where the adventures are not quite in chronological order and they have multiple adventures in each holidays except where they would expressly overlap, such as the last couple which both start on the first day of the Easter/April holidays (but maybe the Easter holiday was in March that year!) or when they refer to an adventure being the year before (which might partially explain why they don't mention adventures just a few months earlier). For me the list raises the question of why they had so many adventures in April. Maybe this would make more sense if I translated it to the southern hemisphere's equivalent of October... I suppose I always want to go adventuring in the spring! |
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