The River of Adventure, Enid Blyton
The Adventure series was always my favourite Enid Blyton set, and I've just got hold of a 1956 hardback copy of this one with the original Stuart Tresillian line drawings, which are lovely and bring back a lot of childhood memories. People say that Blyton books are too dated or racist or sexist for a 'modern' audience, and cherry-pick quotes as appropriate, but personally I feel that's a load of rubbish if you actually read them through. Ok, so a few bits date them, such as "the air hostess brought them a tray full of most delicious food. 'Why is the food always so super on a plane'..." - and very possibly: "Philip was giving his snake an airing". Ok, so in the 1950's people's minds probably weren't as filthy as they are now (well, mine, anyway)...
The River of Adventure sees the four children (Phillip, Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann) and Kiki the parrot off to foreign parts and warmer climes as they convalesce from the flu - additionally acting as a smokescreen for Bill, who's keeping an eye on shady character Raya Uma for the British government. Needless to say, the baddies intervene, the children get separated from the grown-ups and fall headlong into adventure, including snakes, waterfalls, underground tunnels and hidden treasure...
Enid Blyton books give good treasure, always of suitably spectacular proportions, and can also be counted on for plucky children and a variety of exciting scrapes and well described locations. Recommended for readers of any age that want a couple of hours' escapism.
posted by Izzy @ 6:14 pm
1 Comments:
I loved the Adventure series too - WAY better than the Famous Five stuff!
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