ENID BLYTON ADVENTURE BOXSET Paperback – 1 Jan. 2009

Beautifully packed in a gift sleeve. It is great to be able to relive the excitement and adventure from my youth when I basically learned to read and enjoy books courtesy of the "Famous Five" and the "Adventure" series. It's a shame that these paperbacks don't have any of the original illustrations , but the stories are still fantastic and I am hoping that my grandchildren enjoy them as much as I did. The seller of this set offered "above and beyond" service too, so that the box set arrived in top condition.

Brought back some fabulous memories reading with my dad.

Original texts so I'm happy to put my '70s versions to one side before they fall to pieces.

Famous Five get all the attention and dozens of adaptations in other media, but for me, growing up, it was all about The Adventure Series, which might be described as "Famous Five beyond Dorset". I have fond memories of my mother reading almost all of them to me over many months as I took my bath.Just a word about the 'politically correct' edits, which have ironed out some of the uglier stereotypes: I recently read the original Doctor Dolittle to my son and I was so shocked at its casual racism that I considered bailing out before we were done. They were different times, and people - even successful children's authors - knew no better. No doubt our own values today will appear equally barbaric in a few decades time. Most important of all, the edits don't detract one bit from the thrill of the stories about picnics, mysterious ruins, caves, passages, strange nocturnal goings-on, missing treasure, voyages by boat, plane or caravan, and the inevitable thwarting of dastardly (but mostly non-scary) criminal gangs.The main thing I miss from the original editions are the line illustrations. They are omitted entirely, and this is a shame. You can glimpse chunks of the lovely original ink-and-wash cover art on the front and back of each volume, but frankly, those pictures got butchered too. I suppose this set was put together at the lowest budget (other folks here have complained about the flimsy 'box' - and they're not kidding).Never mind. It's excellent value. (And psst: You can find a lot of the original illustrations with a google image search for "Stuart Tresilian Adventure Series"). The stories are great fun. If you've already been through a few Famous Five adventures, you'll discover that Kiki the talking parrot is much more entertaining than Timmy the dog, and that it's refreshing to get away from Dorset - even to other countries.Your kids will love the exotic scenarios, and you'll enjoy reading them out loud.

My great granddaughter loved the books, especially when she learned that they were my favorites when I was her age and read all Enid Blyton avidly

Well worth the cost and will be read more than once!

Really good book set

Ba humbug to the woke brigade