Five Get into Trouble

Enid Blyton's Five Get into Trouble is a Famous Five mystery for 9 year olds about a cycling holiday and a boy who's far more trouble than he looks.

What happens

It's the eighth Famous Five book. Uncle Quentin has muddled his dates again and has to go to a conference right in the middle of the Easter holidays. So Julian, Dick, George and Anne talk their way into a cycling tour with their new tents. Timmy goes too, of course (George reckons he's as good as two grown-ups).

The first day is pure holiday. A picnic in a primrose wood, ginger beer and ice creams, and a night sleeping out under the stars beside a lake. George even eats one of Timmy's sausage-meat sandwiches by mistake!

Then they meet Richard. He's swimming in the lake one morning and tells them it belongs to his father, Thurlow Kent, one of the richest men in the country. He talks big about his father's rages and his bodyguards. Julian and Dick don't believe half of it.

Richard is spoilt and a bit of a show-off. He takes George for a boy and wants to fight her (she's secretly rather pleased). He tags along for a day on the bikes, then vanishes up his aunt's drive with a very quick goodbye. Isn't that a bit odd? The others certainly think so.

That evening, deep in Middlecombe Woods, Dick and Anne hear someone yelling for Julian. It's Richard, crashing through the trees in a panic and begging for Timmy. And that's where the trouble really starts.

It's a proper old-fashioned holiday story. Half the fun is the food (there's a LOT of food) and the teasing between the cousins. Richard is very easy to dislike, and it's super satisfying when Julian puts him firmly in his place.

It's worth knowing that some of the ideas about boys and girls here are very much of their time. Julian tells Richard you don't fight girls, and Dick calls Anne a proper little housewife for getting supper ready. Richard also chats about whether fathers whip their children and about a bodyguard who kicked the dogs.

If your reader is likely to spot those, they're easy things to talk about together. For lots of children they'll sail straight past in all the excitement.

What to read next

If sleeping out in tents is the bit they love, try Five Go Off To Camp. The cousins pitch up on the high moors with dreamy Mr Luffy supposedly keeping an eye on them (he's the one Aunt Fanny remembers here).