The Secret Seven – delumptious and scrumplicious

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 7th May 2013

Enid Blyton - Secret SevenIt’s 45 years since Enid Blyton died but she’s still one of the best-known and best-loved children’s writers ever. Her books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, been translated into 90 languages and adapted countless times for film and TV.

So  it’s pretty smart of Seven Stories, the national children’s literature centre in Newcastle, to launch a massive Enid Blyton exhibition.

Mystery, Magic and Midnight Feasts, the Many Adventures of Enid Blyton opened on Saturday (May 4) and I can’t wait to visit when I’m next in the north east. But in the meantime I’ve had another Blyton treat to enjoy.

Hodder Children’s Books has just published new editions of the first seven Secret Seven stories, with the next seven coming out in July.

They kindly sent me a copy of the first, The Secret Seven. And what a treat. With a new cover by Tony Ross (of Horrid Henry and Gangsta Granny fame) and loads of extra material (like a Secret Seven quiz and details of how to launch your own Secret Seven club), it’s heaven in a children’s book.

Years after reading my first Blyton book (First Term at Malory Towers, still my all-time favourite), I curled up on the sofa and read it over the Bank Holiday. I was instantly transported back to my childhood, when I devoured the adventures of the seven children (and Scamper the golden spaniel) who meet every holiday in the shed at the bottom of Peter and Janet’s garden to solve mysteries, eat oatmeal biscuits and drink blackcurrant tea. If blackcurrant tea sounds exotic it’s actually the Secret Seven’s own invention – blackcurrant jam mixed with boiling water and sugar.

“Delumptious and scrumplicious – that just describes everything nicely,” declares Barbara after drinking hers. I couldn’t have put it better myself.


4 comments so far

  • Oh I did love EB! I love another EB now Emma as you do? But back to the book one – I can’t understand why she is criticised. I devoured her stuff when I was a schoolgirl but haven’t tried them lately! Not sure I’m keen on the cover though!

  • My Mum and I used to search through the book stall at the school fair to find Enid Blyton books, I devoured them! I think the criticism is just nasty snobbery.

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