In the midst of World War Two, Enid Blyton [below] continued writing. The first of her Famous Five series, Five on a Treasure Island, was published on September 11, 1942, in London by Hodder & Stoughton [below]. Next in the series was Five Go Adventuring Again, published in 1943.

[photo: Wikipedia]

Illustrator of the first edition was Eileen A Soper, who illustrated her own books and those for Elisabeth Gould as well as Blyton. Her series of designs of children and animals were used for a china series by Paragon China in the 1930s.

The current Hodder Children’s edition [above] dates from 2017.
BUY

The story
Three children – Julian, Dick and Anne – spend their summer holidays with their Aunt and Uncle at Kirrin Cottage, in the village of Kirrin. There they meet their tomboy cousin Georgina, who prefers to be called George, and George’s dog Timmy. And so they become five. Exploring the nearby Kirrin Island, a storm descends and stirs up an old shipwreck from beneath the waves. Exploring the wreck, the five find a treasure map in a box and decide to find the gold. But when Uncle Quentin sells the box to an antique dealer, he wants the gold too.

Other editions

Films
The 1957 film, Five on a Treasure Island, starred Rel Grainger, Gillian Harrison, Richard Palmer and John Bailey, with Daga as Timmy. Watch it at You Tube.
Or watch the part one of the first episode of the 1995 television series, starring Jemima Rooper, Marco Williamson, Paul Child, Laura Petela and Connal as Timmy.
Read more about the Famous Five, and Enid Blyton’s other books, here.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkien
‘Watership Down’ by Richard Adams

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND by Enid Blyton #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3VL via @SandraDanby