Should they grow up

As Enid Blyton’s Famous Five are all set to grow up, we asks authors what do they think of this gentle parody

Most of us may not have expected to see this day but Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five have grown up. The sleuthing quintet comprising Julian, George, Dick, Anne and Timmy, the dog, who had their first adventure in 1942 in The Famous Five and The Treasure Island, will soon be seen as adults trying to decode the mysteries of, well, adulthood. Publishing House Quercus has announced a spoof series of four books called Enid Blyton for Grown-ups. Penned by humourist Bruno Vincent, the titles include Five Give Up the Booze, Five Go Gluten Free, Five Go On A Strategy Away Day and Five Go Parenting — all of which are expected to hit the shelves in November. While Enid Blyton’s youngest daughter Imogen Smallwood reportedly expressed her shock at the development and said that she doesn’t “want to think about it”, there have been mixed views about whether or not a spoof of the series is a good idea. While some think it is harmlessly playful, there are those who are sceptical about blurring the lines between children and adult literature. Closer home, however, authors don’t seem to mind the idea of a gentle parody.

“When things are successful, there are bound to be imitations,” says Manju Kapur, author of the Commonwealth Prize-winning Difficult Daughters. “No author is so sacrosanct that they cannot be spoofed, or imitated, or have people taking off on them,” she adds. Author and ad person, Anuja Chauhan is also of the same opinion. “Everybody is being spoofed these days. Spoofs are actually quite flattering; you should have the sense of humour to take it. As long as it’s funny and not dark or deviant, I don’t see a problem with it,” she says.

From what has been known about the books so far, it seems, they could well tickle the funny bone. In Five Go Gluten Free, for instance, the grown-up former crime-solvers try out different cures for their health issues. While Fred’s self-diagnosis causes him to think he has bird flu, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and pancreatic cancer, Annie tries to get herself exorcised and Dick goes to see someone that he thinks is a homeopath but is actually a witch doctor. George then comes up with the perfect solution and the five go on an exclusion diet, that comprises ridiculously expensive and hard-to-find specialty foods.

Delhi-based Arunava Sinha who has translated several children’s books from Bengali to English sees no harm in the blending of genres. “Had they taken the kids from the books and put them in adult situations, it would be disturbing. But in this case, it’s almost like they’re new characters with the same names. And most people who have read Enid Blyton books are themselves grown up, some are old, so there’s always that nostalgia which might cause them to respond to their favourite character now as grownups. As to whether this series will make the bestseller list, that would depend on how good they are. I’m definitely going to try them out.” He also points out how this is not the first time that characters have grown up in a series. “An example would be Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women where Good Wives isn’t really a children’s book and the characters are all grown up with grown-up problems in the second book,” he says. If given a choice, Arunava says that he’d like to see his favourite childhood hero from the B engali detective series Feluda, put in a 21st Century context, as has been done in the Sherlock Holmes series.

Indian writer and yoga expert Ira Trivedi, who is a self-confessed fan of The Famous Five, seems excited about the idea. “I want to see how the Five shape up as grown ups. I’m sure there will be plenty of curiosity about that and I will probably pick up the books myself,” she says.

Anuja Chauhan, however, is not as excited. “For me, the most depressing thing about Harry Potter was the last chapter where Harry has two kids and Hermione has grey hair. I think it’s best to keep our childhood heroes like Peter Pan.”

Mumbai-based author Jerry Pinto echoes a similar sentiment. “You wouldn’t want Dennis the menace to grow up or know what Charlie Brown might be doing as an adult. But you have to love them as children to want to protect them as children.” Anuja does believe that it’s a smart move on the creators’ part. “Besides finding favour with adults, it might even spark an interest in revisiting the original series which is not as popular with kids nowadays,” she says.

According to Jerry, it ultimately depends on the plot and not the hype surrounding the series, which will determine its success. “Sometimes spoofs have outdone the original, like Old Father William by Lewis Carrol in Alice’s Book of Adventures, which is a spoof on a moral poem of the time and the moral poem has been wiped out. But that’s rare. It’s not as challenging as inventing a comic routine that is entirely new but ultimately it depends on whether it is a fun read. If the book is fun, it excuses everything. If it’s not people won’t read it.”