Ordinary Gweilo

When I first saw the books, I thought that it was simply a bit of clever marketing, but it turns out that they have updated the Famous Five for the new millenium with four new characters (Jo, Max, Allie & Dylan) who are supposed to be the children of George, Julian, Dick & Anne.  That makes no sense, because the first book was published in 1942, at which point Julian was 12, Dick & George were 11, and Anne was 10.  Which would make it rather unlikely that their children would be teenagers in 2008.  Admittedly they were still the same age 21 years later when Enid Blyton published the 21st and final book in the series, but even so, it doesn't seem quite right.

Even better, we are asked to believe that tomboy George went off to the Himalayas, met an Indian called Raavi, and they had a daughter called Jyoti  (but known as Jo), and that Annie moved to California after University and is now a successful art dealer, with a daughter called Allie.  Which takes care of the whole multicultural thing – clearly they wouldn't have got away with having four white, English, middle-class children.  You'll be relieved to hear that the dog is still called Timmy, and that no-one has bothered to give him a back story.

OK, actually these are not really new books.  Instead they are novelizations of a new Disney Channel TV series made by the company who now own the rights to Enid Blyton's name and all her characters.  So I guess they can do whatever they want.