The Famous Five (series)

The Famous Five is Enid Blyton's most popular and celebrated series of children's books. The sequence began life in 1942, when the first book, Five on a Treasure Island was published, and it has won great acclaim from both fans and critics. The series has gone on to become amongst the best-loved stories ever to have been written for children.

The series feature a fictional group of children - Julian, Dick, Anne and George - and their dog Timmy. Blyton also created several such groups for her detective series, including The Secret Seven and the curiously titled Five Find-Outers and Dog, but the Famous Five are the best-known and most popular of these.

Blyton only intended to write about 6 to 8 books in the series but, owing to their high sales and immense commercial success, she went on to write 21 full-length books featuring these memorable characters. Indeed, by the end of 1953, more than 6 million copies of these books had been printed and sold.