Five Go to Smuggler's Top is the fourth book in the Famous Five series by the British author Enid Blyton. Still, they are highly entertaining and useful cultural history lesson (of a certain set of people). It’s weird reading them out loud with my American accent (but my son won’t even let me try to affect a British one), especially when they use British slang or manner of speaking. But I’m entertained by the dichotomy, even if my son doesn’t notice. This entry in the Famous Five series is really quite dark. The book starts with the top floor of George's house being completely destroyed by storm damage. George's parents, feeling that the house is a dangerous place for George and the rest of the gang (who were staying with George at the time of the storm) to be around (fair enough) decide to send the kids to stay with a complete stranger who George's father has received a letter from concerning his scientific research. This guy turns out to be a drooling psychopath who swiftly murders the four children and their little dog too! OK, not really... BUT HE COULD HAVE BEEN is my point. It turns out that this chap is extremely grumpy and lives at the top of an island (which I'm pretty sure is a thinly disguised St. Michael's Mount, complete with a causeway and everything) that turns out to be honeycombed with secret smugglers' tunnels. Guess who's still using the smugglers' tunnels? That's right: smugglers. Who could have possibly seen that coming?! Julian plays his part by asserting his authority now and again and thank goodness for his strength and Goodness to guide them all as they plunge deeper into the mystery and attempt to sort things out.

The title Smuggler's Top indicates that it was named after only one smuggler. But somehow Smugglers' Top doesn't look right, even though it's grammatically correct for a place named after many smugglers of the past. But that's just semantics; I think the title works fine as it is. It reminds me a little of wasps' nest—I'd seen it written as wasp's nest and thought, "My, that must have been a big wasp!" Five go to smuggler's top" was actually one of the last Five books I read, even though it is number 4 in the series. It was hard to find a copy originally, and I had to make do with a more modern publication than some of the others I own. But here the solitariness of the book is dull as grain. I have no idea why I am writing so much about a book that I disdain, but sometimes muses have minds of their own. Do not read this book without preparing for it. Do not expect all Famous Five books to be created equal, for some are moreso than others. This book ought not to have seen the light of the day.

Now Uncle Quentin, who in book one was writing formulas in his secret books and brewing stuff in test tubes, seems to have morphed into a civil engineer and is collaborating with their new host, Mr Lenoir, to drain the swamp, in a literal rather than Trumpian, sense. P.S. - Bizarrely, this is the only book in the Famous Five series (which is twenty two books long) that doesn't have an unabridged version available on Audible. The book is on Audible, but only in the dreaded abridged format. I mean, seriously, who wants to read an abridged version of a book? I'm kind of disgusted that abridging books is even a thing, to be honest. Having established that her books have exciting story lines it has to be said that they are very restricted in the vocabulary they use. This is probably partly why kids love them of course! And there's absolutely no harm in reading this type of easy book with lots of repetition for pleasure, as an extra outside school. But there is a plethora of other options - books which are not contentious in this way, where the attitudes shown are far less questionable and socially damaging. According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.

Maybe Enid Blyton or one of her countless ghostwriters thought to borrow somewhat from gothic tales. Maybe she wanted to imitate Poe among all people. We will never know. Good. The less we know about the intricacies of this book the better. Which is why you see me not rehashing any part of the stories. I'm merely here to warn off would be readers to either avoid this book, or to lower their expectations to ankle level.The Kirrin children plus dog are required to abandon Kirrin Cottage because a tree falls on the roof and messes up their bedrooms so they're are sent to Smuggler's Top on Castaway Hill whilst repairs are carried out. To obtain a reasonable image of their venue take a look at a picture of St. Michael's Mount in the Cornwall area or its counterpart in France — better still, hunt out the Bill Bartlett print of Rye in Sussex. The resemblance is pretty good. Smuggler's Top is continually shrouded in mist and the surrounding marsh is very threatening to anyone who steps off the tried and true paths so the four children plus dog are entering a fairly alien environment where they will be staying with a scientist friend of George's father — a Mr Lenoir. If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader.