Five Go Adventuring Again was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1943, the year after Five on a Treasure Island had established the formula. This second book is set during the Christmas holidays, giving the story a different atmosphere from the first book’s summer adventure: there are fires in the grate, winter walks, and the cozy contrast between the warmth of Kirrin Cottage and the cold of the secret passage that the children discover.
The mystery involves Mr. Roland, a tutor hired by Uncle Quentin to supervise the children’s holiday studies, who turns out to be a spy interested in Uncle Quentin’s secret scientific research. The children are suspicious from the start — George dislikes Mr. Roland on sight, and Timmy growls at him — and their investigation leads them through a secret passage hidden behind a panel in the study to an underground room where the evidence they need is concealed.
The book introduces several elements that would become staples of the series: the secret passage (a recurring motif), the untrustworthy adult whose villainy the children detect before anyone else, and the emphasis on George’s intuition and Timmy’s instinctive judgments. Blyton had already mastered the technique of making adult authority both present (the children are ostensibly supervised) and ineffective (the adults are always wrong about who can be trusted), giving her child readers the vicarious thrill of being smarter than the grownups.
Collecting Five Go Adventuring Again
First edition (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1943): Blue cloth, dust jacket illustrated by Eileen Soper.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $500–$2,000
- Without jacket: $60–$150
- Later impressions: $20–$60