-Wednesday 28 March 2012 - The Independent
Cripes! The Secret Seven are off on a new adventure. They are shelving the jolly japes and following the Famous Five into the digital age, taking modern dialogue with them on their travels. Having modernised the Famous Five ahead of the quintet's 70th birthday this year, publisher Hachette UK has snapped up the rights to Enid Blyton's entire estate, excluding Noddy, and plans to bring more of her most famous characters into the 21st Century.
Marlene Johnson, the managing director of Hachette's children's books division, said that following the deal they had "great plans for the future".
These include new illustrations and updated language, as well as making many more Blyton works available for digital download. In all, it will "catapult Enid Blyton into contemporary society," she said. Hachette, which for some time has published the Famous Five under licence from Chorion, had already called in illustrators including Quentin Blake to "reinterpret" the intrepid child adventurers. There was controversy when the language of theFive was updated last year, but more of Blyton's work, including the Secret Seven and The Naughtiest Girl novels, are now set to ditch their lashings of pop and jolly hockey sticks.
"We will look at all of the works," Ms Johnson said. "We modernised the Famous Five last year, amid much murmuring. But these days you don't talk of jolly japes to kids."
Full story at The Independent.
-Wednesday 28 March 2012 - The Independent
Cripes! The Secret Seven are off on a new adventure. They are shelving the jolly japes and following the Famous Five into the digital age, taking modern dialogue with them on their travels.
Having modernised the Famous Five ahead of the quintet's 70th birthday this year, publisher Hachette UK has snapped up the rights to Enid Blyton's entire estate, excluding Noddy, and plans to bring more of her most famous characters into the 21st Century.
Marlene Johnson, the managing director of Hachette's children's books division, said that following the deal they had "great plans for the future".
These include new illustrations and updated language, as well as making many more Blyton works available for digital download. In all, it will "catapult Enid Blyton into contemporary society," she said. Hachette, which for some time has published the Famous Five under licence from Chorion, had already called in illustrators including Quentin Blake to "reinterpret" the intrepid child adventurers. There was controversy when the language of theFive was updated last year, but more of Blyton's work, including the Secret Seven and The Naughtiest Girl novels, are now set to ditch their lashings of pop and jolly hockey sticks.
"We will look at all of the works," Ms Johnson said. "We modernised the Famous Five last year, amid much murmuring. But these days you don't talk of jolly japes to kids."
Full story at The Independent.
Marlene Johnson, the managing director of Hachette's children's books division, said that following the deal they had "great plans for the future".
These include new illustrations and updated language, as well as making many more Blyton works available for digital download. In all, it will "catapult Enid Blyton into contemporary society," she said. Hachette, which for some time has published the Famous Five under licence from Chorion, had already called in illustrators including Quentin Blake to "reinterpret" the intrepid child adventurers. There was controversy when the language of theFive was updated last year, but more of Blyton's work, including the Secret Seven and The Naughtiest Girl novels, are now set to ditch their lashings of pop and jolly hockey sticks.
"We will look at all of the works," Ms Johnson said. "We modernised the Famous Five last year, amid much murmuring. But these days you don't talk of jolly japes to kids."
Full story at The Independent.