Pamela Butchart

This is a modern continuation novel of the Secret Seven series created by Enid Blyton. This has been done for other Blyton series and it has even been done successful (I'm referring to the Malory Towers and the St. Clare's continuation novels by Pamela Cox, which have a similar feel to the originals). This one is not so successful, in my opinion.

The feel of this novel is just too different to the source material. There are some things that you expect to be updated in a modern continuation novel. For example, in the originals, written shortly after WWII, the girls are usually protected, or kept away from the most daring parts of the adventure (like sneaking out at night to watch some mysterious site). You would expect something written now to avoid differentiating gender roles this way. However, it can be done in a natural, smooth manner, without calling attention to the differences. Instead, Pamela Butchart, with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, is always making a point of calling the reader's attention to it, having the boys cringe in fear at the sight of a spider, or at the idea of sneaking into someplace at night, while the girls brush away the spider with their bare hands or fight among themselves to be the one to do whatever terrifies the boys.

The language is also updated, with the children using expressions like "calm your pants", although mercifully they do not blatantly use modern technology, leaving the question of whether this is set in the mid-20th century or in modern times relatively ambiguous. I say relatively, because multiple details point to a modern setting, like for example the restaurant where the children go, which offers a vegetarian alternative menu.

The dynamics between the Secret Seven is also changed. This is not a completely bad thing, because one problem with Blyton's originals is that sometimes some of the children didn't get much to do. However, they get multiple extraordinary abilities (for example the girls disguise themselves as old ladies and fool multiple adults for extended periods of time), they act with the confidence of adults, compared to the originals where the Seven were basically little children. They talk to each other in a very different manner compared to the originals. Added to all the other things, like the stylistic differences in writing, and to the fact that the kind of mystery also feels quite different, adding (mild) horror elements, having foreigners in the formerly rural and provincial town where the children live...

One starts to wonder what's the point of making this a continuation novel at all. Sure, the characters' names are the same, and it keeps some of the trappings of the series (the passwords, Susie trying to spoil things, even though she only gets a cameo), but other than that there's not much to make it feel like part of the same series. I'm saying this from the perspective of an adult. The book is not awful, and I think that children readers, who after all are the _target audience, might still enjoy this one, but as an adult reader I feel it could have been better as its own thing, rather than making it part of a series whose spirit it does not follow.

Am I being too purist? Maybe, but for me if a continuation novel doesn't feel like it might have been part of the original series, what's the point of it?… (more)

A spin off book from the usual Izzy books, where four Shakespeare stories (Hamlet, Macbeth, Dream and R&J) are told by Izzy in her usual style, with some very light wrap-around of the lives of Izzy and the gang.

Fun, quick to read and enjoyable, if you want to read Shakespeare plots in Butchart's charactoristic style you will like these. I didn't think the additional flourishes* quite worked though, they felt contrived and a bit pointless, but I guess if you're writing Yet Another Shakespeare Retelling you're going to want to try and do something novel with it.

*Things like Oberon and Titania are arguing over a cat, and Titania gets to keep the cat, the Capulets and Montigues are feuding over a hoover, and Hamlet is always equivocating over going to the toilet (and wees himself when fighting with Laertes)… (more)