An adventure involving custom duties
I will have to say that I quite enjoyed this book, especially with the nice little twist at the end. Okay, when I was a pre-teen I pretty much read all of the Famous Five books (I have to watch out because I almost wrote that in German) and loved them. In fact I couldn't get enough of them and even jumped over to the Secret Seven when there were no more Famous Five books to read. However it just did not seem to be the same. Later on, there are comments that the five are caught in an endless time warp of school holidays and pre-pubescent teenagerhood, however at this stage it is not the case. I do wonder if I were to try to experiment in the same way whether I would have my 'Famous Five' grow up, in the same way that Harry Potter grows up. Personally, I could not allow my characters over a series of books to remain trapped in a form of endless youth, but then we will see if I ever get to that point.
The first thing that struck me about this book was how silly the adult Kirrins seem to be. This is the third novel and it is the second time that they have hired some rather less than trustworthy individuals. Okay, the tutor in book 2 was actually quite charming, and had everybody except George and Tim eating out of his hand. However, I suspect Blyton was right when she created Timothy as a dog who is able to sniff out rather suspicious individuals. Personally, with my experience with dogs, I have not actually encountered any that would instinctively point out a bad guy; they normally they react to strangers the same way their masters behave, or else distrust anybody they do not know.
As for the Sticks, one wonders why Uncle Quentin even consider such suspicious individuals. Mrs Stick, right from the beginning, seemed outright suspicious. From when you first meet her, and her family, you do not like her. Further, her behaviour and treatment of the five would be tantamount to child abuse today. However, this was written in the early 1940s (during the war, surprise, surprise, though there is hardly any mention of it, but then I guess it is because this book is meant to be timeless, or at least as timeless as the period in which it was written allows). These days one simply cannot hire anybody off the street to look after children, and if one does so without performing the proper checks, then one could also get oneself in trouble. These days the law protects children much more than it did back in the 1940s. While some may argue that we may be going just a little overboard, I will suggest that this recognition of the vulnerability of children is a sign of us becoming mature.
It is also interesting that despite George and Tim uncovering the tutor's plot to steal Uncle Quentin's research in the last adventure, Uncle Quentin still does not learn to trust George and Tim's judgement. This, to me, shows a lack of wisdom on Uncle Quentin's part. Personally, I do sympathise with George because, even though I do love my Dad, I must admit that I experienced that from him when I was younger as well. However, I will not be using this forum to criticise my own father, simply because, like the rest of us, he is human, and I must admit that my actions in the past probably leant to his distrust of him. However, to have a wretched individual make accusations against you, and then you not being allowed to defend yourself is not a nice position to be in, especially when your superior seems to use any excuse that comes about to criticise and condemn your actions.
There was one interesting review I read of this book, and that was when a seven year old girl asked her father about a custom duty. It is interesting that Blyton uses this concept in this story. It is apparently about Smugglers, and in a way these days many custom duties have been removed. Another term would be tariffs. It is suggested that this seven year old girl is not alone in not understanding the concept of custom duties because I suspect that 90% of the population does not understand custom duties, and the 10% who do are probably benefiting financially from them. However, these days many places have removed them (usually through gunboat diplomacy) but they are a measure to protect a country's manufacturing base. Developed countries love to jack up tariffs so that poorer countries don't have an unfair advantage in being able to produce cheaper goods, however my argument is that they tend to hurt the consuming public more. If I buy an Asterix book in Australia (one of the Compendiums) I will be paying $35.00 for them, however over the internet I can get it, postage included, at half price. Once again, like the little girl, it is completely baffling to me as to why there us such a remarkable difference in price. Oh well, I guess I will have to wait if I want to pay a discount, though I must admit, is not really a bad thing.
Hmm, it looks as if I have not actually had much to say about this book. I guess that is also a good thing because I have not actually spoilt the adventure. I guess the other thing though is that I am not surprised that Blyton did not use guns or drugs as a reason behind the smuggler's operations since this is a children's book (though there was another Bylton book that I read that did involve gun smuggler's).
