Monday, January 21, 2008
Overview
| Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are siblings. During their holidays, they are regularly sent to the seaside town of Kirrin to stay with their Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin, whose daughter, Georgina, is a tomboy always known as George. The stories almost always take place in the children's holidays when they come home from their respective boarding schools. Every time they get together, they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book. Sometimes the scene is set close to George's home at Kirrin Cottage: "Kirrin Island", a picturesque island in Kirrin Bay, for example, presents many opportunities for adventure. Since both George's own home and various other houses are hundreds of years old, there is room for much in the way of secret passages or smugglers' tunnels, which play a central role in the plot of several books in the series. On other occasions, the children may go camping or hiking or be sent on holiday together elsewhere, but they are always accompanied by George's dog, Timothy, affectionately known to the children as Timmy. The settings, however, are almost always rural and enable the children to discover the simple joys of cottages, picnics, ginger beer, bicycle trips, home-made food, islands, sea shores, and always have a thrilling adventure. Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known: in her later life, she admitted that that girl was herself. |
