Famous Five (2nd Edition)

Enid Blyton's The Famous Five Adventures, A Pepys Game

First Published: 1978, A Pepys Game by Castell Larby Ltd. and T.J & J Smith Ltd., Deer Park Road, London

Illustrator or Designer: Not Credited

Contents: 44 Cards + Fold-Out Rules Leaflet

Famous Five (2nd Edition) Box Front With Title Card

"This game is based on four of the books about the adventures of the "Five", and the pictures on the cards are all of exciting incidents from the books."

Each set has 8 cards and 1 specific Danger card. There are also 2 General Danger cards and 6 All Safe cards.

Yellow cards are from "Five on a Treasure Island", Blue cards from "Five go to Smuggler's Top", Purple from "Five go off in a Caravan" and Pink "Five get into Trouble.

Famous Five Yellow Cards: Landing on Kirrin Island, THE STORM, The Old Wreck thrown up in the Storm, The Map found in the Wreck, Timmy rescues the Map! The entrance to the Dungeons, Down in the Dungeons, The finding of the cave of Gold Ingots. Danger Card: Men are after the Gold, too!

Famous Five Blue Cards: Off in the car to Castaway Hill, Smuggler’s Top, The Sliding Panel, The Mysterious Light in the Tower, What are the lights across the Marsh?, Who gets out of the Window-seat in the night?, Down in the Smugglers’ Tunnel, ESCAPE!. Danger Card: The Enemy Watches.

Famous Five Purple Cards: Setting off in Two Caravans, Arriving at Merran Lake, The Circus Camp, Two Angry Men, Pongo to the Rescue!, The Hole in the Ground!, Prisoners Underground!, Everyone all right!. Danger Card: Poisoned Meat for Timmy!

Famous Five Pink Cards: Setting off on Bicycles, Meeting with Richard, What’s happening in the Moonlight, Something happens to Richard!, Trapped at Owl’s Dene!, Strange Secret!, Richard goes for Help, RESCUE!. Danger Card: The Big Gates closing to prevent the Children escaping.

Famous Five cards: 2 General Danger and 6 All Safe cards.

The Famous Five 1st Edition of 1951 was reissued and redrawn for this 2nd Edition. A TV series, based on the books was produced by Southern for ITV in 1978 with a second series running in 1979. So the original Eileen A. Soper illustrations were replaced with ones that looked (a little) more like the TV actors. In effect the game was a TV tie-in but oddly there is no mention of Southern, or the series, on the box or in the rules.

In all there were 26 half-hour episodes of the TV series, they can be still be found today on streaming services. The clip below features clips from the programmes set to the Theme Song.

The backs of the cards and box have the mark © 1978 Darrell Waters Ltd. Darrell Waters Ltd was the company Enid Blyton formed with her second husband, Kenneth Darrell Waters, in around 1950. The purpose of the company was to coordinate her complex financial and literary affairs. Darrell Walters was not the illustrator, as is sometimes claimed.

The Enid Blyton Society have a copy of this game produced after T.J. & J. Smith bought Pepys from Castell Larby, the only visible difference is the substitution of their name for Castell Larby's in the rules, perhaps the T.J. & J. Smith box differs in some way too?

The 1st Edition of the game.

Famous Five 1st Edition

The 1st and 2nd Edition packs featured here were part of Rex Pitts' personal collection.

Game & Version Details

	Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Card Back
	​​Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Rules Front The front cover of the rule book is the same as the 1st Edition. It has not been redrawn and does not match the card backs of the 2nd Edition.
	Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Rules Back
	Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Box Back
	​Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Box Top
	​ Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Box Side Left
	Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Box Base
	​Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Box Side Right
	​Famous Five (2nd Ed) - Box Back With Flap