enid Blyton

GONE are the lashings of ginger beer, sensible sweaters and rubber bands to ensnare villains. The Famous Five have undergone a radical 21st-century makeover for a new Disney cartoon series. But instead of crawling through secret tunnels with nothing more than a penknife and a ball of string, the iPod-wearing children fight off their enemies using mobile phones and other modern-day gadgets.

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword. Writer Duncan McClaren claims Enid Blyton's innocent children’s stories were anything but. The imaginative mystery writer used codes such as anagrams to disguise the domestic spite injected into her works. Her first husband takes a beating throughout her fifteen volume Mystery series.