Famous Five Annual artwork

Original artwork for three Famous Five annuals, 'Five Go on a Hike' (Purnell, 1977), 'Five Have a Wonderful Time' (Purnell, 1981) and 'Five Go Off to Camp' (Purnell, 1984). These annuals were produced to tie-in with the Granada Television series based on the Famous Five novels by Enid Blyton. The artists are not identified on the artwork or in the published annuals, but significant differences in style suggest different artists were used for each annual.

Commissioned by Purnell for Famous Five Annuals to tie-in with television adaptations of the series produced in the late 1970s and 1980s. Illustrators are unknown, and how the artwork passed from the ownership of the publishing company into private hands is also unknown. These illustrations, along with others for the Famous Five Annuals, came up for public sale at the Cambridge Book and Print Gallery in 2012.

Artwork is arranged into files by annual title, with titles arranged in order of publication date.

Accessible to all researchers, by appointment only.

Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books, was established as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee in 1996, with the aims of preserving, maintaining and adding to a growing and accessible collection of archival material, artwork and printed books relating to modern British children's literature. The collection is intended to form part of the national heritage in an archive and library of present and future historical interest for the public benefit. (See Memorandum of Association)

The copyright status of this artwork is unknown, but copyright is assumed to reside with the publisher.

Purchased by Seven Stories from Cambridge Book and Print Gallery in July 2012.

For typescript drafts of several of Enid Blyton's Famous Five novels, see series EB/01/03 in the Enid Blyton Collection.