Headscratchers / The Famous Five

• What is their surname? They must all have the same one, as their fathers are stated (in Five on a Treasure Island, the first novel) to be brothers. The Famous Five Wiki says it's Kirrin, although this is never definitively confirmed in the books. It is stated that George's family used to own most of the land around the village of Kirrin, and they still own Kirrin Island. If everyone's surname is indeed Kirrin, though, surely that would mean that they are all part of the landowning family — with George's part of the family still owning what's left of the estate as (presumably) Quentin is the eldest son. Unless, of course, the landowning side of the family is Fanny's family — which would make more sense given that it is specifically George's family that still owns Kirrin Island, which she says she will own one day (Fanny having presumably inherited it as there were no sons in her generation, which is also the case with George who is an only child). In this case, though, they'd all have a different surname, as Kirrin would be Fanny's maiden name which (given the time at which the books were originally written) she'd've stopped using when she married Quentin.
  • It is stated in some of the later books, notably Five go to Demon's Rocks, where Quentin and Fanny are referred to as "Mr and Mrs Kirrin". However, it is inconsistent on whose side of the family George is related to the others. Five on a Treasure Island states that Quentin is the brother of the father of Julian, Dick and Anne, but in Five get into Trouble, Quentin refers to the mother of Julian, Dick and Anne as Fanny's sister. Incidentally, a radio programme "What happened to George?" which interviewed the children as adults mistakenly gave them the surname "Thompson".
• Five on a Treasure Island begins with the three siblings meeting their cousin George for first time. How come these cousins — who are of a similar age (being younger than Julian but older than Anne, George is probably the same age as Dick, the middle child of the siblings) — don't meet until they are all over the age of ten?
  • It is stated in the first few pages that the siblings' father and Uncle Quentin are brothers who have not exactly kept in touch — before being sent to stay with him when their parents opt to have a holiday without them, they've only ever seen him once. This is despite the fact that they have always holidayed in The West Country, which is where Kirrin (the coastal village where Quentin, Fanny and George live) is. If the family name is Kirrin (see above), it would be somewhat remiss of the siblings' parents not to have taken them to the place where they get their name from at some point, especially if they were holidaying in the area.
  • They are stated to have always holidayed at Polseath, which we can take to mean Polzeath in Cornwall. Kirrin, meanwhile, appears to be based on Lulworth in Dorset which, while also in the West Country, is not exactly nearby.
  • Although they could've visited on the way to (or from) Cornwall; not difficult to divert to the Dorset coast from the A303.
• In Five Go To Smuggler's Top, Sooty mentions that the secret passage has an entrance from the dining room. When George is desperate to rescue Timmy, why does she not use that entrance? Also, when they do get into the passage later, George says "Do you remember Sooty telling us there was a way into this passage from the dining room?", leading them to discover the way into the catacombs; but this still does not answer why she could not have entered the passage that way to rescue Timmy.
  • Also in this one, Sooty does not know Quentin's surname, leading him — when they are both kidnapped — to address him as "Uncle Quentin" rather than "Mr [insert surname here]". But surely, as a schoolmate of Julian and Dick, he knows their surname, in addition to which he knows Quentin is their uncle, so why does he not use their surname to address him? He'd have a 50-50 chance of getting it right (and actually would be right since, as stated above, Quentin is Julian and Dick's father's brother).
• In Five Have Plenty Of Fun, how come the kidnappers didn't realize that they got the wrong kid even after seeing her in broad daylight. They should have known how their target is supposed to look in the first place.
  • It is dark when George is kidnapped, and she just happens to have Berta's dog with her. The kidnappers say "that's the one, a girl dressed as a boy; and this is her dog, the poodle". Also, despite her yearning to be a boy, George does not really look like one with her curly hair; whereas Berta actually does look like a boy when she is dressed as one.

---