Things I didn't notice about the Famous Five when I was a child.

This is potentially the first in a series, given we are currently on Book 1, and there are 20 still to go!

1) Dick is aptly named.  In fact, by rights Julian should have been called Dick, and Dick could have been called Slightly-less-of-a-dick.  How did I not notice how patronising and vile they are to their sister.  I would absolutely love it if in one of the books Anne gave them a sucker punch, followed by chinese burns, followed by a wedgie, and then ran away.  However, I am fairly sure I would have remembered that if she had.

2) Timmy the dog is called "Timothy" all the way through Book 1.  I am sure he's just Timmy later on.  Or am I imagining this?

3) George's gender ishoooos.  I remember not really being in the least bit interested that George is constantly battling some kind of inner gender crisis, that makes her extremely upset when she does something which she perceives to be "for girls", eg giving Anne a hug.  Also she makes the fisher boy call her "Master George".  A and C were very interested as to why this was.  We talked about how when the books were written there were very strong traditions as to which activities were deemed to be for boys, and which were OK for girls.  I don't remember having any interest in this myself, apart from thinking "but George is a girl's name!" at the beginning, as I had an Auntie Georgina who was always, always known as George.  In fact, I think I thought that was her given name.  And she was quite obviously a girl, as she was a Mummy who had babies!

Ah well.  From what I recall, once the mysteries get going, they are what make the books worth reading.  Because at the moment, I am finding it hard going.