IT’S enough to make Peter, Janet, Jack, Colin, George, Pam and Barbara drop their rock buns in astonishment.
Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven, first published in 1949, is being updated for the 21st Century after publisher, Hachette UK bought the rights to all her works. While the stories will remain the same, the language will be modernized, which might mean farewell to ‘jolly japes’, ‘golly gosh’, ‘mercy me’ and ‘cripes’.
The aim, according to Marlene Johnson, managing director of Hachette’s children’s books division, is to “catapult Blyton into contemporary society” so that young readers can relate more to the characters.
The Famous Five has already been brought into the digital age, with updated dialogue and new illustrations for modern-day children ahead of the quintet’s 70th birthday this year.
Now the book publisher is focusing on other classic novels by the famous author.
Ms Johnson told the Independent that they have “great plans for the future.”
She said: “We will look at all of the works.
“We modernised the Famous Five last year, amid much murmuring. But these days you don’t talk of jolly japes to kids.”
Hachette estimates it now has the rights to over 800 of her novels and short stories – some previously unpublished.
Despite some of Blyton’s books first being published in the 1920s, she was still the 20th best selling author in the UK last year, after more than 600 million of her books have been bought over the decades.
Her first book, a collection of poems called Child Whispers, was published in 1922, while the first Famous Five novel, ‘Five on a Treasure Island’, was published in 1942.