Though Edith Nesbit, the author of The Railway Children, made a mint from her writing for young people, I think that Enid Blyton earned considerably more. In excess of 500 million copies of her books have been sold around the world. With the possible exception of the Noddy series, none have a higher profile than the 21 books involving The Famous Five. These were written over 20 years from 1942. Mine, I guess, was the first generation to read them in their entirety, for anyone older than I would have grown out of them before the last two or three were published. Aged nine, I gobbled up Five Have a Mystery to Solve in 1961 but remember thinking the following year, when the last adventure Five Are Together Again came out, that I could not really be doing with more. I was glad when Miss Blyton obliged me in the matter.

This week — as a special service to readers — I considered making a long-delayed return to the oeuvre, following the republication of the tales (Hodder Children’s Books, £4.99) with the language brought more up to date. No more “lashings of ginger beer”, one supposes. (Instead of being “jolly lonely” one character is now just “lonely”, apparently.) But after a dozen pages, in the fashion of Dorothy Parker, I threw Five on a Treasure Island from me with great force, realising that the adventures of Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the Dog (whom I had yet to remeet) no longer had any power to beguile me.

On reflection, though, I should have been rather worried if they had . . .