The Secret Seven

The Secret Seven or "Secret Seven Society" are a fictional group of child detectives created by Enid Blyton. They appear in one of several juvenile detective series Blyton wrote.

The Secret Seven consists of Peter (the society's leader), Janet (Peter's sister), Jack, Barbara, George, Pam and Colin. Jack's sister Susie and her best friend Binkie often make an appearance in the books; they hate the Secret Seven and delight in playing tricks designed to humiliate them, although much of this is fuelled by their almost obsessive desire to belong to the society.

Unlike most other Blyton series, this one takes place during the school term time because the characters go to day schools.

There are fifteen books, which in chronological order are:

1. The Secret Seven (1949)
2. Secret Seven Adventure (1950)
3. Well Done Secret Seven (1951)
4. Secret Seven on the Trail (1952)
5. Go Ahead Secret Seven (1953)
6. Good Work Secret Seven (1954)
7. Secret Seven Win Through (1955)
8. Three Cheers Secret Seven (1956)
9. Secret Seven Mystery (1957)
10. Puzzle for the Secret Seven (1958)
11. Secret Seven Fireworks (1959)
12. Good Old Secret Seven (1960)
13. Shock for the Secret Seven (1961)
14. Look Out Secret Seven (1962)
15. Fun for the Secret Seven (1963)

The Secret Seven also appeared in seven short stories by Blyton, including a mini-novella explaining how the Secret Seven was formed. These were left uncollected until 1998, when they were released by Hodder under the title of Secret Seven: Short Story Collection.

Characters

Main characters

• Peter - the society's leader and the most mature of the group. Peter has grown up with very strong ideas about right and wrong. However, he can be bossy and is occasionally downright unreasonable, reducing Pam and Barbara to tears and on one occasion, even prompting Jack to leave the group.
• Janet - Peter's sister and second-in-command to Peter. Janet is very good at noticing things and remembering them. She is a lot more headstrong than the other girls in the group and her arch-enemy is Susie. She is a lot braver than the other girls and also takes her work seriously. She is very good friends with Pam. She also gets well along with Jack. She thinks of many good ideas.
• Jack - Peter's best friend. He is one of the most efficient group members. He is frequently annoyed with his younger sister, Susie, and also has a tendency to forget the password. He gets along well with everyone in the group, especially Peter, but he is the only member who will willingly stand up to Peter if he feels that Peter's rules are unfair, to the extent that he once left the group after an argument (although he reconciled with them at the end). He lives very near to Peter and Janet. He thinks Janet is lot better than the other girls and wishes Susie was like Janet.But now he is servant of The Secret Seven Society as Suise took his place.
• Pam - A girl at Janet's school. Her best friend is Barbara and she giggles a lot.
• Barbara - Another girl at Janet's school. She always agrees with Pam even if her ideas are worthless. She sometimes works with Janet. The two girls giggle a lot and don't do much actual work, making them quite poor members of the society.
• Colin - A boy at Peter's school. Colin is quite a valuable member of the society. He has a very large family, most of which live with him.
• George - A boy at Peter's school. His best friend is Colin. His father once banned him from the society, but he later realized his mistake and let George rejoin. Not much else is known about him.
• Scamper - Janet and Peter's pet dog and beloved companion. He is not an official member of the Secret Seven, but many members count him as one, due to his regular usefulness in the denouement of the stories. He has temporarily filled in for members when they have left the group for whatever reason.

Suise-A very good member of The Secret Seven who joined Secret Seven very late as a servant.But as for now Peter made Jack the servant and Suise a member as he realised that Suise is more intelligent than Jack.So Jack always fights with Suise for taking his palce back.

Supporting characters

• Susie - Jack's younger sister who frequently aggravates him. However, she has a burning desire to join the Society but Peter regularly refuses her. This is actually a disadvantage for Peter, as Susie is actually very clever and cunning and would be a very valuable member. However, as she can't join, she continues to torment the Society.
• Binkie - Susie's best friend, who stays with her sometimes. Binkie is described as being very stupid and idiotic, and it is unknown why she is friends with Susie.
• Jack the farmer - Jack the farmer is Peter and Janet's father. He is quite strict, but has taught Peter some very strong ideas about right and wrong.
• Peter and Janet's mother - Peter and Janet's mother are very supportive of the Secret Seven and the good work that they do. They frequently provides snacks for the meetings.
• Jack's mother - Unlike Peter's mother, Jack's mother does not think the Secret Seven is particularly important and gets angry when Jack puts all his effort into fulfilling Peter's wishes although she does sometimes provide for the Seven.
• Matt the Shepherd - Peter's father's colleague, who works on the farm He has a dog called Shadow.
• The Inspector - The police inspector who the Secret Seven always report the cases to. He has become a good friend of the Seven
• The Gardener - Peter and Janet's gardener, who has a very bad temper.

French series

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Evelyne Lallemand wrote an additional series of 12 books about the Secret Seven, nine of which were translated into English by Anthea Bell and published in paperback by Knight Books. The English translations were published between 1983 and 1986. The full French series is as follows:

1. Les Sept à la chasse au lion 1976 (English title: The Seven and the Lion Hunt; English no.: 1)
2. Les Sept font du cinéma 1977 (English title: The Seven on Screen; English no.: 6)
3. Les Sept et le magicien 1977 (English title: The Seven and the Magician; English no.: 3)
4. Les Sept sont dans de beaux draps 1978 (English title: The Seven Go Haunting; English no.: 2)
5. Les Sept et les bulldozers 1978 (English title: The Seven to the Rescue; English no.: 5)
6. Les Sept et la déesse d'or 1979 (English title: The Seven Strike Gold; English no.: 4)
7. Les Sept et les soucoupes volantes 1979 (English title: The Seven and the UFOs; English no.: 7)
8. Les Sept à 200 à l'heure 1980 (English title: The Seven and the Racing Driver; English no.: 9)
9. Les Sept ne croient pas au père Noël 1981 (English title: The Seven and Father Christmas; English no.: 8)
10. Les Sept saluent Lucky Star 1982 (NOT TRANSLATED)
11. Les Sept et la boule de cristal 1984 (NOT TRANSLATED)
12. Les Sept dans la maison hantée 1986 (NOT TRANSLATED)