Five Go Down to the Sea by Enid Blyton (Hodder & Stoughton, 1955)

 

The

Famous Five

Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy the Dog

in their
twelfth exciting adventure

Summer at Tremannon Farm, the mystery of the deserted tower by the sea, the forgotten secret of the Wreckers' Way

Now here's a book I really did love as a child--in fact I pinched and saved to buy all twenty-one books in the Famous Five series!  In Five Go Down to the Sea Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy the dog explore secret tunnels and thwart a gang of drug smugglers between consuming mountains of buns and sandwiches and drinking lashings of ginger beer.  What more could a child want in an adventure?

(This copy predates me by several years.  My own copy as a child was one of the paperback Knight editions published in the 1970s.  The Famous Five adventure stories are still in print, though when I flicked through one in my local library recently it saddened me to see that an editor had "updated" the text to make it more accessible.  There are also now some very tongue-in-cheek Famous Five adventures available for "grown-ups" with titles like Five on Brexit Island and Five Go Gluten Free.  Clearly I'm not the only adult who remembers the series with affection!)