Enid Blyton Books in Order
Enid Blyton is the fourth-best-selling author in human history - somewhere north of 600 million copies across roughly 700 books, most of them written on a schedule that terrifies modern novelists - and the creator of the entire grammar of children's series fiction: the gang, the dog, the island, the midnight feast, the smugglers. Her order question is unique: nobody reads Blyton book by book, they read series by series, and several of those series have quietly grown continuations by other hands - Pamela Cox wrote six more Malory Towers books (7-12, 2009) and three more St Clare's, numbers that ambush every list on the internet. This page maps every major series, the years it ran, and where the continuations slot in (1922–1968).
Where to start
Five on a Treasure Island (1942), Famous Five #1 - the book that built the template everything else copied. For boarding-school readers: First Term at Malory Towers (1946); for the youngest: The Enchanted Wood (1939), Faraway Tree #1.
The complete list
Tick the boxes off as you read, or for the bookshelf.
| Year | Title | Series / type | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | Child Whispers | Her first book — poetry | |
| 1937 | The Wishing-Chair (3 books) | 1937-50 — Chinky and the flying chair | |
| 1939 | The Faraway Tree (4 books) | 1939-51 — start with The Enchanted Wood | |
| 1940 | The Naughtiest Girl (4 books) | 1940-52 — plus 3 Pamela Cox continuations from 2000 | |
| 1941 | St Clare's (6 books) | 1941-45 — plus 3 Cox continuations | |
| 1942 | The Famous Five (21 books) | 1942-63 — start with Five on a Treasure Island | |
| 1943 | The Five Find-Outers (15 books) | 1943-61 — Fatty's mysteries | |
| 1944 | The Adventure series (8 books) | 1944-55 — the Island of Adventure line | |
| 1946 | Malory Towers (6 books) | 1946-51 — plus Cox's 7-12 (2009) | |
| 1948 | The Six Cousins (2 books) | The farm pair | |
| 1949 | The Secret Seven (15 books) | 1949-63 — the shed | |
| 1949 | Noddy (24 books) | 1949-63 — Toyland | |
| 1949 | The Barney Mysteries (6 books) | 1949-59 | |
| 1950 | The later singletons | Mr Galliano's Circus, the Family Adventures — hundreds more to 1968 |
Does the reading order matter?
Series by series, and within a series strictly in order - the Famous Five age across their twenty-one books (1942-63), the Faraway Tree and Malory Towers lines build term by term, and the Secret Seven's fifteen mysteries (1949-63) assume the gang from book one. The Famous Five stand entirely alone from the Secret Seven; Blyton's worlds never cross. The continuation rule: Malory Towers 7-12 (Pamela Cox, 2009) read after New Term at Malory Towers; the St Clare's Cox books (7-9) after the sixth; the Naughtiest Girl Cox books (5-7, from 2000) after the fourth. Noddy's twenty-four books (1949-63) run as one arc for the youngest readers. The singletons - Mr Galliano's Circus, the Six Cousins pair - slot anywhere.
Which one is the best?
Five on a Treasure Island (1942), the template itself; The Enchanted Wood (1939), the Faraway Tree door; First Term at Malory Towers (1946), the boarding-school one that never stopped selling.
Related guides
Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Roald Dahl books in order, Boxcar Children books in order, Baby-Sitters Club books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.
Make it a project
Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.
Frequently asked questions
What order should you read Enid Blyton books in?
Pick a series, read it in order. Beware: Malory Towers books 7-12 and St Clare's 7-9 are Pamela Cox continuations, not Blyton.
Where should I start with Enid Blyton?
Five on a Treasure Island (1942) for adventure; The Enchanted Wood (1939) for younger readers.
How many Enid Blyton books are there?
Roughly seven hundred books, 1922 to the late 1960s - twenty-one Famous Five, fifteen Secret Seven, fifteen Five Find-Outers, eight Adventure novels, six Malory Towers (plus six by Pamela Cox), six St Clare's (plus three Cox), four Naughtiest Girl (plus three Cox), four Faraway Tree, three Wishing-Chair, six Barney mysteries, twenty-four Noddy, and hundreds of singletons - translated into ninety-plus languages. As of October 2026 this list is current.
What was Enid Blyton's first book?
Child Whispers (1922) — the first row of the list above.