Mumsnet Talk

...which one would you be?

Surely the only girls who read ff are those who want to be George. Anne would read something fluffier.

I would be George. Anne is a bit more NM than MN I think.

abosutely george!
lottie may have a point, though.

DS has just told me he'd like to be Timmy (figures).

I always wanted to be Timmy.

George definitely.

Can't imagine anyone wanting to be Anne, her special skills were preparing supper and cleaning

It has to be George

Is anyone a Dick here?

not timmy, poor thing gets left alone a lot in dodgy places and has to squeeze through spider infested tunnels.
we got the blue ray with all tv episodes. love to watch them!

What about Aunt Fanjo Fanny or highly dodgy Uncle Quentin?

I'm quite good at preparing supper, but no good at cleaning. So I'd be a rubbish Anne. George it is I suppose.

In Narnia I'd be Polly. Or Lucy.

Mousey where's that from? My dd would love that!

I would def be Anne because in the pictures her hair always did that curl-under swish thing I always imagine I can achieve with a bob, but never quite get right

My friend and I always have this argument. We both want to be George and she says I'm more like Anne because I have a baby. I think she's more like Anne because she cooks pear and chocolate tarts from scratch and loves Cath Kidston.

I would be George. When I was a child I used to pretend to be George all the time I even used to dress like a boy as well

I always wanted to be Dick (snerk). As a child, I was an even more raging misogynist than dear old Enid herself. Why (I thought aged 7) would you want to be a girl who looked like a boy, when you could be an actual boy?

Not Julian, though. He was a terrible prig.

Swallows and Amazons looked fun. Camping on an island by yourself.
Titty looked to have the best fun in that.

Aunt fanny (arf) but really I would most probably be Anne my sister and I always had this arguement as kids but she was right she was definitely more like George and I'm like Anne

Def George, and I'd bog off & go & find some better friends

Who I'd really like to be is Nancy from Swallows & Amazons

I'd be Titty. She was a cool girl.

As a child I could relate to Anne-I liked the fact she got free rein over the house! Always thought Susan got the raw deal in Swallows and Amazons, I liked Dorothea as she got to go on the broads, oh and had her own house too thinking about it.

Titty...Fanny...Dick...

Such innocent times.

I'd like to be George, but I fear I'd be Julian.

Why would you be Julian Psammy?

I know who I wouldn't want to be, and that's Anne. I always thought of her as a wimp.

DS is 9 and has just begun to read a Famous Five book, he's finding it different to his school books, but interesting.

George all the way.

Used to pretend to be a boy too and had an imaginary dog.

So many deeply unresolved childhood issues.

I always wanted to be George but with a few of Anne's traits such as kindness and thoughtfulness which George never had.

I'm a bossyboots good leader. And I have priggish tendancies

blue ray set. cover is in german but english is one of the lanuage settings

George.

Now I'll read the thread to see if everyone else has said George ;)

George. In a heartbeat.

An even more important question - what breed of dog was Timmy in your imagination?

I didn't use my imagination - to me he looked like Eileen Soper's illustrations in my books.

I always wanted to be George as I thought she was more interesting than boring Anne, who never seemed to be able to do much.

My dd said the same and was dressing like a tom boy, to be George.

Then she started reading Pippy Longstocking she's so much more fun. She lives on her own and doesn't go to school and is a really interesting character.

Timmy is a big dog, long hair, light brown coloured with floppy ears

I think I would like to have been George

I used to want to be Anne. She was so sweet and always had pretty hair. She would have a nervous breakdown at the state of my house.

When we played it at school there were only four of us so we always missed Julian out, he was always to much of a self righteous arse.

Er Timmy was a border collie!

www.breederretriever.com/dog-breeds/110/border-collie.php

I thought it was a fact that Timmy was a border collie, not just my imagination.

I think I'd be Dick. He sounded like he'd get into trouble in school but is generally a nice person and a bit of a brick. Dick the brick.

When I was little I wanted to be George obviously. She fitted in well with my enforced wearing of (hand me down) boys' clothes.

Timmy was a border collie in the 70s TV show.

I'd be Dick. Am such a Dick.

George, every time. Anne was a woos, Dick was sanctimonious, and Julian was a prig.

Other than that...probably Pippi Longstocking, Nancy from 'Swallows and Amazons' (just for the comment that she had to be Nancy, as she was really Ruth, and pirates were 'ruthless' )and, most of all, Jo, from 'Little Women'

Timmy was a border collie on tv but in the books he was a brown mongrel.

I was desperate to be George when I was little. WAnted my hair cut short and everything. My dad had to gently suggest to me that, after waiting so long for it to grow, I probably wouldn't like it short.

I'd like to be uncle Quentin now; staying in and having some nice peace and quiet to read.

I always wanted to be Anne. Wore nice dresses, had dolls and would have been quite happy to stay at home arranging the cave/caravan etc. while they did the dirty work.

But actually if you read the books Anne isn't a wuss. She is scared. But she gets on and does it anyway. Anne is as brave as the rest of them, but also is happy to get on with the less thankful tasks-and enjoys them.
Julian says as much in Five get into trouble when they have Richard Kent moaning away about how afraid he is. He points out that Anne is just as afraid, but she is not complaining, and she's afraid for the others as much as for herself. (haven't got the book on me so can't quote exactly).
Whenever something is needed to be done, she does it, even if she's scared, and if that isn't true bravery, then I don't know what is. You could say George isn't as brave because she doesn't seem to get scared unless someone is threatening to hurt Timmy.

I always wanted to be George.

Now? I'm not sure. Is it just my memory, or is Dick a bit of a non-character? I can't actually remember anything he did.

George was stroppy though, didn't she ignore her cousins for pretty much of the first book? And she got very pissed off when another girl who looked like a boy came along on one of the other books (Henrietta?).

I was George as a child. I didn't turn into a girl until I was 16
I gave myself a boys name and most people just assumed that I was a boy.
I'm quite feminine these days

I always wanted to be Anne,

As a child I could never understand George, I used to wonder how any girl would want to look like a boy.

Even now, and apologies if this comes out wrong, I like pretty, girly and feminine things.

Timmy was a mongrel in the books, and I think of him as a lurcher/wolfhound type of dog. Never a Border Collie!

I am George.

I think unless I'm wrong that Anne is also quite a bit younger than the others? So it would make sense that she would be the more nervous.

I always think of her as a bit like Roger in Swallows & Amazons but with the others making her do all the work (siblings always seem to be pretty horrible to one another in EB's books, with Secret 7 the worst).

A mixture of Anne and George I think.

Unfortunately I sound very much like Julian. We seem to possess a number of similar character traits!

Fanny!

George I suppose. But I would rather be one of the Secret 7.

I'd definitely want to be one of the dodgy foriegners whose evil & un-British schemes the effing FF were forever foiling. Only, having read all the FF books, I'd have cracked their modus operandum and got the drop on them: probably, I'd have got them a star turn on Jim'll Fix It!

Please can we have an "EVIL SNIGGER" smiley: insert several here!!

Deffo George - she was a spunk!
God I have just had a flashback to Famous Five the Musical which my DS used to watch incessantly a few years ago..

George!

George any day of the week. I suppose Julian was most likely to make a big success of his life, given his annoying super-confidence and lack of hang-ups. Ann probably went on to marry a wealthy older man and spend her days preparing scrumptious picnics to eat by the bay.

Definitely George. I always was when we played FF

I was desperate to be George when I was a child. I think I'd be Anne now, though.

I am grumpy, stubborn, hate cleaning and love dogs.

George it is.

I'd like to be George, but fear I would grow up and end up on one of Ann's MN baking threads.

I would be Jo the traveller girl

But George really I suppose. I was once on tv aged 10 being asked who my favourite FF character is while drinking lashings of ginger beer. I replied George then.

Been reading FF to DD recently, however I swap nearly every use of 'Anne' with 'Julian'. Therefore DD thinks Anne takes the lead in everything and Julian is nervous, likes 'making home' and the others smile knowingly when Julian wants to make a pantry or such like.

I would have been an Anne I guess, as she is the home-maker type person. I always have to try and make a home out of anywhere, even if we are camping/in a holiday cottage etc.

With Swallows and Amazons I probably would have ended up being the Susan type, worrying about whether the potatoes were cooked, and being worried about everyone being safe, although I woud have actually preferred to be Titty who had a great imagination and could write well.

Excellent idea manatee

Or rather " jolly good show"

Another George here.

How I loved that girl when I was young.

George of course but I really always wanted to be Snubby from the Barney R Mysteries. Mainly because of the dog.

Certainly not that selfish, abusive twat Uncle Quentin.

Now it would be George obviously but I am ashamed to say if you asked me when I was 10 it would have been the pathetic Anne .

I would be scowling door slamming Uncle Quentin.

Definitely George - I loved doing all the tomboy things when I was a lot younger! Not now tho and I can definitely see why Uncle Q gets so bad tempered!

DS (age 7) has just become obsessed with FF - he loves the series (link posted above but ours has an english cover), we are now up to Book 14 (what a lot of reading from Mummy - really need a after that) and he had to have a FF themed birthday. Now that was fun to organise! But he adores Anne - finds her really sweet and helpful and kind. He is an only child so she has become his sister - sweet but sad!

DeWe - am in awe (genuinely) of your deconstruction of Anne! I WOULD have said me def George all the way, but now seriously contemplating switching characters to Anne

<first world problems>

As a child I always wanted to be Anne, even though George was my favourite. I did actually look like a boy and hated being mistaken for one so I'd've loved to have been the pretty girly girl.

These days I'd most likely be the woman in the shop who sells the ices and ginger beer. Admiring their adventures from a distance whilst wringing my hands and worrying about how barmy Uncle Quentin and neglectful Aunt Fanny are doing an appaling job at keeping them safe. I'd probably give them free ices and ginger beer every day if it meant I could check they hadn't disappeared again.

Thank you KristinaM - You're a brick

Timmy is definitely not a collie, the TV programme is sooooo wrong. Collie's aren't enormous, can't get a man down, and are not brown, he is also described as a cross breed (or maybe they actually did call him a mongrel). Lurcher cross Alsation I have decided while re-reading them. Never known one, but I reckon Tim is one. Although when reading as a child I also just thought of him as exactly in the drawings.

DD1 (just 8) is reading them and wants to be Anne <banged head in shame until I read mrsdewe post...>
I was def. george though <I even looked like her in the 70s series courtesy of my mum's hair cut >

very ahhh!