I have a vivid memory of a series of books from my infant school that were all based on a different theme of adventure. They were very formulaic and all written by the same author and each one was set against the backdrop of a different location or theme, for example, a jungle or an under sea adventure. Indeed, I can even remember a distinct passage in the undersea adventure book where the main character battles with a shark and defeats it by sticking his thumbs in the shark’s eyes!

But I cannot remember what the titles were (there were all a variation on the same theme) or who the author was and I’m trying to rediscover them as I think my two boys would enjoy reading them.

Does any of this chime with anyone? I’m mid 40s so the period we’re talking about was the late 70s early 80s.

Sounds familiar… I want to say the Hardy Boys series, but I don’t think they were the same author.

Willard Price?

XXX Adventure?

“xxx” being a placeholder for “Jungle”, “African”, “Arctic” etc,, not an adult adventure.

Same guy wrote similarly formulaic books for adults under a different name.  Wilbur Smith?  Or are they the other way round?  Edit: different people.  Def Willard Price for the adventure books though.

Reminds me of Garth Merenghi – “I’m one of the few people you’ll meet who’s written more books than they’ve read.”

Willard Price is the name that came to mind for me too

i think it was the Willard Price Adventure books, with Hal and Roger getting wild animals for their father’s zoo/circus supplier

had to pick up a complete set for my son a few years back from Abebooks.

Now you’ve said it I’d definitely think Willard Price too.

Willard Price, the brothers were Roger and Hal Hunt…

Can’t remember important stuff, mind ….

Jordan Peterson: Jungle Adventure, Hal and Roger talk physco babble in a jungle. Hal decides be wants to be a woman and roger disowns him for being a poor masculine role model.

Mr Ben?

Yup. Xxx adventure.

I seem to recall that someone did a follow up series where Roger and Hal weren’t best buddies.

Not readcrhe new ones but must have done 100-200 LAPS OF THE originals.

Jordan Peterson: Jungle Adventure, Hal and Roger talk physco babble in a jungle. Hal decides be wants to be a woman and roger disowns him for being a poor masculine role model.

Yawn.

Mr Men?

Was there science involved?  If so you might be thinking Tom Swift books by Victor Appleton.  Well, when I say “science”….

I can even remember a distinct passage in the undersea adventure book where the main character battles with a shark and defeats it by sticking his thumbs in the shark’s eyes!

I seem to remember one bit where a guy gets his foot caught in a giant clam while wading across a beach on a rising tide. In desperation he tries to cut his foot off, but the tide comes in and he drowns before he gets free. Not sure they’d have that sort of book in an infants school any more!

Tom Swift

…after whom the Taser is named.

Thomas A Swift Electric Rifle

I want an ultrasonic cycloplane

I’ve no idea what it is, I just want one

I was a big fan of the Hal and Roger Willard Price books as a child.

Not quite sure how they would play out now – the main premise as I recall was Hal and Roger going to various locations to catch as many wild animals as possible to take back to the zoo!

I was a big fan of the Hal and Roger Willard Price books as a child.

Me too, encouraged my love of reading in the 60s. Moved on to Alistair Maclean, Hammond Innes, Neville Shute and have always enjoyed some dramatic fiction since.

I want an ultrasonic cycloplane

I think Dyson sell them 😉

Jordan Peterson: Jungle Adventure, Hal and Roger talk physco babble in a jungle. Hal decides be wants to be a woman and roger disowns him for being a poor masculine role model.

How pathetically predictable……

On the positive side though, bloody brilliant it was Willard Price. Thank you all (well mostly), my boys will be enjoying some ‘gender neutral own adventure’ later this evening.

I read the Willard Price ebooks avidly as a kid, they are great, and you learn loads of natural history. My kids also really like them- newer published ones have an intro by his family explaining about the different culture when the books were written, especially with respect to indigenous people and the wild animal  trade/zoos etc. Recommended.

I want an ultrasonic cycloplane

I’ve no idea what it is, I just want one

Google for Tom Swift images.  They’re all there from the House on Wheels (possibly lacking in imagination, that one) to the Triphibian Atomicar and Electronic Retroscope

Perchy – well spotted

Did they have a spot on their hand that they pressed when they wanted an adventure? Or what books were those?

Willard Price! I had a few of them and had read virtually all of them. South Sea Adventure, African Adventure and all the rest.

the brothers were Roger and Hal Hunt…

Aah missed a trick there, could have called them Mike and Issac…

Well, they were all pretty hairy adventures back in the 60s and early 70s…

here you go – roughly £1.37 each

Abebooks

Aah missed a trick there, could have called them Mike and Issac…

Don’t forget Eric

I read all of those as well!

Indeed, I can even remember a distinct passage in the undersea adventure book where the main character battles with a shark and defeats it by sticking his thumbs in the shark’s eyes!

I’m sure I remember a description of one of them being bitten by a sea snake and the other one sucking the venom out. Which even aged 12 I seem to recall as being a really bad idea.

where a guy gets his foot caught in a giant clam while wading across a beach on a rising tide. In desperation he tries to cut his foot off, but the tide comes in and he drowns before he gets free.

That was the first thing that came to mind on reading the OP. Couldn’t have told you the book or anything else that happens but that part has lodged itself somewhere deep in my brain and won’t go away. Really, really hated the idea of that as a kid!

Sounds familiar… I want to say the Hardy Boys series, but I don’t think they were the same author.

Another series that I read most of. They were by several different authors but under a collective pseudonym, Franklin W Dixon. They were all the same formulaic approach as well.

my boys will be enjoying some ‘gender neutral own adventure’ later this evening.

Careful now!

The books are a product of their time – the zoos and circuses in which the animals end up might not today be considered the best homes for them, and some of the attitudes to foreigners are, well, 1950s.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jul/20/conservation-willard-price-adventure-books

The article’s worth a read. I<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>’ve cherry picked picked the least positive part of the article for lolz. The writer’s a fan.  </span>

While we’re reminiscing, does anyone recall a younger reader book about a woolly mammoth with one red eye and one green one?

I bet he’d love those old 3D movies.

where a guy gets his foot caught in a giant clam while wading across a beach on a rising tide. In desperation he tries to cut his foot off, but the tide comes in and he drowns before he gets free.

er… Undersea Adventure? Maybe the second or third in the series; Hal survives being in a bathysphere caught in a tidal wave, I think

I remember poisoning someone with chopped tiger whisker from the Willard Price books. Always struck me as an excellent way to kill someone – step one catch your tiger, step two cut off some whiskers….

Ive started reading some of these to my 6yr old now – he loves them but they haven’t aged awfully well. They are properly racist feeling and colonial in many parts – I have to keep explaining that we don’t think that way anymore – that we have moved on from these silly viewpoints. African adventure is particularly trumpian.

I remember reading these in primary school, and being an annoying know it all when we went to Kenya in holiday when I was 11!

todally takes me back.

Was it Skink that made the Captain get his foot caught in a giant clam…  i think it was.  But he was banged to rights when he sub got caught in a typhooon and hit the cliff

Mau Mau rebellion in African adventure.  Yes indeed, probably not so PC