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Original poster

A character called Peter (Petronella) in an old boarding school story

58 replies

LostMyLastHatfulOfWords · 18/02/2022 18:34

Can anyone help? I'm searching for a book I remember but don't have its title. It was an old book when I was a child.

It was a very traditional boarding school story with the main character 'Peter'(real name Petronella), her school friends (one whose name began with an i) and her brother Tony (who went to another school but featured in the story by almost dying after a car accident).

I recall that Peter and Tony had lived in Canada but were in England when the story began. Peter had stories about her eye-lashes freezing and other tales from Canada. She was an excellent ice-skater. (I remember her friend's name began with an I -because she joked it was the only letter she could figure-skate... dotted with her hat!)

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Original poster
LostMyLastHatfulOfWords · 22/02/2022 20:59

That looks really interesting @noodlezoodle though I don't recognise it. The author looks like someone I need to know better!

OP posts:
noodlezoodle · 22/02/2022 19:59

It's not this by any chance is it @LostMyLastHatfulOfWords: www.victorian-novels.co.uk/product/29588/Petronella-The-Coming-of-Polly

This is two stories - Petronella is one, and it's a boarding school story. Can't find too many other details though.

Original poster
LostMyLastHatfulOfWords · 22/02/2022 18:13

I was excited to read on here that there was a Peter/Petronella in Noel Streatfeild - I would have loved this - but our local library didn't have the fashion model book - just Ballet Shoes and Tennis Shoes and the ice-skating one.

Angela Brazil - I found her books much later.

The Enid Blyton school stories were available from our library... but only from under the counter. (Her books were on a secret banned list and you had to ask for them by name.) Being a stickler for sets I did read the Mallory Towers books and in order as far as possible. (The names for different years were a bit of a puzzle sometimes.)

I remember the Arabel and Mortimer books (and Jackanory).

OP posts:
Original poster
LostMyLastHatfulOfWords · 22/02/2022 17:40

I don't think so OnlyAFleshWound, though forgetful in many areas, I remember stories well -as a rule.

It was a book I read more than once. (On that shelf, the ones of interest to children were limited and only two of them were boarding school stories.)

Perhaps it was a book of limited success and an author who did not become famous.

OP posts:
OnlyAFleshWound · 22/02/2022 12:38

I am starting to suspect that you've combined elements from a few different stories in your memory - is that possible?

Original poster
LostMyLastHatfulOfWords · 22/02/2022 11:24

No sign of the title so far .

Did I invent this book? (Am I an author after all :) )

I thought I read it during (illegal) reading sessions after bedtime.

There was a case of well-worn novels at the head of our stairs (where the light was left on to keep the night-beasts away).

I read the nameless one there - more than once- and others that were full of pressed flowers.

(There was a copy of Coral Island that looked exciting but had a squashed spider inside the cover. I didn't get to read that one for many years.)

OP posts:
OnlyAFleshWound · 22/02/2022 11:23

@tcjotm

Thank you all for confirming Petrova was never Petra. That had me very confused.
I apologise sincerely for any confusion caused, on top of all the existing confusion in this thread Grin
tcjotm · 21/02/2022 23:04

Thank you all for confirming Petrova was never Petra. That had me very confused.

DiscoBadgers · 21/02/2022 21:55

Definitely not Malory Towers, St Clare’s, Trebizon or Antonia Forrest, and it was Petrova Fossil in Ballet Shoes, and no ice skating.

There was a Canadian series of books about teenaged skaters at a sort of training camp boarding school, but I can’t remember the names and I think they were more 80s/90s than the traditional boarding school stories.

RocketAndAFuckingMelon · 21/02/2022 21:33

@Friendofdennis

I thought there was a girl called Peter in Mallory Towers
No, there's a Miss Peters who is "mannish" but no girls called Peter. The girl with the boy's name in that story is Bill (Wilhelmina).
ChessieFL · 21/02/2022 21:17

@MsIreneWinters

Didn't they skate a lot in the Trebizon books? Could it be one of those maybe?
Definitely not Trebizon. There is one Trebizon book that features ice skating, but there’s nobody called Petronella or anything else the OP mentions.
TheMadGardener · 21/02/2022 20:20

There's a whole series by Phyllis Matthewman about a Petronella known as Peter, but they don't fit your description about a brother called Toby or a link to Canada.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 21/02/2022 20:17

Petrova is never Petra.

MsIreneWinters · 21/02/2022 20:15

Didn't they skate a lot in the Trebizon books? Could it be one of those maybe?

ArabeI · 21/02/2022 19:49

@OnlyAFleshWound

I don't recall if it was a conscious choice now, actually. Though we do have a few Joan Aiken books here somewhere, including Arabel's Raven!

pistolknight · 21/02/2022 16:51

I was going to say Lone Pine too - the only other Petronella that I 'know' is Wyatt who was another of our great leader's bots

OnlyAFleshWound · 21/02/2022 16:43

@ArabeI

Yes, that's right, it's under a pseudonym of Noel Streatfeild. But it prompted me, incorrectly, to think of Silver Skates. It's definitely not the OP's Peter in any case!
Don't suppose your username is a reference to Arabel and the Raven?

Normally that would seem far-fetched, but you clearly know your children's lit

OnlyAFleshWound · 21/02/2022 16:17

@ChessieFL

Petrova in Ballet Shoes was never known as anything except Petrova!
Agree
ArabeI · 21/02/2022 15:43

Yes, that's right, it's under a pseudonym of Noel Streatfeild. But it prompted me, incorrectly, to think of Silver Skates. It's definitely not the OP's Peter in any case!

ChessieFL · 21/02/2022 15:28

Petrova in Ballet Shoes was never known as anything except Petrova!

OnlyAFleshWound · 21/02/2022 15:20

@ArabeI

There was a Peter/Petronella in Noel Streatfeild books but certain no boarding or ice skating connections (I did think of Silver Skates first, as I couldn't remember the details of that one).
There is a Peter in The Circus is Coming but he's a boy and the rest of the story is totally different.

The girls in the skating book are Lalla and Harriet

I don't think there is any Petronella in any NS book

ArabeI · 21/02/2022 15:16

There was a Peter/Petronella in Noel Streatfeild books but certain no boarding or ice skating connections (I did think of Silver Skates first, as I couldn't remember the details of that one).

Friendofdennis · 21/02/2022 12:43

I thought there was a girl called Peter in Mallory Towers

Blueroses99 · 21/02/2022 12:28

I associate Peter/Petronella with Malcolm Saville. I had never heard the name before and in my head pronounced it Pet-TRON-uh-la which sounds horrible!

OnlyAFleshWound · 21/02/2022 12:24

@tcjotm

Off topic, I thought Petrova was always called the full name, I don’t recall her being Petra. Pauline, Petrova and Posy. Maybe my edition is really old and it changed?

Sorry OP, I’m no help, I came to suggest the Lone Pine Peter/Petronella too.

I think you're right
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