Malory Towers: what an unpleasant bunch

[Hepzibar]

No idea what sparked this, I have started to read Malory Towers 40 years after the first time. I absolutely loved MT and read and re-read them. I loved Enid Blyton but MT closely followed by St Clare's were my favourites.

I so wanted to be Darrell Rivers with her 'posh' name (not a common sixties job like mine), how I envied her and longed to go to boarding school.

Reading it now what a thoroughly unpleasant, bullying, nasty bunch they were, including my idolised Darrell.

[joeyhorse]

Lol, too funny, yeah it's him to a tee.

[joeyhorse]

Oooh where was it I'd love to go there and see it.

[GCAcademic]

Stage adaptation of Malory Towers touring the UK this year for those of you who are nostalgic for midnight feasts and seawater swimming pools:

theatreweekly.com/wise-childrens-next-production-will-be-malory-towers-adapted-and-directed-by-emma-rice/

[Dothehappydance]

I have St Claire's to read too, though I may go back to 'Naughtiest Girl' first.

[Xyzzzzz]

I preferred st Claire’s to MT ....both characters in each book were spoilt imo. I was quite partial to Carlotta in St Claire’s she matured throughout the series

[Dothehappydance]

I am now onto 'In the fifth' of the MT books. Goodness they were just a load of old bullies really. Absolutely no emotions allowed to be shown, crying was mocked, they all had to 'pull themselves together'

It isn't until this time that I have realised that all the teachers were 'Miss' and whilst the marriage ban had been lifted just prior to her starting the books, I guess there was still very much a mindset that all the teachers were unmarried.

I wonder if EB was of the opinion of the 'stiff upper lip' with her children as it does seem that any softness is seen as a weakness.

[QueenOfTheAndals]

They did but Blyton didn't write about it. The MT books were very linear - one book per form - but SC was all 3 first form terms, second form, fourth form (the advent of Claudine) and ended in the fifth. I think the Pamela Cox books may have covered the missing third and sixth years.

[Kez200]

Im sure St Clares had a 6th form? I need to raid my loft!

[Butterymuffin]

IIRC it's mentioned in Last Term that Darrell, Sally, Alicia and Betty are all going to St Andrews University (presumably Miss Grayling phoned the admissions team and just told them that's how it was going to be). Wonder why Blyton picked that one? Anyone who knows more about her able to explain it?

[Hepzibar]

Ah yes poor Gwen, suffered throughout the whole series and finally gets her comeuppance in the last book. If only she had joined later then she would have seen the error of her ways a lot sooner. The new girl, Daphne, Maureen, Mavis etc, even Amanda were all taught the error of their ways within one term.

[Gottalovesummer]

I'm reading "last term" now. Darrell is head girl of the whole school and nearly 18.

Gwendoline Mary is still being snobbish and selfish. I swing between feeling sorry for her as the other girls turn their backs on her and ignore her, and just thinking what an absolute pain she must be to live with.

[MyVisionsComeFromSoup]

I always said A-liss-ee-ah (taking it as a variant of Alice), but the girl at my (fairly posh boarding school) who pronounced her name A-lee-sha was generally regarded as being quite pretentious.

Even though I was 15 when I changed school (got a scholarship to the posh one, we weren't remotely posh I'd like to add here!) and old enough to know better, I was secretly quite disappointed school wasn't at all like the books .

[grandmagorgeous]

Place marking

[ScreamingValenta]

The girls at the Chalet School had to wear evening dress at night, and they had cubicles in the dormitories too. Obviously much posher than MT or St Clare's.

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Imagine a school where everyone wore evening dress to dinner every night!!

[Dragonlight]

St Clare's kids are so much nicer than the MT crew though I found the stories essentially the same.
Alyssa (how I always read it) was awful though Darrell is worse.

[Hepzibar]

"How horrid of Daddy to say we are conceited! We're not a bit. We can't help knowing that we're good at nearly everything, besides being pretty and quite amusing."

Send 'em to Malory Towers I say, they'll soon get knocked down a peg or two 😀

[grumpyyetgorgeous]

As a pp said, 60 girls in each tower would make for an average form size of 40, not 30. Potentially more in forms 1 - 5 if not everyone stayed on to the 6th form.

I'd just assumed that the towers were different sizes and North tower was the biggest, that's why it was featured??

[Hepzibar]

Just started.

The twins are 14 when they start at St Clare's, they'd been at Redroofs and didn't want to go to St Clare's were "anyone can go, and the dormitories take six or eight girls and aren't as nicely furnished as the maids bedrooms are at home!"

They want to go to Ringmere where "you have your own bedroom and study and wear evening dress at night".

No wonder I wasn't keen - I wouldn't have had a clue what they were on about!

[Dothehappydance]

I got the 3 in 1 editions, for the St Clare's, the first book has the first 3 books, then the next one has Second Form and then two of the Pamela Cox ones, I presume the 3rd book will have 4th and 5th and then the 6th form, again by Cox.

[PrivateIsles]

Yes that is annoying now that you come to mention it, especially the lack of a sixth form one!! Surely becoming head girls was the culmination of everything they'd ever wanted?! It's a shame we couldn't see how it all worked out...

[ScreamingValenta]

I preferred MT simply because the books followed the girls right the way up the school, one per year. St Clare's was frustrating -

3 books for First Year
1 for Second Year
1 for Fourth Year (Claudine)
1 for Fifth year

No third year, but interesting hints about Alison having a crush on the head girl and making 'a perfect nuisance of herself'.

No sixth form, so we never get to know how Pat and Isabel fare as head girls.

Why didn't EB do at least one per year?

[PrivateIsles]

Sounds good OP, I always preferred St Clare's to MT. Bobby and Claudine were my favourites, although the twins themselves could be a bit annoying.

Also wasn't it St Clare's when they had some kind of open day at the school, and everyone's "people" came to visit? And the girls all wore dresses to "suit their colouring"?! (I've mentioned this on a thread on here before, but I just loved the idea of that when I read it aged about 9!) I think it was in Claudine at St Clare's, and there was a swimming gala involved...

I'm tempted to re-read them - the originals obviously, not some modern sanitised rubbish!

[Hepzibar]

Well.. I've succumbed and ordered St Clare's. I really can't remember much about these books, MT was always my favourite. I have really enjoyed reading all the MT books, despite my opening title - might get it changed