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.

Inspired by this thread I managed to pick up First Term at MT and In the Fifth from a charity shop. Will start the first and look for the rest.

Dothehappydance did you get the originals or the modern versions? Apparently Darrell is quite tame in the new editions.

I think they must be the updated ones. My mum the keeper of everything probably still has the originals.

So if Darrell doesn't slap Gwen in the updates ones then what does she do instead?

Queen Darrell "shook her roughly"

Darrell "shook her roughly" doesn't have quite the same shock effect as the sound of 4 stinging slaps.

Ellie '4 stinging slaps' would likely be Actual Bodily Harm. Would at the very least result in an exclusion today.

Although some of the 'punishments' given out by teachers back in 70's, a few slaps wouldn't have resonated with me at all.

When I was at school, the teachers weren't averse to handing out a few slaps, although usually only one at a time, not 4 like Darrell! I guess the books just reflect the time they were written.

When I went to secondary school, we had a maths teacher who threw the board rubber at pupils who were not paying attention. On one occasion, the girl targeted was so startled when the teacher threw the rubber at her, that her foot jerked forward and her shoe flew off and landed at the front of the classroom! Cue general uproar and hysterics...

Isn't shaking someone more dangerous than slapping them?

In any event, I don't see why whoever publishes EB nowadays thinks juvenile readers aren't capable of understanding that times have changed, and what's normal in a novel written 70 years ago isn't what's normal or acceptable now. Why do they remove corporal punishment and update references to money to reflect what's current?

How are young readers expected to cope when they move on to adult novels and find no one has updated Jane Austen to be politically correct, or adjusted George Orwell's novels to include decimalisation and inflation, just to take two of many examples?

I have started to read the Island of Adventure today. I think it is an "updated" version, but I am surprised at the number of references to smoking eg Bill Smuggs struggling to light his cigarette due to the wind, and the children finding cigarette butts as clues. I would've thought these references might have been removed too.

Not EB but Remake by Connie Willis has some amusing bits, editing old films for political correctness and removing drinking and smoking scenes. The Philadelphia Story is very problematic!

It's now widely known that Enid Blyton was a pretty nasty person, didn't like kids (not even her own), was unkind and unfeeling even to her own pets, and had very little self awareness. Terribly snobbish, anti-Semitic, the list goes on,
(There's a biography, I think?) Wouldn't be surprised if she had been a bully at school herself.

I've started reading the first book. Goodness they are a nasty bunch aren't they. When young I thought it sounded a load of fun.

Inspired by my own thread I watched the film Enid last night. She clearly wasn't maternal, and was portrayed as unpleasant herself!

A scene where she hosts a tea party for some children (winners of a comp I think), her own children were sent out "because this is work". They sat on stairs listening to her 'having fun' and chatting to the children. Something she never did with them.

When Imogen was leaving home for boarding school, she would let Enid in the car 'I don't want her coming'. Step father drove with Imogen sat in the back alone. Stark contrast to the families in her books.

Safeguarding at MT is crap. The house mistresses never seem to do a headcount at bedtime, and there's girls popping out of school all thro the night.

Mavis, the budding opera singer, has just been found on the side of the road in the middle of the night. She sneaked off tm enter a talent competition, missed the last bus back to school so had to walk. It was pouring rain and a LONG way so she collapsed and has ended up with bronchitis(And her comeuppance is to lose her voice)

None of the teachers even knew she wasn't in bed. Shocking .

Ofsted would be over them if that was nowadays

Even when I was a child I knew Darrell wasn't quite right...that her temper was OTT! She was pretty scary

Finished 1st term. Mr Rivers has popped in and just carried out a little bit of surgery, no need for a hospital or anything, just a quick visit.

And no one told Darrell off for pushing Sally.

Didn't Mr Rivers have big eyebrows?! Random memory popped into my head

Yes "big beetling brows" according to Zerelda, who thought he was "wunnerful"!

hahha yes that's it... Zerelda wanted a sugar daddy I think!

Safeguarding at MT is crap. The house mistresses never seem to do a headcount at bedtime, and there's girls popping out of school all thro the night.

25 years ago some of my year used to climb out of the laundry room window in the sixth-form boarding house and walk a couple of miles down a main road to the all-night KFC in the small hours, so it didn't get much better! I'd been given a copy of the master key to the music block by a sympathetic head of music (I hated boarding) and so I used to sneak out and go and sit in his office, drink his hot chocolate and listen to music if I couldn't sleep.

So many head girls!

I'm onto upper fourth now, Darrell has finally been made head girl of the form. They also have head girls of each dormy which may be a different girl if head girl of the form is in a dormy in another tower. And there's also head girl of the whole school!

I was never very clear how many girls were in each year.

The school is big enough to need 4 towers but there's only one class for each form.

Apart from Betty, all the 8-10 girls who feature in each book are North Tower. So if it's 4 towers of 10 girls per year do Miss Potts and Co have to deal with forms of 40 students each??

North Tower is the Gryffindor of the set up. The other houses don't get the courtesy of having a real existence, except for the token Luna / Betty characters.

Just finished In the Fifth, this was the one I remembered the most. Must have been my favourite. It's the one were DR writes the script for the pantomime, and all the main characters have their part to play. Irene the music genius writes the music and conducts the school orchestra (first time ever mentioned!), Al-ee-kah becomes an expert conjurer and juggler, to rival the London stage, Janet (first ever appearance) is a master seamstress. Belinda (artist and recorder of Gwens scowls) is in charge of scenery. Mary-Lou turns out to be a fine actress and gets the part of Cinderella (Gwen and Maureen thought it should be them, but Maureen didn't stand a chance because she has protruding teeth). Bill was the Baron (striding around in riding breeches) and some randomers from 'other towers' got to be the Ugly sisters. Of course it was all a resounding success.

Moira, who everyone hates because she is bossy and domineering, gets to be producer because she is head of form. She gets poison pen letters from June (1st year and Al-ee-kah's cousin).

Mam'zelle plays a 'treek' with her fake teeth.

And DR's sister Felicity starts in first year.

I am reliving my childhood 😀