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.

[Gottalovesummer]

Oh brilliant! I've just finished upper fourth so can start on "in the fifth" tomorrow.

Love these books, they're fantastically mad

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Why was the fourth year the only time we heard about Upper and Lower forms? They're not mentioned at all in the other years.

[zwellers]

Am I correct in remmbering in one of the early books a girl in the form was mentioned called violet who literally got one para and was never mentioned again. Presumably horribly bullied and locked in a cupboard by Alicia for being shy or something.

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Yes, Violet Hill a "shy and colourless child".

[Bigearringsbigsmile]

violet hill is also a first former who dos jobs for angela favorleigh in claudine at st clares

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Ok I'm confusing the Violets! The one in SC was Hill and the one I. MT was shy and colourless but had no surname!

[onceandneveragain]

Butterymuffin is so right! I read 'in the fifth' after Hepzibah's post and it's so blatant how 7/9 of the organizing roles go to NT and 6/9 of the acting ones. There's a part where south tower actually cheer when one of them get the fairly godmother role because they're 'glad to have one of their own in a good part.' how graceful of NT to give one of the peons a go!
Am I right in thinking that thoughout the whole 6 years Darrell is there, the head girl of the form is always NT? And then she and Sally are the whole school head and deputy?

Somebody should do a retelling of the books from one of the other towers perspective with them all sneaking out to go to dances and playing records loudly in their form room while NT geek around playing lacrosse!

Also by the later books there are about 14/15 of them in NT but only ten beds in the dormy. No idea where the others sleep!

There's also a bit at the start when Darrell's parents drop them off at school - Felicity goes wandering off and her father says they can't possibly wait (or even get out of the car!) because he has to get back (to his Very Important Job) and tries to drive off without saying goodbye. She's only twelve and it's her second term at boarding school! Think that reveals a lot about Enid's parenting style....

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

It's like taking the Red Pill... seeing it all in a new light now.

[Hepzibar]

'But Suzanne was French. She hadn't quite the same ideas of responsibility that the British girls had.'

Quite 😀

[Gottalovesummer]

Oh they're so mean! I'm a couple chapters into "in the fifth" . New girl Maureen has arrived, her previous boarding school, Mazeley Manor, closed suddenly cos the Head died.

Anyway they're all so mean to her, when she started chatting on her first day at MT, the other girls ignored her and talked over her as new girls "should be seen and not heard".

Then Maureen gets a bit homesick at bedtime and Darrell is really mean, telling her "better get over being sensitive then"


Poor Maureen, she wasn't exactly made to feel welcome

[Hepzibar]

They soon put her in her place about Measley Manor, and she realises that it wasn't the school she thought it was.

[ScreamingValenta]

Somebody should do a retelling of the books from one of the other towers perspective with them all sneaking out to go to dances and playing records loudly in their form room while NT geek around playing lacrosse!

Sounds like a brilliant fanfic prompt to me .

[Dothehappydance]

I just ordered all the malory tower books and some of St Clare's (the books are 3 in 1)

I am in Second Year at MT and it mentions that Matron had about 250 girls to sort out, so maybe that is the school figure. It also said that Darrell was feeling a bit sad, but she pulled herself together because there was no need to be sad -Harsh EB, harsh.

I do wonder if there has been a sudden surge in MT books being ordered from eBay.

I also got the Naughtiest Girl in the school from the charity shop, I have the original 3 now but there was also about 7 more by Anne Digby - I didn't get those though, so not sure if they just follow on from '...was a monitor'

[AnneOfCleavage]

I thought I read that there was a matron for each tower.

I also did not know that there were follow on books for naughtiest girl in the school. I have the Malory Tower follow on ones which I quite enjoyed reading to DD.

[Dothehappydance]

I thought each tower had a matron too, but it was talking about Irene and a health certificate and then said something about 250 girls to sort.

[ilovepixie]

I always wondered what to box someone's ears meant. And I like the upper class language like calling your family your people

[alltoomuchrightnow]

Huh?! Follow on books for Naughtiest Girl? I wonder how the other author had permission...
And Violet Hill! Do you think Chris Martin is an EB fan?!

[ScreamingValenta]

From First Term at Malory Towers:

(Alicia) 'There are about 60 girls in each house'

Narrative: 'Each of the Tower houses had its own matron, responsible for the girls' health and well-being'

and:

'The matrons of the four houses were at Prayers too'

Re. form sizes:

'There were thirty or so girls in [Darrell's] form and more than twenty of them had done better than she had'.

One Matron having charge of 250 girls must either be a continuity error or the school has grown a lot by the time that comment appears!

Interestingly in the first book, Pamela is described as 'Head Girl of North Tower' but in the last book, Darrell is 'Head of the whole school' according to Felicity. Possibly each tower had its own head, and one of the tower heads was also head of the school.

[Dothehappydance]

Sorry I remembered slightly wrong. It says 'In the other towers three more matrons were doing the same thing. It was a real task to welcome back about two hundred and fifty girls...'

Apologies for the confusion.

[Ronsters]

Yes, I've always wondered about having your ears boxed, I imagine a slap across each side of the head

[ScreamingValenta]

I was fully prepared to believe it was a continuity error

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.

[furryleopard]

Third year is my absolute favourite, I loved all the descriptions of Bill's horse (Thunder is it?) And Miss Peters riding to the vets and finding poor Mavis. I found it so exciting.

I am from a working class family, I'd never even seen a horse in real life, I'd never heard of lacrosse, I didn't have staff, I'd have had a fit if my Mum sent me to boarding school. It was all so different from my life, like watching Downton Abbey or something.

I find it sad they've been changed for modern kids, Darrell slapping Gwen and leaving marks shocked me though, What's the reasoning of changing it? Darrell's temper causes her to lose her position of responsibility (is she sports captain or something?) I knew it was not real life. I liked the Five Find-outers too but I didn't go about being cheeky to police officers or dressing up as a waxwork. I'll have to dig out the originals for DD.

I love that all the characters have something that changes them and 'takes them down a peg' even Alicia who gets measles and can't study, doesn't she fail an exam so realises what it's like to not be effortlessly clever.

I said A-liss-eya and my mum did too, DM's mind was blown when she met a woman who called herself 'Aleesha' she rang me at university to tell me!

[ScreamingValenta]

What's the reasoning of changing it?

I've always assumed it's because when the books were written, corporal punishment was normal and acceptable both at home and school, so Darrell's lashing out would be seen as bad-tempered, but not 'criminal'. If a pupil slapped another pupil at school nowadays, I imagine it would be taken much more seriously by authority and result in suspension or exclusion.

Having said that, I don't agree with all the changes. Why not teach young readers that things were different in the past by leaving them in? When they move on to adult books, they won't find everything updated to reflect modern values.

I read EB in the 1980s, mostly in editions that were pre-decimal currency. I had no trouble grasping that 10 shillings was a modest but adequate amount of pocket money, or that Jo's £5 was a king's ransom in the world of MT!

[JellySlice]

We had a Mam'selle at school. She was the spitting image of a Blyton Mam'selle: short, tubby, curly grey hair, outrageous French accent, short-sighted, shouty, kind. But she was a highly intelligent woman, a gifted teacher and the Head of Languages.

[QueenOfTheAndals]

At least there were boys in the Naughtiest Girl books. As a 9 or 10yo I quite fancied Julian from NG Is A Monitor!