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.

Love this thread!

I too was totally obsessed with these books as a child and have re read them several times. I'm currently reading "second form at MT "

Agree with the above comments about bullying etc, I do feel sorry for Gwendolyn Mary. I think Sally and Mary Lou come out of it the best.

Still devour the books tho

Who remembers Fifth Form at St Clare's and the night when Mamzelle turned detective on the night when a lot of crazy went on? She kept locking people into cupboards who she thought were burglars.

I can't remember if this is MT or Clare's but the bit when this girl who loved poetry wanted to please her English teacher but nothing she ever did was right so she copied someone's famous poem, teacher trashed it so she then revealed the true writer and humiliated the teacher and showed her up for her bias.

Didn't Darrel also slap Gwendoline four times in a row because Gwen couldn't swim and had a panic attack in the water? I'm sure there was a part that said Darrel's handprints were still on her skin. Violent little thug.

The poem one was in St Clare's. The girl copied out a Matthew Arnold poem but changed the title and the silly vain teacher didn't recognise Victorian poetic genius and told her (Ann-Marie?) that it was moany self indulgent nonsense

Wasn't the poetry girl responsible for ' I loathe it with a loathesome loathing'? I've often said this over the intervening decades. Brilliant

This is like me re-reading The Famous Five (My absolute childhood favourite books) - Julian was a pompous prick and Anne a pathetic idiot!

I'm trying to remember if Sally actually had a personality at all. Did she?

Does anyone else have the urge to go to a sports match and shout "Play Up"?
Can you imagine it...
"Play Up Manchester Utd. Play Up"

I think Sally's personality was that she was nice but jealous - seem to remember her pinching her baby sister 'cruelly'. And was there at one point a feud between Sally and Alicia? Possibly Sally was form captain or something and Alicia didn't like it.
The one I thought made zero sense was Ellen in second year who couldn't cope with the work and manages to see the exam papers the night before the exam so she could cheat. Rather than the teachers giving her extra support, I'm fairly sure she was moved up a year because obviously not being able to cope with the demands of second year would be a good reason to do that!

Sally was also the calming influence over Darrell, and managed to stop her temper from boiling over by saying things like "steady on old girl"

@MissionItsPossible Gwen dunked Mary Lou in the pool, that’s why Darrell slapped her.

The girl copied out a Matthew Arnold poem but changed the title and the silly vain teacher didn't recognise Victorian poetic genius and told her (Ann-Marie?) that it was moany self indulgent nonsense

...but then, IIRC, Ann-Marie was roundly abused by her classmates, who all thought it was out of order to humiliate a teacher publicly, no matter how rubbish she was...

Oh! I loved MT, but good lord, they were violent! If one of my kids held someone under water or slapped another child I'd knock more than their 'corners' off!

I still think about Brave Mary Lou every time I see a gorse bush. Didn't she wrap her legs around the prickly trunk so she could use both hands to hold onto whoever had gone over the edge of the cliff? I thought having gorse prickles in your ankles the height of courage at the time!

...but then, IIRC, Ann-Marie was roundly abused by her classmates, who all thought it was out of order to humiliate a teacher publicly, no matter how rubbish she was...

Claudine said "I thought it was funny" and Hilary replied with "You would".

@LordTubbington90 Ahh, okay. I thought that Gwendoline couldn't swim and used Mary-Lou as a float, not that she deliberately dunked her.

I was deeply engrossed in them when I read them but all I can remember how is the particularly appealing sounding swimming pool by the edge of the sea!

I thought it was Mary Lou who went over the cliff and Daphne who had to lean over the cliff (with the belt from her coat...?) to stop her from falling down.

Gottalovesummer I'm on the second form now. Daphne has arrived, Gwendoline is sucking up to her because she's rich, pretty and gainer than Gwen. She's using Mary- Lou to do her french homework.

Clearly 'the others' don't like her and make it quite clear. Sally is trying to be fair because she had been made Head of Form. Alicia is jealous and is taking it out on Darrell by trying to make her loose her famous temper, by saying bad things about Sally.

Oh and the hilarious invisible chalk prank has also backfired on Alicia because Darrell is getting all the attention for the OY on Mamzelle's backside

Oh was it Daphne, Dexra? You could be right. Whoever it was they were incredibly brave (and had scratched ankles).

Hepzibar, I'm so glad you started this thread!

BettyBoo, that was Amanda Chartelow (aka Amanda Shoutalot - I think it was Claudine's sister Antoinette who gave her that nickname, but may be mistaken).

I loved MT and St C with a.passion. MT more than St C, though. I wanted to be Darrell. If not Darrell, then Alicia (though she was, it's true, a horrid bullying Queen Bee in retrospect - until Measles made her a bit more civilised).

Gwen was a thoroughly unpleasant social climber (remember her "sucking up" to the Honourable Clarissa Carter? Then there was the business about CC having a mousey little mother with a headscarf and a tiny car - only it turned out to be CC's old nurse, and that her mother was a glam type with a Bentley ). Gwen didn't half regret having snubbed CC then. That said, I'd have faked a "weak heart" to get out of Games, if I'd been able to.

Sally was a good egg, despite the baby-pinching episode. Felicity Rivers' friend Susan was another Sally. June was absolutely vile, and I thought so even when I was 9.

Happy days.

classmates, who all thought it was out of order to humiliate a teacher publicly

This didn't seem to stop them mocking Mam'zelle in class or playing pranks on her. Presumably that was different when teacher is furrin

I remember reading the poem bit and being really sceptical of the logic there. Because, FFS, surely the whole reason no one would recognise the poem was because it was shite? And therefore demonstrates that even great poets write shite on occasion?

(And that, children, is when I realised I was going to be an English teacher. )

It also just seems so weird, doesn't it? Imagine if you read out your student's poems in a mocking voice today. Blimey!

The secret lesbianism totally went over my head when I read these, but it's totally there, isn't it? Like Antonia Forrest (who is, ok, miles better than Blyton) with Lawrie.

I went to a girls boarding school. I can say it wasn’t as fun as MT. but the bullies were worse.

EB seemed to have a real issue with 'fat girl's. They were bullied, laughed at, blamed and shamed and by both kids and teachers.

This seems to be a bit of a standard for older "girls' books" in general, not just EB, and not just British. If not actually bullied, the fat girls will at least be stupid, simple and pitiful in some way. And obviously lazy. I've been reading some old Nordic girls' books, and that's true in pretty much all. Even in Anne Of Green Gables, Diana is the boring and dull one, and is described as plump and a bit of a glutton (I haven't read them in ages, but think I remember Marilla making some comment about her being so greedy, when she got drunk on Marilla's home wine or something).

I've only read MT as an adult, after only heard about them from threads like this on MN! I went in already knowing it would contain mean bullies as the "good girls", but quite enjoyed them all the same.

I do get pretty annoyed at authors basically writing themselves (or whatever idealised version of themselves they're imagining) as the main character. EB's wikipedia page tells she "...enjoyed physical activities and became school tennis champion and captain of lacrosse. She was not so keen on all the academic subjects but excelled in writing..." and also finished the school as a Head Girl. I wonder if she also enjoyed dunking a fat girl or two in the pool...

But to be fair to L M Montgomery, Diana is also the pretty one. Anna doesn't like her own 'skinny' figure and envies Diana for being plump. And it's constantly acknowledged this isn't just Anne - other people see Diana's looks as much more fashionably attractive.

She does get fat after she marries (and, IMO, much more dull after she marries, too). And so does Christine Stewart, and that's written much more nastily, though frankly I think it's fairly human the way Anne reacts to her.

But it's not as simple as MT at all.

Oh no. I've just bought the whole box set for my DC and was looking forward to reading them with them. Not so much now.

Hmm, yes, I think you're right SarahAndQuack. I was remember the thing when she's getting married to Fred (?), and the comment that they can be fat together, or something like that.