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.

it was based on summerhill wasn't it?

I don't think Jo was American, but her dad was a wealthy, self made man(the horror!). He and Jo were brash, loud and he didn't take anything seriously. Jo got expelled, cant remember why, cheating? I think the head offered to keep her on but she left.

I remember Elizabeth at Whyteleafe had a ten shilling note or something that she wanted to keep and it was explained to her they all had to chip in and share. All the children had a little gardening plot too, if they wanted.

Jo didn’t cheat, she ran away because people were being mean to her. There were additional issues with her too, like her arrogance and not working hard etc.

Speaking of Jo... in the Felicity-based sequels she comes back to the school under a different name, having not revealed who she was, and proves that she’s changed. Miss Grayling allowed her back or something, under a disguise.

Oh another thing I remember about Jo was that her parents sent her a £5 or £10 (a lot of money in those days) and she kept the note in her knickers! Then one day the leg elastic broke and it fell out. Who wants money that's been in someone's pants??

And they could take their pets to school too, unlike at MT or SC.

Jo was expelled for stealing money from matron and running away with a 'drippy'first year.

I think it's clear that EB actually disliked other women in general, and especially ones with any pretentions towards being very feminine or girly. I think EB was quite plain and not what you'd call alluring and I read she was insanely jealous of her husband and other women. I've read a biography and she spent little time with her own daughters.

There are stories of her hosting tea
parties for her readers and not letting her own children attend - they had to eat in the nursery.

Her daughters were estranged from each other til the end too. One thought Blyton a wonderful mother and the other made no secret of the fact that she thought the opposite.

It's horrible that they used to single one girl out and send her to 'Coventry'.

The audiobooks are on YouTube.

When I was reading the books, I always thought Whyteleafe was pronounced "Why-tell-eafe" !

I started to read MT to my DD and she was far from impressed. We did not even manage the first one. However, she adores Jennings books and thinks they are the best thing ever!!

They did the coventry thing with, I think, a girl called Marjory, think it was MT but poss St Clares. She was playing in a lacrosse/hockey match and single handedly won, but no one cheered her goals and she didn't go to the tea afterwards. I felt sorry for her.

I think Marjory (Fenworthy?) was in the St Clares books. Didn't she rescue someone from a fire?

She did, which is what redeemed her. She saved a girl called Erica, who was an unpopular nasty person. She got moved up a year with another girl, Lucy.

I always remember in the last MT book when Darrell is getting ready to go off for her final term at school. And she looks at herself in the mirror and thinks she is almost grown up. I remember being horrified by that and thinking surely I would be actually grown up at that age?!

As a Scot I was always disturbed by dour Jean who was good at maths and never smiled. I used to worry that I was rubbish at sums despite being Scottish.

Re the money in the knickers thing - Back in those days knickers were more like long shorts with baggy elasticated legs and were often used to store a hanky or valuables. Some even had a little buttoned pocket on the leg specificially to keep money and valuables in.

They sent June to Coventry in MT too though I can't remember what for.

Dragonlight I haven't got that far but will update when I do.

I am wondering if I should have left this re-reading 40 years later well alone.

I had good memories of MT, I so wanted to be Darrell Rivers, so wanted to go to boarding school, so wanted to escape the council estate, so wanted to be someone who went to university (whatever that was). It made me see that there were people that were somebody and I wasn't.

Good and bad at same time.

They sent June to Coventry in MT too though I can't remember what for.

Generally being rude and above herself, I think. Alicia went to speak to the head girl of the first form (Hilda?) and told her June was being a PITA and could she do something about it. Hilda was pleased and told Alicia they'd been wanting to take June down a few pegs for a long time but June had said Alicia wouldn't like it. They sent her to Coventry and her then-best-friend Felicity had to promise not to speak to her.

This was shortly before the ill-fated 4th form midnight feast and Pianogate!

Pianogate? I don't remember that!

Didn't Darrell blow up and June while she was playing the piano and end up shaking her? I think Miss Potts or Miss Peters found them and then Darrell was demoted as head of the fourth.

Yes, and after Miss Potts had shouted at them, June 'had the audacity to reseat herself and play a soft chord' .

Oh yes now I remember!

Then June went crowing to Felicity about how Darrell had got into trouble, completely forgetting that Darrell was Felicity's sister. Felicity told June exactly what she thought of her, and that was the end of the friendship.

That's it! I'd forgotten that Felicity was ever friends with June. Didn't Darrell 'shake her until her teeth rattled' and got in huuuge trouble for 'physical violence' Or something?

Some of the books are free to read online now. I'm reading In the Fifth and they really are horrid to the new girl Maureen from day 1.

Some of the books are free to read online now

I didn't know that! Where?