to want to re-read the whole Malory Towers and St Claires series?

[SlightlyJaded]

Oh the twins. And drippy Gwendoline Mary, and Darrell Rivers... although I can't quite remember who went to which school.

Just imagine a tin of sardines with a can of evaporated milk as a treat ((midnight feast) I no longer have the books, so look forward to others providing additional detail!

To this day, whenever I see the word 'strapping', I think of of the MT/StClare's books.

I also remember sitting, crying, on teh stairs when my parents told me that they were too poor to send me to boarding school.

I loved the St Clares books. The twins Pat and Isobel. Would love to re-read them.

Used to dream of boarding school and midnight feasts!!

I am already planning which sets of books to buy dd (currently 11 mo!). MT definitely my favourite and I always remember Darrel pushing Sally and saying that her mum said she wrote such funny little "wooden letters".... Was Alicia that played all the tricks or was it someone else?

Alicia and her friend, Betty. Someone posted a link to a quiz thingy for them a while ago. I wish I could remember what it was called.

I seem to remember the food element.

Mallory Towers all the way!!!!! Also loved Jill at the gymkana x

No, you should do it. I recently reread some of my favourite books 'the chronicles of narnia' - loved it and found it really interesting how differently I interpreted it as an adult.

Next stop, 'The Wishing Chair' and 'The Faraway Tree'.

ENid Blyton's second husband was called Kenneth Darrell Waters - hence the name. I had a boyfriend called Darrell, which confused me, as I'd always thought it was a girls name - because of the books!

Fab, thread, I used to love the MT & St Clares books... haven't read them since I was 11ish though. :)

I still love the Chalet school books though (I have all the Armada editions, but am also buying the GGBP reprints and new fill-ins) and Lorna Hill books.

Oh and I have plans to read the Noel Streatfield books (White Boots, Ballet shoes etc). :)

YANBU but if you have the originals then guard them with your life - was in the book shop today and picked up 'The Magic Faraway Tree' and Dick and Fanny have been renamed RICK and FRANNIE. Madness.

I am waiting for my mother to go up into the loft and retrieve all my old books for DD as the modern reprints are totally different. I am particularly keen for her to get the old Richard Scarry books down as the new versions are heavily abridged and just not the same.

I can't believe I haven't read the Chalet School books! Thought the 8 year old me had devoured every Enid Blyton going ( or were these not EB?) And yes, for me it was the midnight feasts and pranks that seemed so exciting - although I could never figure out what an 'apple pie bed' was (I think poor Gwendolin Mary and mean Alicu got a few of these). Anyone?

And to the person who asked about the Fatty books, they were the 'Mystery of the...' books. Fatty was a master of diguise and I clearly recall that in The Mystery of the Missing Necklace, Fatty and the Five Find Outers had to pretend to be waxworks in a museum and the necklace was hidden in plain view around the neck of the queen waxwork. Genius.

YANBU! I have them all (collect children's books) and read them regularly. Prefer MT to SC.

I also love the five findouters and dog. Anyone remember Fatty? And Mr Goon the copper?

Happy sigh....

trixie 123 - I have Mr Galliano circus and I passed it on to my 5 year old, who loved all the Galliano books. Did you know there was a series of circus books. Of all the Enid's they are my fav. She is still enthralled with Malory and St Clair's, the wishing chairs the faraway tree. I can't wait for the Jennings books they were hilarious

My favourite was "Fifth Formers at St Clares". Loved St Clares best. The Honourable Angela Favorleigh & when you were in the top forms you could get younger girls to fag for you. Anyone remember Claudines naughty sister Antoniette making Angela anchovy toast using shoepolish?
Fifth Form at SC had the fab evening of the midnight feast where evertything went wrong. Felicity sleep walks whilst playinng a violin & Alma Pudden prowls! Now wheres my copy...

I started out with the Malory Towers and St. Clare's books before progressing onto the more sophisticated Chalet School series.

Then I discovered Antonia Forest. Her books are definately some of the most character-rich and challenging children's books ever.

YANBU. I have been feeling the same too.

O yes The Farawy Tree. That was one of my faves as a child.

Apple Pie Bed

As per instructions from my big sisters who did go to boarding school

Take a flat sheet and tuck in (using hospital corners of course) at the head of the bed.
The instead of tucking the end of the sheet under the end of the mattress fold in half, and draw up to look like a top sheet make rest of bed as normal.
Idea is that you can?t stretch out in bed without kicking the sheet out/ down, and this means you?ll be left with no top sheet.

Not sure why this would be an issue the not having a top sheet?? Big sis freely admits they got the idea from EB

YANBU at all. I re-read the entire Anne of Green Gables series a couple of years ago (aged 40+)

I have the full Malory Towers set somewhere, I think - not sure I ever got the full set of St. Clares and was recently bemoaning the fact that I only ever had a couple of the Chalet School Books.
I quite liked Drina as well - ballerina, I have two of hers somewhere (actually all in boxes in the garage as haven't unpacked them since moving)

Kitta - having no top sheet to protect you from scratchy woollen blanket makes sleeping difficult. No lovely cotton duvets back then, you know!

YANBU.

I had an old copy of my Mum's of Summer Term at St Clare's which I used to re-read to death. The one where Carlotta comes out as a 'common' circus girl and Prudence tries to get her in trouble and gets kidnapped, in place of 'flighty' Sadie, the American.

Not being English, I couldn't understand how on earth anyone from the circus could possibly be common - surely genuine circus girls were rare as hens' teeth.

A few years ago I bought some others and was disappointed to realise how formulaic they were. Terms starts - twins and their cohorts, as well as the intake of new girls. One wrong 'un turns good; one wrong 'un stays bad and has to leave, as there's no place for bad eggs at SCs. Midnight feasts and jolly japes ensue. Read one, you've read them all.

Still enjoyable, though.

YANBU at all. I loved all the Blyton books and the CS as well. You have to reread MT and StC with a child's eye though - they don't stand up to an adult's view of the world. Characters do start to look 1 dimensional...

Some attitudes are very much products of the time she was writing in though, and they do jar now.

Chalet school fans come hither if you haven't already.

Nomdeplume you wouldn't have Harry Potter in its current form were it not for Malory Towers!

Is it called < racks brain > intertextuality ?("Death of the Author" sort of thing) - basically anything anyone ever writes has been affected by everything they ever read.

I always think the train journeys to Hogwarts are straight out of Malory Towers. Not accusing JK of plagiarism of course, just that she is continuing a long line of English Boarding School books, which some would say reached its glorious zenith with Malory Towers/St Claires, as all they were about was school.