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.

Loved the Cherry Tree farm books. Want to live in a thatched farmhouse and have a donkey for Christmas! And bottle feed a lamb. And hang out with a wild man in the woods who lives in a cave and teaches me about the differences between hares and rabbits.

How on earth would they modernise Tammylan? . Probably with some kind of paedo-hunt :o .

think they would just have to cut him out of the book! no way of making him acceptable today I fear

Zukiecat - Gretl at St Brides was by Mary K Harris.

Panzee - those were the covers I had too. They look terribly 80s now don't they !!

Yes to Cherry Tree Farm... off to amazon (have already ordered my goddaughter Jill's Gymkhana as a result of this thread.. can't wait for my dds to be old enough).

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - blew me away.

Also, 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' and 'Carrie's War'.

To answer a earlier question on this thread, from what I've read - girls in the UK wore dresses and skirts more than trousers and shorts well into the 50s and 60s so its not surprising that EB had her girl characters not wear trousers and shorts given the time that the books were written in.

George and Anne definitely wore shorts in the FF books :)

Chalet School books are the best.

Anyone ever read 'Shirley at Charterton' by Christabel Marlowe.

A ripping read, and a one off by the author as far as I can tell. I loved it when I was about 8.

YANBU. I used to love both series when little. I have 2 young boys who have zero interest in such 'girly' books but I don't care, I've bought all the St Claire's books again in the past couple of yrs so have a full set again (dunno what happened to my old set over the years, mum probably chucked them, bah.)
Just need to collect all the Malory Towers series again now.
Oh and all the original ones I used to have, as God knows what changes have been made to the newer versions! Grrr.

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?

An apple pie bed was where they folded the covers down on the bed in a certain way so that when they tried to get their feet in to bed, however hard they tried they couldn't get into bed.

Oh yes, I got plenty :o I think the top sheet is doubled back on itself so that you can't get your legs in? Oh what jolly japes!

Oh I loved the St.Clare books! I read them all in German though. Should probably use the excuse that you HAVE to read them in the original and get them off amazon.

They made a German movie out of it a while ago. It is AWEFUL! I did not bother watching it, it doesn't look anything like it. The trailer starts with them being naughty and that being the reason they are send to the boarding school there is sparkly stuff in the trailer and it's overall ridiculous. I was quite upset somehow. I guess movie makers feel they have to modernise everything but I think it lost all the charm with it. Putting the trailer on here, even if you don't understand the language you can tell it 'looks' wrong.

One of the kids I babysat a few years back loved it though. So did her mum, They have never read any of the book!

I totally totally loved loved loved those books. I was obsessed, I wanted to go to Mallory Towers and swim in the natural swimming pool. I wanted to be Darrell! I can't wait for my DD to read them!

Skirts and dresses were often changed to trousers or shorts or even jeans beginning with the 1970s reprints, so you'd have to chase down an original edition to be sure what the characters wore.

It's a shame Enid's home "Green Hedges" was torn down. It should have been turned into a museam.

Sorry for coming back to this thread but i think it's sad that some of the posters earlier in the thread suport reading the bowdlerised versions to children. Whitewashing history is not a good thing and can only lead to bad things.

Agree PaulB4490. The original versions are the best - Mother being Mother, never 'Mum'... halcyon days long gone...

Yes, I always wanted to swim in that rocky sea pool!

Ahhh! The twins at st claires! I spent many days daydreaming I went to their school, those were the days.
Do you remember Janet their cheeky friend ? And hilary ? I think she was class captain, midnight feasts etc. I remember they hated lacrosse at first because they used to play "hockey" at redroofs.

There were no sexual innuendos in those books, no boyfriends etc, just straight "clean" stories, pure teenage fun, I can't even begin to imagine what teenage girls of today would make of those books

LOVED Malory Towers. Have 4 out of the 6 in the loft waiting for DD to be a bit older... in the meantime once i get the other two on Ebay or something i will be rereading them myself :) St. Clares was OK, but not a patch on MT. What about the one where clever Alicia had scarlet fever or measles or something and felt all 'woolly-headed', and realised how all the 'dull' girls felt when they did so badly in lessons?! And when Darrell slapped Gwen by the swimming pool... ooh the drama!

always wanted to go to boarding school and wear a smart tunic with a contrasting 'sash'...