to prefer St Clare's to Malory Towers?

[Olivetti]

I love both of them,but for some reason St Clare's has always had the edge for me. So why does Malory Towers get all the fame and glory?

blytonlyobvious.blogspot.com/2010/05/gwendoline-mary-heroine-of-our-time.html

Poor Gwen. The others were awful to her

Darrell especially, violent nasty cow that she is

It’s true that Gwen did not do anything particularly horrible to the girls after the first form. But she caused her parents a lot of pain and worry when she pretended to have a weak heart to get out of the school certificate exam, and she was horrible to her father because he didn’t want her to go to the expensive finishing school she wanted.

I loved Malory Towers. I also read the updated versions where it carries on with Felicity written by Pamela Cox.
So Jo Jones ( who got expelled in Last Term at MT), comes back in 6th year, but is called Alice and doesn't tell anyone as everyone would hate her, but they eventually suss her out , And becomes a heroine and one of MT's successes.
And Gwen comes back as a teacher of deportment. Her uncle pays for a finishing school ( not in Switzerland) , and she is changed, especially after a drama.
And Daphne Hope starts in first form, and is a wee cow...nothing like her stolid sister Sally!

And for the poster that asked, Jane Teal was at St Clare's. She ran away in Fifth Formers at St Clare's, the night Mamzelle locked up the "burglars"...

Yes Jane Teal was at St Claire’s and did try to in away but she was ill and feverish and didn’t get any further than a games locker in the hall. Mamzelle thought she was a burglar too and locked her in there.

Oh wow, didn't realise the updated versions carried on from where the last one left off! Would be interesting to read. Although if it's written by someone else and not Enid Blyton not sure if it'd be the same.

St Clare's was way more fun than MT. I was all about St Clare's.

Although I was more interested in the principle of moving to a remote island and living wild, Secrets style, or solving exciting mysteries with the Famous Five, the Adventure crew or the Barney mystery chaps.

Loved the Famous Five and The Secret Seven too. Does anyone remember the Adventurous Four too? Think that's what it was called. With Kiki the parrot and Bill.

That was the Adventure books...the Island of Adventure, the Castle, The Valley, The Sea, the Circus, the Mountain, The Ship and the River.

And whilst Pamela Cox isnt Enid Blyton, she makes a good job!
She did the St Clare's updates too. ( not ad good)

St Clare’s jumps between characters and forms. No emotional investment at all. And the ages in each form are inconsistent- one book focused on a difficult sporty girl who seemed to be at least two or three years older than the rest of the form. There was one book that had a character who could not stop eating and was universally considered to be a pig with no self-control by the other girls. Quite an awful storyline. The storyline on the cook who had children who were thieves was a bit nasty too. Very untrustworthy working class people vibe. It was a strange series and not everything got tied up neatly like Malory Towers.

I remember The Adventurous Four, Rainbows. Have both books. I loved the original with the Nazi submarine base,

The Adventurous Four was two books and different from the Adventure series with Kiki. The Adventure series was the best- and had a single working mother, which was unusual. The mother did marry Bill later in the series though.