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Original poster

to think that the Malory Towers gels where a bunch of bitches?!

116 replies

Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 22:57

Just re-read the last two as they were my favourite and Oh Em Gee, what a bunch of fecking cows they were!

I have a HUGE EB collection starting with Five run away together, that mum bought me for my first Brownie camp. DD got into them (she is 8) so I thought I would buy her the MT box set. She was over the moon, and last night and today I read 5 and 6 as they had been my favourites although I hadnt read them in years.

These naice gels are bullying, bitching snotty nosed princesses! They were vile to newcomers, vile to younger ones, unspeakable to any girl who was a little bit different, encouraged one twin to dump her other twin in the name of "independence", looked down on parents who werent the right sort, self satisfied, self obsessed and utter snobs! And of course every book ended with the "not our kind" becoming a decent MT girl!

I have always, as an adult, read EB and particularly Famous Five with an air of amused irony ("Anne, you really are a proper little housewife!" "I know, but I do love looking after you all!"). But, and I realise that I am probably over thinking this, MT is awful and I am slightly regretting buying them for DD :(

So were they bitches or was I just the girl that would have left after 2 terms because I wasnt the right sort?!

OP posts:
SantasHoHoHo · 26/12/2012 22:59

Sounds like they'd fit in perfectly on MN.

Am very Envy you have the books. I love EB.

WorraLorraTurkey · 26/12/2012 23:00

Don't be so beastly OP!

AlexReidsLonelyThisChristmas · 26/12/2012 23:01

Apple Pie bed for Bogeyface.

BreconBeBuggered · 26/12/2012 23:02

I read them when I was 8 and was terrified my working-class parents would take it into their heads to send me to boarding school. I was unspeakably common and hated team games and swimming in cold pools. Nobody in the dorm would ever have spoken to me.

Original poster
Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 23:02

Well I dont care what you beasts think, I shall let down my long blonde hair and go and run away!

OP posts:
Original poster
Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 23:03

Brecon you and I would have been special friends as we would have been the only common scholarship girls in the dormy!

OP posts:
jessjessjess · 26/12/2012 23:05

They really were. And they spanked each other with hairbrushes for being "tattletales"!

Katienana · 26/12/2012 23:06

The twins at st clares were no better, I remember them bullying fat alma until it was revealed she had a glandular problem and also putting.stones in someones shoe. Nasty

Backtobedlam · 26/12/2012 23:07

I begged my parents to send me to boarding school after reading those books, they never did though!

Original poster
Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 23:07

And pushing the fat girl into a freezing cold pool because she didnt want to get in but needed the exercise!

They were truly horrible! Oh and sending a new girl to Coventry because she didnt know that she wasnt supposed to "speak out" on her first night. I wonder what the MT suicide rate was :o

OP posts:
Original poster
Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 23:08

Katie so the implication being that it would have been ok to bully her if she had just eaten too much?!

As for the tricks on teachers. 4 letters.

A S B O :o

OP posts:
Original poster
Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 23:09

Bedlam thats the thing though, I wanted to go too, because to 7 year old me it sounded wonderful. Its only know I realise how awful they are!

OP posts:
WorraLorraTurkey · 26/12/2012 23:09

I absolutely loved MT when I was a kid...but I too was scared of being packed off to boarding school Lol.

It used to make me irrationally angry though when they'd say "My people" instead of "My parents".

pELFicFloorClenchReminder · 26/12/2012 23:10

Right Bogeyface I am sending you to Coventry and I shan't allow to come to the midnight feast, you beastly sneak! And next time we're at the pool I shall push you in - that's what you get for not being a good decent english MT girl!

Silkwood · 26/12/2012 23:10

I also had the same fond memories but was reading one to DD tonight and had the same thought OP! Real proper bee-atches. Everyone's appearance also seems to mark them as 'good' or 'bad' e.g. 'Kathleen was a rather pasty faced plump girl with a sour expression. None of the girls liked her at all as she seemed, fat, lazy, miserable and unpopular'. OK I'm paraphrasing but it's really sick how appearance is supposed to show character. Also how 'fitting in' is the bloody be all and end all. Fecking spoilt brats. I'm going to have to give my DD an alternative commentary as I read it, I know. But I did love it as a kid.

RyleDup · 26/12/2012 23:10

Oh wow, I'd forgotten those books. Can't wait until dd is old enough for them and I can read them myself

RyleDup · 26/12/2012 23:12

Feck, I'm going to get them anyway, read them and then put them away until dd is older.

EmpressOfTheNorthPole · 26/12/2012 23:12

Darrell was in serious need of anger management training! And Alicia was a right bitch.

Alma and Gwen are on the boards somewhere, aren't they?

pELFicFloorClenchReminder · 26/12/2012 23:14

Which book was Zerelda in? Did she have the frightful 'being American'ness jolly well beaten out of her by the end?

LadyBeagleBaublesandBells · 26/12/2012 23:16

I haven't read them in years, but I agree Op.
Horrible snobbish girls, and I recognised it even then.

MaryChristmaZEverybody · 26/12/2012 23:17

I agree they were horrible.

But it would have been ok for me if my parents had sent me off. Because I would have been in the gang Xmas Envy so I wouldn't have noticed.

I really, really wanted to go to boarding school. And now I want to go to Hogwarts.

Original poster
Bogeyface · 26/12/2012 23:19

Oh YY to Hogwarts! I adore my DD for thinking up a wonderful scenario which involved a mistake being made when I was born so I didnt go on "the list" as a witch, so I have to go to Hogwarts as an adult! It would mean that she and I could go together as she admitted that she would be a bit scared to go off to school on her own, bless her :)

OP posts:
KittyFane1 · 26/12/2012 23:20

Malory Towers, St. Clare's, Naughtiest girl in the school books are all the same! Nasty, spiteful gossips who justified their horrible treatment of others and saw themselves as morally superior in every way. They were Intolerant of newcomers (don't fit in) timid people (weak), loud people (common), fat people (greedy), poor people ( thieves)... I could go on! I loved the books when I was younger as DD does now Hmm.
I bet E. Blyton was an absolute *

PumpkinPositive · 26/12/2012 23:22

Bogeyface, Are you actually Gwendolyn Mary Lacey come to do a bit of damage limitation?

AlexReidsLonelyThisChristmas · 26/12/2012 23:25

I'm surprised half the teachers didn't have nervous breakdowns with all of the 'ragging' going on, especially poor Mam'zelle.
You're so right OP, I adored those books as a child, but the characters, in hindsight were total bitches.

Except poor Mousy MaryLou who was a vicars daughter or something, therefore majorly looked down upon.