To wonder which fictional boarding school you'd like to have attended?

[Clothrabbit]

For me, Malory Towers. I still love those books and always enjoy reading about the outdoor pool, Gwendoline's misdemeanours, and Mamzelle's eccentricities.

over a bit of lipstick, powder and nail varnish on a nearly 16 year old girl

It was modelling herself on Lossie Laxton that did it, clearly that added years to her and made her appear fast

The Chalet School. I'd have been best friends with Joey, stayed on to teach (probably Art) married some handsome local mountaineer and given birth to various sets of twins triplets and octuplets all girls who'd have joined the school at 18 months - such a simple life plan

Oh hang on, I might be thinking of the Chalet School with all the hot chocolate..? Not St Claire’s.

I remember reading those books and pestering my mum to go to boarding school . She slowly explained that RL boarding schools in Ireland wouldn’t have been quite the same as the one in the Alps with all the chocolate swilling .

changeofname I don't know your book (I wish I did, it sounds great!), but there are some lovely second hand dealers who specialise in girls school stories and may well know your book. Google for Topsy Turvy books or Gill Bilski and drop them an email.

What school were Stalky and Co at? Was it just called The College?

There, anyway.

Another vote for The Chalet School here. I love those books and spent far too much money buying the whole collection in first editions. With dustjackets 😮

Whyteleafe was probably based on Summer Hill school in Suffolk.

I think my vote would have to be the Malory Towers buildings (and could they heat the swimming pool please) with the Trebizon characters in it. Both schools are in Cornwall so it wouldn't take long (just a few miles and about four decades) to make this possible.

I never realised how horrifically cold an unheated pool must be until my mum, who was at a boarding school in the 1950/60s, told me recently that she used to pray for rain during a swimming lesson because the rain would warm her up!

“What school were Stalky and Co at? Was it just called The College?”

The Coll.

Wasn’t it based on the school Kipling went to- some place for army brats? Or am I making that up?

United Services College at Westward Ho! Yes, it was based on Kipling's old school, and many of the characters were based on real people.

Tinuviel - thank you for the info. The only copy of the second Masha book I can find is over a hundred pounds. I have a fairly modern reprint of Masha. I will look into the other book you mentioned, thank you!

I loved Stalky and Co. but remember finding the final chapter quite disturbing.

MarieVanGoethem you may have just blown my mind! Reading your previous post I realised that Armiford was Hereford. I live near Hereford and a quick google shows that I am basically living three miles away from the real life situation of the Chalet

I can't believe I never knew this!!

If the Malory Towers pool is basically Dancing Ledge only bigger I am not sure how you could heat it since the whole point is it is refreshed by the sea every high tide.

So glad to have found some more Masha fans on here . It was my favourite book as I child as had been bullied and it encouraged me to tell to the birch tree in my garden about it which was a bit of a help. I just wanted to go there so much!! It also helped that it was real and the building was so beautiful.

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I researched it and found out that some really famous people like Countess Lieven - the snobby patroness of Almacks for all the Georgette Heyer fans out there was a pupil there! Lucy Worsley showed a painting of two Smolney girls - a Brown and a Blue in her programme on St Petersburg.

Masha, The Youngest Lady in Waiting and also A Circling Star which was set in Imperial Russia at the ballet school have recently been reprinted - I bought them on Amazon - more people should read them as they are great.

They were a bit snobby at the Chalet School too, to be fair.
Poor Joan Baker is always looked down on for being cheaply pretty, having a perm and only being able to attend because her family won the pools.
On reflection, I’m not sure I’d fit in. For a start I think I’d have got bored with hobbies club, paper games, and playing fancy dress with the sheets. The outcry when someone was caught playing cards on a Sunday doesn’t make it sound a barrel of laughs.
I’d probably have been thrown out for making eyes at the doctors

'cheaply pretty'

A Circling Star is one of my all-time favourite books, londonmummy. I paid 40 quid for a copy a few years ago!

I think I'm actually going to download Mallory towers and trebizon to my kindle to relive those days!!

Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches here. By the way, can I still sign up for it?

haverhill Circling Star is great isn't it - if you haven't read Masha/Youngest Lady in Waiting I recommend them.

I’ve been meaning to since about 1980 (literally)!

I'd completely forgotten about Mara Kay and Masha which was one of the most influential books of my childhood! I was so completely absorbed in it, and none of my contemporaries seemed to know about it.

I'm feeling a bit ashamed I didn't introduce my DCs to it. DC2 loved the Mallory Towers, St Clare's so much she begged to go to boarding school

Stalky&Co is free on IBooks.

It would have to be the Chalet School. It was in the Tyrol and they had kaffee and kuchen every morning, as well as bi-annual life threatening events which would have made things good and interesting. I wouldn't have tolerated Jo Maynard inflicting some ugly nickname on me however.

I also fancied a term or two at 1980s set Trebizon. They had boyfriends and everything! Scandalous harlots.

I treated myself to Masha and The Youngest Lady in Waiting last year - I read them as a child, and loved reading them again!

I think it is a mark of a good children’s book that adults can enjoy it too.

Trebizon for me. Decent sports such as surfing and swimming, not lacrosse!) Set In Cornwall, and also girls were encouraged to have mnay differnet interests and talents and were allowed to go into town and even meet boys!
I would have been dividing my time between Hilary Camberwell Music school, singing or playing and in the sea!

The girls seemed so much nicer there. The girls that did have a hard time were usually treated that way because they had behaved badly (eg Nicola Hodges or Debbie Rickard or that awful Elizabeth Exton) but there seemed less bullying generally there (I think Roberta Jones got teased a bit and Lucy Hubbard, but nothing like as bad as Enid Blyton's characters, who were often teased for being fat or not liking games or being a bit spoiled (as though they can help their parents!)

Sally "Elf" Elphinstone in Trebizon is the chubby girl in the books but she is well liked with a nice personality and no real charcater faults unlike EB's fat charcters (thieving, depressed Alma Pudden, lazy Anna the form head, spoiled, conceited Gwendolyn Mary), and was happy to go swimming and surfing with her friends.

I loved Antonia Forest too, but Kingscote would have been a bit dull compared to Trebizon. Mallory Towers, loved the rock pool and also it being in Cornwall but I suspect I would have been bullied as am not really a team player type or an extrovert and was overweight since aged 12.