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.

HumphreyCobblers
Oh the Abbey School is very appealing! All those romantic dances (although folk dancing is much less glamorous in RL imo)

Regrettably true, I suppose!

I had never heard of Kingscote before and now want to read those books ... I'm in my fifties ...

Definitely Whyteleafe because the kids ran the whole show! Or Trebizon in the summer term, lots of tennis and parties.

St Clare's (more than Malory Towers.)

And then Trebizon came along, and it seemed a bit more real. My friend and I were allowed out of school for the afternoon to go and see Anne Digby at the Weymouth children's book fair, so most of my books are signed.

As much as I enjoyed reading the Abbey School and Chalet School, I didn't really want to go to school at either of them, nor Kingscote, nor the Dimsie books (can't remember the school name.) And for Jennings or Molesworth - well, I just wasn't a boy.

Hogwarts might be fun, if it weren't at the time of the battle.

I would leave my whole life behind right now to go to Hogwarts.

Well I might move the kids into Hogsmeade I suppose.

MereDint That's a predicament! How interesting, I know of the real school but have never bumped into any former pupils. Do you know if it really was as unconventional as its reputation made it out to be?

Clothrabbit I think the opposite. Trebizon is by far more realistic and more interesting to read. Malory Towers and Enid Blyton likes characters that were middle class and accomplished. They were hateful to Gwendoline and looked down on anyone who wasn't like them. St Clare's the same - Alma Pudden anyone?

I would have loved to have gone to Trebizon and would have joined the choir with Mara and been on their Action Committee 😂

Goldengroveunleaving oh you have such a treat in store!

Lucy Mangen described Antonia Forest as the Jane Austen of the school story, and she is not wrong. They are brilliant. Autumn Term is easily available.

Mallory Towers....but fear I’d suit St Trinidad’s better😬😆

St Trinians not Trinidads obvs....though the concept sounds appealing!

Hogwarts for the food! Never-ending meat and potatoes, puddings and treacle tarts - I’d have been as big as a house

Chalet school! I speak French, but my German would need remedial lessons, alas.

Has to be Malory Towers!

I'd love to read more of Antonia Forest - I had 9 tenths of a copy of one of them (it was missing the cover and most of the first chapter, so I'm not sure which one it was) and I read it over and over. I didn't realise until recently that there were more in the series. They seem hard to find.

I'd pick Malory Towers, I think, though Hogwarts sounds good too.

Chalet School. I adored those books.

Hogworts

Starfleet Academy, if it counts!

Not Malory Towers or St Clares. My lack of interest in sports would rule me right out. The Chalet School seemed less obsessed with sports in the few I read, but the girls were a bit too posh for me. Enid's weird socialist utopia in the Naughtiest Girl series I think I would find a bit too anarchic. And Hogwarts is a bit too perilous. So probably Miss Cackle's Academy if not Star Fleet.

Actually if it counts, Star Fleet Academy.

Will start looking out for Antonia Forest.

Hogwarts would be great, except I was bad enough at all forms of PT/gym/games at school on dry land (and in the water) without taking to the air for Quidditch!

I'm with you on Malory Towers/ St Clare's, Humphrey. It always grated on me that Irene was seen as an oddity for playing the piano FFS!

Miss Cackle's Academy or Hogwarts for me; though I'd probably end up at the sister school to St Custards for GURLS ho for bat and ho for ball chiz.

Probably the Chalet School, although Hogwarts runs it a very close second.

BelfastSmile, your nine tenths of a copy reminds me of that Tony Hancock sketch The Missing Page.

Hogwarts, if I had to. But I think I'd have been unhappy at any boarding school, fictional or not. I remember enjoying reading the Malory Towers books but realising that if I were a character in them I wouldn't be a friend of Darrell's but the homesick girl who hates sports and doesn't want to swim in cold water.

At least at Hogwarts I'd get to learn magic.

Definitely hogwarts for those feasts alone

Definitely Mallory Towers - loved Daryl and her sensible mother waving her off on the train while poor Gwendoline Mary was always roaring and crying! Would seem like child cruelty nowadays.... Tried reading them with my DD but its funny -they seem so old fashioned nowadays x

Loved the Chalet school as well although can't remember too much of it now but I think that's where my love of Europe and languages came from from reading those books xxx

For most of my life it would have been the Chalet School but now it would have to be Hogwarts, no contest.