To wonder what kids (and some parents) nowadays would think of books like Malory Towers...

[PlinkiePlonk]

I am reading this with my DD as I loved it as a kid. Only just started book one when the kids are dropped off for the first time. Half of the first chapter was one girl (Alicia) taking the mickey of another (Gwendoline Mary) for the fact that she had such a tearful goodbye with her mum as opposed to just being a ‘good sort’ and getting on with it.

It just made me think we are all so far the other way now.... i had a military childhood so I still think a bit that people do need to just get on with it (then I do something completely helicopter parent so not exactly immune). However, I can’t help but think all our tears for our children doing perfectly normal things like going to school or growing up aren’t helping them be self sufficient. It just makes me wonder if books like this would now be seen as really harsh by society whilst actually there is a balance?

I've started this half term with my 6 year old too. They are quite mean to Gwendoline really, aren't they?
The utter incomprehension of Zerelda's American obsession with her appearance is quite funny to see, but I can't help feeling it'd be better if we all had a bit more of the British girls' attitude to appearance and sports (although I don't support the xenophobia!).

I believe modern editions have been made less 'harsh' - for example, Darrell no longer slaps Gwen in the swimming pool - so YANBU.

Personally I don't hold with editing children's books to remove references to violence, imperial currency, smoking etc. - children need to learn that we did things differently in the past. You can't erase history.

Can't wait to see the musical

Honestly, I preferred society when people were expected to be a bit more Malory Towers.

Yes, there’s some harshness there, but there’s also honesty, hard work, loyalty and a sense of fairness that I just happen to like. I think Gwendoline is a right moaning Minnie; although I wouldn’t personally mock someone for crying when they left their parents, it’s implied that she is basically like this all the time.

These threads always go one way or two. Either it's:

oh isn't it dreadful the kind of things people put in children's books these days? I wish we were back in the days when children's books were about sweetness and innocence and people behaving nicely and being kind to each other

or

isn't it pathetic what snowflakes modern children are? can't put anything in children's books these days

I suspect a historian from the future would be quite hard put to it to work out from the two which period was actually The Age of Snowflakes.

For what it's worth, I read Enid Blyton as a foreigner in the 1960s and found a lot of the behaviours and values odd then. Have no idea whether than means non-Brits were snowflakes then and if so, whether they are more or less snowflakey now.

I've been reading these to my dds too. Much as i love them I think the trouble is Blyton doesn't really paint a very clear picture of what being a good sort really entails- the main characters sometimes take objection to someone and set aboit on a merciless bullying campaign to "knock their corners off" whereas others have damning character flaws but are overall spiffing chaps despite them. It's very confusing as a moral guide!

I'm not sure where I sit on this but I bloody love Malory Towers!!

longestlurkerever

I think the virtues are meant to be honesty, straightforwardness, ability to apologise: basically being honourable rather than strictly nice.

Ahhh Mallory Towers and St Clares where my favourite!

Loved all the boarding school books. Anyone remember the Trebizon ones?

Loved malory towers but Alicia needed a right good slap sometimes.
Bill and Clarissa clearly were closet lesbians (there are later books where they live together and run a stables) and poor Gwen has not one redeeming feature, fat and stupid and not even sporty. Oh and she cries a lot.
Darrell needs anger management .
I dont have young dc anymore so how do these books go down with dc today?
Interested to know.
Off track but I loved the Chalet School and there were some super annoying characters in that!

I ADORED these books when I was a child - I read all of them many times. I picked one up a few years ago when back at my parents’ house and I was appalled - I hadn’t realised how influenced I had been by Blyton’s views of how proper young ladies should behave.

Conformity was absolutely the number one goal - shunning people (‘sending to Coventry’) was acceptable and encouraged by the school, making fun of foreigners and fat children was ok, not getting above your station and a whole series of behaviours which I would punish my own children for.

I don’t have daughters and I doubt my sons would be interested but I would not actively encourage my children to read her books without making it clear that life has (thankfully) moved on quite a lot since those attitudes were the norm.

A lot of it is bullying isn’t it? Darrell I think is an out & out bully & her reward to become head girl!

Oh yes to the xenophobic attitudes as well.

But as a child I absolutely loved them.

And can’t wait to see the musical!

My DD (14 now) absolutely loved these when she was about 10. She read the original text, not any updated version. She lived them so much so that she begged us to apply for a place at an all girls school miles away that she thought would be like Malory Towers! She loved the relationships between the girls, the values of loyalty and honesty so I still think they're valid today. She went to a school a bit closer in the end...

Darrell I think is an out & out bully & her reward to become head girl!

She isn’t an out and out bully. Her behaviour reflects the attributes valued at the time.

I think the Enid Blyton books I read were very damaging to some of my attitudes as a child.

I loved them as a kid but they were as alien to my own life then as I imagine they are to children now.

I think sending children to boarding school is pretty harsh.

I loved them when I was 10-11 yrs old or so. DD has the full set of Malory Towers and St Clare's on her kindle

I remember re-reading the famous five a few years ago, and they really shocked me. I couldn't stand them!

This was such a surprise to me, as they were my favourite books as a child

I’d never send my child to boarding school either but for girls in upper middle class and upper class families it was what they expected.

@recklessruby I love the chalet school too! I reread them every few years (or when life gets tough). I always check second hand book stores for the ones I'm missing. The love is there. But oh my gosh they are twee!!
Love Mallory towers and St Clares. I'm glad I've kept my old copies if they've changed stuff. They're not perfect but they are what they are.

I loved them but re reading as an adult, God Alicia was annoying
Blyton did not like “girly” girls at all and based Darrell on herself
I wanted to be George (who in hindsight was also quite annoying) and Jo, the gypsy girl

I thoroughly recommend the musical. I saw it 3 times last year and loved it, so pleased it's coming back (albeit with a different cast). The musical gets the main spirit of MT, the self sufficiency and common sense, accepting that people are different and so on, changing just enough of the less acceptable bits of the original version. I thought the message of the musical was excellent, and it was also really funny and very nostalgic.

I LOVED Malory Towers as a youngster!

It's strange because I think of them with fondness, remembering how much I enjoyed reading them in the cosy safety of my childhood. I loved the friendships between the girls, imagining what it'd be like to go to a school like that and have all the fun of midnight feasts, swimming in the outdoor pool, the various adventures.

But I still feel faintly nauseated by the 'values' if I think of them now as an adult. And obviously, have the clarity to know that had I indeed been sent to a similar boarding school it would have been me getting shunned and bullied for basically my whole personality, I can't even bloody swim

I didn't know there was a musical until this thread! Might have to look into tickets for whenever we're in London next

Nostalgia is a powerful drug.