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 can’t remember the contents of these books now but I loved them as a child. Will definitely be digging them to read to my own children before long.

Anchovy paste sounded nice until I found out what it actually was.

I don't think William Brown is umc. He calls his father "Father", his mother "Mother"; said father works in an office, and both his older siblings work. William himself attends a day school, rather than boards.

I don't think there's anything outdated or inappropriate about Miss Grayling's speech to new girls:

"One day you will leave school and go out into the world as young women. You should take with you eager minds, kind hearts and a will to help. You should take with you a good understanding of many things, and a willingness to accept responsibility and show yourselves as women to be loved and trusted. All these things you will be able to learn at Malory Towers – if you will. I do not count as our successes those who have won scholarships and passed exams, though those things are good things to do. I count as our successes those who learn to be good-hearted and kind, sensible and trustable, good, sound women the world can lean on. Our failures are those who do not learn these things in the years they are here. It is easy for some of you to learn these things, and hard for others. But easy or hard, they must be learnt if you are to be happy, after you leave here, and if you are to bring happiness to others. You will get a tremendous lot out of your time at Malory Towers. See that you give a lot back."

I loved Malory towers as a child and loved reading them to my own daughter a few years ago, who enjoyed them every bit as much as me.

Yes they're old fashioned but they're great stories. Can't wait for the cbbc adaptation later this year and need to check out the musical! I'd never heard of that!

Who was the girl that played all those tricks in class, especially in mam’selles class?

Both my dcs went to boarding school (started as day pupils & ended up boarding) their choice. They absolutely loved their boarding school life but say it was nothing like Malory towers but more like hogwarts without the magic.

@Becky11, it’s brilliant. We saw it last summer in Bristol and LOVED it. DD’s drama teacher recommended it, so glad we made the trip.

I loved them as a child and was excited to share them with dd. We started on the first one when she was seven and she was appalled. She definitely identified with Gwen about leaving home, and she’s very compassionate by nature. I think schools are much more on top of bullying nowadays and kids are encouraged to speak up, seek adult support and tell on bullies, so completely the opposite to Blyton’s code of behaviour.

Between that and the class snobbery, xenophobia, fat shaming we didn’t get far with it. I was surprised how much of it had gone completely over my head as a child. When I was seven, for at least six months I had a vivid fantasy life where I was Darrell Rivers.

Ds on the other hand devoured my entire Enid Blyton collection (secret seven, famous five, findouters, secret of series, mystery of series, noddy, wishing chair, faraway tree and the schools series) and took on her moral code a bit too closely (asd) believing that trouble makers should be taught a lesson, people needed a taste of their own medicine, etc. Unpicking that was challenging.

I loved those books. When I was told I was going to boarding school I was promised it would be like Malory towers. It was nothing like it.

I preferred the St Clare’s books (I liked the twins). Couldn’t bear Alicia at Malory Towers - such a cow!

But my absolute favourite was The Chalet School, I can still read those now. The chalet school seemed a much kinder place, bullying was heavily frowned upon and the prefects would keep a close eye on it. There was an emphasis on kindness. But yes some very irritating and smug characters!

I think they read well as examples of the views and lives of a certain demographic of people at the time. I've read a couple with DD and it can open up chats abut people's views at the time and how as society we've moved on.

I think they're mainly good stories.

I liked all the boarding school books, MT and St C. plus Trebizon and the Chalet school as well as Jennings.

My dd is 9 and currently obsessed with Malory Towers...I read it as a child and got her the first book and she loves it!

Reading it back as an adult, I'm horrified by lots of it though! Alicia is a nasty girl...Darrell not much better imo. I can't help but feel sorry for Gwen...they are nasty to her from day one after she cries saying goodbye to her mother. The only girls seen as worthy enough are the straightforward, good at sports types...ugh!

I love them and am re-reading the second form at Malory Towers at the moment. I find it a very comforting read! My dd1 doesn’t like them. She can’t get to grips with the bullying and ridicule of any girl who isn’t clever, and sporty with a stiff upper lip.

@ladykuga I also loved all the Trebizon books. Wish I had kept them to re-read.

Trebizon is available in kindle, if that’s of any interest.

Ooooh that is exciting, thanks Matilda .

My daughter is 13 now (with hf autism) and only stopped rereading her Malory towers, st Claire’s and other Enid blyton’s a year or two ago. I loved EB too as a child and was pleased my DD liked them so much. I’m pretty sure she laughed at how out of date they were but so did I a little.

I loved Malory Towers and St Clare's when I was seven or eight. I was desperate to go to boarding school as a result. Looking back (I re-read a few on Kindle recently) I definitely think I internalised some of Blyton's values that I look askance at now - I've always preferred books with male lead characters and I think that's at least in part because of how wet some of Blyton's female characters are (Anne in the Famous Five, for example) and the constant emphasis on what boys can do and girls can't.

I loved all of Blyton's book back in the late 50s but even as a young child I knew they weren't true to life but a form of escapism so didn't model myself on anyone. My son loved the Wishing Tree series - there was a bit when 'rubbing the knobs on the chair' made the wings grow, the innocence of childhood. 😁😁😁

Trebizon were the best! I am reading those to dd now too. I bought a couple pf missing ones very cheap on Amazon

I was (and still am to some degree) an avid reader of school stories. I have always loved Enid Blyton. She was my favourite childhood author and I still have shelves of my old books. As I grew up I discovered the chalet school and I think they would be counted as my favourite even now.

I now have a few of them on audible and notice the differences in the stories. In the faraway tree series we have names changed, Fanny to Frannie, Dick to Rick. Dame Slap became Dame Snap.

To me it sounds strange, but to my son who is enjoying them, he knows no different. As mentioned by PP however much some of the elements might have been true in Enid Blyton’s day, the books are dated and we have to accept them as such. I’m yet to find a similar series of modern children’s adventure stories as the coming of mobile phones and fewer remote areas etc are hardly conducive to the exploits of the famous five, five find outers, or even the x of adventure series.

While with Enid Blyton’s books there isn’t quite an obvious link to the past as with the actual European history of the chalet school, children can still accept that washing isn’t normally done by hand, few people have daily servants etc and to be honest very few go to boarding school in reality.

I never really thought of the negative sides to certain Elements mentioned above, but I agree that the chalet school does seem to come out better. Overall though to both authors the morals are the same, the aspirations and interests of the children are the same. Taken with a pinch of salt the stories are still a good read in the original or in the modernised versions. I will be proud to share them with my children as the reach the ages to enjoy them.

We're just on book 3 of the "new" Malory Towers.
Dd is 8 and loves them just as much as I did as a child and still do
Tbh she's 8 they're just stories to her - she takes them at face value.
Some of the language/phraseology is a little alien to her but it makes s change from Tom Gates/Diary of a wimpey kid/Dork diaries & it's not as old fashioned as Naughtiest girl series was where I felt I had to paraphrase for her.
Can't wait to see the musical - May half term!

I loved them as a kid and my now 14 year old read them when she was younger and loved them too. My younger DD didn’t even finish the first book!