Has anyone ever read Malory towers?

[Orangejelly1]

I used to love the books as a child! I read them cover to cover so many times and my favourite character was Darrell. I recently found my old collection and re read parts of them just for old times sake and I was actually really disappointed to see, as an adult, how awful some of the popular characters were. I know it was a product of its time and a different era, but Darrell, Alicia and some of the most popular girls would be called nasty bullies nowadays. I also felt so sorry for Gwen, which surprised me because as a child rearing the books she was my least favourite character.

just wondered if anyone else re read the books and thought this too!

I seem to recall Janet being a "good sort"?

Also, the girls were thrilled when they learned of Carlotta's background, no class judgement at all. Prudence was the only one who was snobbish about it and she was meant to be awful.

The bullying of Maureen in 5th form at Malory Towers was pretty shocking. What on earth was Enid Blyton thinking of? Even allowing for different times there was no way that was acceptable. The girl was literally trying to be friendly and fit in. But everyone nastily turned on her for no apparent reason.

It was the worst case of bullying across all her school stories.

Yes, Sheila used the phrase 'didn't ought to' and generally had 'lower class' manners; she was nouveau riche and boasted of her family's wealth which was the excuse for Janet's behaviour (though clearly Sheila was insecure rather than conceited, as Winifred the head girl pointed out).

@LostInTheColonies good summary of "birds of our garden"

www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=1068

Yes that scene wasn't one of Janet's proudest moments.

The girl was literally trying to be friendly and fit in.

Yes, and let's not forget her previous school had closed suddenly after the death of the head - which must have been upsetting; I doubt Darrell and her chums would have been happy to be split up and sent elsewhere had their beloved Miss Grayling died.

Yes that was awful.

I did find the story about the school shutting down because the head died suddenly a bit silly. Surely they would just appoint an acting head until they could fill the post permanently. Closing the school down seemed a bit drastic!

Unless they discovered after her death that the head had been committing large scale fraud and the school was actually bankrupt.

"Wunnerful" and "Twenny" was originally in Five Have Plenty Of Fun. Berta was the DD of an American scientist working with Uncle Quentin who was a kidnap risk and the five took it upon themselves to correct her whenever she pronounced a word "wrong" with much hilarity......

The fifth at Malory was truly an appalling vipers' nest that makes 'AIBU' look like 'Guess how much I love you'. The Maureen scene was so ugly and distasteful that even Blyton has the girls realize they've gone too far on that occasion. Catherine alone is magnanimous enough to attempt to soften the blow but the others promptly shut her up and Maureen (unsurprisingly and understandably) tells her where to shove her apology.

Catherine herself comes in for some nasty bullying in this instalment, particularly at the hands of Belinda and Moira who is busy riding roughshod over the whole form. She also humiliates Alicia's younger cousin June in front of her whole form and deliberately leaves her out of the team. So June naturally retaliates, by writing Moira mean little notes along the lines of 'You stink and nobody likes you'. In Blytonworld, apparently June's act is the one that's so heinous it nearly results in her expulsion. Some strange Topsy Turvey worlds in Blyton, aside from the one in the faraway tree!

I also loved the farm books and the rarer realist 'family' stories.

Closing the school down seemed a bit drastic!

Yes, good point. All I can think of is perhaps - it was presented as being a rather ineffectual school (only half the girls passed their school cert, which Maureen thinks is a good record!) - so perhaps the head was bankrolling it and when she died, it had to go into administration (or 'went smash' to use EB's phrasing from The Family at Redroofs).

The fact Maureen was one of the 50% of girls who passed the school cert at Mazeley Manor says something for her abilities.

The fifth at Malory was truly an appalling vipers' nest that makes 'AIBU' look like 'Guess how much I love you'.

😂

Loved the midnight feasts and mamzelle

Yes! Even at the age of ten or whatever, when Alicia sneers that Shakespeare's Juliet shouldn't have an American accent, I remember thinking, "No, she should be speaking Italian!"

I loved those books and always wanted to go to a school like thar, although as I got older I realised I would have been hated like Gwen because I was rubbish at sports.
And yes it was the popular girls bullying the one who didn't fit in which is really sad.
There are some other books written from Felicity's point of view which are slightly better but still have a bullying under tone.

@AsAnyFuleKno Ah yes "went smash" was used in red-roofs - I wonder if that really was a common phrase at time of EB writing that book.

Catherine herself comes in for some nasty bullying in this instalment, particularly at the hands of Belinda and Moira who is busy riding roughshod over the whole form.

she does. She only wants to be helpful but Belinda starts drawing little caricatures of her standing on a stained glass window labelled “Our blessed St Catherine” and puts them up everywhere. Nasty.

That's the only place I've ever seen it, which is why it stuck in my head!

I remember in the early 80s I went to see a play in the West End called Daisy Pulls It Off which was meant to be a send up of Malory Towers. It was very funny.

I loved them, but yes, they have not aged well. The BBC series, however, is brilliant for reminiscing! I had to watch it alone as my kids were completely uninterested, but it was great. 3 seasons, I think.

I'm imagining the closing down school as being a small private school, very much run by one woman, with other staff of course. And she rather is the school so it doesn't endure without her. Not at all like a large modern secondary

Mary-Lou is the only character who treats Catherine decently, and even sticks up for her after she's left.

Mary-Lou is, in fact, about the only character who is consistently decent throughout the series - she should have been Head Girl, not Darrell!

Miss Grayling does at least credit Mary Lou alongside Darrell and Sally as one of the school's greatest successes - presumably because she fully conquers her shyness (evidenced by being able to play Cinderella) - because other than being shy and afraid to stick up for herself, she doesn't really have any other faults.

@StrawberrySquash Yes, exactly. In the 30's running a smallish, probably not very good school was one of the main options if you were an unmarried, upper middle class, reasonably well educated woman, who didn't have enough family money to support yourself.

I really recommend Terms & Conditions by Ysenda Maxtone Graham as a very readable social history of what girls boarding schools were like in the mid 20th century. Mostly completely chaotic, with very little academic merit, and often staffed by people who should have been nowhere near children!

I really recommend Terms & Conditions by Ysenda Maxtone Graham as a very readable social history of what girls boarding schools were like in the mid 20th century. Mostly completely chaotic, with very little academic merit, and often staffed by people who should have been nowhere near children!

I read this after it was recommended on Mumsnet and thoroughly enjoyed it.