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!

Yes she does mention the Nazis in The Valley of Adventure. The couple don't know the war is over as I recall?!

Also is the the one where they are going off on some random bloke's plane for a few days, then get on the wrong plane by accident? 😁

I have a load of schoolgirl books from the 20s too. And yes they are all like that!

What about the picture book mysteries set in boarding schools, anyone remember those? The ones with The Silent Three?

@MarieIVanArkleStinks, I suddenly have a yearning to read the Rilloby Fair Mystery again. I remember being a Barney fan. He'd travel around with the circus and then rock up at whatever location the gang were at. Poor Barney, though now I think of it, his mother dead, his father gone, and he just bobs about from circus jobs to fairground jobs with his monkey Miranda

EB was so prolific - and certainly lots of elements of her work are dated - or even inappropriate. But the same is true of most authors of her era. But some of her best work can be magical for children- accessible , plot driven, free from adults.

I still love to reread the Secret Island. The willow house, the smuggled cow, the missing parents, the cruel guardians. Wonderful.

I'd also recommend The six cousins books. Maybe a little more grown up with more defined adult characters and a lovely understanding of nature.

Early Famous Fives are perfect (quality drops off radically in the later books) My favourite is Smugglers Top

I loved the Rilloughby Fair set of books.

Anyone read Benji and The Others and Hollow Tree House? Those were early favourites of mine.

I agree Hobbes, Smugglers Top is one of the best FF.

The School Friend was the comic- I had a mad obsession with collecting the annuals- the covers are really gorgeous. The Silent three solved numerous mysteries at their boarding school disguised with masks and cloaks. There were always impossibly glamourous stories set on Cruise Liners or Ski schools.

My favourite books growing up along with st claire’s . I used to dream of going to boarding school ….. well until my parents said I could go !!! A works of escape and innocence

Yes, glamorous mysteries in ski schools! Amazing. I think we have some annuals in my mum's loft too. She also has quite a few of the comics still. Loved them!

I loved EB and especially Malory towers. I was always of the opinion that the context explained everything and I would read and explain to any kids I had. I have indeed read several EB books to my son and I’ve been alarmed at the racism and misogyny. It’s more than I can explain. If you haven’t read a 70s version recently you will think me mad but I actually attributed more lines to Anne and George in the famous five, missed out some racist/classist descriptions in the ‘Adventure’ series and had to have a discussion about why the main characters name was racist in the Wishing chair as it is so bad. We renamed him for the purpose of the story.

I'm lost. I thought the main character in the Wishing Chair was called Peter?

I'm lost. I thought the main character in the Wishing Chair was called Peter?

There was a sprite/fairy character whose current incarnation is Binky...

To be fair, I'm not sure if the original name had the same meaning but it's good it's been updated. The youngest Faraway Tree sibling is now Franny and their cousin is Rick.

@MurderAtTheBeautyPageant "R" mysteries up to Rubadub are good - tails off a bit for the last two I always thought.

Interesting in the photo annual book about her life ("the story of my life") that EB released in 1952 there is a complete list of her work to date and the Barney mysteries are the only books she thinks are more for older children/teenagers.

Another interesting (!) fact is that "Rilloby Fair Mystery" is one of the earliest examples of changes to a a EB books in later editions - the Lynton's cat's name was changed to Sardine from Snoek after the first edition as the memory of Snoek (A fish that was eaten in WW2 years was fading)

The sprite/fairy retained the original name in the copy I bought in 2020. I was surprised as in the boxed set, all the Faraway character names that were ‘controversial’ had changed.

@MarieIVanArkleStinks "Rilloby" is indeed a good EB - particularly exciting when the police come to the fair and it descends into a near riot. But yes lots of humour when there the chase through the grounds of the stately home where the old papers are kept.

The sprite/fairy retained the original name in the copy I bought in 2020.

That's very surprising...

I don't think it had the racist meaning when Blyton wrote it (happy to be corrected) but I wouldn't have thought it was acceptable now, especially as Fanny and Dick have changed.

Whose bright idea was it to "update" the Famous Five by having them wear jeans and say, "You bet!"

My DD and I have been watching the cbbc series of it, she’s gotten really into it so I ordered the books for her the other day. I didn’t read them as a child which surprises me now because it’s exactly the sort of thing I’d have loved at her age

I never read Mallory Towers, which is surprising because I loved the Famous Five and St Clare's books. My kids liked the magic faraway tree series when they were younger, the renaming of Fanny and Dick did make me chuckle, but I was glad to be reading "Franny and Rick" instead 🤣

the Lynton's cat's name was changed to Sardine from Snoek after the first edition as the memory of Snoek (A fish that was eaten in WW2 years was fading)

That is interesting. I don't think I've ever come across the word 'snoek' before. I know bloaters feature in Victorian books but snoek is new to me. It must have tasted awful if people stopped eating it as soon as tastier fish became available.

one thing that stuck with me as a child was some teacher was ridiculing one of the characters so she got a poem from some poetry book and pretended it was her own and of course the teacher scoffed at it and didn't recognize the famous poet (so famous i cant remember who it was) and the teacher was left degraded and humiliated and i actually even remember as a kid feeling that was a pretty nasty thing to do to the teacher!

one thing that stuck with me as a child was some teacher was ridiculing one of the characters so she got a poem from some poetry book and pretended it was her own and of course the teacher scoffed at it and didn't recognize the famous poet (so famous i cant remember who it was) and the teacher was left degraded and humiliated and i actually even remember as a kid feeling that was a pretty nasty thing to do to the teacher!

Anne-Marie with Miss Willcox in St Clare's. Poem was Despondency by Matthew Arnold. And Miss Willcox deserved it! She was totally unprofessional and overtly bullied Anne-Marie in front of the whole class, more than once, largely because she was pissed off that her second book of poems got rejected.

I have this on Audible and love it. It is so outdated and old fashioned but I do like listening to it in the car, it reminds me of when I was little and loved reading that series.

The audio book is very well done I think.

I seem to remember that both Alison and Anne Marie had a crush on Miss Wilcox to start with and imitated her style of dress and mannerisms. Then Anne Marie started to suspect she was a fake…..

Oh I forgot about the sprite. Was it Winks? I didn’t know that was offensive.

It rhymes with Winky except with no W and starts with "Ch" instead.

Not Winky. Began with "ch".