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!

[Ozgirl75]

@Novum

The one with the play etc was the Antonia Forest Marlow series - which included both school and non-school books. Still way ahead of the competition.

Oh yes! Nicola and Laurie Marlow! I loved those books so much.

[FourChimneys]

EekSteek I still love The Borrowers, it is a comfort read. I even (briefly!) considered Arietty as a name for DD 😁

I read just about all of EB's books as a child and alternately wanted to go to Mallory Towers or to run away to the circus with Mr Galliano. DD read some of them but they were never her favourites.

[miserablecat]

I read them as a child and enjoyed them. I thought boarding school sounded fun and like a pp was desperate to have midnight feasts if friends came to stay. (I remember my parents trying to insist that the midnight feast was at 10.30 or 11 (there were no tins of sardines or lashings of ginger beer though!🤣)

Now if I consider them as an adult I feel the same - that there was a lot of snobbery and bullying. And the reasons why they looked down on people... Weren't Gwens supposed "failings" that she was pretty, had long hair and was homesick or crying when the train left? And one of them was thought badly if because they were shy or quiet. They are hardly massive character flaws or crimes!
I'm pretty sure both had to somehow prove themselves to be accepted.

As a total aside, I didn't know what lacrosse was when I read the books and as an adult, I didn't know it was still a thing until I moved to my town about 15 years ago and the local school (which has some boarders) girls were walking to school with lacrosse sticks!

[PatChaunceysFruitCake]

Agree with all your observations but still loved the TV series. Series one was released early to coincide with the first covid lockdown. I never get the time to curl up and watch something with DD with the exception of MT.

[NoodleSnow]

I agree. I reread one a few years ago and was shocked at quite how much meanness and bullying there was, even/especially from the characters we’re supposed to like.

[ginislife]

The Faraway Tree was the best EB book !! I read this over and over as a child. I was a massive EB fan back in the day as I'm old now but she's not travelled well to modern day !

[oopsfellover]

Loved them and St Clare’s as a kid -
made me want to go to boarding school, although thankfully this wish didn’t come true.!
Had no reason to re-read but I don’t think many EB books have stood the test of time particularly well.

[babyjellyfish]

I agree, OP.

Weirdly I used to love those books when I was 10 even though I was more of a Gwendoline character who hated PE and was bullied by the popular girls. I don't think the popular girls who were good at PE would have been seen dead reading Malory Towers.

The Trebizon series by Anne Digby was much better and I think they have aged far better than anything Enid Blyton wrote. If my daughter ever wants to read boarding school stories I'll get her those instead of Malory Towers or St Clare's.

[TarasHarp55]

Loved all the MT books. Famous Five were my favourites, especially Five go off in a Caravan. Just imagine letting a bunch of kids do that though. 😲

[Helgadaley]

The one with the play etc was the Antonia Forest Marlow series - which included both school and non-school books. Still way ahead of the competition
Antonia Forest books should be regarded as classics. I think the only reason they're not more widely read is that the subjects were very upper class (practically the whole family were into fox hunting) in a way that EB characters weren't). I have all AF's books except for the historical ones.

[Sigma33]

@Ozgirl75

I also really liked the Trebizon books and there was another series where they did a play about the two princes (I think?) and I vaguely remember they were in like a girl guides group? Very hazy memories but I really liked them at the time!

Antonia Forest - Autumn Term.

Far better than EB!

[TarasHarp55]

@ginislife

The Faraway Tree was the best EB book !! I read this over and over as a child. I was a massive EB fan back in the day as I'm old now but she's not travelled well to modern day !

How I loved that book.. It was so captivating. I can still remember my yearning to go up that tree.

[OMG12]

Yes these are the books that turned me from someone stil on flash cards at 7 to an avid reader and bibliophile. I loved them. Tbh I think they’re an accurate reflection of how large groups of girls behave. What sort of traits make you the popular one at school and the sort that make you unpopular or middle of the road. I think the distaste and bullying of people who don’t love sports by people who do is still very very active today.

[dottiedodah]

I loved both mt and sc ,however they were from a different time.england in the 40s was very different. I watched a few on TV recently felt they had been sympathetically dealt with.

[LindseyHoyleSpeaks]

Loved EB as a child until a primary school teacher pointed out that she didn’t like her style. Didn’t get why until GCSE Sociology, where we learnt about EB’s Little Black Sambo story, whose reward for being good was to become white. OMG!!! How that was even published, I will never know.

[RedHelenB]

@Ozgirl75

I also really liked the Trebizon books and there was another series where they did a play about the two princes (I think?) and I vaguely remember they were in like a girl guides group? Very hazy memories but I really liked them at the time!

That was the series about the Marlow family and the twins starred in the play. Those I have re read as an adult and they are a lot better because the characters are deeper, less one dimensional. And tbf, in the Trebizon books I think the main characters got told off by the staff for not being inclusive to a new girl.

[LindseyHoyleSpeaks]

So curiosity got the better of me and I just looked up that book. Apparently it wasn’t by EB, but she wrote another book about a black character, called Sambo, whose face was washed ‘clean’ in the rain… 🤯 Not sure if that’s me misremembering or whether our teacher at the time conflated the two. Either way - appalling message.

[kikisparks]

I liked Sally, very sensible and didn’t stand for the bullying I don’t think. Isn’t that point made in the books, Darrell idolises Alicia but then realises that actually she’s not a very nice person when she hangs around with Alicia and so she decides to be friends with Sally instead? It’s a long time since I’ve read them so I may be remembering wrong.

[Hobbesmanc]

I was obsessed by Enid when I was little. She was my escape from a sometimes lonely and sad early seventies childhood. I still have all my Blyton books and when I'm feeling blue I often take to my bed with a much read Famous Five. She was also a gateway to more adult books.

Of course they're dated. Her earliest books are nearly 90 years old. But the sense of adventure and her relentless plot driven narrative still works.

Look out for Mallory Towers the Musical if it comes to a theatre near you. It's super! Also the first series of the BBC tv adaptation. The second series was filmed in Lockdown and suffers from the restrictions

[KimberleyClark]

While Alicia was popular it was for the wrong reasons, as is often the case at school. She was funny, but usually at other people’s expense. I’m not sure we were meant to like her. There’s a bit, Second Form at Malory Towers, when Darrell and Sally are discussing who might be head of the form and Sally says it won:t be Alicia, not because of her love of playing tricks but because “she’s rather hard. She’d see that the rules were kept, but she wouldn’t bother to help someone who was in trouble.” Sally gets made head of the form and Alicia is jealous and tries to undermine her every chance she gets.

[InsertSomethingMotivationalHere]

Loved all these. Also, did anyone read EB's Naughtiest Girl in the School series? I remember they had a big council meeting every week where everyone had to put their pocket money and gift money from home into the collective pot and each got given a token amount for the week. I remember having some sympathy with the main character when she refused!!

[iratepirate]

I adored the books as a kid but don’t think I’d dare re-read them now.

[PaperMonster]

I reread them with my daughter a few years ago and was shocked at how mean the main characters are. I recall my daughter commenting on it at one point too. Still love the books though!

[OMG12]

@kikisparks

I liked Sally, very sensible and didn’t stand for the bullying I don’t think. Isn’t that point made in the books, Darrell idolises Alicia but then realises that actually she’s not a very nice person when she hangs around with Alicia and so she decides to be friends with Sally instead? It’s a long time since I’ve read them so I may be remembering wrong.

yes that’s exactly how I recall it. And the book is full of incidents of people trying to deal with their flaws, Sally’s jealousy, Darrell hot temper, even Gwendoline had to face up to here snobbery in the end.

I liked Bill with the horses.

[Frazzled2207]

I absolutely loved them as a child and read them again and again. Had my mothers copies from the 1950s. Deliberately not re-read as I’m sure they would be very un-pc these days.

i did see some of the bbc series which I thought was charming. Was disappointed that my sons weren’t interested!