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 loved them and reread them over and over as a chlid. DD has read them and liked them, but preferred Trebizon (which is a bit more realistic and doesn't have so many awful stereotypes).

I remain very annoyed that Darrell became Head Girl. She clearly was not the best candidate, but was inevitably slated for that role from Book 1. Though the Chalet School is much worse for Head Girls based on who they are and not whether they would be suitable or not.

As were the O’Sullivan twins in the St Claire’s books.

As were the O’Sullivan twins in the St Claire’s books.

The O'Sullivan twins really fade into the background after 'Second Form at St Clare's' so it's hard to say whether they'd have been any good as head girls.

I found it odd that EB, with St Clare's, set three books in the first year and one in the second, fourth and fifth, so we were cheated out of the third year and sixth form. I know someone has written fill-ins, but they're not the same.

I remember reading them as a child, then actually going to boarding school and it was nothing like the books (mine was more like a prison).

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!!

Sounds like a Communist colony

I loved MT and St Clare’s and desperately wanted to go to boarding school with a sea bathing pool and midnight feasts!

Read them again as an adult and realised how many flaws Darrell has.

Also loved the Faraway Tree series. I had a vivid imagination as a child and those books were just magical to me.

Also read the Famous Five and loved them!

Reading the books as an adult you realise that it isn't as simple as Darrell and friends good, Gwen and current friend bad. It's something EB is often accused of: , having 1-D characters, but they aren't.

You can sympathise with Gwen's desire to have a friend-and also know she's looking the wrong way. She wants a friend to show off about not because she wants a friend to be friends with.
She is slapped by Darrell for pushing Mary Lou in the pool-so you sympathise with Darrell's anger, but at the same time knowing hitting is wrong.
She is mean and nasty. She deliberately sets Darrell up in the first term, totally vindictively.
But Darrell isn't all good either. She does have a temper, and she does admire Alicia too much. But at the same times she apologises afterwards without being told to, and she does look out for Mary Lou and other "weaker" ones.
Alicia is a fantastic character. A true leader, but in the same way of current "Queen Bees" also uses her power to push others down. Even as a child I never knew whether I liked her or not-I wouldn't have wanted to get on her wrong side, but I don't think I'd have enjoyed being friends with her, she said too many things that would make me uncomfortable.
The emphasis on the North Tower characters did bother me as a child. I think there's only about 3 or 4 other characters named. Betty, the twins that are the ugly sisters in the panto and perhaps another. But that's what's going to happen to make a good story. At times Harry Potter was entirely about Gryffindor (good) and Slytherin (bad) and you hardly heard about the other houses. If you have too many characters, then the story gets confusing quickly.

Her other books are similar. You get great characters from all walks of life. Jimmy in the Circus books is the star and he's clearly working class. Barney in the R-adventures is a fantastic character. He's been brought up in a circus, wanders about doing job, looking for his father. And the point in Rub-a-Dub mystery when he's tricked into thinking he is going to meet his father is as emotional and well written as any other author.
What EB doesn't have much time for is characters thinking they are above others because of who they are. Which is why some characters-Angela in the St Clare's books, get their comeuppance.

Read the books as history rather than modern day. Go into them with an open mind rather than thinking you know what EB was like and you'll find the books have far more than you expect.

I think Ann Digby (Trebizon author?) wrote the fill-in St Clare's books and the Malory Towers sequels.

I could never work out the way year groups worked, especially with children being bumped up a year if they were extra bright. Surely it would play havoc with their School Certificate exams if they'd effectively missed a year of education?

It was Pamela Cox who did St Clare's and Malory Towers, and Anne Digby wrote the 'Naughtiest Girl' sequels.

Yes! Ellen is a new girl in the second form book but by third year she's gone up to the fourth.

Likewise clever Pamela in St Clare's is not made head girl because the teachers consider her too young, but it's then mentioned that she's staying on an extra year so could be head in the future. Surely if she was so clever she'd be off to university rather than spend two years in sixth form?

And when the twins arrived St Clare’s the girls in the first form had been there several terms already, yet they all went up into the second form at the same time! As did the new girls in the previous book, other than Prudence who was expelled, and Pam who was considered too young, but she had caught up with them by the fifth form. Made no sense.

EB's seem a bit whimsical. MT and SC don't seem to have any kind of streaming. Also, though there is an 'Upper Fourth' at MT, no mention is ever made of a Lower Fourth.

If you compare Antonia Forest's Kingscote school, that had A forms and B forms and also 'Removes' for people who needed extra coaching, which would allow more flexibility for people being taught outside their age group.

Same here. I fantasised about going to boarding school and having that life!

I loved reading MT. Descriptions of midnight feasts were the best! It was the Harry Potter of the 1970s and 1980s IMO.

DC and I have watched the CBBC adaptation and I was a bit disappointed. In order to make it “right on” the plots have been mangled out of all recognition - it is now just a blank canvas for teaching 2020s PSHE. Matron’s infatuation with the male teacher was bizarre enough but the period one really jumped the shark for me.

Whilst I agree there is an awful lot of negative stereotyping in MT I think it is being slightly unfairly portrayed as wholly bad on this thread. Virtues such as kindness, honestly, forgiveness and understanding are core themes also. Gwen IS a schemer who tries to get other girls into trouble by playing mean tricks on them and is slapped by Darrell because she held poor Mary -Lou under the water and practically drowned her.

Having said all that, sometimes the casual cruelty is so shocking. There is a character called Alma in the St Clare's books who is portrayed as loathesome in her 'fatness' and when it is revealed to be a product of a glandular 'imbalance'. the girls continue to mock her by making gobbling noises and imitating the way she eats!

Antonia Forest writes school stories of total literary merit. They are superb.

I read the books avidly as a child and again with my own DD.

I couldn't stand Alicia, even as a child when I read the books, an an adult, I disliked her even more. She was horrible. I was definitely more of a Gwen type! I hated PE. I'd have got on terribly at Malory towers! They were vile to Gwen.

I'm now a teacher. I have no idea how to pronounce any name anymore. Parents need to provide a phonetic spelling of every name these days. Eg. If your child is called niamh, I will pronounce it 'neve'.
"No miss, it's 'ni-am'"

Oh lord, I'm forever getting Alicia wrong, and Elisha, and Aoife (depending on the girl, Eefy, Oife, Ayfey....)

@HumphreyCobblers yes, poor Alma! Didn't EB even give her the surname "Pudden" or have I made that up?!

@AsAnyFuleKno what an utterly brilliant stress-relief idea. I'm going through a tough time so I'm going to do something similar. Thanks for the inspiration. I think I would say:

Last (too focused on the next generation - Felicity etc - which is a bit boring)

Fifth - Panto domination is weird, as you say

First - slow-moving opener

Third - too many horses

Fourth - great characters and dramas

Second - huge fun, mysterious Daphne

Gwen wasn’t a nice person though. She played horrible tricks on Mary Lou, including smashing her pen which was of sentimental value to her, and tried to make it look like Darrell was responsible. She pretended to have a weak heart (inspired by Clarissa who actually did have one and couldn’t do games etc because of it), causing immense worry to her parents. She bullied her father into letting g her go to an expensive Swiss finishing school he couldn’t afford and by her own account said some pretty horrible things to him.

I didn’t feel sorry for her.

This was one of my first (sadly not my last) experiences of racism. I was one of only two mixed race children in the late1950s and the teacher read aloud 'Little Black Sambo.' How on earth a teacher thought this was ok when there was a mixed race child in the class, I've never understood. Other children were looking at me when she was reading it, I've never forgotten it even now I'm approaching 70.

Pudding was her surname. They called her pudding.

All EB’s children are extremely greedy, but fat people get a very hard time in her books.