Did you love boarding school books? If so tell us why for chance to win a tennis-themed prize worth over £100 incl Trebizon books + tennis garden set

[SorchaMumsnet]

To celebrate the release of The Tennis Term at Trebizon, we're offering you a chance to win a set of the classic Trebizon series by Anne Digby and a great way to play tennis in the garden.

This delightful series follows the adventures of Rebecca and her friends through their time at Trebizon boarding school and the ups and downs of friendship. In the latest book, The Tennis Term at Trebizon, Rebecca has been picked for the tennis team, and Trebizon has high hopes of winning the cup. But then there’s a hoax phone call, and a fake fire alarm, and Rebecca finds herself under suspicion. If Rebecca and her friends can’t solve the mystery, there will be serious consequences...

“As warm and comforting as a cup of cocoa, the Trebizon books are a real treat” – Katherine Woodfine, author of The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow

Did you love boarding school books? If so tell us why for a chance to win this fab tennis-themed prize worth over £100: a set of SEVEN Trebizon books including The Tennis Term at Trebizon PLUS a tennis garden set!

This discussion is sponsored by Egmont and will end 1 August

[starlight36]

I loved the camaraderie of the boarding school stories. I started off with St Clare's and Mallory Towers series and progressed onto the Chalet School stories. I loved the setting and the introduction of 'exotic to me' European school girls. Attending suburban state schools and living at home in a cul de sac boarding school life seemed very exciting. I'm sure my DD is going to be equally enthralled.

[oootapasooo]

I used to love the Enid Blyton boarding school books and I'm hoping to pass down the Love to my child and these modern books look ideal.

[blogmumjd]

I used to love Chalet School and Mallory Towers. Was always at the library borrowing them. Used to imagine going to boarding school myself. It sounded so fab. Never did of course. And now my boys keep telling me that they will go to Hogwarts when they are old enough

[kristinage]

I never read these books myself, but I wish to catch up and would like my kids to read them!

[hanliying]

I love boarding school books because as a child I used to want to go boarding school and live with friends in big castles. The books are full of imagination and great story lines.

[Loreleigh]

As a child I loved boarding school books, with Enid Blyton one of my favourite authors. I recently re-read a couple of 'The Naughtiest Girl' books and it took me right back to those days of laying on my bed ploughing my way through books and daydreaming of school councils, lacrosse games and midnight feasts! Fingers crossed.

[forkhandles4candles]

I loved Billy Hunter, because it was so funny. Also loved Mallory towers, though blush to think so. There is just something about the idea of living amongst other children. I think the film "If" better sums up my sense of it all now.

[forkhandles4candles]

Bunter ...blooming autocorrect

[Mozarmstrong]

Absolutely loved Mallory Towers it was this school world so far away from my world pure magic

[allybird1]

I remember reading the Mallory Towers series when I was about 7 or 8 and desperately wanted to be sent to boarding school. ...probably a bit weird for a youngster but I longed to be part of this cornish gem where everything was spiffing. It was probably the numerous midnight feasts, pranks and adventures that littered these fantastic books. I loved the 50s covers as well. They reminded me of my mum's vintage mandy and bunty annuals.

[Papergirl1968]

Boarding school books gave me an insight into a different world. Boarding schools seemed exciting and so much fun compared to my grey, rundown comprehensive. I'm still fascinated by boarding schools now, often rereading some of my childhood books.

[Emochild]

I used to live the naughtiest girl books

I had a picture in my mind of boarding school girls being goody two shoes but the naughtiest girl books seemed more realistic and relatable

I read and re-read them all so many times

[JammieDodgem]

I loved Trebizon! I had a thing for the name Ishbel for ages

I read everything I could in the boarding school genre. Malory towers, Trebizon, all the chalet school books, ballet ones like Drina, and loads of really old ones of my mum's and grandma's - set in the 1910s and 20s! Absolutely loved them.

I begged to go to boarding school to the extent that my parents sent me. It didn't live up to any of the stories and I soon came home again

[Coffeechick]

I loved Malory towers and Trebizon at different ages. I think it was the excitement and hope that I would be able to go to a boarding school and have the same type of adventures.

[milliemoon]

Oooh yes takes me back!

[milliemoon]

I used to imagine my school was like that

[mouldycheesefan]

As a child I absolutely loved boarding school stories to the point of begging to go to one myself! Malory towers and st clares and then the Trebizon books came out which had more modern appeal and featured a normal girl as the lead character. What appealed was the escapism, a school where it was a sleepover every night, swimming pools, midnight feasts, playing tricks on the teachers. And in the Trebizon books, the tennis competitions and of course the honour of being published in the Trebizon Journal! Now my dd is reading boarding school books and I am enjoying them all over again, the don't date! Of course since then Harry Potter has launched a whole new world of boarding school stories in a different genre. It's a setting that never ceases to enthral, adventure don't stop when school ends they can go on all term. Long live the boarding school stories of every type may they continue to entertain future generations I look forward to reading them with my grandchildren!

[Roseformeplease]

I think they are, at their core, about strong, lasting friendships in the face of adversity. I loved them as a child and found that, when sent to boarding school from overseas, aged 11, I loved them even more. At my school, the books were used as a sort of blueprint of how to behave - the characters were shorthand for who we were. Best friends. The sneak. The bully. We also had midnight feasts sand played pranks because we wanted to copy the books.

I encouraged my DD to read some of them and she too was hooked, in spite of a more ordinary day school education. So, they seem to work. DS loved Harry Potter - a variation on the genre, also with friendship at its core.

Love them. Am reading Curtis Sittingfield's "Prep" at the moment - same genre but for adults.

[SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace]

Not trying to enter the competition here, because although I liked boarding school stories, I never liked Trebizon much - none of the characters really rang true for me (and it annoyed me that Rebecca was called Rebeck).

The ones I really liked, the Kingscote books, had an attraction not just because they were well-written and convincing, but I think because there's something intuitively very appealing about this little discrete world in which apparently small things are really given space to matter - the school play, the cricket cup, etc. I think I probably missed an education in which things like that did matter, too, so that's part of the draw. A world in which everyone cares who is head girl, and being head girl really makes you someone special, and it's okay to be invested in that, is a very safe and comforting one for young (and older!) readers.

For me, and perhaps for others, I was also intrigued and drawn to this world of rules and complex uniforms and so on - would have loved a school with 'denim day dresses' and hats to show you were a junior or a senior! Boarding school narratives also offer a world in which being older given you status - younger girls invariably look up to older, in a way which doesn't happen so much in RL, and there's something wonderful about getting to the Upper Fifth or whatever, and being a figure of some importance.

[Armck79]

I loved Malory towers as a child, now my daughter does. Great uncompleted books that teacher kids all sorts of lessons. Especially never to doubt yourself.

[JoCar72]

I've always been fascinated by them. From stories such as St.Trinian's all the way through to Harry Potter. It's funny to read how groups of children form a natural bond together when thrown together in that type of situation away from their parents.

[Mirandawest]

I still love boarding school books, as may be obvious from my username . I have a nice bookcase at the top of the stairs with "my" books in it.

DD loves Malory Towers the best and has re-read them many times. Have told her she can read the Kingscote ones when she is a bit older (she's 10) so she can appreciate them properly. Have lots of chalet school for her to read too. I have most of the Trebizon books - don't enjoy them as much but they're still good

[JimmyGreavesMoustache]

I'd forgotten all about Trebizon. Loved these. Tish's brother Robbie was my first literary crush. I agree that it was good to read a boarding school book with a more modern feel (although I guess they'll feel like period pieces to my DC by now).

9yo DD1 loves Harry Potter, Malory Towers and St Clare's. 5yo dd2 is all about The Worst Witch series.

[rhinosuze]

I loved them because I always imagined it to be so much fun, then at high school I got a friend who had actually been a boarder and realised it wasn't anything like the books!

[glasgow1975]

As a boy, boarding school books passed me by, that is until p4, when The Worst Witch books swept up my entire class! Harry Potter eat your heart out! I'm sure my nieces would love these!