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

[amberlabamba]

Absolutely bloomin' loved them - was bitterly disappointed when my parents wouldn't let me go to boarding school myself - especially as many of my friends were!

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I loved the Chalet School series, as a child, because it seemed so much nicer than my school - bullying wasn't tolerated.

I have the whole set now, and love reading them - in some ways they are the book-equivalent of comfort food.

I have also always enjoyed the sense that I am seeing into a world that would otherwise be hidden to me - I enjoyed recent programmes about Gordonstoun and Harrow, and about naval and army basic training, for the same reasons. I do know that the books are fiction, and give an idealised picture of boarding school, but sometimes it is nice to escape from reality into a more idealised place.

[thesockgap]

OMG I loved the Trebizon books!!! I had totally forgotten about them! But I remember finding them in a little local bookshop when I was about 11, and being made up to find something "similar" to St Clares and Malory Towers, but much more modern! Oh how I loved the Enid Blyton boarding school books. I used to long to be whisked off to boarding school!

[StickChildNumberTwo]

I loved them all and read as many as I could get my hands on. I think it was the idea of a world I could relate to (kids at school) but would never be a part of - I would have hated boarding school, but knowing it was never going to happen for real I could imagine myself there and love every minute.

[Susangilley7]

Loved the Mallory Towers books by Enid Blyton. Just loved the togetherness and the comradory of the stories.

[Tean1]

I loved the Enid Blyton school books and also the Swiss Chalet school books, they were so old fashioned in retrospect, but I read them all voraciously.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I tried the Mallory Towers books when I was a child, but my parents disapproved of Enid Blyton, and I was very strongly discouraged from reading any of her books. I think it was intellectual snobbery, to be honest.

I also forgot to mention the Harry Potter series - yes, they are about magic, but also about magical boarding school life. If I could choose a fictional school to go to, I would be very torn between the Chalet School (no bullying, and I'd probably come back to the school as a teacher, and marry a doctor from the San) or Hogwarts - because being a witch (especially doing housework by witchcraft) would be amazing!

[emmav6]

i have very fond memories of the Mallory Towers series, borrowing one every fortnight from the library van that came to our village

[helenlt]

I loved Malory Towers (even now my friend and I talk about 'Gwendoline's book of scowls'!), St Clare's, and the Chalet School books. I also read some of Angela Brazil's books but can't remember any details (it was a while ago), but one book I do remember reading and re-reading was Lucy Brown's Schooldays by Dorothy Vicary.

[Groovee]

I loved Mallory Towers and St Clare's. They were such good books which took me away from all the bullying at school into a land of how school life should be.

[chilledoutmummy]

I loved boarding school stories because I was desperate for tuck boxes and midnight feasts, I love these new editions of Trebizon would be fab to share them with my girls 😊

[bayliss6]

Yes I loved reading boarding school books when I was younger, Mallory Towers especially & now my daughter's love them too

[avery64]

As a child growing up in the rather austere post war years I couldn't get enough of the Dimsie books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce. There was no spare cash to buy them other than as my birthday or Christmas present (in the days when you only got one!!!!) I got so excited to find one I hadn't read in the public library on a Saturday morning but so sad to give it back the next week. I still have the ones that were gifts. My daughter loved them in the 1970s and she has bought several for my grandaughter who also loves them too. Pure escapism that we all need from time to time :)

[chrissie4]

I loved Mallory Towers and St Clare's still have some book on my bookshelf

[crapfatbanana]

I absolutely loved boarding school stories. Special memories of the joy they brought me from age 10-13. A million light years away from my own school experience. My own 10 year old daughter is just discovering these kinds of books. I'm jealous!

[Jenerate]

Absolutely loved them, yes. I wanted to go to one like the Chalet school, try all of the different sports, speak different languages, and of course have midnight feasts!

[jamielmdjs]

It's a great setting for a story - particularly when mischief ensues and the children plot an escape or adventure away from the confines of the school.

[emily13]

Yes I read them all when I was young. I ended up going to a fairly posh school, it was partly boarding but I was a day student, and I hated it. It put me off all those books!

[natalielara]

OH yes always loved boarding school books, used to imagine being rich and going to boarding school and what sort of mates I would have etc etc. We live round the corner from a very famous boarding school and we've been there a few times, I always imagined going to Roedean :)

[Jocelynne123]

I loved them. The Malory Towers books were my favourite. It sounded so much fun to be in boarding school xx

[rollonthesummer]

I absolutely loved Malory towers, St Clare's and Trebizon! Never could get into the Chalet School though.

I read a story a couple of years ago set in a modern girls' boarding school from the point of view of the teacher which I really enjoyed-can't remember who it was by or what it was called though-wonder if the author wrote any more?!

[aesops]

Love to read about Billy Bunter at Greyfriars School when I was little :-)

[sarsar123]

Don't really remember them being my favourite. Prefer books with more adventures

[Pretenna]

I loved the Trebizon series, although I never did finish it! I don't actually remember reading any other boarding school books/series.

[backinschool]

I loved Malory Towers and St Claires to the extent that I begged my mum to send me to boarding school. When she refused my brother and I put my mattress in his room to make it into a dorm and tried to make lacrosse sticks out of hockey sticks and my dad's garden netting.