School Stories

[BookwormBeryl]

At the ripe old age of 72 I am doing research into British children's school stories published between 1900 and 1950. Yes, I know, a bit mad, and I am unlikely to come across many of you born that far back but I am wondering if any of you (older ones, polite cough) remember reading such stories, and if so which ones, did you enjoy them and why? And did your kids and now grandkids read them? Did you encourage them to or did you pass them down your old copies maybe? We're talking here typically Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series and similar, also of course the Chalet School, written mainly in the 50s and 60s. If you did enjoy them what for you was the magic ingredient? There is quite a nostalgic movement out there and some of the early original printed stories (say 1930s on) get amazing prices on Ebay, so there must be some interest. But I need to get a feel for what drew you to them, if you can remember that far back. Thanks.

I have some Angela Brazil’s that I love, my uncle gave them to me as a box of second books years ago, my favourite was always ‘the school in the south’, I also loved ‘at school with the Stanhopes’ by Gwendoline Courtney and the Dimsie series. And of course chalet school….

Angela Brazil has been really slanted because she is so idealistic and everything is romantic and desirable. But she has also been praised for creating the girls school story right at the start of the 1900s (before emancipation) and I think thats true. Her girls arent soppy in the slightest - true grit comes to mind. If you've got old copies hang on to them or pass them on where they will be appreciated - they will increase in value! Thx for your feedback.

Do you want insights from younger ones who also read those books, or only people who remember them when they were published?

In case the former is helpful, I loved Enid Blyton school stories, but quickly graduated into the Chalet School. I loved seeing the characters grow up and have families of their own and them coming back to the school.

I've managed to get my children to read Malory Towers and St Clare's, which they've loved. They've also really enjoyed the more modern updating of Malory Towers on TV, though obviously get annoyed when the story deviates (e.g. Clarissa in Felicity's class, not Darrell's). But Chalet School is just too old fashioned for them to be able to get into. I'm sad about it - if they had got into it, there's the whole series of paper acks awaiting them!

OP, there's an ongoing thread about the Chalet School. You might want to post there.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5412145-the-chalet-school?page=17&reply=150195913

Are you linking the growth of this genre to the growth of private girls schools? That would be really interesting, I thing GDST (formerly GPDST), Cheltenham and Henrietta Barnett are early schools, taking the step from old style ‘dame schools’ to a structured curriculum and exams. We see a wave in early 20th and then I guess again postWWI - this is a fab topic to research, very jealous!!!!

As a child in the 60s my favourites were the three novels by Josephine Elder, Exile for Annis, Cherry Tree Perch and Strangers at the Farm School. A slightly alternative school where the pupils joined in with farm activities.

I enjoyed the Malory Towers and St Clares book, but never read the Chalet School ones.

Just to add they were published in 1938,1939 and 1940.

I loved the Naughtiest girl in school. I think the character appealed to my inner little devil, although I was no where near brave enough to behave like that! I loved the way the children used to put their money into the kitty box and share it equally. When I played schools, I used to have a box and have my teddies put my piggy bank change into it. Then I would count it up and hear any teddy's reason why they needed a little more that week! (And I've grown up happy to pay taxes and am grateful that we have a benefits system to support people at vulnerable times of their lives. But sadly the budgeting skills didnt transfer as I'm shit with my own money! ) i also loved how each child could follow their passions. I would have loved to be a 9 year old in charge of running an entire kitchen garden or responsible for taking horses out trekking every day!

I have a copy of Exile for Annis somewhere - I loved that one too. I started with Enid Blyton and then graduated to the Chalet School and have a lot in the loft (including some old hardback ones). I like the continuity of characters, in fact that is something that has stayed with me. I was desperate to go to a boarding school as a result, sadly my parents did not have the financial ability to send me. Another series that I really enjoyed was the Trebizon series by Anne Digby. I especially liked the more modern slant and realism of boyfriends etc. I took up hockey as a result of Trebizon and still play today, nearly 40 yes later!

Chalet School will always be the best! ((Although my favourite books ever are the Anne of Green Gables books.)

I should add, that although my DD loved Malory Towers and St Clare's, she has shown no interest in the Chalet School books 😥

When you say you’re doing research, @BookwormBeryl, can you explain further? Research for what?

There is an encyclopaedia of school stories written by Hilary Clare. I went to a lecture by her once and I throughly enjoyed it.

Wow! Never thought I'd get so much response in a short time. Thanks everyone, I am delighted. My research is for a PhD, which I am doing through a French university (annual fee 400 euros as opposed to at least 5 grand in the UK) and is specifically about how social class was portrayed in school stories in those days. Sounds a bit formal but isnt, its great fun and I am really enjoying it. I have included all sorts of stuff so far including the rise of private girls' schools mainly from the start of the 1900s when educational reforms started to make a difference. My 6 texts (you can only have a few) are from Angela Brazil, Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Antonia Forest for girls and Frank Richards (of Billy Bunter fame), P G Wodehouse and Horace Vachell for boys. Yep- there were definitely boys stories and girls stories with quite clear differences between them, although Blyton bucked the trend with her Naughtiest Girls series set in a progressive type co ed school - far-seeing since the first one appeared in the 1940s. People often react by saying how trivial a subject it is for PhD level but I say "no way", and my supervisor (who finds faults constantly) says it is the most interesting she is overseeing at the moment. More thoughts very welcome and yes indeed, reactions from kids and grand kids who are still young would be well received.

I'm in my mid 40s and I still read and collect (although not as much as I did). I was involved in online forums (fora?) for about 10 years from the late 90s and met good friends that way. I still consider them comfort reads. I am reading a Mabel Esther Allen at the moment (alongside a 'grown up' book) and recently reread a couple of Antonia Forests. I've watched the first 2-3 series of the BBC Malory Towers.

My daughter is more into Charlie and the Chocolate factory at the moment but I'm hoping to get her started on the Chalet School at some point. Mum bought me my first CS books when I was about 8 and I have some of her childhood Angela Brazils and others. I can bore on the topic for ages!

Have you read A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty? It’s got sections on Angela Brazil & Dorita Fairlie Bruce.

I loved girls’ school stories as a child & still do - I think a lot of it is that it’s so much a different world, & must have been incredible for the girls in the early 20th century who might have been used to fairly restricted lives & were seeing girls of their own age doing exciting & even heroic things.

Antonia Forest for girls and ....P G Wodehouse

What does your French supervisor make of the cricket? 😁

Do you know Ju Gosling's work?
https://www.ju90.co.uk/start.htm

I read all the authors as I grew up, but it was the Chalet School I really loved. For me it was the settings, being able to follow the same characters through many books and seeing them grow up (some of them were annoying but most of them were likeable) and the historical background. Exile and the wartime books were much more grounded in the real world than Malory Towers or St Clare's, for example.

As a child I learned quite a lot from reading the CS - about Austria and Switzerland, about the Anschluss, bits of German vocabulary.

I read the later ones as they were published, in fact I might have been said to be too old to still be reading school stories by the time the series ended.

I have read ju Gosling, and Auchmuty...very knowledgeable. The Chalet School series had a newsletter and there was even a trip in the 90s I think to the Swiss Alps. My supervisor, Helena, took cricket in her stride even though it is almost unknown in France - yes, the book from P G Wodehouse is Mike which is 90% cricket. I wanted to include it because for boys from the mid 1800s onwards who went to public schools (almost all boarding) it was all sport sport sport - hardly any mention of lessons or exams! And although in the book Mike's Dad wants him to go to Balliol, Oxford, it is the very last thing Mike wants to do! Hilarious, as can be expected from Wodehouse. What is coming through from many of you is the feeling of continuity, also a certain independance. Could it be that boarding school life seemed so good because parents weren't around?! My daughter read all the school stories as well and confessed to me that she had absolutely longed to go to boarding school. I didnt have the funds and I doubt I would have sent her anyway. But in the early 1900s of course a lot of kids went with no choice since their parents were overseas administering the Empire or acting as missionaries etc. All very interesting stuff, more history than literature if anything. Further thoughts very much appreciated.

On the question of class - despite Our Lady having been the wife of a carpenter, the only working class girls I can think of who made it to the Chalet School would have been Rosamund & Biddy, who had learned manners because their mothers were lady’s maids, and the pariah Joan Baker.

But that’s the kind of thing that went right over my head as a child.

I love old school stories. Started with Enid Blyton and then The Chalet School. I read any old ones I can get my hands on. Angela Brazil, Elsie J Oxenham and so on. What appeals to me is the social history, the different clothes, language, customs and behaviours and so on. That’s why I hate it when they modernise books!

Its a good point EmpressaurusKitty. You can list the number of working class pupils in school stories at the time on the fingers of one hand, which has not made my work easy - I would have liked to make a few comparisons. After the 50s though that changed - issues to do with class as well as race, health, gender and social issues (divorce, adoption) came into school story genre a lot more. . . quite rightly. As you say, child readers are oblivious to the social class bit, maybe more aware of the other issues though. One of the reasons I chose to look at social class was because almost nobody had done this...and its hard to say why. Maybe it is a sensitive area...but my approach is pretty factual, and I have to keep it that way. Just as well!

Could it be that boarding school life seemed so good because parents weren't around?!

It certainly gives the author more scope. Characters have to solve their own problems when there are no parents to step in. Similarly in non-school stories the characters are so often off on camping holidays, with no parents around.

The whole ethos is summed up in the classic telegram - 'Better drowned than duffers'.

Mike's Dad wants him to go to Balliol, Oxford, it is the very last thing Mike wants to do!

He would have been one of the men students Harriet Vane was so scathing about -
'hearty passmen who gambol round and learn to play games, so that they can gambol and game in Prep. Schools'.

But I see Mike was published in 1909. Boys who were at public schools in 1909 mostly ended up somewhere other than Oxford.

I don’t remember it specifically in the book so if there it went over my head but they have scholarship girls in the bbc Malory towers I think - is it Sally, who’s also played by a black actress? Neither race nor class are particularly mentioned with the girls although I think there was a vague storyline about the black teacher being made to feel out of place.
adored Malory towers, twins at st Clare’s and chalet school. I read all my mums copies and had my own of the blyton. It’s interesting that the class divide is much less pronounced or demonstrated differently in magical boarding schools (a bit OT I know) like worst witch and of course Harry Potter where it’s wizarding families//new wizards that makes a big difference to the hierarchy then within those two there are also class distinctions

....and of course Harry Potter where it’s wizarding families//new wizards that makes a big difference to the hierarchy then within those two there are also class distinctions

And financial. The Weasleys are hard up, and Ron is aware of it.

I loved all these too - just loved escaping into their world and all the various dynamics of their friendship groups! Plus the adrenaline when they were up to no good in the dead of night! I preferred Malory Towers to St. Claire’s for some reason, but devoured them all when I was probably about 9/10. Loved the chalet school when I was bit older - 11-13 ish. I remember one called Trebizon too.

I preferred Malory Towers to St. Claire’s for some reason

So did I. I think Darrell has more personality than both the O'Sullivan twins put together.