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.

That’s probably it yes!

And Alicia was fascinating to 9 year old me!

Currently sourcing and rereading as many Dorita Fairlie Bruce as I can get my hands on without breaking the bank. I’m fascinated with how different the older girls are in her earlier books. And how young the pastimes of the younger girls seem. Absolutely a window into another time.

With Angela Brazil the change between her early 1900s books and the 1930s ones is also astonishing.

These books are my happy place. I’m in possession of a full set of Chalet School (although mainly the much maligned Armada versions) which may have inspired the slight addiction!

Malory Towers has Jo,she was working class, she was not popular the other girls made fun of her boasting and her father is a self made millionaire, and he is loud and brash, and the other girls laugh at him at open days because he drops his ‘H’s. Miss Grayling says taking Jo was an experiment that didn’t work out.

There was Sheila in (I think) the St Clare’s books, who was embarrassed about being poor & tried to hide it.

And not quite the same, but Josephine Jones from Malory Towers with her vulgar nouveau riche parents who Georgette Heyer would describe as ‘cits’.

Cross posted with @ilovepixie!

The very best school stories were written by Antonia Forest, about the Marlow family.

I have heard her writing compared with that of Jane Austen.

Although these are ostensibly children's books, she has many adult fans, of whom I am one.

I started reading the books aged 11, and I am still re-reading them at age 72.

If you are looking at social class, then Antonia Forest is a must.

The Marlows are upper middle class, and even the children go hunting.

They attend a boarding school which honestly reminds me of my traditional girls' grammar school in the sixties.

Every character is totally realistic.

And not quite the same, but Josephine Jones from Malory Towers with her vulgar nouveau riche parents who Georgette Heyer would describe as ‘cits’.

I don't think the splendid Jonathan Chawleigh would have had much time for the Joneses. Certainly wouldn't have wanted Jo as a friend for his Jenny.

I grew up on boarding school stories! It started with Enid Blyton, courtesy of my grandmother (born in the 1920's) buying me 'The Naughtiest Girl' series. The second-hand bookshop in the village had a lot of vintage children's books, so I read my way through big boxes of Malory Towers, St. Clare's, Trebizon, The Chalet School, Sadler's Wells, Antonia Forest, Charlotte Sometimes, some Angela Brazil, a few of The Abbey Girls, and anything else that I could get my hands on! It is the kind of shop that time forgot, and every room is stuffed full of books (including mountaineering books above the staircase).

For me, I think that it was because it was a world away from what I knew (state school, no pesky brothers to put up with, no parents, and obviously vast sums of wealth, if they could send their offspring off to school!). Perhaps it was also because I had an "old-fashioned"/traditional childhood in a lot of ways, in comparison to my peers, and the books probably resonated with me in that way. I still have all of my old books in my home library, and this thread has encouraged me to snap up Exile for Annis, which I've had my eye on for some time!

You are right Helena. The Boer war had finished but a lot of boys at public school in 1909 sadly ended up on the WW1 battlefields. I believe there are many lengthy commemorative boards at places like Eton, Harrow, etc.
I never read the Sullivan twins but I love your comment!
Its good to know favourites from everyone - Chalet School seems to be in front but only just ahead of Malory Towers. How about Antonia Forest and the Marlow family? Her writing has been acclaimed and her dialogues are a dream - just the way 12 to 13 year olds would speak to each other in the late 40s / early 50s I would imagine. Has anyone read any earlier ones, like Fairlie-Bruce's Nancy and Dimsie books? The Girls' Encyclopaedia from Sims and Clare has been a godsend to me and there are loads of examples in there that I would love to read, especially when they come with very humorous comments from the two editors - worth reading.

He certainly wouldn’t! And if Jonathan Chawleigh had been as vulgar as Mr Jones, I don’t think Lord Oversley would ever have introduced him to Adam.

It’s a long time since I’ve read them but I remember Lawrie masquerading as Sophia Lawrence to a group of admiring blokes - presumably they were lower class?

Elder wrote some other books, Evelyn Finds Herself is particularly worth tracking down. She's one of my favourite authors!

Im also a fan of EJ Oxenham although she does occasionally forget she's writing for children and her storylines get a little too grown up.

I love The Abbey Girls books.

Incidentally, https://www.fadedpage.com/index.php is a fantastic resource for old school stories with a lot of unabridged Brent-Dyer, Oxenham & Brazil.

There’s a long recent thread on Antonia Forest here

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5477093-delicately-balanced-on-a-razor-edge-of-mutual-toleration-rowan-marlow-saint-or

When I was at my (very ordinary state comprehensive) school, my friends as I all read Chalet School books from the school library. We'd sit around and discuss the stories and the characters as though they were friends of ours. It was the setting rather than the stories that appealed; we all wished we were away at boarding school together for the night time japes!

It was a world away from anything we knew but that didn't matter to us. We were intrigued rather than put off by all these monied people with their archaic way of life (not THAT archaic though, this was the early/mid seventies).

I think EJO was writing for girls, rather than children. Her heroines tend to be mid teens or older, and might have left school, whereas EBD has 11-12 yos as main characters.

She is by far the most class-ridden of the big name authors. She attaches far more importance to titles than any of the others do.

She does. Take Rosamund, she’d have been perfectly happy living independently & running her own business but instead she had to become a Countess.

EJO does also have characters like Mary & Rachel though, who have successful careers as authors & in Rachel’s case at least are clear that being single & childfree is a positive choice for them.

I adored the naughtiest girl but never got into the other Blyton school stories. I’m not sure why - I’ve got older siblings and we had them in the house. I preferred the adventure series, the “R” mysteries and to a lesser extent the 5 find outers and the famous 5. The big pull to a kid was always the complete lack of supervision. I also liked the idea of going off to school with an enormous fruit cake.
Im a big fan of Mike and read Mike and Psmith again only a few weeks ago. I was older when I read Mike first, and Mike was older than naughty Elizabeth so I think the parental absence was less appealing and more that the whole thing was a giant rag. Mike was realistic to me in a way Blytons competent and sensible children were not - he was more of a William Brown than a determined chinned Julian. They weren’t having midnight feasts like the girls in the other books but they wound their masters up in a way that must have appealed to teenage me. The cricket is a bit much sometimes except the match against Downings that ended “did not bat”.

My sister was really into all the school stories - Chalet School stories, Malory Towers, St Claires, Angela Brazel. She used to go round all the jumble sales on Saturday morning and then read them in one sitting on Saturday afternoon.. It was all very "jolly hockeysticks"..

I read them too but I didn't love them like she did. We went to the same school but she was the 1st year of a girld grammar school turned. comprehensive. By the time I came, the old girls grammar school ethos was all but gone.

I always wondered if those old storie s spoke more to her because it was more like her school experience. (She died some time ago so I can;t ask her).

They weren’t having midnight feasts like the girls in the other books but they wound their masters up in a way that must have appealed to teenage me.

Mike & Co weren't as lawless as Stalky & Co, but in the same tradition.

I found Mike on Project Gutenberg this afternoon, and have been rereading. I think when I first read it I wasn't aware of the publication date - possibly had a later edition. Now it's rather sad, knowing what's coming. As when Saunders says Mike will be playing for England in eight years - that'll be1917; no he won't - or the description of how Wyatt organises the march on the day out - he'll be doing that for real on the Western Front in a few years. And Mrs Jackson will have five sons serving. (Yes I do know it's fiction and they're not real.)

I'm 71. I loved the St Clare's and Malory Towers books plus the Chalet School series, but the one I think of most fondly was called 'Molly [or Mollie? it was a long time ago!] Hazledene's Schooldays. I went at one of the final scenes when Mollie knows she has to leave the school (I think because the family had lost their money or something). She looks at the heads of the girls in front of her in Assembly and particularly the glowing red hair of a friend, knowing she will have to leave.
I think as a working class child in South Wales these school stories offered me fantastic escapism from my daily life (which was perfectly happy, but nothing like as 'exotic' as the lives of the girls in those books!)
Very good luck with your research!

Gosh. They were first over too, the “posh” boys who became the officers. Oxford and Cambridge both lost about a fifth - that would be the vicars son with his Balliol Scholarship. The boy Psmith was based on, Rupert D’Oyly Carte, survived but of course he was 20 years older than the characters.

From what I remember of Mike he’d have been determined to be one of the first over.

Gosh. They were first over too, the “posh” boys who became the officers.

I've read that the junior officers had proportionately higher casualties than any other rank, because they were first over. And being very young, would be inclined to recklessness.

I've read about a housemaster - may have been Harrow, would have to check - who lost 27 of 'his boys' that he had seen grow up.