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 think you do get a mixture of Working Class girls.

They vary between the:
As above. Working Class and shows by their behaviour/manners and they never learn and show they're not interested in improving. Jo in Malory Towers is probably the best example.

Working class, but often has a parent who worked for upper class/upper middle and has installed the values. They normally adjust quite well (eg Rosamund in Chalet School). They're also typically clever, often quite shy, although they might need some catching up because "The High" didn't do all the subjects. They're keen to do this and show how they can keep up with the others. They normally fade into oblivion in the next book as nothing remarkable.

And then we have the Daisy Pulls it Off trope. Working Class, but often has fallen from higher. They get the scholarship and go to a very snobby establishment. There the "bad girl" immediately hates them, and plays tricks on them to catch them out, and badmouths them ("You know I hear her mother had a shop") because they're a snob, however the rest of the year adore them immediately because they're clever, sporty and such a "good sport".
They score the winning goal against the team they never have managed to beat before, come top in all the subjects, get elected head of the form and save the day when they stop a robber making off with the headmistress' heirloom necklace. And are humble throughout all the priase.

Normally there's an instant where they save the life of the "bad girl" or possibly their younger sister. All the things the bad girl did promptly come out and they either declare themselves their undying slave and how wrong they are or they're immediately expelled and their crowd come to say how sorry they are and they were made to do it.

And then at the end, it's discovered that they were adopted and really come from a family far richer than anyone else's, or they come into a fortune, or their father was just suffering from memory loss after doing something heroic...
This proving the total snobbery of the author who clearly doesn't believe that a "working class" girl could actually do all these things.

Another example is the 1948 film The Guinea Pig. A boy (Richard Attenborough) is given a scholarship to a public school. He has to learn to fit in, and some of the boys and masters have to adjust their attitudes too. Whether he is working class depends on your definition; his parents have a tobacconist shop, so are small business owners, not wage earners. (Joan Hickson plays his mother.)

Crikey. I’d forgotten all about Daisy Pulls It Off.

Margeret Thursday - some very interesting comments there. I wonder if I shouldnt write something additionally on the subject of working class girls portrayed in school stories, there is certainly enough material there to hopefully make it interesting. Helena, amazingl I have been speaking this morning with Nick Tucker (who wrote the very interesting Child and the Book some years ago, looking at why children read some books and not others) and he mentioned that very film - the Guinea Pig. No, I have never seen it and would love to, any ideas on how I can? My daughter might help, she knows this sort of stuff.
Ongoing thanks to such an interesting thread and all who have contributed so far - hopefully it will continue!