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Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton (Spoilers Included)


chesilbeach

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Glad you're enjoying being back at old Malory Towers frankie. God that pantomime got on my pip. I will set myself the task of finding a copy of the last book for you 

I really enjoyed it, and your theory about it being because of reading the original version still stands, because this was another one of those! :D I could tell when someone talked about hairbrushes and spanking... :D Oddly enough the book cover is really modern, though! And it's not even a drawing... 

 

in-the-fifth-at-malory-towers-12.jpg

 

I don't like it at all... And I got hair envy :D 

 

Sheesh, I'm happy I'm not the only one who was having problems with all the pantomime prattle! Pip pip, sir! :D Please don't go out of your way to find a copy. And no spending any real money on it!! But should you find a copy for 10p and if the postage doesn't go further than 20p then I wouldn't mind. But honest, that's as much as you're allowed to spend on the book!!

 

Have read two of the St Clare's books now and they do follow a very similar format. Enid's moved on a bit though .. they dance to jazz records in the common room now.  Plus the legendary frying of the sausages at midnight happened!! I realised though that I have built that scenario up over the years into something quite spectacular. In reality it was a bit disappointing

 

:D Time goldens memories as we Finns would say!  :empathy:  Sounds like another great series to read. 

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A few quotes:
 
p. 9 (didn't get further than that to read about spanking...)
 
'She came to stay with us in the hols,' said Alicia. 'I've got three brothers, you know - and when June actually dared to disobey Sam, he gave her the choice of being spanked twenty times with her own hair-brush or running round our paddock twenty times each day!'
 
I'm sure someone mentioned that very particular quote in this thread earlier, and I thought I'd quote it in a post to let everyone know it wasn't just their imagination, but it actually was said in the book :D 
 
And when Sally "absent-mindedly walked towards the fourth-form table, and Darrell pulled her back.': 
 
'Idiot! Doy ou want to sit with those kids?' she hissed. 'Here's the fifth-form table!' 
 
:lol: To be called an idiot for that sort of thing? :rolleyes: I'm surprised Darrell didn't lose it and slap her :D She didn't slap anyone in this book so that was a first. 
 
I think Mam'zelle is becoming one of my favorite characters! 
 
'Ah - you are all basketing in the sun,' she said, much to the surprise of everyone. 
----
'And you, ma petite Maureen - you are settling down here nicely, are you not? asked Mam'zelle, kindly, seeing Maureen next to her. 'Of course, you will be missing your old school - what name is it, now - ah, yes - your Measley Manor, is it not?' 
 
:D 
 
And a new idiom I learned: 'licking someone into shape' :D 
 
And listen to Alicia!:
'She wants a lesson,' said Alicia. 'My word - if she comes and offers to show me how to juggle, I'll juggle her! I'll juggle her all down the corridor and back again, and down into the garden and on to the rocks and into the pool!' 
 
And what did Miss Potts have to say about June writing those letters?
'We call this kind of thing "poison-pen" writing, when the writers are grown up,' she went on, 'and they are held in universal loathing and hatred, considered the lowest of the low. Did you know that?'
 
I know she's only schooling June and back in the day they didn't have all the horrid stuff that's going on today, at least not in the same amount, but come on... Poison-penning is being the lowest of the low? That's a bit rich. 
 
My favorite part in the book was definitely when Mam'zelle did her treeeeek :lol: It was solid gold!! And when the other French mistress came and said: 
'I see no joke,' she said. 'It is not funny, teeth on the grass. It is time to see the dentist when that happens.' 
 
.. too funny!  :rolol:

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  • 2 months later...

I'm currently browsing 1000 Books to Change Your Life for inspiration, and got to the section that talks about books about kids and teenagers. Malory Towers is mentioned! :D And this is interesting...: 

 

"

The schoolgirls' code was not much different from the schoolboys', and Rosemary Auchmuty puts up a robust defence of the genre in her critical study A World of Girls. 'Loyalty and the team spirit had to fit into a scheme of teaching which represented a compromise between femininity and feminism... the girls' school stories reflect this uneasy compromise; they show how these values, hitherto seen as masculine, were absorbed into the schoolgirl culture, but also how the feminine world refined and manoeuvred around them.'

This has led to the sort of sniggering epitomised by Julie Burchill writing about Malory Towers: 'Pashes, petulance, pillow fights - and the heroine is called "Darrell"! Hel-LO? Sub-textual dyke action ahoy.' 

"

 

:D 

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I went on and read all the later sequels written by Pamela Cox, featuring Felicity (Darrell's younger sister) as the lead character, but they weren't a patch on Enid's books - no life to them - just all dull and flat. Unlike many people commenting, I always rather enjoyed the fifth book, probably because of the panto - even as a young kid, when I first read those books, I wanted to be an actor, so reading about schoolgirls writing and producing their own panto was like a dream to me. In fact, when I finally did a panto, we did Cinderella, and I played Prince Charming - I couldn't help thinking back to the fifth MT book and smiling, thinking, "Hey, Darrell! I did it!"

 

I was so disappointed by the Cox sequels - if they'd been even half as good as the original books, they would have been alright, but they weren't. There as just no fun or sparkle to them at all. I can't think why anyone let that woman write anything to stand up next to Enid's books!

 

I did start re-reading the St. Clare's books off the back of finishing this series (Id only ever read the first two as a kid), but just as hen I first read them, I just couldn't get into the characters (and I hated the O'Sullivan twins, who are the main characters of the books, so it didn't make it any easier for me!). I ended up abandoning my attempt after a few books. I may try a few of the original Famous Five books though - I loved Five Run Away Together when I was a kid - I had it on audio tape and played it till it wouldn't play any more - LOL!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh, good heavens - I've just seen this thread.  Malory Towers brings back happy memories of my childhood reading - those and Enid's 'Mystery' ones with Fatty, Larry, Bet, Daisy and Pip!  Malory Towers has a special place in my heart, though.  I loved Darrell and Sally so much I begged my mother to let me go to boarding school. (I didn't realise you had to pay!)  And I trudged the length and breadth of the local sports shops to find a lacrosse stick!  (Never did, of course)

 

I did read a couple of the St. Clare's, but I was probably into double figures age-wise by then and could see that they were virtually like for like.  I can't remember who the 'Gwendoline' character was in St. Clare's, but there was one.  I'd love to re-read Malory Towers.  I tried to bludgeon my daughter into reading them when she was younger, but she was all Roald Dahl.  

Edited by Mistress Gwynn
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I'm reading the last book of the St Clare series now - I never read them as a child but loved the Malory Towers series, and I have to say, I think I prefer the St Clare series. Personally, I think there's more mischief and definitely more midnight feasts! What more could you want?! :D

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