Malory Towers Forever

 

As I think I've mentioned  the odd time to my friends I've been re-reading Malory Towers, the classic story of a all girls high school on the coast of Cornwall, South-west England directly overlooking the sea as written by Enid Blyton.

As with a number of novels back then due to the whole issue of boys being picked on for reading books popular with girls you just had to "borrow" a copy, read it out of sight of other boys and never mention it.

That meant I was late getting my own copies to enjoy reading  and so far in I've just finished the Fifth volume.

Her books were a big part of my childhood that I loved mainly for their sense of innocent adventure, well observed characters and moral tales interwoven into the narrative.

I mixed them in with things like the Jennings  and Just Williams as a gripping yarn of a story is just that where you're a boy who loves stories like this.

With Malory Towers we see the world of this  boarding school which is a Castle like building with four wings, mainly through the eyes of Darrell, a first year boarder aged 12 getting to grips with induction procedures, new school rules, making new friends who as the series progresses we learn all about, their strong points and well their failings and learning to take on more responsibilities for themselves.

Each wing has inter-house competitions and for some sports their are coveted matches with other schools, the values of giving your all for your team and team mates, honour and being a gracious winner are write right through.

We also have escapades, ill thought out actions like going awl to perform and becoming so ill we can't sing, playing tricks on teachers and even some serious stuff like poison-pen letters not to mention theft.

For some such stories were (possible are even) a fantasy -a school life in childhood never experienced but preferable to the one they had - but to me much of this was very much like the reality apart from the poison-pen letter bits.

Newsflash: I did play tricks on people back then!

You could say it was really a guide cluing me in to what I was to experience making the transition from day school easier. 

I hope to re-read a few more of her series in the upcoming year.