Secure First Term At Malory Towers (Malory Towers, #1) Compiled By Enid Blyton Rendered As Manuscript

my full review, visit me at sitelink wordpress. com/

This book has been on my bookcase for many, many years we are talking more than one decade by now! The series has travelled many miles and has been read so often.
I dont think I could ever part with it, Thankful to my mum for introducing it to me when I was a little girl, you cant even begin to imagine how chuffed I was that my daughter wanted to read the series too.
So, we embarked on the journey together: me, revisiting the story after last reading quite a while ago, whilst at the same time seeing it through my daughters fresh eyes, with excitement and interest.


For my full review, visit me at sitelink wordpress. com/ Originally published in, this first entry in Enid Blyton's immensely popular sixbook Malory Towers series which follows its heroine, Darrell Rivers, through her years at a boarding school in Cornwall seems to include many of the characters and plot devices that have come to be so closely associated almost to the point of cliche with the girls' schoolstory genre.


In Darrell herself, we have the eager new girl enthusiastic, goodhearted, determined to be a credit to her school who as is evident from the start is the "right sort.
" The mischievous prankster, Alicia Johns, who is the heroine's first choice as friend the snobby spoiled girl, Gwendoline Lacey, with whom the heroine clashes the terribly shy "mouse" of a girl, Mary Lou, who worships the heroine and the inexplicably hostile girl, Sally Hope, who ends up being very important to the heroine indeed, are all examples of "types" that should be quite familiar, even to readers who have only encountered a few such novels.
The form headgirl, who has a quiet, natural authority the clever, but absentminded scholar and the Scots girl who is good with money groan!, all also appear in First Term at Malory Towers.


Just as many of the characters will be familiar to the reader, so too will some of the events, The rather tame pranks that Alicia plays on the teachers, Darrell's academic slipup, the rivalries amongst the girls, Mary Lou's unexpected bravery, the misunderstanding concerning Sally's illness, and the false accusation against Darrell, in the matter of Mary Lou's fountain pen, are all thrown together in a story that felt rather formulaic.
Worse, Blyton's tone can sometimes veer into the moralistic, as with Darrell's excessive self condemnation, when she loses her temper, I couldn't help comparing this with the more natural depiction of girlhood conflict provided by Evelyn Smith, in books such as sitelinkSeven Sisters at Queen Annes.


No doubt I'm being unfair, Smith is a brilliant if largely forgotten author, not in the same class as Blyton at all, And this was an entertaining book, even if I could see all the developments coming from a mile off, Perhaps my friend who commented that it was a shame I'd started the genre with the best authors sitelinkJoanna Lloyd, sitelinkAntonia Forest, sitelinkEvelyn Smith, as some of the more wellknown series would be spoiled for me was right.
Or perhaps I'm just not meant to be a fan, despite my recent "Blyton Project, " Still, I'll undoubtedly keep reading the series is bound to improve, no, . . Very much unlike Pat and Isabel OSullivan

who in Enid Blytons The Twins at St, Clares really do not at all want to attend St, Clares at first and are determined to hate everyone and everything and only very slowly but thankfully surely are shown to change their minds in the authors first instalment of her Malory Towers series, in First Term at Malory Towers, main protagonist Darrell Rivers is indeed and from square one so to speak totally and utterly thrilled with attending boarding school and more than willing to wholeheartedly enjoy all that Malory Towers has to offer, from its classes to swimming and games.
And while Darrell Rivers does thus and in a way totally represent the eponymous best type of school girl stereotype, there is still enough personality in her, including the recurring issues Darrell seems to have with her sometimes explosive temper, to render her into a delightfully relatable character and fortunately not just someone who can somehow do no wrong since Enid Blyton really does very majorly focus on Darrell Rivers throughout First Term at Malory Towers and having her appear as a quasi Little Miss Perfect could soon prove majorly tedious.


However, while I have certainly enjoyed Darrell Rivers as a character, I have also not quite liked and appreciated my first sojourn into Enid Blytons Mallory Towers universe quite as much as especially the first novel of her St.
Clares series. For while in The Twins at St, Clares, most of the presented characters are not only types but also have at least in my opinion vestiges of showing their own and distinct personalities, in First Term at Malory Towers, except for Darrell Rivers, all of her first form classmates usually seem so staunchly typecast that reading about them really does tend to sometimes drag a bit although yes, Sally Hope thankfully morphs into a much more nuanced individual after her appendicitis and after she no longer is jealous of her baby sister Daphne, and not to mention that I for one also do seem to find most of the teachers, most of the form mistresses considerably more positively and interestingly depicted in The Twins at St.
Clares than in First Term at Malory Towers and yes, I do hope that this changes as the series progresses, that in the later Malory Towers novels, Enid Blyton might give more textual oomph to her teachers and yes, that she will hopefully also make both spoilt rotten whiner Gwendoline Lacey and hard hearted joker Alicia Johns just a trifle less annoying and onesided, although I will also and of course not be holding my proverbial breath with regard to this.
Having grown up in the US, I missed Enid Blyton, I don't know if I would have liked her stuffat this age I find it much of a muchness, but as I was obsessed with all things English at the time I probably would have eaten it up.
Being dangerously close to a reading slump, I decided to give the old school stories a run, and I enjoyed this one,

The description of the "nice looking" uniform made me laughall brown and orange, two colours I dislike, particularly together! But I guess it's better than the standard navy blue and white with touches of red.
I like the fact that Darrell has an unusual name and an unpredictable temper, and can't find a special friend the minute she walks in the door, She's much more normal than some of the boardingschool instaqueens that populate other authors, Blyton also includes believable background characters: Mummy's spoiled darling, a sneak and liar, a kid who's afraid of everything, and the clamshell kid who not only has no friends, she doesn't appear to want any.
The prefects sort out any conflicts without running to the teachers the worst punishment is being isolated by your form mates,

Published in, but feels earlier, There's no mention of the war just finished, apart from a couple of parents saying "we must live more simply now" with no mention of why ie the fierce rationing and unavailability of the most basic products.
There's a definite feeling of Angela Brazil'ss England with its abundant strawberries and cream and buns, I had a slight deja vu feeling, as if I'd read this, or at least started it, before, but then I realised that Blyton recycled a few phrases and paragraphs particularly describing the dorms wordforword from one book to another.

There's not as much emphasis on needlework and long walks as in the Chalet School books by Elinor Dyer, and no need for hairbreadth 'scapesunless you count the spider!

A good bedtime read.
.