Baby Melissa Skye born on Saturday 29 March at 3.21am. Nearly 17 months old now, running around and...
Baby Melissa Skye born on Saturday 29 March at 3.21am. Nearly 17 months old now, running around and into everything! Not been on Ciao for a while, been busy with Melissa and part time work, hope to be back on here soon. 090909.
Member since:22.04.2001
Reviews:226
Members who trust:26
When I was a little girl I was an avid reader. Enid Blyton was my favourite author. In todays world, her books seem very simple and old fashioned because people had very different values back in the days in which the books are based.
I think that children of today would probably be bored with the books, however I still have all of mine, ready to pass on to my daugher (if I have one) one day.
There were six books in the Malory Towers series:
· First Term at Malory Towers · Second Form at Malory Towers · Third Form at Malory Towers · Upper Fourth at Malory Towers · In the Fifth at Malory Towers · Last Term at Malory Towers
The series follows a boarding school in Cornwll, which has 4 towers, North, South, East and West. The books seem to focus on the North Tower and Darrell Rivers.
Each novel is about a year in the school. There are storylines that are through all 6 books, but each book also stands alone as a good read.
The characters were very strong and different and as with all Enid Blyton books there is a strong female character with a bloke's name, ie George, Jo, Bill, Chris etc
Darrell Rivers is the main star of the book. She is a very fair girl, but she has a terrible temper which can get her into trouble, as if the other girls annoy her she cannot hold it back. Darrell also gets herself into trouble in the later books, but manages to overcome her temper.
Darrell's best friend is Sally Hope (after the first book). Sally is a strange girl who does not make friends easily and denies that she has a baby sister. Why does she doe this? it all comes out after Darrell and Sally have a blazing row.
The headteacher is Miss Grayling who is nice, firm but fair.
Gwendoline Lacey is a spoilt and annoying girl who is always grassing on the others and picking on the younger girls, however what goes around comes around . Each girl has a very strong character and the characters are mainly English, although there are some French and American characters.
Of course being a boarding school, they play lots of jolly hocky sticks and that game with the weird name Lacrosse, which I never knew what it was when I was a girl. There is a fantastic swimming pool built in the rocks overlooking the sea apparantly and woe betide the girls if they actually try to swim in the sea itself........
The girls all live in dorms and have midnight feasts and read under their sheets with torches and so on. They are always playing tricks on each other and the teachers.
As stated previously, the books are from another era, having been written in the 1940's when life was very different. There were hardly any tv's then, no computer games, no discos and certainly no trendy clothes.
I do wonder if children today would find them interesting enough as they would not be able to relate to them at all and may find them boring, which I think would be a shame as they are wonderful books. I would recommend them to girls of around 9 or 10, although the ones that I know today are more interested in boys and makeup!!
Enid Blyton's real name was Enid Darrell Waters, so it is interesting to see that the main character was called Darrell Rivers. By the time of her death in 1968, she had become the most prolific author of all time with over 700 books to her name.
The books are currently on sale from Amazon at £3.99 each or can be purchased from Ebay and other stores
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Ha! I played lacrosse and it's way better fun than hockey or netball or gymnastics a.s.o...
I like these good and simple books - puts me in mind of ' Little Women' !
AnitaM 01.01.2006 23:54
I loved Enid Blyton's boarding school stories when i was younger. She made it sound really fun.
bluejules 13.11.2005 15:49
I used to like Enid Blyton when I was a child. I especially liked the Famous Five series. Good review. Jules x
very helpful by (70%):
helpful by (30%):
