After a 25 year absence, Malory Towers has found itself a place in my home again as I know read them to my six year old daughter. Blyton has a uniform appraoch to chapter structure with each being 7/8 pages long so this makes it just about right for a read before bed.
The back drop for the six Malory Towers stories is the much loved boarding school which gives the book its name. The central character is Darrell Rivers and the books follow her 6 years at Mallory Towers and that of her form. The girls are of mixed and even talents and journey through escapades that lead them to become better girls worthy for society, sprinkle in a midnight feast or two and the odd joke on Mamzelle for good measure. For Darrell despite being clever and sporty her demon is her temper.
Darrels form reside in the North Tower of the school which is located on the cornish coast - the tower with the best view incidently.
Other girls in her form are Sally Hope (best friend), Alicia Johns (clever and a prankster), Irene (mathematician and musician), Belinda (artist), Mavis (singer), Clarissa and Bill (horse mad), Mary Lou (timid), Gwendoline (sly), Daphne, the twins Connie and Ruth. Eventually Darrells younger sister Felicity also joins the school too.
What I love about these books is that the children are still children in them with childrens adventures that you wil not fail to read over and over again. What surprised me most reading them again was how moralistic and true they were about human nature - there are some great lessons for us all here.
As an aside for Blyton addicts there is now the ginerpopshop in Corfe (Dorset) next to Corfe Caste (which is the basis for Kirrin Castle in the Famous Five), I saw it on hols and they even have lashings of ginger beer for sale.
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