Sunday Classics: ‘First Term at Malory Towers’
The first book in this popular school series by Enid Blyton turns 75 this year
Published 07.11.21, 12:02 AM
Remember all those times when as a child, your parents threatened to leave you in boarding school if you misbehaved?
Well let’s just say that if those boarding schools were anything like Malory Towers, we would have our bags packed in a jiffy!
The Malory Towers series starts with First Term at Malory Towers which follows the protagonist — Darrell Rivers — as she begins her schooling at the eponymous girls’ boarding school. The book, which was first published in 1946, was inspired by a girls’ boarding school that the author’s daughter had attended. At this new school, Darrell initially feels isolated, but soon starts making herself home, as she finds new friendships, stresses about exams, plays tricks on teachers and cheers on at lacrosse games. What makes this boarding school even more memorable to readers is its picturesque setting – with its castle-like ambience, and its clifftop location, it is in many ways, reminiscent of the J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Complete with a swimming pool, a sprawling dinner hall with tables full of buttered scones, jammy buns, and other British delicacies..life at Malory Towers, as it progresses through the next five books in the series, is seldom boring, and has enthralled generations of young readers.
In 2009, author Pamela Cox added six new books to the series, which follows Darrell’s younger sister, Felicity Rivers, as she goes on to complete her schooling from Malory Towers. The series draws to a close with Goodbye Malory Towers, which brings back the original crop of characters for a school reunion, before we finally bid them adieu.
— Upasya Bhowal
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