Back to malory towers
Buyton, Enid
- London Egmont 2012
- 478 p.
The Malory Towers series has been enormously popular with girls - and no doubt many boys too! - ever since the publication of the first book in 1946.
Malory Towers is a girls’ boarding school located in picturesque surroundings by the sea in Cornwall. A castle-like building on the cliffs, it boasts four round towers (North, South, East and West) and a courtyard, as well as a swimming-pool amid the rocks which is filled with seawater by the tides.
Heroine Darrell Rivers (named after Kenneth Darrell Waters, Enid Blyton’s second husband) arrives at Malory Towers at the age of twelve, excited and eager. Impressed by Headmistress Miss Grayling’s inspiring words of welcome, she determines to be one of Malory Towers’ successes.
However, things do not go as smoothly as she had envisaged. Her hot temper gets her into hot water on more than one occasion and she despairs of ever having a special friend of her own. Darrell's schoolfellows include sharp-tongued Alicia and her friend Betty, who liven many a dull lesson with a trick or a joke, dependable Sally, timid Mary-Lou and spoilt, spiteful Gwendoline Mary Lacey.
We follow the girls through six years at the school, sharing in their challenges, disappointments and achievements as they work hard and play hard. Can they live up to Miss Grayling’s expectations and turn from inky-fingered schoolgirls into “good, sound women the world can lean on”?
There are six books in the original series, the early editions being exquisitely illustrated by Stanley Lloyd. Six continuation novels are planned for 2009, written by Pamela Cox, who is already known for her excellent St Clare’s “fill-in” novels.