About the book

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”?

Book 1 – Darrell Rivers begins her happy life at Malory Towers two terms later than the other girls, but she soon makes firm friends with Sally, the steady one, and the adoring Mary Lou.

“We all have good and bad in us, and we have to strive all the time to make the good cancel out the bad. We can never be perfect – we all of us do mean or wrong things at times – but we can at least make amends by trying to cancel out the wrong by doing something worthy later on”

Malory Towers – http://www.enidblyton.net/malory-towers/

The book – In this first of the Malory Towers series we are introduced to Darrell Rivers, the heroine, and several of the girls who are to be key players throughout the series. We first see Darrell as a ‘new girl’, arriving at school two terms behind most of her classmates and feeling strange and bewildered. She is quickly taken under the wing of the quick witted and sharp tongued Alicia Johns and settles down to work and fun.

My review

Last year I started a challenge for bookclub, and one thing led to another and I got distracted and found I couldn’t lift up another Enid Blyton book until now. I think it’s almost a year on. So apologies if my review is a bit rusty. I’ve got to say I picked a brilliant book to start again, a bonus to the list as I was told I couldn’t have The Twins at St Clare’s without having Malory Towers. 

I have read this in less than 3 hours. That’s quick for me even if it is a thin book.There’s so much in it. and you would think it was the school for Hermione to go to from Harry Potter if she wasn’t magical. In recent books of Blyton’s I’ve found them quite dated but not this even if it is about 67 years old. The only odd thing was the names, I found them a bit strange.

This lovely little book has drama, test of friendships, test of the girls themselves. It does make me think that schoolgirls of what ever age will always be jealous of each other, can be very mean, and do silly things to each other just because someone else said something to so in so. Yes it still happens to this day and not just with kids, its in adults to and that’s even worse!!!!

‘Here was a person who had a fault, and who said so, and was sorry about it, and didn’t attempt to excuse herself.’ A lesson we could all learn instead of blaming others.

I found so many interesting things in the book and for a first term it was quite action packed. I always thought us females were a funny species and I think Enid reflects this. Funny how things haven’t changed (Have I said that already)

“You can’t possibly do anything if you think you can’t. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can.” –

“All you do is put yourself in the place of the other person, and feel like them.”

Oh and the above is again some good advice from Enid, how the crazy thoughts go on in our head instead of finding the real evidence and finding out things are not as bad as they seem. One thing that cognitive behavioural therapy has taught me is to constantly question my thoughts, if Daryl had known this she wouldn’t have felt so bad perhaps, but our minds play silly tricks on us when we are scared.

So I highly recommend this book and if I get chance and  yes , Alison was right I might read the rest 😀 . Now for the other school book, what was it again?

This is what I have left to do, can’t wait to get back into it.

2013 challenge http://wp.me/p2jfyL-7P

Dec – The Twins at St Clare’s *
Nov – The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat *
Oct – The Naughtiest School Girl *
Sep – Mr Galliano’s Circus *
Aug – The Boy Next Door
Jul – Adventures of the wishing Chair 
Jun – The Magic Faraway Tree *
May – The Enchanted Wood 
Apr – The Adventures of Scamp 
Mar – Secret Seven 
Feb – Five on a treasure Island 
Jan – The Book of Brownies