Fictional schools: there’s a new one in town
I recently did this post
on fictional holidays I would like to enjoy. I like the
idea and want to do more such posts, and the next one invited itself in with a
new book by one of my favourite contemporary authors, Lissa Evans, much
featured on the blog for her own books, children’s and adults, and for
her excellent blog recommendations over the years. (She even appeared in the Dower House post earlier this week)
Her new book is for young adults, and is a riot.
My name is MacKenzie Bly * No it Isn’t
Philip is just a normal boy: that is his superpower. He is not a
genius or very sporty or miserable. Things go wrong, things go right, he is
easily embarrassed but also open to good things in life. The book is full of
absolutely hysterical and ridiculous scenes, but they are strangely believable.
You just do feel as though you have been privileged to witness his life for a
few months, with him explaining it as he goes along. I loved his relationship with
his best friend (who has had to move to NZ) – they just talked and laughed all
the time. And he gets friendly with Emmeline ‘from the year above’, a wonderful
creation. If he hadn’t already won me over, his description of his stall at the
school fair would have done so: a contest to identify crisp flavours. (I’d have
won, as at a similar quiz round, I once id-ed one of the flavours without even tasting
the crisp, just on appearance).
While reading I would get tripped up laughing on items of real, 2020s
life like this one:
A National Trust footpath goes
right through the middle of [the industrial estate], so you get all these
people in wet weather gear, carrying huge backpacks and looking for solitude,
wilderness etc, having to tramp past Len Foley playing Slipknot at full volume
while inflating misshapen Spiderman balloons for his HAVIN’ A PARTY wholesale
outlet.
And this description of a class trip:
When the coach arrived, everyone piled on to try and get the back seat and then they piled straight off again because the seat already contained a drunk bloke from a stag do the night before, lying asleep in his own vomit. [On a new coach] we got stuck a world-record-breaking traffic jam… and we never made it to York at all, although we did spend two and a half hours in Spenwick Services, during which Aaron Wong and Lili Dean were cautioned for shoplifting, Jamal Locum-Wallace accidentally threw his phone into a giant bin instead of the empty Burget King box he was holding in his other hand, and three of the Pett sisters met someone called Gary who wanted to sign them up to his top international model agency but only if they gave him 50 quid cash (each). Which they did.
And this isn’t even an event featured in the book, it’s just a reminiscence: there’s something as good on every page.
A great book, and too good to be kept for its own age-group. Everyone should read it.
-------------------------
There are obvious comparisons to be made, and people will
make them, but I’m going to do it as a list of great fictional schools:
Neil Armstrong Comprehensive: Sue Townsend's Adrian
Mole is the hero of the 1980s and later. I have said before that if all history
was deleted, you could recreate the end of the 20th century via
Adrian Mole and Bridget Jones. Adrian and Pandora live out their lives at their
school.
Linbury Court, where Jennings and
Derbyshire hang out in the books
by Anthony Buckeridge.
St Custard’s, home to the
inimitable Nigel Molesworth,
Malory Towers (& St Clare’s) Enid Blyton’s beloved series. Day school girls adored the idea, even though they would most likely have hated boarding school in real life (it me).
St Trinian’s Well obviously. I am wistful that I will never get to go there.
Meadowbank, a select all-girl boarding school in Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons. The games mistress is murdered, the foreign princess is abducted, the gardener is an impostor. That’s what I call a proper school. Also, it seems the girls have rooms to themselves, not dormitories.
Three more obscure ones - IYKYK:
The School of Dancing in Wintle’s Wonders by Noel Streatfeild - specially for Lissa, she and I have long bonded over our great love for this book. This is despite - and I may be about to offend her terminally - neither of us having the slightest ability in the area of musical comedy dancing.
Castle Monastery School in the wholly obscure book featured in one of my favourite (& strangely popular) posts
Dress Down Sunday: The Clue in the Castle by Joyce Bevins Webb
The Jane Willard Foundation, which is where
Dimsie
Goes to School in books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Our new hero is in a direct line from these: he is the schoolboy for the 2020s
Schools, and lists of schools, and schoolgirl
detectives, have all been lavishly featured on the
blog – look in the themes and lists tab above or use the search box.
Thursday
List: Books Set in Schools
File:1962
- Nineteenth Street Theater Ad- 10 Jul MC - Allentown PA.jpg - Wikimedia
Commons
Thank you for this wonderful review, and you are absolutely write about my lack of musical comedy skills. Oh, though, Wintle's Wonders - I think everyone in my family (except my father) read it at least three times....
ReplyDelete'Absolutely write'!!! You can tell how excited I was about the review....
ReplyDeleteThis above is Lissa, ie author, for anyone who can't tell.
DeleteAll the right (write?) people loved Wintle's Wonders, it's the NS fan favourite.
and thank you for giving us the great cheering-up book in hard times!
I was lucky enough to read this book before publication, and I completely agree with you: it's a stunner. Not only is it very, very funny, but MacKenzie Bly himself is one of those characters so instantly recognisable you feel you've known him all your life. In various disguises, he seems to have wandered through the last century or so of English literature, straight into the heart of 2026. But before that, E Nesbit knew him, and Jerome K Jerome, and of course Fotherington Thomas would have beset him with questions and Adrian Mole stared in instant, thankful, recognition.
ReplyDeleteI do hope it ends up on the school curriculum, and lined up for the Booker (something readable at last) and serialised on Radio 4 and turned into a 6 part drama , Mackenzie Crook style.
(Re. Wintle's Wonders. My supercool, infinitely wise and glam, US agent is a re-reader of that book. It's her go-to in times of need. Mine too- although I have leaning to Team Dulcie and would like to read her version of events.)
Thanks for this lovely perfect comment. Yes, that's it - his recognizability, and his own awareness of what other people see in him.
DeleteWhen I read Adrian Mole on first h/b publication, I gave copies to absolutely everyone for Christmas that year. I think maybe I should do the same with this....
PS Please please write Wintle's Wonders from the POV of Dulcie, and tell us what happens to her next...
DeleteI will, if people like yourself will help. (I came an awful cropper writing a sequel to A Little Princess, so I will need help).I think after the shocking loss of her mother -Pursey could hardly believe it, twice, a shark.. ("Third time pays for all," said Pursey - of all the comfortless remarks to make to a grieving daughter) -I think, in time, after much labour, she blossomed.
DeleteI would love a part in writing it. I need collaborators though.
Although it's far too early to think about Christmas, I ordered a copy yesterday for my son, and then realised it would be perfect for niece's birthday, so ordered another.
Deletedo you think the STreatfeild estate would be OK with it, do they have a say?
DeleteHonestly, I think it could be your Wide Sargasso Sea.
My favourite NS comfortless remark comes in Curtain Up, now Theatre Shoes. A girl going to a party event is told ‘Well there’s a war on and you’re at least covered and I suppose we mustn’t expect more.’ I was haunted by that for years, and when unsure about my clothes ever I would think 'well at least it's better than that poor girl, no-one's said that to me'.
I loved your sequel to A Little Princess! Surprised to read that you came an awful cropper over it, I thought it was great.
Delete(see also Five Children on the Western Front, which I'm still trying to work out why I forgave it so much that had it been handled by a lesser writer, I should have probably been furious. There do seem to have been quite a few sequels to Five Children and It, and I haven't disliked any of the ones I've read...)
Hilary being hard on herself.
DeleteI've never dared read Western Front, should I brave it? It sounded so weird.
I recently read Jacqueline Wilson's update of the Railway Children, which was interesting and took the brave step of (slight spoiler)
Making the Dad guilty....
Western Front is surprisingly good. In many ways it felt like one of Lissa's wartime novels, more the vibes than the style. It retains the fantastical elements of Nesbit, and I actually found myself thinking "why yes, this is what the Five Children would grow up to be" as I absolutely could imagine Anthea and Jane becoming the young women they are in Western Front, the Lamb is very much one of the original Five Children now he's no longer the baby but a boy in his own right, and the Psammead feels authentic in a way that I'm not sure the other sequels quite manage. I wanted to be so annoyed with it, but I found myself nodding and appreciating that it didn't sugarcoat life in the "Great War" and I appreciated how it portrayed the old school adults struggling to comprehend how their world was falling apart around them (much like they are in Small Bomb at Dimberley after the next war) with their former servant classes no longer willing to be maids, etc.
DeleteYou've done a great job of convincing me that I should read it!
DeleteLissa Evans wanted to post this:, I'm having to do it for her:
DeleteI thought 'Five Children on the Western Front' was actually rather marvellous, and I still think of it from time to time...
Thank you this sounds so much fun. I have just emerged from the long 16th century (Mantel, Gregory, Sansom - not all of them, of course) so this is perfect reading. I write as someone who got all my skills, such as they are, from Nigel Molesworth.
ReplyDeleteGood: I recognized that, the need to pivot after immersion, and this book will be perfect. I think about Molesworth on a regular basis myself.
DeleteI am a British ex-pat in the USA. My husband and children are frequent UK visitors, strongly connected to UK culture and appreciative of British humor, but they DON’T GET MOLESWORTH. Is it the school setting? Do you have to be of a certain age? Is it just too British? It’s disheartening to me.
DeleteNerys
What a shame your family don't get Molesworth. I can so imagine a US version
DeleteSpringfield Elementary seems not dissimilar in many ways...
It just doesn't work for some people! I have a friend who said 'but isn't it just bad spellings, that's the entire joke?'
DeleteFor me, St Custard's is a microcosm of the real world and reading the vagaries of staff and pupils was a good preparation for the erratic and eccentric world of work . Plus I am a rubbish speller so identified strongly with Nigel. Top tip, never work for anyone who has 23 photographs of themselves in their office... I have ordered Mackenzie Bly and am waiting with baited breath for it's arrival but would welcome any suggestions for, if not similar, then sort of parallel books
DeleteNot getting Molesworth? Wot ruddy chik, chiz chiz.
DeleteTbh it took me a while for it to click, so I kinda get it.
Love the idea that St Custard's is the real world - I will think about that. It is certainly true that there are all these joke characters and strange situations, but you recognize them all.
DeleteI always loved the letters home getting shorter and shorter till they are just a list.
My apologies for the duplication, not sure what happened there. Obviously very poor IT skills
ReplyDeleteIt is an absolute gem of a book, and should be available on prescription to anyone feeling a little off-colour or out of sorts. On the strength of recommendations from both you and Lissa, I'm off to find Wintle's Wonders!
ReplyDeleteA gem is absolutely right.
DeleteAnd I think I'm going to have to re-read Wintle's Wonders....
This sounds fantastic, Moira! Just from the bits you've shared, I get a sense of who this kid is and what his life is like, and the wit is brilliant. And it sounds as though there's an awful lot that resonates with the reader, too (we've all had THOSE school trips...). What a treat this must be.
ReplyDeleteYes, Margot, and though it is very very English, I think it would resonate with all children (& adults) everywhere...
DeleteThis sounds brilliant and I did enjoy Lissa's most recent. You forgot to mention that for those of us with two left feet who would be the object of Cora's ridicule in Wintle's Wonders/Dancing Shoes, there is the hope of being discovered like Rachel for our acting talent! And although I love boarding school stories, I suspect I'd have hated the actual thing, especially as depicted in these books - no privacy, weak at sports (two left feet and maybe two left arms), and too sarcastic to please girls or teachers.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, that is so much the appeal of WW and other Streatfeild books: you may seem to be untalented and overlooked, but someone is going to discover your talent and give you the attention you deserve. Who wouldn't want that?
DeleteYep, I KNOW I would've hated boarding school, for all the reasons I liked reading about them: hugely the lack of privacy and a safe haven (however hard a day you had at day school, you got to go home at the end...)
Oh, this sounds like tremendous fun! The quotes made me smile, especially the one about the industrial estate - I have definitely been that wet weather walker faithfully following a footpath through unscenic territory. I'm delighted to see Meadowbank get a mention here, because Cat Among the Pigeons is one of my very favourite Christies, probably because I loved school stories so much when I was growing up. I loved Malory Towers, but my very favourite fictional school is from a book no-one ever seems to have read, Jean Estoril's Ballet Twins. It's about two working class girls from Birkenhead who win scholarships to the prestigious Lingeraux Ballet Academy in London. They stay at a boarding house, another setting I have apparently always loved! I reread Ballet Twins a few years ago after finding a second-hand copy and the magic more or less held up, which is not the case for all my childhood favourites...
ReplyDeleteWe obviously have very similar tastes in books, so I think I have to find the Ballet Twins book, it sounds splendid, and I grew up not that far from Birkenhead.
DeleteAnd yes - boarding houses, that's a topic I keep meaning to attack here on the blog.
I must read Ballet Twins! On the subject of boarding schools, have you run across Joan North's The Cloud Forest? It features a co-ed boarding school with some very creepy staff, though the kids are all right. The heroine creeps off to read under her bed not so much because she wants to as because she wants to break the rules!
DeleteI have ordered a copy of Ballet Twins. And have never heard of The Cloud Forest, will look it up.
DeleteREading under the bed was key to recent post on letting children read whatever they want.
Count me among those who adored boarding school books in my dewy youth (and like CLM, above, I never wanted to actually be sent to one). I somehow fell heir to some of those 1920s British Girls' Story collections (annuals?), which helped my education about mysterious Brit concepts like Prefects and Out of Bounds and late night forbidden feasts. (Though it took me a long time to figure out why the "local picture house" was out of bounds; wouldn't you think an art gallery would be an acceptable venue?)
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious about the picture house!
DeleteYes, and actually those schools set out a set of ethics and rules which I cannot now approve of. The whole thing about never being allowed to tell the teachers what was going on, that 'tale-bearing' was the worst thing you could do.
I always told my children that telling the grown-ups usually IS the rigth thing to do - so long as you are not deliberately trying to get someone else in trouble.
I think children might find it hard to tell the difference between "snitching" and needing to tell an adult about a serious problem?
DeleteWas the girls'-school "code of living" pretty much the same as with the boys' schools? I haven't done much reading about either--does Thirkell count?
DeleteMarty, you make a very important point about "snitching." We would try to directly teach our students what kinds of things should be reported to an adult, but it is often more difficult for children to reveal serious problems than petty ones.
DeleteNerys
Marty, I think girls' schools and boys' shools had very similar codes, both in books and in life.
DeleteAnd I think it was quite wrong - it was staff laying off their duties on pupils by telling them to police themselves!
And surely (not to get too serious) produces an atmosphere in which terrible things are normalized, from bullying to abuse.
I was once sitting with other mothers near the river while our children (maybe 4) were playing on the bank. My daughter came over and told me that other kids were going into the water. Another mother started to say 'oh telling tales', before everybody jumped up to rush over to where several children had gone in to get a ball back. To be fair, it wasn't (and wasn't likely to be) too tragic, but I was shocked by the attitude. I thought my daughter had done exactly the right thing, told me something factual that we needed to know.
No worries, sure to be the fault of blogger, not you!
ReplyDeleteI also love that Mabel Esther Allan/Jean Estoril Ballet Twins book, LouLou. In the US, it was published as We Danced in Bloomsbury Square. I borrowed it frequently from the library and finally got my own copy as an adult. MAE's The Ballet Family and The Ballet Family Again (aka The Dancing Garlands, I think) are also excellent (my other favorites of hers are Time to Go Back, Romansgrove, and Lost Lorrenden). I took one year of ballet but it was not as transformative as in books, so I retired to my books.
ReplyDeleteOh it is Mabel Esther Allan, didn't get that! I await my copy with even more interest.
DeleteI was never going to be a ballet student, but I did like a few ballet books.
One of my most successful posts ever was about how ballet dancers kept their tights up, and was partly inspired by a book called The Ballet School Mystery by Constance B White, a book I loved
https://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2017/08/dress-down-sunday-ballet-secrets.html
I've just reserved this at my local library; this blog is very influential :-)
ReplyDeleteBallet books are great. I would have loved ballet lessons as a child but it didn't happen. Happy ending though, as I took contemporary dance classes when I could pay for them myself.
I hope you enjoy the book, and good for you with the dance classes.
DeleteI loved a lot of books that I had no connection with - school stories, theatre books, swallows and amazons...