The second form at St Clare's (by Enid Blyton)

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Since I reread - and enjoyed - the first three ‘St Clare’s’ books by Enid Blyton in the past few months, I decided to try the fourth, ‘The second form at St Clare’s’, which I haven’t read for at least thirty years. There’s a note in the front of my ‘dragon’ paperback saying that I acquired it in April 1970. So it’s perhaps not surprising that it’s starting to fall apart. I must have read it many times in my teens, and it has been borrowed regularly by young friends.

But with a thirty (or more) year gap in my perusals of this book, I had totally forgotten the storyline, and the new characters. The first chapter sees the twins Pat and Isobel joining their classmates as they return to their beloved boarding school after the summer holidays. They, along with most of their friends, are moving up to the second form as they are now fifteen. I never really understood how the forms work in the St Clare’s books, as the youngest in the school are fourteen. As the series was published in the 1940s there were fewer regulations than nowadays, and far less standardisation. 

There are two girls from the former second form who have not moved up to the third form: Elsie and Anna. The head, Miss Theobald, has decided to make them joint head girls of the form, although neither has typical leadership qualities. Anna is quite lazy and doesn’t like being in charge of anything, and Elsie is spiteful and vengeful. Miss Theobald and the form mistress hope that being head girls will make them both kinder and more responsible. 

There are two new girls in the class: Gladys, who always sits on her own and looks miserable, and Mirabel, who immediately lets everyone know that she’s at the school under sufferance and plans to leave at half term. She doesn’t join in anything, and causes trouble whenever she can. There’s a new mistress (teacher) too: Miss Quentin, who teaches drama. She’s rather affected and apparently has favourites, but the only person who likes her is the twins’ cousin Alison, who tends to get silly crushes on people. 

So the stage is set for another mainly character-based story that covers the term. It turns out that Mirabel is highly talented in a couple of areas, but she doesn’t begin to turn her attitude and behaviour around until the rest of the class have got so fed up with her that they resort to bullying (led by Elsie). Gladys has reason for her misery as her mother is very ill, but she hasn’t been making any effort, and the letters she has written to her mother are full of complaints, saying how much she misses her. 

There’s a concert that the second form puts on to the staff and most of the school, featuring almost everyone in the class; Doris is excellent at impersonations, Bobby does magic tricks, and there are many other displays of talents, which are much appreciated. It helps the girls (most of them) to pull together and produce something slick, amusing and of high quality. 

There are also classroom incidents, a trick played on the gullible Mam’zelle at lunchtime, a midnight feast, and an exciting lacrosse match. And, inevitably, the more difficult girls gradually absorb the common sense, caring attitude of St Clare’s, and start to mature. 

It’s not the greatest writing, of course. Enid Blyton is often criticised for poor quality prose, as well as for biases and bigotry, although we don’t see much of that in this book. There are caricatures, of course: fluffy Alison and the manipulative Miss Quentin are, I hope, not really believable. I’m not sure I could quite believe in Elsie, either, at the start of the book - or that the rest of the class would join in a campaign of bullying either, albeit only for one day. 

But it’s a good story. The pace is just right for a quick read, and although it’s inevitably dated, this book (and others in the series) still appeal to many girls of about eight and upwards. There are subtle (and not-so-subtle) moral lessons included in these books, showing the importance of integrity, honesty and kindness, and I’m sure I had a lot of my personal values strengthened when I read these books as a child and then as a teenager.

All the St Clare’s books stand alone, but in my opinion it’s best to read them in order. There tends to be a bit of unnecessary explanation in later books in the series, although this one doesn’t have too much of that. But I like seeing the continuity, as girls introduced in the first book start to grow up a little. And there are, here and there, references to earlier books in the series.

Recommended if you like this kind of mid-20th century children’s school story for nostalgic reasons, or to introduce to a young child who wants something different from modern children’s books.

The first three books in the St Clare's series are:

- The twins at St Clare's

- The O'Sullivan twins

- Summer term at St Clare's

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