Claudine at St Clare's (by Enid Blyton)

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As a child I read and re-read several of the series by Enid Blyton. But the ones I liked best were the three school series: St Clare’s, Malory Towers and the Naughtiest Girl. I’ve been re-reading my way through them gradually in recent months, and a little surprised to find that I still like them, even from the perspective of a grandmother rather than a younger teenager. 

I last read ‘Claudine at St Clare’s in 2014; but I must have read it many times as a child and teen, so the people and storylines were still familiar to me. I’d forgotten some of the names and details, however. This book leaps forward a couple of years from ‘Second form at St Clare’s’, which I reread in January. The twins and their friends must be sixteen or seventeen by now, and about to join the fourth form. They were fourteen when they joined St Clare’s. Some of their classmates have left; those that remain are supposed to be harder working and more focussed. 

There are four new girls in the fourth form. Angela is very pretty and graceful, and knows it. She boasts of her wealthy, lovely parents and her huge home, and wants to be praised. Alison, who is still a bit feather-brained, latches onto Angela and admires her. Then there’s Pauline, who isn’t so attractive but has more brains than Angela. She also boasts of a wealthy family and huge home, although her clothes are not as well-made as Angela’s. 

The third new girl, Eileen, is not much liked by anyone, though they feel sorry for her too. She’s a bit nervous, and is the daughter of a new Matron whom nobody likes. The usual Matron has been ill, so Eileen’s mother has taken her place, but she’s quite mean and doesn’t seem to care anything for the girls. Eileen tells her when anyone is unpleasant to her, and Matron has her revenge. Eileen has a brother whom she adores, and sneaks out to see him at times.

Then there’s Claudine, niece of Mam’zelle, and similar to her in some (mostly caricatured) respects. Her English is very good, albeit with some odd sentence structures and misuse of cliches, and she’s friendly with a good sense of humour. The girls mostly like her (other than Angela, who looks down on her and Eileen) but find some of her behaviour a bit morally dubious. Enid Blyton tended to stereotype anyone who wasn’t English, and Claudine struggles to understand the British sense of ‘honour’, that separated mischief from dishonourable behaviour. She hates going outside, and refuses to swim, but she is excellent at needlework. 

Most of the story revolves around the classroom, with some arguments, difficulties in lessons, tricks played and tensions between girls. There’s a midnight feast, a half-term break, and an accident which is the catalyst for some changes. It’s fast-paced, and once I’d started it was hard to put it down, even though I mostly knew what was coming. 

I have to admit that the writing isn’t the greatest. The opening paragraphs of the first chapter are a bit unnecessary, in my view. The twins arrive at the school after the summer holidays and make some rather pointless conversation. I realise this was designed to introduce new readers to the school, and let old readers know about some of the girls who have left St Clare’s. But it feels quite artificial to have Pat telling Isabel about their friends, and Isabel apparently unaware. 

It’s a minor quibble, though. I’m sure I didn’t notice that when I read the book as a child, and once I’d got into the book I could easily forgive some of the rather basic writing or author asides that ‘tell’ rather than ‘showing’. Despite these issues, the characters are really quite well-developed; I always liked the quiet, thoughtful Isabel and her more outgoing twin. I appreciated Hilary, who was the head of the class more than once, and who is good at taking responsibility. And I like the way that Alison has matured over the years, even though she has this strange tendency to develop schoolgirl crushes on anyone who is particularly attractive or rich. 

The books were written in the 1940s but remain mostly in print, in various editions. I was a little surprised to learn this, as I thought that most readers of these books nowadays were adults like myself who enjoyed them when we were younger. But I understand that younger people like them too. Not necessarily teenagers, but younger readers. Ten years ago, a nine-year-old friend regularly borrowed them, and liked them very much. Now I have an eight-year-old granddaughter who loves listening to audio-books of Enid Blyton’s school stories. So I’m delighted that they’re still appealing to at least some of the younger generation. 

Recommended on the whole if you like this genre, and don’t mind Enid Blyton’s style. But it’s best to have read the earlier books in the series first.

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