Upper fourth at Malory Towers (by Enid Blyton)

(Amazon UK link)

In the past few decades I’ve dipped somewhat randomly into Enid Blyton books from time to time, particularly the school stories. But this year I’ve been reading the Malory Towers books in order, at around one per month. I was surprised how much I enjoyed ‘Third year at Malory Towers’ in July; I’ve just finished (almost in one sitting) the fourth book, ‘Upper fourth at Malory Towers’, which I last read in 2015.

I’m familiar with most of the storylines, of course; I read these books almost every year when I was a teenager; but with more than ten years since my last read, I had forgotten a lot of the details.

This is the year when Darrell’s sister Felicity finally gets to go to Malory Towers. She’s been ill - we don’t know what the problem was - so her first term is the summer term, Darrell’s last in the upper fourth form. Darrell is very excited about showing her sister around, so feels a bit annoyed when Alicia’s young cousin June decides to take Felicity under her wing. 

Outside, looking in (by Kathleen Rowntree)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m enjoying my gradual re-reading of Kathleen Rowntree’s novels. She only wrote nine, but each of them is quite distinct, with different settings and styles. I hadn’t read ‘Outside, looking in’ for twenty-five years, so it’s not surprising that I had entirely forgotten the people and the story.

This is a ‘village’ style novel, featuring some believable people and some caricatures. There is quite a large cast, and I never fully remembered who was whom amongst the more minor ones. But I did like Kate, who is one of the main characters. She’s only in her forties, but was widowed a year earlier after nursing her husband through a terminal illness. She works part-time as a teacher, and is mostly coping - at least on the surface. But she has a lot of fears, and is somewhat obsessive about checking the house for intruders every night. 

Just down the road from Kate lives Will, who was a close friend of Kate’s husband. Will’s wife Sylvie is suffering from early Alzheimer’s, and seems to be regressing. Will works from home, and has taken time off to look after his wife; but one day a week he has to travel or go to the office, and Kate takes over for that day. There are daily visits from nurses, too, but - so far - Kate has looked after Sylvie without problem.

Greek wedding (by Jane Aiken Hodge)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly twenty years since I read Jane Aiken Hodge’s historical novel ‘Greek wedding’. Unsurprisingly, I had entirely forgotten what it was about, and all the characters involved. It’s set in the 1820s, during the Greek war of independence, something I knew very little about.

Phyllida is the heroine of this novel, and we first meet her when she and her aunt Cressida are making a desperate escape from a Sultan’s harem in Constantinople. They plead to be taken about the ship Helena, which is owned by the grumpy Brett Renshaw. Indeed, Brett is not just irritable, but very depressed, and considering ending everything. 

The two women are rescued, though Brett is not happy about it, and they soon learn that Helena was supposed to have been his honeymoon ship. But when he learned that he was not to be a Duke, due to a baby being born to his uncle, she jilted him - or, rather, made him appear to jilt her. It’s not surprising that he’s unhappy.

Anatomy of a scandal (by Sarah Vaughan)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t previously read anything by Sarah Vaughan. And I very much doubt if I would have picked up her novel ‘Anatomy of a scandal’ if I had seen it on a stall; the cover is mainly black and it looks like a thriller. Really not my favourite genre. However, it was allocated for this month’s local reading group, and I was able to find it from ‘World of Books’ last year. I didn’t start reading it until a few days ago, but it wasn’t difficult to finish it in just three days despite it being nearly 400 pages.

The chapters are mostly short, each one head by the name of the viewpoint character and the date in which the chapter is set. This is helpful, as the timeline switches to the past fairly often, as the story unfolds. It opens in the ‘present’ of the novel, 2nd December 2016. Kate is the viewpoint character here; she’s a barrister who has just lost a case. 

We see her surroundings, feel her frustration. And she makes it clear that her wig and gown help her into the role that she plays in court. She tries only to prosecute when she’s pretty sure the defendant is guilty, but she knows that the system isn’t perfect: that what matters more than truth is the way it’s painted by the lawyers.

The Chalet School triplets (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s only nine years since I last read ‘The Chalet School triplets’, one of the later volumes in the lengthy series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. It's book 49 in the original list. But it’s not one I reread regularly when I was younger, and I found that I hadn’t recalled any of the story-lines.  

The last time I read this, I only had the Armada paperback edition. It was supposedly only shortened in minor ways, but ‘frequently’.  So I was very pleased when I was able to acquire a Girls Gone By edition in the intervening years, containing the full original text, with the bonus of a relevant short story at the end.

This book focuses on Joey Maynard’s oldest offspring, her triplets, who are now approaching sixteen. They are some of my favourite characters in the book, and I find them all three-dimensional and believable. They look quite different: Len is tall, slim and auburn, Con is shorter, with very dark hair, and even more slim. Margot has curly red hair, and is slightly more stocky, though there’s a discrepancy in the book making it uncertain whether she’s a little shorter than Len, or a little taller. It doesn’t matter: minor mistakes like these are common in these books. Somehow, they add to the charm.