St Clare's

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St Clare’s – Enid Blyton

#1 The Twins at St Clare’s
#2 The O’Sullivan Twins
#3 Summer Term at St Clare’s
#4 Second Form at St Clare’s
#5 Claudine at St Clare’s
#6 Fifth Formers at St Clare’s

The St Clare’s books are interesting books to read and discuss, the first three books are of the girls during the first form and it seems that three books were going to be planned for each form but after the fourth book was written which was of the girls during their second year at St Clare’s, the series suddenly jumps to Claudine at St Clare’s which is the girls in their fourth year but instead of the usual arriving to school and all the packing and pre-school chat, the girls are already at school ready to begin the term.  The series ends at the end of the final term of fifth year instead of the last term of sixth year like the Malory Towers series.  The original books were written between 1941 and 1945. 

What makes the St Clare’s books interesting from an Australian point of view is the talk of snobbery and how horrid it is for a person to be conceited and look down on anyone, yet the girls who obviously come from good families to be able to send them to a private all girls boarding school, look down on those who are “lower” class.  I never picked up on this as a child but I see it every time I re-read the books.  There is nothing technically wrong with this since a lot of it is read between the lines dialogue.  Also, as the first three books are set when the girls are in the first form there isn’t a whole lot of character development except for two girls who both arrive in Summer Term at St Clare’s. Bobby and Carlotta both turn up during the third book, Bobby is known as don’t-care-Bobby, and she’s a clever girl but would prefer to play the fool as lessons come easily to her. She later sees the error of her ways and buckles down to become an honest hard working child.  Carlotta is a wild girl who doesn’t like strict rules and boundaries. Both of these characters have the biggest character development and growth.  Mabel, a character who arrives during the fourth book has a radical change of personality by the time she’s a fifth former.  One can assume her original character traits were forgotten over the years between the books or the character had a strange development over those years and changed.

Malory Towers had one main character which was Darrell Rivers.  St Clare’s has two main characters, the twins Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan but the books don’t always centre of them. They start each book of course but the stories are often about their classmates.

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Pamela Cox wrote three books to add to the St Clare’s series, two were written in 2000 and a third was written in 2008.  She wrote the books to fill in the gaps that were left in the original series, unfortunately the characters which Pamela Cox introduced during these books had to disappear before Claudine at St Clare’s is set, but the characters she introduced in Sixth Formers at St Clare’s could remain as the series ended with that book. 

Third Form at St Clare’s – Pamela Cox

Kitty at St Clare’s – Pamela Cox
Sixth Formers at St Clare’s – Pamela Cox

 Third Form at St Clare’s gives Janet a storyline but Janet doesn’t seem like the proper Janet.  She’s shown as a jealous girl who is bitter towards one of her closest friends, of course this does happen in real life but the whole character just seems different to the original Janet. The same with Carlotta, but the other characters are a great portrayal.  Three new girls join the form in this book and all leave at the end. Kitty at St Clare’s was my favourite out of the Pamela Cox book.  It was more like an Enid Blyton book and I found is much more enjoyable than her other two St Clare’s books.