The Twins at St Clare's

[donnaimmaculata]

There's been some discussions on Enid Blyton on my flist lately, and then shocolate linked to this article, on which I wanted to comment, but then the comment kinda expanded

Comments

[fourth_rose]

I was totally baffled when I found out how much of the "Hanni&Nanni" books wasn't by the original author! Do you know if the same was the case for the "Dolly" series (no idea what the original English title was)?

The embedding works for me, btw. (God help us, a film??)

[donnaimmaculata]

Dolly = Malory Towers! From what I understand, Malory Towers is actually more popular in England than St Clare's! Not surprisingly perhaps, as the latter only has six books.

I've no idea whether Dolly was written by German authors, too. I remember that Dolly became "Hausmutter" (matron, probably?) in the end - perhaps that wasn't in the original? Maybe some Brit will know. Or Wikipedia.

With Heino Ferch, apparently. I must admit, I am morbidly curious.

[donnaimmaculata]

I've never been much into Malory Towers, and Darrell/Dolly becoming matron is the only thing I remember. I didn't know she her real name was Darrell, either!

[donnaimmaculata]

The German versions. I downloaded the original St Clare's books a few months ago, but I haven't finished any. They seem weirdly wrong, what with the funny names and the English setting.

[donnaimmaculata]

It's so sad, isn't it? "Pat" and "Isabel" are not the girls I know!

[missingkeys]

I think they have kippers rather than sausages. ^_^ Or, at least, the Irish girl wanted to have kippers* but the others told her they couldn't because kippers allegedly smell strongly and then the Matron would know. They had chocolates and lemonade.

*nb. I may be confusing Mallory Towers with St Clares. I always liked Mallory Towers heaps better. :)

[donnaimmaculata]

Malory Towers has never been as popular in Germany as St Clare's. I could imagine that the food was the same in both series, though.

[missingkeys]

Probably was. A lot of the tricks she wrote were the same.

Did you get the Chalet School series? I *loved* those ones. :)

[donnaimmaculata]

I don't think we did. The title doesn't sound familiar, which, admittedly, isn't saying much, as I would know the German title anyway, but there isn't a German Wiki page, either.

I would actually love to read a good boarding school story targeted at older readers. St Clare's & Co. are nice enough, but neither the characters nor the plot are terribly complex. The only "adult" boarding school novel that leaps to mind it The Confusions of Young Törless, but surely there must be more!

[shocolate]

That is absolutely terrifying - and bizarre!!!

[donnaimmaculata]

It is bizarre! It's a completely different series.

I also used to read her Famous Five and Five Find-Outers series. My cousing and I admired Fatty's ("Dickie" in German) mad disguise skillz, and we would dress up in odd clothes, pait wrinkles on our faces with eyeliners and walk around the neighbourhood - preferably at dusk - convinced that we looked like old woman. Because hey - it worked for Fatty!

[coeursaignant]

I LOVED "Geheimnis um..." !!!!!!!!

I had (still have them somewhere!) ALL the books and just loooooooooooooooooooooooooooved them. And yeah, Dickie was great!!! AHHHH! MEMORIES!!!!

[donnaimmaculata]

I didn't even remember what they were called in German! But I've read them all - and I admired Dickie and his clever detecting and disguising skills. I know he was able to escape from a locked room once by pushing the key out of the lock so that it fell on a piece of paper and pulling it to him under the door. Even then, it seemed odd to imagine how huge the gap under the door must have been, but the idea was great nevertheless.

[ladyjaneva]

here via Fourth Rose's journal

Oh, I loved the Hanni und Nanni und Dolly books, although I hardly remember anything. Still have them at my dad's house :-)

And being utterly spoiled by slash now, I don't think i'll read them again

[donnaimmaculata]

I loved them, too. My cousin and I used to play "Internat", making up bizarre characters and playing "Mitternachtsparties". It was fantastic.