Third Form At St. Claire's (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798566652207)

When, between 1941 and 1945, Enid Blyton wrote the six books of her St. Clare's girl school series following the careers of the O'Sullivan twins from their first year at the school through to the fifth form, she did not include their adventures in the third form.

The personalities of the original Blyton girls and mistresses (all renamed in this book) are enhanced by comical exaggeration, and reinforced by a panoply of quirky new characters. This is a full-blown warts-and-all account of daily life in a girls' private boarding school. More than warts in some cases. Why, for example, does the headmistress's secretary Miss Jurby make frequent entries in her little black record book whenever the two are alone together? Why do the girls make bad faces when Barbara Pugh comes into the room? Who is seen burying a dead horse after midnight? Why does Miss Robertson need special hair treatments at a beauty salon? And why are Millicent Mead and Margot Wearing expelled from the school? These are just a few of the many absorbing questionsraised and answered as the story unfolds.

During the early 1950s, the three joint authors (aka Enid Bantock) - Cuillin and Gavin Bantock and their late sister Lucy - used to read the Enid Blyton girls' school books together, making hilarious and wildly provocative changes to the text. Before long they started on their own Third Form at St. Claire's. Laid aside for over 50 years, in 2010 the old typescript of their book was resurrected and completely revised by Cuillin and Gavin, who kept untouched many of the parts written by Lucy.