friends in malory towers

[caroline10]

I have been rereading malory towers (after being inspired by you lot!) and i found it strange that each girl is suposed to have one friend. f they are desperate they can make a threesome with two other less popular girls. At the begining Darrell is sad that she can't be alicia's friend because she is already friends with bettty.
It's alost like they were pairing up like boy and girlfriends if you see what i mean
There are quite a few references to this in the books and I was wonderng if anyone else found this a bit odd

[Kitty]

I think it's pretty normal to pair off at boarding school, almost as a survival mechanism! School politics can be pretty vile, and in this case, you're stuck there 24-7 for months on end. Being "Little-friend-to-all-the-world" (though I still love you, Gwen!) is like being a walking target!

[Moose]

I have actually noticed this myself before. In other parts of the books there are references to girls who 'have no friend' and it struck me as weird because .. surely there are big groups of friends? Why can't Darrell be friends with Alicia AND Betty? It's not seen to such an extent in St Clare's.

[Jen-Jen]

I think Darrel (and anyone else for that matter) can be friends with Betty AND Alicia - or with as many people as they like.

I think the idea of finding one friend is really meant to mean that each girl as well as being friends with a larger group has one special 'best' friend. And the when Enid Blyton refers to girls who have "no friend" she just means that they have no one particular best friend in the form.

But why does Darrel think she can't have two best friends - (Alica and Betty)? Is there a preferred limit on how many best/special friends you can have?

[lizarfau]

Most of the girls do seem to have one special friend, don't they? In MT, there's Darrell and Sally, Alicia and Betty, Irene and Belinda, Daphne and Mary-Lou, Bill and Clarissa. Etc. And in SC, there's the twins, Janet and Bobby, Margery and Lucy, Mirabel and Gladys. Alison has a few best friends, before ending up with Angela ... plus there are a few who seem to have no special friend, like Hilary, Doris, Carlotta and Claudine. There doesn't seem to be a gang of "Alpha girls" who are always hanging around in a group, as there is in Trebizon or at the Chalet School. Or perhaps that's not really correct, as there is a distinct bunch of 'in' girls in both MT and SC who do hang around together rather than being solely with their best friends.

In my class at school though, all the girls had a best friend. Except there were 17 girls, so one person ended up without a best friend. Not that she minded actually, because we all liked her - and anyway, she was way too busy chatting up local workmen to care about boring things like best friends!

[Moose]

I had 'best friends' when I was at secondary school, but I also was always part of a group .. it was never that you only had 'one friend.' We weren't the 'in' crowd either, alas, but we were all happy enough with each other

[Viking Star]

Having only read my first Malory Towers book a month ago, I did find it odd that Enid seemed to be saying that the girls could only have one special friend - and the emphasis on the subject too.

[Daisy]

I don't think Enid was implying that girls should have only one friend - just that it usually worked out that way. A new girl would sometimes be included into a friendship which already existed but it was unusual. I think girls tended (or tend?) to make one or two close friends while boys more often formed (or form) larger groups.

[Moonraker]

Way back in the 50s and 60s, most of us had a best friend. This was a special relationship, a friendship not just confined to school.

My BF and I cycled miles and miles, exploring old railway lines, engine sheds, meeting up in each other's houses and sheds, walking for miles along country lanes.....the list is endless. If you had a BF, it could only be one person. Two's company and three's a crowd, after all.

Sadly, although being BFs from 1955 until 1967, we are no longer in touch. I guess we all have to move on.

[Moose]

If you were interested in getting back in touch with them have you tried friends reunited? I've recontacted some very old school friends through there .. cool site.

[Moonraker]

I know where he lives - how spooky is that? I just feel that people move on, and it isn't always wise to go back. Before you know it, you are involved with someone that, however friendly you were 40 years ago, might have changed enormously, and you then can't detach themselves. Thanks, Moose, anyway.

[Moose]

Fair point . I've contacted or been contacted by the odd old friend on friendsreunited but have never had anything more than email correspondence with any of them .. I've never attempted to meet them. It's fun to know what people have been getting up to though (most of them seemed to be getting up to more exciting things than me ).

[Lenoir]

Talking about old friends and school mates..
We had a 30 year school reunion last year. Yes, 30 years since I left Malory Towers, er, I mean my old high school. We held it at the school and it was like stepping back in time. We had a short tour of the school as well. There we were, walking the same corridors with the same people 30 years on, and memories came flooding back. A strange feeling indeed! And it was funny how little we seemed to have changed - in some ways at least!
A couple of teachers attended as well, still going strong!

[Moonraker]

I did get contacted by a girl who worked with me at our local Smith's, my first job after leaving school. She was a very pretty blonde girl, and I do have some fond memories of those days at work. However, she mailed me (via FR), telling me she was now divorced, altered her Christian name and more or less said she was up for it. I ran, as is said, the proverbial mile.

Bringing it back (slightly) on topic, we got a call to a sick child at a girls' boarding school (just up the road from you, Tony) the other night. We entered the building and were taken up to the dormitory. Wow! It was just like Malory Towers! The little twelve year old was in bed, shivering and with a headache; a friend was consoling her, and a nurse and her assistant were also there.

I couldn't help saying to the nurse, "If this was Malory Towers, she'd be in the san overnight with Matron!"

She probably thought, "Sad git!". She did laugh though.

[Moose]

I actually attended a boarding school, though as a day pupil. I had fond hopes, when I started the school at age 14, of it being like MT and one day boarding. I was soon disillusioned by talking to the boarders - who were a minority - so I gave up THAT idea for good..