The Enid Blyton Society

I thought the same thing Wolfgang - many women lost their men - fiancés or young husbands because of the wars. They had to make their own way and support themselves, so many turned to teaching, which fulfilled their instincts to care for children as well as filling the gaps left by men who never returned.

Yes, that's a good point.

I tend to think that women like Miss Theobald probably went into teaching as a vocation and intended to see it through to the end, whereas for some others it was, as pointed out, the best way for a 'respectable' woman who was unmarried to support herself. Many of the teachers in the books are described as being still young - perhaps they still hoped to marry at some point.

Women also wouldn't usually have been employed as a teacher once they were married - so for some women, getting married would have been a sign of giving up their much-prized independence.

I would hate to have seen Goon and Mrs Stick cosy up if Pa Stick ever left this mortal coil. What a pair those two would have made!!!

That mental image will never leave me .. thanks for that, Pete

Rob - have you read Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter, apropos of nothing? When I read it I thought of MT and SC and how lucky the teachers there were, when Dorothy ended up teaching in a revolting sub rate 'private' school (apparently such things proliferated in the thirties) living on a pittance.

pete9012S wrote:I would hate to have seen Goon and Mrs Stick cosy up if Pa Stick ever left this mortal coil. What a pair those two would have made!!!

What about Mr Luffy? Was he hitched?

Yes... if I remember correctly... his wife had made him sandwiches for the journey.

Don't forget Horace Tipperlong.

If I remember rightly, wasn't he a bit like a grown up Lucian?

There's a two headed person to the left of that pic

Better than one as the saying goes.

very good Lenoir!