School story
Encyclopedia
The school story is a fiction genre centering on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century. While examples do exist in other countries, it is most commonly set in English boarding school
s and mostly written in girls and boys sub genres, reflecting the separation of education by gender typical until the 1950s. It focuses largely on friendship, honor and loyalty between pupils. Furthermore plots involving sports events, bullies, romance and bravery are often used to shape the school story.
The popularity of the traditional school story declined after the second world war, but school stories have remained popular in other forms, with a focus on state run coeducational schools, and themes involving more modern concerns such as racial issues, family life, sexuality and drugs. (see Grange Hill
). More recently it has seen a revival with the success of the Harry Potter series, which uses many plot motifs commonly found in the traditional school story.
by Sarah Fielding
, published in 1749, is generally seen as the first boarding school story. Fielding's novel was a moralistic tale with tangents offering instruction on behavior, and each of the nine girls in the novel relate their story individually. However it did establish aspects of the boarding school story which were repeated in later works. The school is self-contained with little connection to local life, the girls are encouraged to live together with a sense of community and collective responsibility. Fielding's approach was imitated and used as a formula by both her contemporaries and other writers into the 19th century.
(1847) by Charlotte Bronte
, and Dombey and Son
(1848) and David Copperfield
(1850) by Charles Dickens
had school story elements, which generated considerable public interest and close to 100 school stories had been published between 1749 and 1857, the year that Tom Brown's Schooldays
by Thomas Hughes appeared. It is perhaps the most famous of all such tales, and its popularity helped firmly establish the genre, which rapidly expanded in the decades to follow across thousands of novels.
Hughes never wrote another school story: the sequel Tom Brown at Oxford
focused on university life. However, more school stories followed such as F.W. Farrar
's Eric, or, Little by Little
: A Tale of Roslyn School (1858), Revd H.C. Adams' Schoolboy Honour; A Tale of Halminster College (1861) and A.R. Hope's Stories of Whitminster (1873). In 1870 the Education Act paved the way for universal education for children, and so gave the market for school stories a considerable boost, which led to some publishers advertising novels specifically as school stories.
Boys magazines also began to be published which featured school stories, the best known being Boys Own Paper, with its first issues appearing 1879.
wrote a number of school stories in the 1880s, and contributed considerably to shaping the genre, taking inspiration from Thomas Hughes
. His most famous work was The Fifth Form at St Dominic (1887) (serialised 1881–82). It was reprinted on a number of occasions, selling 750,000 copies in a 1907 edition. While seated in Baines Reed's Christian values, The Fifth Form at St Dominic showed a definite leaning from the school story as instructional moral literature for children and with greater focus on the pupils and a defined plot.
There had been an increase in female schooling from the 1850s, augmented by the 1870 Education Act. L.T. Meade, who also wrote historical novels and was a magazine editor, become the most popular writer of girls' school stories in the final decade of the nineteenth century. Her stories focused on upper class pupils at boarding schools who learned to earn trust by making mistakes, they had little focus on sports and were primarily interested in friendships and loyalty. They remained largely rooted in Victorian values and preparing girls to be proper wives and mothers.
's girls school stories in the early twentieth century, which featured energetic characters who challenged authority, played pranks, and lived in their own youthful world in which adult concerns were sidelined.
After World War II boarding school stories waned in popularity. Coeducational schools for all British schoolchildren were being funded by the public purse; critics, librarians and educational specialists became interested in creating a more modern curriculum and tended to see stories of this type as outdated and irrelevant. School stories have remained popular, however, with a focus shifting towards state- funded day schools with both girls and boys, and dealing with more contemporary issues such as sexuality, racism, drugs and family difficulties. The Bannerdale series of five novels (1949–56) by Geoffrey Trease
, starting with No Boats on Bannermere
, involved two male and two female pupils of day schools in the Lake District
, and a solo mother.
The Harry Potter
series of novels has in some respects revived the genre, although having a strong leaning towards fantasy
conventions. Elements of the school story prominent in Harry Potter including the action being described almost exclusively from the point of view of pupils.
. Some American classic children's novels also relate to the genre, including What Katy Did at School (1873) by Susan Coolidge, Little Men
(1871) by Louisa May Alcott
and Little Town on the Prairie
(1941) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
. However, the core school story theme of the school as a sort of character in itself, actively formed by the pupils and their enjoyment of being there, is a fundamentally British phenomenon. The German school stories also tended to be written for adults, and explored the disruption the school environment made to a character's sense of individuality, and the Soviet stories tended to focus on how individualistic behaviour could be corrected and brought into line with collective goals by the school environment. See also manga
such as School Rumble
and US dramas Beverly Hills 90210 and Glee
.
Bullies often feature in school stories, particularly boys school stories. Identical twins appear with some frequency and are often the subject of comedy. School principals are usually even handed and wise and provide guidance to characters and will often bend the rules to get them out of trouble.
Earlier in the development of the genre, school stories avoided dealing with adolescence
or puberty
directly. Eric, or, Little by Little
by Dean Farrar was a classic moral tract
set in a boarding school. Its Victorian tone was never adopted as generic convention.
, Anthony Buckeridge
, and prolific writer Charles Hamilton
, better known as Frank Richards, who wrote the Greyfriars School series, St. Jim's and Rookwood, and others for the Amalgamated Press between 1906 and 1940, his most famous character being Billy Bunter
. Writers for girls include Angela Brazil
, Enid Blyton
, Elinor Brent-Dyer
, Dorita Fairlie Bruce
, Mary Gervaise and Elsie Oxenham.
Few books produced in the genre were realistic.
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
s and mostly written in girls and boys sub genres, reflecting the separation of education by gender typical until the 1950s. It focuses largely on friendship, honor and loyalty between pupils. Furthermore plots involving sports events, bullies, romance and bravery are often used to shape the school story.
The popularity of the traditional school story declined after the second world war, but school stories have remained popular in other forms, with a focus on state run coeducational schools, and themes involving more modern concerns such as racial issues, family life, sexuality and drugs. (see Grange Hill
Grange Hill
Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television...
). More recently it has seen a revival with the success of the Harry Potter series, which uses many plot motifs commonly found in the traditional school story.
Early works
The Governess, or The Little Female AcademyThe Governess, or The Little Female Academy
The Governess, or The Little Female Academy by Sarah Fielding is the first full-length novel written for children, and a significant work of children's literature of the 18th century.In her preface, the author says:-Bibliography:...
by Sarah Fielding
Sarah Fielding
Sarah Fielding was a British author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She was the author of The Governess, or The Little Female Academy , which was the first novel in English written especially for children , and had earlier achieved success with her novel The Adventures of David Simple...
, published in 1749, is generally seen as the first boarding school story. Fielding's novel was a moralistic tale with tangents offering instruction on behavior, and each of the nine girls in the novel relate their story individually. However it did establish aspects of the boarding school story which were repeated in later works. The school is self-contained with little connection to local life, the girls are encouraged to live together with a sense of community and collective responsibility. Fielding's approach was imitated and used as a formula by both her contemporaries and other writers into the 19th century.
Emergence of school stories in nineteenth century
School stories were a somewhat late arrival as a popular literature. Children as a market were generally not targeted until well into the nineteenth century. There was concern about the moral effect of novels on young minds, and those that were published tended to lean towards giving moral instruction.Thomas Hughes and successors
Jane EyreJane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
(1847) by Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
, and Dombey and Son
Dombey and Son
Dombey and Son is a novel by the Victorian author Charles Dickens. It was first published in monthly parts between October 1846 and April 1848 with the full title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation...
(1848) and David Copperfield
David Copperfield (novel)
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...
(1850) by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
had school story elements, which generated considerable public interest and close to 100 school stories had been published between 1749 and 1857, the year that Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s; Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
by Thomas Hughes appeared. It is perhaps the most famous of all such tales, and its popularity helped firmly establish the genre, which rapidly expanded in the decades to follow across thousands of novels.
Hughes never wrote another school story: the sequel Tom Brown at Oxford
Tom Brown at Oxford
Tom Brown at Oxford is a novel by Thomas Hughes, first published in 1861. It is a sequel to the better-known Tom Brown's Schooldays...
focused on university life. However, more school stories followed such as F.W. Farrar
Frederic William Farrar
Frederic William Farrar was a cleric of the Church of England .Farrar was born in Bombay, India and educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry in 1852...
's Eric, or, Little by Little
Eric, or, little by little
Eric, or, Little by Little is the title of a book by Frederic W. Farrar, first edition 1858. It was published by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh and London.The book deals with the descent into moral turpitude of a boy at a boarding school.The reads:...
: A Tale of Roslyn School (1858), Revd H.C. Adams' Schoolboy Honour; A Tale of Halminster College (1861) and A.R. Hope's Stories of Whitminster (1873). In 1870 the Education Act paved the way for universal education for children, and so gave the market for school stories a considerable boost, which led to some publishers advertising novels specifically as school stories.
Boys magazines also began to be published which featured school stories, the best known being Boys Own Paper, with its first issues appearing 1879.
Talbot Baines Reed
Talbot Baines ReedTalbot Baines Reed
Talbot Baines Reed was an English writer of boys' fiction who established a genre of school stories that endured into the second half of the 20th century. Among his best-known work is The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's. He was a regular and prolific contributor to The Boy's Own Paper , in which most...
wrote a number of school stories in the 1880s, and contributed considerably to shaping the genre, taking inspiration from Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
. His most famous work was The Fifth Form at St Dominic (1887) (serialised 1881–82). It was reprinted on a number of occasions, selling 750,000 copies in a 1907 edition. While seated in Baines Reed's Christian values, The Fifth Form at St Dominic showed a definite leaning from the school story as instructional moral literature for children and with greater focus on the pupils and a defined plot.
Gender difference in school stories
As schools were segregated by gender in the nineteenth century, school stories naturally formed two separate but related genres of girls school stories and boys school stories. J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter series represents a more recent amalgamation of the two traditions.There had been an increase in female schooling from the 1850s, augmented by the 1870 Education Act. L.T. Meade, who also wrote historical novels and was a magazine editor, become the most popular writer of girls' school stories in the final decade of the nineteenth century. Her stories focused on upper class pupils at boarding schools who learned to earn trust by making mistakes, they had little focus on sports and were primarily interested in friendships and loyalty. They remained largely rooted in Victorian values and preparing girls to be proper wives and mothers.
Twentieth century
Most literature for girls at the turn of the twentieth century focused on the value of self sacrifice, moral virtues, dignity and aspiring to finding a proper position in societal order. This was to a large extent changed by the publication of Angela BrazilAngela Brazil
Angela Brazil was one of the first British writers of "modern schoolgirls' stories", written from the characters' point of view and intended primarily as entertainment rather than moral instruction. In the first half of the twentieth century she published nearly 50 books of girls' fiction, the...
's girls school stories in the early twentieth century, which featured energetic characters who challenged authority, played pranks, and lived in their own youthful world in which adult concerns were sidelined.
Decline of the school story genre
The peak period for school stories was between the 1880s and the end of the Second World War. Comics featuring school stories also become popular in the 1930s.After World War II boarding school stories waned in popularity. Coeducational schools for all British schoolchildren were being funded by the public purse; critics, librarians and educational specialists became interested in creating a more modern curriculum and tended to see stories of this type as outdated and irrelevant. School stories have remained popular, however, with a focus shifting towards state- funded day schools with both girls and boys, and dealing with more contemporary issues such as sexuality, racism, drugs and family difficulties. The Bannerdale series of five novels (1949–56) by Geoffrey Trease
Geoffrey Trease
Geoffrey Trease was a prolific writer, publishing 113 books between 1934 and 1997 . His work has been translated into 20 languages...
, starting with No Boats on Bannermere
No Boats on Bannermere
No Boats on Bannermere is a 1949 children's novel by Geoffrey Trease, and the first of his five Bannerdale novels. They are school stories set in Cumberland, in the Lake District.- Plot summary :...
, involved two male and two female pupils of day schools in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, and a solo mother.
The Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series of novels has in some respects revived the genre, although having a strong leaning towards fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
conventions. Elements of the school story prominent in Harry Potter including the action being described almost exclusively from the point of view of pupils.
School stories outside Britain
While school stories are primarily a British form of literature, school stories were also published in other countries. 'Schulromane' were popular in Germany in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and school stories were also published in Soviet RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Some American classic children's novels also relate to the genre, including What Katy Did at School (1873) by Susan Coolidge, Little Men
Little Men
Little Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1871. The novel reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book of an unofficial Little Women trilogy, which is completed with Alcott's 1886 novel...
(1871) by Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
and Little Town on the Prairie
Little Town on the Prairie
Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was first published in 1941 and is the seventh of nine books written in her Little House series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book is set in De Smet, South Dakota...
(1941) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
. However, the core school story theme of the school as a sort of character in itself, actively formed by the pupils and their enjoyment of being there, is a fundamentally British phenomenon. The German school stories also tended to be written for adults, and explored the disruption the school environment made to a character's sense of individuality, and the Soviet stories tended to focus on how individualistic behaviour could be corrected and brought into line with collective goals by the school environment. See also manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
such as School Rumble
School Rumble
is a Japanese Shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. First serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from October 22, 2002 to July 23, 2008, all 345 chapters were later collected in 22 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. Shōnen Magazine Special published a sequel, School Rumble Z,...
and US dramas Beverly Hills 90210 and Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
.
Themes
The vast majority of school stories involve the culture of English public schools and boarding schools in general. Common themes include honour, decency, sportsmanship and loyalty. Competitive team sports often feature and an annual sports event between rival school houses is frequently a part of the plot. Friendships between pupils are a common focus and also relationships with particular teachers, and the difficulty of new pupils fitting in to the school culture is a central theme.Bullies often feature in school stories, particularly boys school stories. Identical twins appear with some frequency and are often the subject of comedy. School principals are usually even handed and wise and provide guidance to characters and will often bend the rules to get them out of trouble.
Earlier in the development of the genre, school stories avoided dealing with adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
or puberty
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
directly. Eric, or, Little by Little
Eric, or, little by little
Eric, or, Little by Little is the title of a book by Frederic W. Farrar, first edition 1858. It was published by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh and London.The book deals with the descent into moral turpitude of a boy at a boarding school.The reads:...
by Dean Farrar was a classic moral tract
Didacticism
Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός , "related to education/teaching." Originally, signifying learning in a fascinating and intriguing...
set in a boarding school. Its Victorian tone was never adopted as generic convention.
Writers
Commercially-successful authors of school novels include writers for boys, such as P. G. WodehouseP. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
, Anthony Buckeridge
Anthony Buckeridge
Anthony Malcolm Buckeridge OBE was an English author, best known for his Jennings and Rex Milligan series of children's books...
, and prolific writer Charles Hamilton
Charles Hamilton (writer)
Charles Harold St. John Hamilton , was an English writer, specializing in writing long-running series of stories for weekly magazines about recurrent casts of characters, his most frequent and famous genre being boys' public school stories, though he also dealt with other genres...
, better known as Frank Richards, who wrote the Greyfriars School series, St. Jim's and Rookwood, and others for the Amalgamated Press between 1906 and 1940, his most famous character being Billy Bunter
Billy Bunter
William George Bunter , is a fictional character created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards...
. Writers for girls include Angela Brazil
Angela Brazil
Angela Brazil was one of the first British writers of "modern schoolgirls' stories", written from the characters' point of view and intended primarily as entertainment rather than moral instruction. In the first half of the twentieth century she published nearly 50 books of girls' fiction, the...
, Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
, Elinor Brent-Dyer
Elinor Brent-Dyer
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer was a children’s author who wrote over 100 books during her lifetime, the most famous being the Chalet School series.-Short Biography :...
, Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Dorita Fairlie Bruce was a British children's author, most notably of the Dimsie books published between 1921 and 1941. Her books were second in popularity only to Angela Brazil's during the 1920s and '30s....
, Mary Gervaise and Elsie Oxenham.
Audience
Readers of school stories were always more numerous than those actually able to attend boarding schools, and these settings were for many a fantasy location. This was particularly the case for girls, of whom fewer were educated in this fashion than boys. An exhaustive treatment of girls school stories and their authors can be found in the Encyclopaedia of Girls School Stories.Few books produced in the genre were realistic.
Topics
- Boarding schools in fiction
- School and university in literatureSchool and university in literature-School in literature:*Thomas Bailey Aldrich: The Story of a Bad Boy*Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak*Christine Anlauff: Good morning, Lehnitz*F...
- The GemThe GemThe Gem was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominately featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school "St. Jim's". These stories were all written using the pen-name of Martin Clifford, the majority by Charles Hamilton who was...
- The MagnetThe MagnetThe Magnet was a United Kingdom weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional public school located somewhere in Kent, and were written...
- Boarding SchoolBoarding schoolA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
Writers
- Harold AveryHarold AveryHarold Avery was an English author of children's literature.Born in Redditch, Worcestershire, England. His biography states that in 1879, Avery's family left England for Australia. During transit, his passenger ship was allegedly hijacked by Malay pirates while transversing the Strait of Malacca...
- Margaret BiggsMargaret BiggsMargaret Biggs is a popular and collectible exponent of the girls' School story. She is best known for her Melling School series of books, first published by Blackie in the 1950s. The series is set at a weekly boarding school and is unusual in that it shows boarding school life and home life side...
- Enid BlytonEnid BlytonEnid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
- Rae BridgmanRae BridgmanRae Bridgman is a Canadian anthropologist, and the author/illustrator of The MiddleGate Books, a series of fantasy books for children inspired by the Narcisse Snake Pits of Narcisse, Manitoba -- The Serpent’s Spell , Amber Ambrosia and Fish and Sphinx...
- Gruffud's Academy (Canadian school set in the secret, magical city of MiddleGate) - Elinor Brent-DyerElinor Brent-DyerElinor M. Brent-Dyer was a children’s author who wrote over 100 books during her lifetime, the most famous being the Chalet School series.-Short Biography :...
- Anthony BuckeridgeAnthony BuckeridgeAnthony Malcolm Buckeridge OBE was an English author, best known for his Jennings and Rex Milligan series of children's books...
(JenningsJennings (novels)The Jennings series is a collection of humorous novels of children's literature concerning the escapades of J C T Jennings, a schoolboy at Linbury Court preparatory school in England. There are 25 in total, all written by Anthony Buckeridge...
in a boarding school, Rex Milligan in a grammar schoolGrammar schoolA grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
) - Dorita Fairlie BruceDorita Fairlie BruceDorita Fairlie Bruce was a British children's author, most notably of the Dimsie books published between 1921 and 1941. Her books were second in popularity only to Angela Brazil's during the 1920s and '30s....
- Josephine ElderJosephine ElderJosephine Elder was the penname of Olive Gwendoline Potter , an English children's author who published ten school stories between 1924 and 1940 as well as numerous short stories for annuals. She is widely regarded as one of the best writers of the girls' school story. Her most acclaimed book is...
- Frederic William FarrarFrederic William FarrarFrederic William Farrar was a cleric of the Church of England .Farrar was born in Bombay, India and educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry in 1852...
- Antonia ForestAntonia ForestAntonia Forest was the pseudonym of a British children's author who was christened Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein...
, Kingscote School for Girls - Frank RichardsCharles Hamilton (writer)Charles Harold St. John Hamilton , was an English writer, specializing in writing long-running series of stories for weekly magazines about recurrent casts of characters, his most frequent and famous genre being boys' public school stories, though he also dealt with other genres...
- Clare MalloryClare MalloryClare Mallory is the penname under which Winifred Constance McQuilkan Hall wrote ten children's books published between 1947 and 1951....
- Elsie J. OxenhamElsie J. OxenhamElsie Jeanette Dunkerley , was an English girls' story writer, who took the name Oxenham as her pseudonym when her first book, Goblin Island, was published in 1907. Her Abbey Series of 38 titles are her best-known and best-loved books...
- although her main Abbey Series is set as much out of school as in it, many of her other titles are set in schools. - Geoffrey TreaseGeoffrey TreaseGeoffrey Trease was a prolific writer, publishing 113 books between 1934 and 1997 . His work has been translated into 20 languages...
Characters and works
- Billy BunterBilly BunterWilliam George Bunter , is a fictional character created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards...
- Naughtiest Girl seriesNaughtiest Girl seriesThe Naughtiest Girl series of novels was written by Enid Blyton in the 1940s-50s. Unusually, they are set at a progressive boarding school rather than a traditional one. The school, Whyteleafe, bears a striking resemblance to the independent Suffolk boarding school, Summerhill...
- St. Clare's seriesSt. Clare's seriesSt. Clare's is a series of six books written by English children's author Enid Blyton about a boarding school of that name. The series follows the heroines Patricia "Pat" and Isabel O'Sullivan from their first year at St. Clare's on...
- Malory TowersMalory TowersMalory Towers is a series of six novels by British children's author Enid Blyton, featuring the fictional Cornish seaside boarding school of the same name...
- Rover BoysRover BoysThe Rover Boys Series for Young Americans was a popular children's book series of the early 20th century credited to "Arthur M. Winfield", a pseudonym for Edward Stratemeyer. A total of 30 titles were published between 1899 and 1926 and the books remained in print for years forward.The original...
- Chalet SchoolChalet SchoolThe Chalet School is a series of approximately sixty school story novels by Elinor Brent-Dyer, initially published between 1925 and 1970. The school was initially located in Austria, moved to Guernsey in 1939, following the rise to power of the Nazi Party, then to "Plas Howell", a house on the...
- Nigel MolesworthNigel MolesworthNigel Molesworth is the supposed author of a series of books , with cartoon illustrations by Ronald Searle....
- A.J. Wentworth, B.A. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162063/ (Comic stories about a hapless prep school master by H. F. EllisH. F. EllisHumphry Francis Ellis MBE was an English comic writer, best known for his creation of A.J. Wentworth, the ineffectual schoolmaster whose fictional diaries were first published in Punch magazine.-Life:...
) - Goodbye, Mr Chips
- BotchanBotchanBotchan is a novel written by Natsume Sōseki in 1906. It is considered to be one of the most popular novels in Japan, read by most Japanese during their childhood. The central theme of the story is morality.-Narrative:...
by Natsume SōsekiNatsume Soseki, born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...
; this is from the slant of a neophyte teacher - St. Trinian's School
- Phyllis MatthewmanPhyllis MatthewmanPhyllis Matthewman , British writer of children's books, mostly boarding school stories.-Danewood series:* Chloe Takes Control, 1940* The Queerness of Rusty, 1941* Josie Moves Up, 1943* A New Role for Natasha, 1945...
- Such, Such Were the JoysSuch, Such Were the Joys"Such, Such Were the Joys" is a long autobiographical essay by the English writer George Orwell. It was probably composed in the early 1940s, but it was first published by the Partisan Review in 1952, two years after Orwell's death...
- Bruno and BootsBruno and BootsBruno and Boots is the name of a series of young adult novels by author Gordon Korman.The series is set in a Canadian boarding school for boys called Macdonald Hall Bruno and Boots is the name of a series of young adult novels by author Gordon Korman.The series is set in a Canadian boarding school...