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feather_ghyll) wrote2015-04-05 09:05 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2015-04-05 09:05 am
REVIEW: A Term on Trial
Happy Easter!
A Term on Trial: Mary Gervaise Cassell (First published in 1929)
It’s been far too long since I’ve read a proper girls own book, by which I mean a boarding school story, and this one features a lot of staples of the genre.
Barbara ‘Bobby’ Laurence was orphaned by the Great War, and has been brought up and spoiled by her grandparents. During the summer holidays, they are shocked and disappointed to receive a letter from the headmistress of her school, St Bride’s, intimating that ‘Baa Baa Blacksheep’ has gone too far in her stunts, and is seen as an undesirably influence on other girls whom the school can do nothing with. In short, she is asked not to return for the next term. The way her expulsion has let them down pulls Bobby up sharply, and she takes it upon herself to visit the school that very day to plead with Miss Marsden. This plan is overturned by, as is always the way, some runaway horses in a road that Bobby and her headmistress both happen to be walking upon, near the school. Bobby is in the right place to save the Marzipan’s life and thus feels she can no longer plead her case, as her headmistress is under an obligation to her. Sensing what is going on and after a serious talk, Miss Marsden offers to keep Bobby at the school for another term, but on the understanding that the girl is on her last warning.
Can Bobby, who was guilty of not wanting to let anyone down, and so ended up to agreeing to silly jokes that snowballed, really turn over a new leaf? Well, her old gang are planning an illegal midnight swim for their first night, while the form prefect Janice, the prefect responsible for their dorm and games, Freda, and Matron and the mistresses tend to assume the worst of Bobby because of her past reputation, so, no, it’s not going to be easy.
Having made her stand, Bobby is left to quiet and shy Amber for friendship, someone she previously passed over. Eventually sporting and sporty Janice – Jane (barely anyone does without a nickname, of course) and her gang welcome Bobby in as they find that she really has given up her former ways, mostly. About to turn fifteen and now in VB, and thus in the senior school and eligibple to play for school teams, it’s about time.
However, despite her age, perhaps because of her strong imagination and fondness for thrillers featuring ‘criminals and tarantulas’, Bobby overhears a mysterious conversation on a train about a house in town names Belhaven, which just happens to be the house next door to ‘Como’, the house that Bobby’s dorm just happens to be moved to because their dorm just happens to be afflicted by dry rot. Cue a tangle that someone in Bobby’s position really can’t afford.
I found the elements like Bobby learning that application pays when it comes to hockey and the way she had to overcome her reputation much more interesting than the more OTT elements – as soon as the runaway horses galloped on to the page, I rolled my eyes. Still, as I said, it’s been a while since I’d read a boarding school story, so I was perhaps in an indulgent mood for a heroine who has a habit of exclaiming dramatically ‘This life...’ and ‘Stars and stripes’. There was just enough interest in the feelings of all the characters to counter the more outré (but admittedly typical for the genre) stuff.
A Term on Trial: Mary Gervaise Cassell (First published in 1929)
It’s been far too long since I’ve read a proper girls own book, by which I mean a boarding school story, and this one features a lot of staples of the genre.
Barbara ‘Bobby’ Laurence was orphaned by the Great War, and has been brought up and spoiled by her grandparents. During the summer holidays, they are shocked and disappointed to receive a letter from the headmistress of her school, St Bride’s, intimating that ‘Baa Baa Blacksheep’ has gone too far in her stunts, and is seen as an undesirably influence on other girls whom the school can do nothing with. In short, she is asked not to return for the next term. The way her expulsion has let them down pulls Bobby up sharply, and she takes it upon herself to visit the school that very day to plead with Miss Marsden. This plan is overturned by, as is always the way, some runaway horses in a road that Bobby and her headmistress both happen to be walking upon, near the school. Bobby is in the right place to save the Marzipan’s life and thus feels she can no longer plead her case, as her headmistress is under an obligation to her. Sensing what is going on and after a serious talk, Miss Marsden offers to keep Bobby at the school for another term, but on the understanding that the girl is on her last warning.
Can Bobby, who was guilty of not wanting to let anyone down, and so ended up to agreeing to silly jokes that snowballed, really turn over a new leaf? Well, her old gang are planning an illegal midnight swim for their first night, while the form prefect Janice, the prefect responsible for their dorm and games, Freda, and Matron and the mistresses tend to assume the worst of Bobby because of her past reputation, so, no, it’s not going to be easy.
Having made her stand, Bobby is left to quiet and shy Amber for friendship, someone she previously passed over. Eventually sporting and sporty Janice – Jane (barely anyone does without a nickname, of course) and her gang welcome Bobby in as they find that she really has given up her former ways, mostly. About to turn fifteen and now in VB, and thus in the senior school and eligibple to play for school teams, it’s about time.
However, despite her age, perhaps because of her strong imagination and fondness for thrillers featuring ‘criminals and tarantulas’, Bobby overhears a mysterious conversation on a train about a house in town names Belhaven, which just happens to be the house next door to ‘Como’, the house that Bobby’s dorm just happens to be moved to because their dorm just happens to be afflicted by dry rot. Cue a tangle that someone in Bobby’s position really can’t afford.
I found the elements like Bobby learning that application pays when it comes to hockey and the way she had to overcome her reputation much more interesting than the more OTT elements – as soon as the runaway horses galloped on to the page, I rolled my eyes. Still, as I said, it’s been a while since I’d read a boarding school story, so I was perhaps in an indulgent mood for a heroine who has a habit of exclaiming dramatically ‘This life...’ and ‘Stars and stripes’. There was just enough interest in the feelings of all the characters to counter the more outré (but admittedly typical for the genre) stuff.