feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2016-11-19 08:31 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2016-11-19 08:31 am
REVIEW: Nan of Northcote
Nan of Northcote: Doris Pocock Ward & Lock Limited
This book starts with an election. At Northcote school, the upper and lower sixth make up the Senior House, which means the fifth form are the heads of the Middle House and thus of the juniors too, so they’re basically what would count as the fourth form in most boarding school stories. Unfortunately, the form’s nickname is the Fighting Fifth.
The former, rather lax, Middle School captain has left, having been taken out of the school by her parents for family reasons, which is a good thing, because she’d have likely been stripped of her captaincy otherwise. The fifth form must choose its captain. Their seniors are dismayed to realise the fifth is seriously considering the popular Mad Hatter – Biddy O’Halloran, clever, brave, reckless and at the heart of most lawless stunts, not at all the responsible figure needed to stop the infighting, rulebreaking and lack of interest in clubs and hobbies.
The girl the seniors and the more sensible members of the fifth know in their heart of hearts they should vote for is Nan, short for Nancy, Reynolds. Conscientious and sensible, she has some champions, but not many in the fifth, where charismatic Biddy is popular and her chum Peggy Dare is agitating for her. Nan’s great friend Jacintha - Jack, of course – is conveniently out of the picture, having earned her ‘remove’ up to the senior house and then badly injured herself, she’s stuck in the san, hearing the news second-hand.
And what news it is. The headmistress herself, Hodge-Podge, otherwise an off-the-page figure, makes an appeal to the girls’ honour, which leads to a tie between Nan and Biddy. Jack is given the casting vote and chooses her chum, knowing that Nan will make a responsible captain. But within a few hours, Nan’s secret vertigo makes her look useless in a crisis, compared with nerveless Biddy’s behaviour. That heroics in extreme circumstances don’t have much to do with the day-to-day job of getting people where they ought to be on time, running clubs and so on certainly doesn’t matter to Peggy, who in a rather awful scene, hands Nan a white feather, which ironically is a declaration of war against the new captain.
Biddy herself is a more quizzical figure. Much of her behaviour is put down to her Irishness (or should I say Oirishness?), and it’s behaviour that puts her constantly at odds with authority, which now includes Nan, even thouh Biddy is clever. Miserable because of the constant opposition, Nan sticks to her task, showing the kind of moral courage that Peggy doesn’t understand until one final crisis. Nan’s influence helps bring out the best in Biddy, too, eventually – able to read girls’ characters, she didn’t have much moral fibre or gumption, even though she can be sporting in a way that appeals to Nan.
Although Pocock takes a swipe at the trope of the unpopular girl turning the school’s opinion on the games field, whereas her heroine, the reserve who’s called upon in an emergency, plays worse than usual under the pressure, this is not a new theme – the girl new to authority having a torrid time of becoming a monitoress, but winning through – but it is given fairly decent treatment. However, some of the plot machinations are convoluted, e.g. the remove business, or clichéd, e.g. Northcote is by the seaside, Biddy is an experienced climber and, as I noted, Nan suffers from ‘height-sickness’, so what do you think happens?
This book starts with an election. At Northcote school, the upper and lower sixth make up the Senior House, which means the fifth form are the heads of the Middle House and thus of the juniors too, so they’re basically what would count as the fourth form in most boarding school stories. Unfortunately, the form’s nickname is the Fighting Fifth.
The former, rather lax, Middle School captain has left, having been taken out of the school by her parents for family reasons, which is a good thing, because she’d have likely been stripped of her captaincy otherwise. The fifth form must choose its captain. Their seniors are dismayed to realise the fifth is seriously considering the popular Mad Hatter – Biddy O’Halloran, clever, brave, reckless and at the heart of most lawless stunts, not at all the responsible figure needed to stop the infighting, rulebreaking and lack of interest in clubs and hobbies.
The girl the seniors and the more sensible members of the fifth know in their heart of hearts they should vote for is Nan, short for Nancy, Reynolds. Conscientious and sensible, she has some champions, but not many in the fifth, where charismatic Biddy is popular and her chum Peggy Dare is agitating for her. Nan’s great friend Jacintha - Jack, of course – is conveniently out of the picture, having earned her ‘remove’ up to the senior house and then badly injured herself, she’s stuck in the san, hearing the news second-hand.
And what news it is. The headmistress herself, Hodge-Podge, otherwise an off-the-page figure, makes an appeal to the girls’ honour, which leads to a tie between Nan and Biddy. Jack is given the casting vote and chooses her chum, knowing that Nan will make a responsible captain. But within a few hours, Nan’s secret vertigo makes her look useless in a crisis, compared with nerveless Biddy’s behaviour. That heroics in extreme circumstances don’t have much to do with the day-to-day job of getting people where they ought to be on time, running clubs and so on certainly doesn’t matter to Peggy, who in a rather awful scene, hands Nan a white feather, which ironically is a declaration of war against the new captain.
Biddy herself is a more quizzical figure. Much of her behaviour is put down to her Irishness (or should I say Oirishness?), and it’s behaviour that puts her constantly at odds with authority, which now includes Nan, even thouh Biddy is clever. Miserable because of the constant opposition, Nan sticks to her task, showing the kind of moral courage that Peggy doesn’t understand until one final crisis. Nan’s influence helps bring out the best in Biddy, too, eventually – able to read girls’ characters, she didn’t have much moral fibre or gumption, even though she can be sporting in a way that appeals to Nan.
Although Pocock takes a swipe at the trope of the unpopular girl turning the school’s opinion on the games field, whereas her heroine, the reserve who’s called upon in an emergency, plays worse than usual under the pressure, this is not a new theme – the girl new to authority having a torrid time of becoming a monitoress, but winning through – but it is given fairly decent treatment. However, some of the plot machinations are convoluted, e.g. the remove business, or clichéd, e.g. Northcote is by the seaside, Biddy is an experienced climber and, as I noted, Nan suffers from ‘height-sickness’, so what do you think happens?