REVIEW: Gillian of the Guides
Apr. 19th, 2019 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllGillian of the Guides: Winifred Darch, Oxford, 1929.
This is the best girls own book I’ve read so far this year. It’s much more thoughtful about human nature and depicts it rather more credibly than the last couple of books I’ve reviewed. Also, just as I was starting to think the author was deliberately writing in situations where Guides could show off badge-winning skills (a poor swimmer falls into a body of water, another girl sprains her anklet…), Darch laid off, and showed more of an interest in character and Guiding’s influence on it. I see that I haven’t reviewed any books by her here, although I have a couple, so it must be a while since I read them.
As with The Head Girl’s Deputy, this story starts about a week before the end of the summer term. Lynnaford High School has a special supper for the Sixth Form and mistresses, where it dawns on those leaving school and all and sundry that this is goodbye. This year, a lot of respected prefects and Guides are leaving, and there are only three girls who have been full prefects remaining. Who will be Head Prefect and what kind of a year will follow?
One of this trio is Jill, an artistic sort, who has been all too fond of playing the clown and not showing much of her serious side outside of Guides. This has, perhaps, led the headmistress, Miss Brandon, who is not enthusiastic about Guides, to underestimate the force of her personality and natural leadership skills. Phyllis, athletic and a little prone to fawn on Jill, is the obvious Games Captain, but Miss Brandon has chosen Ivy Green, the most studious girl in the Sixth, as her Head Prefect.
The school, and Gillian herself, were expecting it to be her, a more natural leader. But, after a moment’s disappointment, Gillian, a full-hearted Guide, realises it’s her job to support Ivy, who is from a lower-class background and overly aware of it, and therefore a little diffident. The book is very good on snobbishness and how Guides shouldn’t be influenced by it, although it acknowledges that some are.
Phyllis, who thought Gillian should have been Head Prefect, suggests leaving Ivy to make her mistakes until the headmistress relents and appoints Gillian. To her credit, Jill sees that this is not for the good of the school, and by disagreeing and saying as much, makes an enemy of someone she comes to realise wasn’t a friend at all. All of Ivy’s mistakes are enlarged upon, but Gillian’s staunch support helps her to gain more confidence and, as a mistress says, ‘arrive’. Gillian too grows up a lot during her final year at school – where she is the head of the Guide Company.
Both prefects also have different difficulties in the forms of their younger sisters. Lively and intelligent Ruth has got in with a mischievous crowd who like to come up with original stunts. ‘In character she was at present the typical “fourth form rebel,” inclined to defy all authority except that of people whom she really liked, and these were a select circle.’ (p.65-66) Meanwhile, Ivy’s youngest sister Annie has followed her in leaving the county school for the High School. Unfortunately, Annie is a prig, more interested in teachers’ approval than her fellow schoolgirls’, and sets several people’s backs up – including Ruth’s. It takes the loyalty of Guides to sort out the trouble that causes.
By the end of the year, Ivy and Gillian have, between them, shown that Guiding is good for girls’ characters and thus the school, and developed a close friendship. The characterisation is consistently good, with various characters wrestling with their problems, and even mistresses shown as being human. Just looking back over it to check the school’s name for this review, I realised that we’re dropped into the story in media res, with Jill’s character revealed to us through her interaction with others. It’s a lot more honest about class than you’d expect – how Ivy’s academic ambitions make her different from other girls of her age who live on her street, and how her family’s lack of money does matter to some of her fellow schoolgirls. Gillian and Ruth’s education is good, but their brother gets to go to Harrow, although it’s suggested that Ruth is the cleverest of the family. Set at a time when the first world war was a memory for the older girls, an early visit for the Guides to Belgium has an interesting context.
The book makes its case for Guides, but not at the expense of telling a good story about girls of all sorts, influencing each other for good and ill. Although Ivy and Ruth, particularly, are almost co-main characters, it’s a telling choice to make the girl who has to deal with being an also-ran the titular heroine.
This is the best girls own book I’ve read so far this year. It’s much more thoughtful about human nature and depicts it rather more credibly than the last couple of books I’ve reviewed. Also, just as I was starting to think the author was deliberately writing in situations where Guides could show off badge-winning skills (a poor swimmer falls into a body of water, another girl sprains her anklet…), Darch laid off, and showed more of an interest in character and Guiding’s influence on it. I see that I haven’t reviewed any books by her here, although I have a couple, so it must be a while since I read them.
As with The Head Girl’s Deputy, this story starts about a week before the end of the summer term. Lynnaford High School has a special supper for the Sixth Form and mistresses, where it dawns on those leaving school and all and sundry that this is goodbye. This year, a lot of respected prefects and Guides are leaving, and there are only three girls who have been full prefects remaining. Who will be Head Prefect and what kind of a year will follow?
One of this trio is Jill, an artistic sort, who has been all too fond of playing the clown and not showing much of her serious side outside of Guides. This has, perhaps, led the headmistress, Miss Brandon, who is not enthusiastic about Guides, to underestimate the force of her personality and natural leadership skills. Phyllis, athletic and a little prone to fawn on Jill, is the obvious Games Captain, but Miss Brandon has chosen Ivy Green, the most studious girl in the Sixth, as her Head Prefect.
The school, and Gillian herself, were expecting it to be her, a more natural leader. But, after a moment’s disappointment, Gillian, a full-hearted Guide, realises it’s her job to support Ivy, who is from a lower-class background and overly aware of it, and therefore a little diffident. The book is very good on snobbishness and how Guides shouldn’t be influenced by it, although it acknowledges that some are.
Phyllis, who thought Gillian should have been Head Prefect, suggests leaving Ivy to make her mistakes until the headmistress relents and appoints Gillian. To her credit, Jill sees that this is not for the good of the school, and by disagreeing and saying as much, makes an enemy of someone she comes to realise wasn’t a friend at all. All of Ivy’s mistakes are enlarged upon, but Gillian’s staunch support helps her to gain more confidence and, as a mistress says, ‘arrive’. Gillian too grows up a lot during her final year at school – where she is the head of the Guide Company.
Both prefects also have different difficulties in the forms of their younger sisters. Lively and intelligent Ruth has got in with a mischievous crowd who like to come up with original stunts. ‘In character she was at present the typical “fourth form rebel,” inclined to defy all authority except that of people whom she really liked, and these were a select circle.’ (p.65-66) Meanwhile, Ivy’s youngest sister Annie has followed her in leaving the county school for the High School. Unfortunately, Annie is a prig, more interested in teachers’ approval than her fellow schoolgirls’, and sets several people’s backs up – including Ruth’s. It takes the loyalty of Guides to sort out the trouble that causes.
By the end of the year, Ivy and Gillian have, between them, shown that Guiding is good for girls’ characters and thus the school, and developed a close friendship. The characterisation is consistently good, with various characters wrestling with their problems, and even mistresses shown as being human. Just looking back over it to check the school’s name for this review, I realised that we’re dropped into the story in media res, with Jill’s character revealed to us through her interaction with others. It’s a lot more honest about class than you’d expect – how Ivy’s academic ambitions make her different from other girls of her age who live on her street, and how her family’s lack of money does matter to some of her fellow schoolgirls. Gillian and Ruth’s education is good, but their brother gets to go to Harrow, although it’s suggested that Ruth is the cleverest of the family. Set at a time when the first world war was a memory for the older girls, an early visit for the Guides to Belgium has an interesting context.
The book makes its case for Guides, but not at the expense of telling a good story about girls of all sorts, influencing each other for good and ill. Although Ivy and Ruth, particularly, are almost co-main characters, it’s a telling choice to make the girl who has to deal with being an also-ran the titular heroine.
