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feather_ghyll) wrote2024-06-28 07:50 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2024-06-28 07:50 am
REVIEW: The School on Cloud Ridge
The School on Cloud Ridge: Mabel Esther Allan. Fidra Books, 2008.
I believe this is the first book published by Fidra Books that I own. As well as the story itself, first published in 1952, this edition includes an abridged autobiography from Allan herself, focusing on her influences and how she became a published author. It discusses her interest in progressive schools and the Celtic fringe as well as her attitude towards religion, which all feature in ‘The School on Cloud Ridge’. I was nosy enough to want more details about the poor eyesight that made her partially sighted for the first couple of decades of her life, and how she recovered and to what extent.
Anyway, ‘The School on Cloud Ridge’ starts with a clever introduction. Kerridwen* Osborne, fresh out of university, is taking a break during the hectic week before the opening of a new school. Something of an experiment, it’s run by her uncle Jeremy, who wants it to be a progressive school, where the older children will have an influence on their personal timetable, and all the children will have a say on what few school rules there are. None of the children will be above fifteen to begin with. She will be teaching English (so for all the talk of ideals, there’s still nepotism), and is a little nervous at the prospect and wondering what the children will be like.
She and we get a taste of two of them before term starts. Lulwyn ‘Pussy’ Alleyne’s mother calls, wanting to know if her daughter can bring her pet cat Squibs to school, and Helen Perrott also wants to know if she can travel to school in her own clothes. Despite being told that she has to wear the school uniform, she arrives in her smart outfit and stands out on the first day.
I was a little less enamoured of the heroine Pussy than I was meant to be (what a silly nickname, although I presume it was because her brother Columb goes by ‘Collie'.) They’re from Cornwall and looking forward to this new school adventure. Pussy soon befriends Dymphna Kavanagh, the sensible daughter of a famous Irish playwright, scholarship girl Myra and the other girls she shares a room with. As it’s a school for girls and boys, there’s the serious-minded Hugo who becomes the President of the School Council and suggests an unusual treasure hunt that helps the strangers become friends. Most of the children, all vibrant personalities, take to school life well, but somewhat spoilt Arminel and the difficult Helen are exceptions, who make life difficult for the rest. To her surprise, Pussy is elected to the School Council. This causes further ructions with Helen, who thinks she’s full of herself and seems determined to reject any friendly overtures Pussy makes.
The story nominally covers the first school year, but most of it is taken up by the first term, a little less by the second, and the rest is tidying up, so the focus is on the school settling down and getting established. There’s plenty of fun for the children. Mancunian Myra loves the fact that they’re in the country, while Helen pines for urban life and its amusements. Left out and lonely, mainly because of her own behaviour, she befriends an unsuitable boy. When Pussy and Dymphna witness them making a scene in the nearby town, when Helen is wearing their recognisable uniform, as members of the School Council, concerned for the school’s good name, they have to do something.
I didn’t love the repeated suggestion that they should co-opt Helen to the Council in the hope that a sense of responsibility might make her stop objecting to the rules and looking down at the council. After all, the council was established by democratic vote, based on the pupils’ knowledge of each other’s characters. It is, in fact, what the wise teachers wanted, a friendship between Helen and Pussy, that makes the school's most difficult pupil settle down and join in.
I also thought that Allen’s prejudices were showing as Hugo becomes obsessed with two Saxon crosses that used to stand at the nearby village of Monks Cloud. They were broken up by the Puritans (about whom we are meant to boo and hiss every time they are mentioned.) When the art teacher shows Pussy part of one in his garden, Hugo gets the idea that the broken up parts can be found all over the locality and perhaps, one day, could be brought back together. It gives the children a shared interest and an unusual way to get to know the area better, for they decide not to discuss it with the adults until they’ve found it. This helps develop Pussy’s imagination, at least, and Allan writes as knowledgeably and sensitively about the Cotswolds as anywhere else. I found it amusing that the Cornish Alleynes and the Irish Kavanaghs got so invested in Saxon artefacts.
The narrative, while more picturesque and vivid than some, does follow the kind of narrative you’d expect in a story about a new school being established. And for all the hoo-ha over it being progressive, it is about creating a community with an united purpose. It ends with Kerridwen reflecting on the year that has passed with some satisfaction, for, of course, the school has been a success.
* !!! The spelling I'm more familiar with and which I think would be more common in the 1950s is 'Ceridwen'. You'd have to be quite a strong-minded person to name your daughter that, I think. But hey, I don't know how common Lulwyn and Dymphna are as names, and I doubt there have been many Arminels.
I believe this is the first book published by Fidra Books that I own. As well as the story itself, first published in 1952, this edition includes an abridged autobiography from Allan herself, focusing on her influences and how she became a published author. It discusses her interest in progressive schools and the Celtic fringe as well as her attitude towards religion, which all feature in ‘The School on Cloud Ridge’. I was nosy enough to want more details about the poor eyesight that made her partially sighted for the first couple of decades of her life, and how she recovered and to what extent.
Anyway, ‘The School on Cloud Ridge’ starts with a clever introduction. Kerridwen* Osborne, fresh out of university, is taking a break during the hectic week before the opening of a new school. Something of an experiment, it’s run by her uncle Jeremy, who wants it to be a progressive school, where the older children will have an influence on their personal timetable, and all the children will have a say on what few school rules there are. None of the children will be above fifteen to begin with. She will be teaching English (so for all the talk of ideals, there’s still nepotism), and is a little nervous at the prospect and wondering what the children will be like.
She and we get a taste of two of them before term starts. Lulwyn ‘Pussy’ Alleyne’s mother calls, wanting to know if her daughter can bring her pet cat Squibs to school, and Helen Perrott also wants to know if she can travel to school in her own clothes. Despite being told that she has to wear the school uniform, she arrives in her smart outfit and stands out on the first day.
I was a little less enamoured of the heroine Pussy than I was meant to be (what a silly nickname, although I presume it was because her brother Columb goes by ‘Collie'.) They’re from Cornwall and looking forward to this new school adventure. Pussy soon befriends Dymphna Kavanagh, the sensible daughter of a famous Irish playwright, scholarship girl Myra and the other girls she shares a room with. As it’s a school for girls and boys, there’s the serious-minded Hugo who becomes the President of the School Council and suggests an unusual treasure hunt that helps the strangers become friends. Most of the children, all vibrant personalities, take to school life well, but somewhat spoilt Arminel and the difficult Helen are exceptions, who make life difficult for the rest. To her surprise, Pussy is elected to the School Council. This causes further ructions with Helen, who thinks she’s full of herself and seems determined to reject any friendly overtures Pussy makes.
The story nominally covers the first school year, but most of it is taken up by the first term, a little less by the second, and the rest is tidying up, so the focus is on the school settling down and getting established. There’s plenty of fun for the children. Mancunian Myra loves the fact that they’re in the country, while Helen pines for urban life and its amusements. Left out and lonely, mainly because of her own behaviour, she befriends an unsuitable boy. When Pussy and Dymphna witness them making a scene in the nearby town, when Helen is wearing their recognisable uniform, as members of the School Council, concerned for the school’s good name, they have to do something.
I didn’t love the repeated suggestion that they should co-opt Helen to the Council in the hope that a sense of responsibility might make her stop objecting to the rules and looking down at the council. After all, the council was established by democratic vote, based on the pupils’ knowledge of each other’s characters. It is, in fact, what the wise teachers wanted, a friendship between Helen and Pussy, that makes the school's most difficult pupil settle down and join in.
I also thought that Allen’s prejudices were showing as Hugo becomes obsessed with two Saxon crosses that used to stand at the nearby village of Monks Cloud. They were broken up by the Puritans (about whom we are meant to boo and hiss every time they are mentioned.) When the art teacher shows Pussy part of one in his garden, Hugo gets the idea that the broken up parts can be found all over the locality and perhaps, one day, could be brought back together. It gives the children a shared interest and an unusual way to get to know the area better, for they decide not to discuss it with the adults until they’ve found it. This helps develop Pussy’s imagination, at least, and Allan writes as knowledgeably and sensitively about the Cotswolds as anywhere else. I found it amusing that the Cornish Alleynes and the Irish Kavanaghs got so invested in Saxon artefacts.
The narrative, while more picturesque and vivid than some, does follow the kind of narrative you’d expect in a story about a new school being established. And for all the hoo-ha over it being progressive, it is about creating a community with an united purpose. It ends with Kerridwen reflecting on the year that has passed with some satisfaction, for, of course, the school has been a success.
* !!! The spelling I'm more familiar with and which I think would be more common in the 1950s is 'Ceridwen'. You'd have to be quite a strong-minded person to name your daughter that, I think. But hey, I don't know how common Lulwyn and Dymphna are as names, and I doubt there have been many Arminels.