REVIEW: The School on the Cliff
Aug. 20th, 2025 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe School on the Cliff: Winifred Darch
(Part of ‘The New Winifred Darch Omnibus’, Oxford University Press, Reprint 1958)
This book does things that many girls own books do - there is a new girl, a new Senior Prefect and a wise headmistress, and it ends with a party - but with aplomb, humour and humanity. There is one big coincidence, and the adventure suggested by the title comes to pass, but it is within the realms of possibility.
I suppose I should start with the coincidence. The story starts in the Swiss Alps, at the end of a (summer) school holiday. Fourteen year olds Finetta, Susan and Maud have been the fortunate juniors allowed to come on the trip with their seniors. Finetta is a ‘bouncing ball’ of a personality, Susan, her chum, much more staid, and Maud is a bit of a hanger-on, although when she suggests something mischievous for their last day, then baulks in rather a mean way, Finetta and Susan are far from inclined to continue to be friendly with her. Fortunately, when Finetta gets injured in an accident, she and Susan encounter an English girl, Dawn Meredith, who helps them.
Fancy what seaside town motherless Dawn’s aunt lives in!? Fancy whose High School she will be sent to!? Her father is in the navy, and she has been to several schools, but mainly abroad. Her fastidious aunt has arranged for near neighbour Maud to take Dawn to her new school, but as soon as she arrives there, Dawn is reunited with Finetta and Susan, and soon becomes a happy third with them, able to follow classics and literature-mad Finetta’s lively mind, but able to sympathise with the more stolid Susan. Maud rather resents this.
When we first met Sybil, who was very sure she’d be the next Senior Prefect, I wondered if Darch was going to use her plot where Sybil had to play second to quieter Elspeth, but Sybil is made head prefect, and her self-assurance rubs up Finetta and co. the wrong way. Despite hints from the mistresses about unity and co-operation, V Middle A decide that they are the Greeks and the Sixth the Trojans, (this is Finetta’s idea, and it adds a classical flavour to proceedings.) Having adopted a female golliwog doll, dubbed Helen, as their mascot, when Sibyl confiscates it, they declare war. Perhaps because she knows it is a bit silly, perhaps because she’s trying to be liked at yet another new school, Dawn gets very involved.
All the while, Maud hates that Dawn is so much to the fore, and tries her best to undermine her. Sibyl and the prefects don’t quite know how to handle their juniors – they are in competition for a gymnastics prize, and then when things go awry, the headmistress falls ill, and Sibyl is loath to turn to her stand-in, the subpar Miss Dawson, to intervene. Maud’s hostility leads Dawn to accept a dare and make a promise that leads to reckless behaviour, but when she is accused of something dishonourable, she finds that fewer people than she’d like believe her. Darch is very deft at the characterisation, all the schoolgirls have some layers, and the aunt who is fixated on tidiness and curing Dawn of her ‘foreign’ ways, while missing more important matters, is particularly well drawn. So too are the teachers.
The dialogue flows, with inadvertent malapropisms, schoolgirls being tactlessly frank about each other, some deploying half-truths and feeling bad about it; significantly, one telling lies and not feeling bad about it. The narrative flows too, with the omniscient narration by the author not being overdone. Dawn’s gymnastic ability, arising from many years in the Alps, plays its part, while Finetta’s knack for sweeping others along with her enthusiasm is clear. It was a pleasure to read all these various familiar elements being plied so adroitly, such as the clouds accumulating over the head of the innocent new girl, until Justice is served.
I hope to read the rest of the stories in the omnibus – I haven’t bought one of those in a while! – over the next few weeks, or, more realistically, months.
(Part of ‘The New Winifred Darch Omnibus’, Oxford University Press, Reprint 1958)
This book does things that many girls own books do - there is a new girl, a new Senior Prefect and a wise headmistress, and it ends with a party - but with aplomb, humour and humanity. There is one big coincidence, and the adventure suggested by the title comes to pass, but it is within the realms of possibility.
I suppose I should start with the coincidence. The story starts in the Swiss Alps, at the end of a (summer) school holiday. Fourteen year olds Finetta, Susan and Maud have been the fortunate juniors allowed to come on the trip with their seniors. Finetta is a ‘bouncing ball’ of a personality, Susan, her chum, much more staid, and Maud is a bit of a hanger-on, although when she suggests something mischievous for their last day, then baulks in rather a mean way, Finetta and Susan are far from inclined to continue to be friendly with her. Fortunately, when Finetta gets injured in an accident, she and Susan encounter an English girl, Dawn Meredith, who helps them.
Fancy what seaside town motherless Dawn’s aunt lives in!? Fancy whose High School she will be sent to!? Her father is in the navy, and she has been to several schools, but mainly abroad. Her fastidious aunt has arranged for near neighbour Maud to take Dawn to her new school, but as soon as she arrives there, Dawn is reunited with Finetta and Susan, and soon becomes a happy third with them, able to follow classics and literature-mad Finetta’s lively mind, but able to sympathise with the more stolid Susan. Maud rather resents this.
When we first met Sybil, who was very sure she’d be the next Senior Prefect, I wondered if Darch was going to use her plot where Sybil had to play second to quieter Elspeth, but Sybil is made head prefect, and her self-assurance rubs up Finetta and co. the wrong way. Despite hints from the mistresses about unity and co-operation, V Middle A decide that they are the Greeks and the Sixth the Trojans, (this is Finetta’s idea, and it adds a classical flavour to proceedings.) Having adopted a female golliwog doll, dubbed Helen, as their mascot, when Sibyl confiscates it, they declare war. Perhaps because she knows it is a bit silly, perhaps because she’s trying to be liked at yet another new school, Dawn gets very involved.
All the while, Maud hates that Dawn is so much to the fore, and tries her best to undermine her. Sibyl and the prefects don’t quite know how to handle their juniors – they are in competition for a gymnastics prize, and then when things go awry, the headmistress falls ill, and Sibyl is loath to turn to her stand-in, the subpar Miss Dawson, to intervene. Maud’s hostility leads Dawn to accept a dare and make a promise that leads to reckless behaviour, but when she is accused of something dishonourable, she finds that fewer people than she’d like believe her. Darch is very deft at the characterisation, all the schoolgirls have some layers, and the aunt who is fixated on tidiness and curing Dawn of her ‘foreign’ ways, while missing more important matters, is particularly well drawn. So too are the teachers.
The dialogue flows, with inadvertent malapropisms, schoolgirls being tactlessly frank about each other, some deploying half-truths and feeling bad about it; significantly, one telling lies and not feeling bad about it. The narrative flows too, with the omniscient narration by the author not being overdone. Dawn’s gymnastic ability, arising from many years in the Alps, plays its part, while Finetta’s knack for sweeping others along with her enthusiasm is clear. It was a pleasure to read all these various familiar elements being plied so adroitly, such as the clouds accumulating over the head of the innocent new girl, until Justice is served.
I hope to read the rest of the stories in the omnibus – I haven’t bought one of those in a while! – over the next few weeks, or, more realistically, months.
