REVIEW: Peggy's Last Term

[feather_ghyll]

Of course, I always seem to come across Ethel Talbot, Bessie Marchant and Angela Brazil books because there are so many of them. I had some preconcieved ideas based on the title, Peggy's Last Term, that it would be about a prefect saying goodbye to her school and setting some young'uns right. But that wasn't the story at all. As I've reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince recently, where he gets made Quidditch Captain, which is tantamount to prefectship and enjoyes the privileges of being the one who knows it all, while Ron enjoys taking advantage of first years, I didn't need to read that story anyway. And that's the sort of story you'd get in a series, not as a stand-alone.

Peggy's Last Term: Ethel Talbot. Nelson

Given that, like so many of Talbot's books, Guiding features heavily, there's a laboured joke to be made about Morse code and her over-use of dashes. But I raise this point every time I review her books. In moderation, it would be an effective way of expressing characters' thoughts and feelings and informal converstions, but she overuses it, as she does the italics.

Peggy Vaughan, aged 15, is informed by her not quite sympathetic aunt that the headmistress of Roehurst does not wish for her to remain at the school after the summer term. She has broken rules and 'ragged' her way through the last two terms, particularly, despite being a Guide, and the headmistress, Miss Dale, feels that her 'talks' have had no effect. She's tactfully worded it, but it's expulsion under a fancy name. Peggy's decision not to show anyone she cares - indeed, she won't let herself realise how much it matters - is tested from the train journey, when a new girl, Sylvia, at 11, young enough to warrant the title 'kid' becomes Peggy's responsibility.

And it's not the sole responsibility of the term, for having decided that Peggy would do better at another school, Miss Dale, fount of all wisdom that she is, has decided to make Peggy not only head of her dormitory which contains her two chums, Becky and Nora, and Sylvia, but also patrol leader. The former PL, Beatrice, who was rather slack and let the trio be boisterous, is conveniently away for three terms. Although she takes a while to articulate it to herself, these opportunities to be responsible for Sylvia, who wants to become a Guide and hero-worships the older girl, mean a lot to Peggy. She starts to consider honour and her responsibility, while her patrol, influenced by the second Maisie, who is jealous as she wanted Peggy's position and - of course - knows that Peggy is leaving, are obsessed with winning a newly established Patrol Cup.

However, Peggy is starting to realise that being a real and true Guide means more. This is partly Guide propoganda, but, as the book goes on, it's also patriotic propoganda, set during the First World War, which hasn't affected the girls much, except for those who have brothers fighting, until the seaside school is attacked, meaning that Peggy has a chance to be heroic, thanks to Sylvia's keenness as a Tenderfoot and Peggy encouraging her, rather than obsessing over winning one of the tests for the Cup. After that unconvincing episode, it all ends well, because the school is moving to join with the very school that Peggy was to go to anyway! Hurrah!

Talbot tells rather than shows. Peggy's development is interesting - the trouble-maker become true leader is a well worn path, but Talbot shows the difficulties for a well-meaning girl who has always attacked things head on, planning on the hoof, to reform and stick to it. Some ripping slanginess goes on, but it is Guiding propaganda in a war-time setting, with the school's development tied into the company's development.

Edited for typos and punctuation 7/6/10.

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I like this the best of all the Talbot books I've read.

[feather-ghyll.livejournal.com]

I like this the best of all the Talbot books I've read.

Thinking about it, so do I.