St. Clare's series

St. Clare's is a series of six books written by British children's author Enid Blyton about a boarding school of that name. The series follows the heroines Patricia ("Pat") and Isabel O'Sullivan from their first year at St. Clare's on. Other characters include Alison O'Sullivan (the twins' cousin), Hilary Wentworth, Carlotta Brown (an ex-circus girl), Janet Robins,Doris Elward and Bobby Ellis.

In the first book, "The Twins at St. Clare's", the twins Pat and Isabel do not want to go to St. Clare's. Their parents decide to send them there, anyway, saying that they were spoiled at their fancy prep school Redroofs. At their new school, the twins earn the nickname "the stuck-up twins", and are initially quite unpopular. However, through their basic kindness and fairness, they gain the affections of the other girls, and eventually settle down. They meet Janet, who loves tricks, Hilary, who is head of the form, Alison, their feather headed cousin, and many more people. The characters tend to be stereotypes and are very similar to the set of characters in the Malory Towers series which Blyton also wrote.

Owen Dudley Edwards suggests that the choice of surname of the protagonists derives from Blyton's desire to resist national stereotyping, following an Irish Republican Army bicycle bomb attack in Coventry in 1939 [British Children's Fiction in the Second World War. Owen Dudley Edwards. Edinburgh University Press 2007. ISBN 978 0 7486 1651 0]

The six books are:

* "The Twins at St. Clare's" (1941)
* "The O'Sullivan Twins" (1942)
* "Summer Term at St. Clare's" (1943)
* "Second Form at St. Clare's" (1944)
* "Claudine at St.Clare's" (1944)
* "Fifth Formers at St. Clare's" (1945)

Characters included:
* Pat O'Sullivan (Forms 1-6)
* Isabel O'Sullivan (Forms 1-6)
* Janet Robins (Forms 1-6)
* Hilary Wentworth (Forms 1-5)
* Doris Elward (Forms 1-6)
* Kathleen Gregory (Form 1) (oddly is mentioned as a fourth former in Form 4)
* Vera Johns (Form 1)
* Alison O'Sullivan (Forms 1-6)
* Lucy Oriell (Form 1)
* Margery Fenworthy (Form 1)
* Sadie Greene (Form 1)
* Carlotta Brown (Forms 1-6)
* Prudence Arnold (Form 1)
* Pamela Boardman (Form 1, 3-4) )
* Roberta "Bobby" Ellis (Forms 1-6)
* Gladys Hillman (Forms 2-6)
* Mirabel Unwin (Forms 2-6)
* Rachel Denman (Form 3)
* Fern Francis (Form 3)
* Libby Francis (Form 3)
* Rt. Hon. Angela Favorleigh (Forms 4-6)
* Pauline Jones (Forms 4-5)
* Claudine (Forms 4-6)
* Eileen Patterson (Form 4)
* Alma Pudden (Form 5)
* Felicity Ray (Form 5)
* Anne-Marie Longden (Forms 5-6)
* Phyllis "Fizz" Bentley (Form 6)
* Morag (Form 6)
* Priscilla (Form 6, is expelled)Recently, Enid Blyton Limited have copyrighted three further books in the series, written by Pamela Cox:

* "The Third Form at St. Clare's" (2000) - set before "Claudine at St Clare's"
* "The Sixth Form at St. Clare's" (2000)
* "Kitty at St. Clares" (2007) - set during the third term

Blyton wrote two other series about life at a boarding school: Malory Towers and the Naughtiest Girl series.

International adaptions

Germany

The series has enjoyed great success in Germany where it was published starting in 1965 under the title "Hanni und Nanni"—"Hanni" being the name given to Patricia, and "Nanni" to Isabel. Although the story is still set in England, several changes were made to somewhat modernize and "Germanize" the setting; e. g. "St. Clare's" was renamed to "Lindenhof", the sport lacrosse was substituted by handball, and phone calls are now made from a phone booth rather than the post office. The series was expanded by several ghostwritten volumes, following the girls until graduation. A feature movie is scheduled for release in 2009.

Japan

Between 5th January 1991 and 2nd November 1991, a 26-episode anime based on the St. Clare's stories was broadcast in Japan under the title "Ochame na Futago Clare Gakuin Monogatari. [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A1%E3%82%83%E3%82%81%E3%81%AA%E3%81%B5%E3%81%9F%E3%81%94_%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A2%E5%AD%A6%E9%99%A2%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E] "This anime has been translated into German as "Hanni und Nanni", into French as 'Les Jumelles de St-Clare", into Spanish as "Las Gemelas de St. Claire" and into Italian as "Una scuola per cambiare".

References