Back to Malory Towers

Malory Towers #4-6

by Enid Blyton

- Upper Fourth At Malory Towers
- In The Fifth At Malory Towers
- Last Term At Malory Towers

Genres: Childrens, Fiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

See also:
Ένιντ Μπλάιτον (Greek)
Enida Blaitona (Latvian)
Энид Блайтон (Russian)
Inid Blajton (Serbian)
Інід Блайтон (Ukrainian)

Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.

Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.

Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.

According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.

See also her pen name Mary Pollock

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This great book shows just how great boarding school can be and that it's not at all horrible. We follow the girls, Darrel, Alicia, Gwendoline, Clarissa, Sally, and Whithelma on their day-to-day life. It was a very exciting book and in each of the three books they played a prank on the very gullible Mam-zelle Dupont the tricks were so inventive I laughed harder than I have laughed in months. All the girls arguments and experiences seemed so real and I could easily visualize the girls appearances as they were so greatly described. I would recommend this book to children aged 11+.

[Karen B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this series when I was about 9 and absolutely loved it. I've wanted to go to boarding school ever since I read the stories about midnight feasts and adventures! One to feed the imagination.

[Trisha]

Its a very nice book

[Amsa Easwaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice Read. It was lovely knowing Darrell Rivers and her friends.

[Elaine Moorcroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malory Towers reviewed by 7 year old

Malory Towers is full of good and bad characters. The main character ,Darrell, has a temper but manages to conquer it. It is a really really good book. I enjoyed how they always have adventures. I learned how to conquer my own temper like Darrell.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always obsessed with the 5th year when they do the play

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malory Towers and Back to Malory Towers, by Enid Blyton. This was the full 6 books in the series published in 2 volumes so I'm counting it as 2 instead because they were so quick to read. I spotted them second hand and knew they'd be coming up on the Children's Book Challenge at some point, so got them while I could. I was sorting out some stuff on my bookshelves yesterday, and suddenly decided to just read a few pages, in preference to the books I was already part way through (I realised this morning that a friend mentioned them in passing when we went out to a lecture last week, which explains it!) and the next thing I knew, I'd read both of them in one day. So, they're fast paced, engaging, and lively then! I last read them about 25 years ago, and remember once asking my parents if I could go to a boarding school as a result, because she made it sound so much fun. I know others are going to end up reading them at some point for the CBC, so I don't want to give away too much - for those who don't know the books, each one takes place during one term of the school year at a girls' boarding school down in Cornwall, and follows Darrell and her friends from 12-18. As I got to the last few chapters, I had to go back and check the publication date. The series originally came out between 1946 and 1951, which surprised me. Maybe it's a hangover from having recently read about extraordinary career women in the 50s, but I was really struck by the student's future plans. Cambridge only counted women as full members of the university in 1948 (and yes, I did just google that to write this review), but you had 4 heading off to university, someone training as a nurse, several heading for glittering careers in the arts, one planning to compete in the Olympics and two going into business together. It had even been suggested earlier in the series that the main character could consider becoming a surgeon like her father. None of this was treated in the book as though it was groundbreaking and new. One of the most common criticisms of Enid Blyton's books is that they were old fashioned, even as she wrote them, and in most of her adventure ones, the girls make the tea and keep out of danger, which annoyed me even as a kid. This felt refreshingly different, and I'm sorry I hadn't read them in so long.

[Miss K Parker]

I really enjoyed the book, and i reccomend it to young readers. Its funny and interesting and i was dissapointed once i had finnished

I really enjoyed the book and I recommend it to any young readers. Its funny and interesting and I was upset once I Finnished the book

[Preeti Arunapuram · Rating 4 out of 5]

See the other half of the Malory Towers series.

[Roshni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The end of Darrell Rivers' Malory Towers career, a nice British school story