Gwendoline has already made herself a laughing stock by her OTT display saying goodbye to her mother and governess, while Sally is reserved and unfriendly. But no such luck for the other two new girls, Sally Hope and Gwendoline Lacey. Nonetheless, Darrell quickly settles down into school life, and the girls like her. Miss Potts explains that Darrell, while clever, is of the type that must work hard to attain good results, which, disappointingly, does not include playing jolly tricks on the French mistress. Encouraged by Alicia's casual attitude, Darrell does not work as hard as she might, and is disappointed to find her name well down on the class list. These are the Malory Towers 'successes'.ĭarrell immediately resolves to be a 'success', but is waylaid at first by her friendship with the irresponsible Alicia Johns. Instead, the school wants to turn out 'good strong women the world can lean on'. Exam results, while good, are not the most important things at Malory Towers, Miss Grayling explains. With the other new girls, Darrell goes to see the headmistress Miss Grayling, who lays out her ethos for the school. Darrell is happy and excited as her parents drive her to Malory Towers, and we already know she will be A Good Egg. As is typical in school stories, the first of the series opens with the new girl on her way to school.
Darrell Rivers of Malory Towers is the second type. Both types invariably become monitors, prefects and head girls. The second type are keen to get to school, having read stories of pillow fights and midnight feasts, and are of a sensible, jolly, glowing-cheeked disposition which means they will settle down immediately. The first type (the O'Sullivan Twins, Elizabeth Allen) do not want to go to school and are dragged there kicking and screaming, to cause as much havoc as possible before realizing how wonderful the school is and becoming model citizens. New girls in school fiction are generally one of two types.
Review by Laura Canning (February 2, 2005)
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