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Third and Fourth Forms

Third Year at Malory Towers is preoccupied with another important theme in Blyton's schoolstoriesthe school team. Darrell is desperate to get onto the lacrosse team as third reserve,

and of course gets into the team itself. Elsewhere, new girls again are central to the plot.

Zerelda is like all the Americans in Blyton's booksflamboyant and eccentric. Gwendoline

of course latches on to her, and much is made of Zerelda's acting 'ability', which is quicklydeflated when drama mistress Miss Hibbert sees her rendition of Juliet. Zerelda is

nevertheless a likeable and good-natured character and by the end of the book has become a

proper Malory Towers girl, complete with plaits and healthily scrubbed face. Mavis, who was

new the term before, runs off to a 'third-rate' singing contest and ruins her first-rate voice by

getting caught in a storm. Again, vanity does not pay, as the new Zerelda tells Mavis in the

San. They become friends for the rest of the book.

Bill (Wilhelmina) is the tomboy, much like Bobby of St Clare's but even more extreme. She

arrives at school on horseback, and is 'horse-mad', a detail rather overdone by Blyton as she

has Bill unable to concentrate in class because she is daydreaming of her horse Thunder. The

crisis of the book centres around her being forbidden by Miss Peters to see Thunder, and of

Thunder's developing colic. Miss Peters rides for the vet, and she and Bill become 'firmfriends' afterwards.

Bill does not have her 'own' friend in the third book, but becomes friendly with Clarissa

Carter in the fourth. Upper Fourth is one of the best books in the series, as it once again

shows Darrell's character flaws. She is made head girl of the form, but has to resign after she

loses her temper with Alicia's young cousin June, attacking her and being caught by Miss

Potts. June had wangled her way into the fourth formers' midnight feast, and says she feels

she must go to Miss Potts and 'own up'. Midnight feasts are of course an important part of

schoolgirl fiction, and Malory Towers is no exception. The feast in Upper Fourth is arranged

by Clarissa, who goes to tea with her old 'nurse' and finds that a mix-up means Nurse has

prepared 'tea for twenty'. The girls bring the food back to school and decide to eat it after amidnight swim in the pool. Rain forces them indoors, where June arrives with Felicity.

This is the first of the books to simultaneously focus on a younger form, and this is continued

for the rest of the series. Felicity, Darrell's young sister, joins the first form in this book, asdoes Alicia's cousin June. Darrell's first term is mirrored by Felicity's, who finds the

unsuitable June exciting and wants to become her best friend. The friendship ends when Juneboasts about getting Darrell demoted as head girl, and Felicity, like Darrell, takes up with a

more sensible and suitable girl, Susan.

Another strong plotline in the fourth book concerns twins Connie and Ruth, and ends up

getting Darrell reinstated as head girl. Connie is unpleasant and dominant, always finishing

Ruth's sentences for her and even brushing her hair. When things start to happen to Connie,in the school story tradition of 'playing tricks' (i.e., hiding books, damaging belongings), it isDarrell who realises that it is Ruth who is campaigning against her twin, in a dangerous

love/hate relationship. When Darrell 'tackles' Ruth, Ruth tells her that Connie wants her tofail the School Cert. so that they can both stay down in the fourth form together. Darrell, and

later Miss Grayling, are horrified, but the situation is resolved by Ruth's passing the examdespite her attempt to fail. Darrell's maturity is rewarded by her becoming head girl again,

and thus Blyton again shows both sides of Darrell's personality.

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Formal exams are included for the first time in Upper Fourththe 'School Cert.' that Conniewanted Ruth to try and fail. Yet again Gwendoline shows her unpleasant character, as she is

inspired by Clarissa's weak heart to fake illness in order to get out of doing the exam. Herworried mother and governess bring her home, where the family doctor sees through her

scam and orders her back to school in time for the test. Gwendoline duly fails the exam, as,

surprisingly, does Alicia, in the first real development we see in her character. Alicia, quick

and casual, irritates the others by speeding through her work and laughing at those not soquick as her. But when it is exam week, Alicia finds herself suddenly 'woolly' and stupid. She

thinks it is a punishment for mocking others, that she has 'lost her brains', and, in probably

her first ever experience of empathy, wonders if this is what less clever people feel all the

time. Her 'wooliness' turns out only to be measles, but Alicia has Learnt Her Lesson.

Disappointingly, however, there is not much evidence of the new improved Alicia in the last

two books, and little reference made of her experience apart from a passing comment that she

has to study in the fifth to resit the exam.