Please help me!

annabeldaisy · Post by **annabeldaisy** » 19 Apr 2007, 23:26

Hi Guys

i am new to this site and absolutely love it, i am currently reading a Secret Seven book even though i am 35. I came across the site as i am trying to track down a couple of books that i read as a child so that i can pass them on to my own children. The first one was The Seven Crosspatches (i was trying to identify the author, i had forgotten that it was EB )which is how i happened upon this site. The second one is a bit tricky, but i read so many Enid Blyton books as a child that i am hoping that it is one of hers. It is set in a girls boarding school with a distinctly creepy feel to it, i seem to remember, though i could be wrong that the word grey figures somewhere in either the title or a character name but i think that there was a teacher who was up to no good and hiding in some sort of cupboard and leaving a grey veil in the cupboard which she used as a disguise, lots of eerily floating down corridors etc, but i can't remember the main plot of the story. It just left an impression on me and i would love to identify it. Can anybody help, if not an Enid Blyton has anybody any ideas?? Many thanks

HeatherS · Post by **HeatherS** » 20 Apr 2007, 02:47

Try here

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/auth ... crosspatch

Kate Mary · Post by **Kate Mary** » 20 Apr 2007, 06:31

Hi Annabel Daisy,

The book you are looking for is not an Enid Blyton, it is "The Merryfield Mystery" by Marjorie Cleves. I should think there are loads of copies on secondhand book sites or ebay. Hope you enjoy it!

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 20 Apr 2007, 14:09

Hello Kate, I didn't see you creep in!

Welcome to you and Annabel.

annabeldaisy · Post by **annabeldaisy** » 20 Apr 2007, 18:49

Hello again, and thank you for your responses and welcome both here and in the 'book' section (where i initally posted in the wrong place).

Kate i have contacted a bookseller who read the synopsis to me from the back of the Cleves books and i just don't remember it being set at Christmas, like that. Can you remember anything else and why you are sure it is that book, can you give me anything else to try and jog my memory. I sound silly because i enjoyed the book so much yet can remember such little detail, other than the spooky elements of the story. I am soooooooo frustrated with trying to remember. Again thanks

Kate Mary · Post by **Kate Mary** » 20 Apr 2007, 19:48

Hello again Annabel,

I feel sure this must be the book, but my copy no longer has a dust jacket so here's a quick summary of the plot: a group of girls are obliged to spend Christmas at Merryfield School (seniors Janice and Clarissa, juniors Sally, Ann and Penelope) a heavy fall of snow cuts off the school from the outside world and the girls see a "small shape curling and uncurling in a sort of white mist..." they start on a ghost hunt, in the course of which the juniors find the door to a secret room at the back of a broom cupboard, the room is comfortably furnished with an electric fire burning and there is an alcove with a curtain pulled across it, they sense someone or something is behind it. At this point their courage fails them and they skedaddle.
The other characters are Miss Bankes and Miss Graham the mistresses, Mrs Clements the cook and Theresa the maid who is not all that she seems! But I'm giving away the plot as Kenny Everett said.
Let me know if the above rings any bells.

Thanks for the welcome Moonraker, I've been reading the forum for some time but this is the first time I've been moved to respond and it's not even about an Enid Blyton book! Sorry it turned into an essay.

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 20 Apr 2007, 19:59

The only ghostly book I can recall reading set in a school was Nancy Breary's 'The Phantom Schoolgirl' but I can't remember anything at all about it, really!

annabeldaisy · Post by **annabeldaisy** » 20 Apr 2007, 20:00

The curtain twitching bit does, but they definitely find a lace veil that the teacher had used to make herself look as though she was a ghost. they found this in some sort of broom cupboard outside the dorm. Gosh i hate not being able to remember. I also remember the girls going to tea somewhere else and seeing something on a mantlepice which helped them to get to the bottom of things and them going out at night and then coming back in the dark seeing something. I am pretty sure that this is all in the same book, but sometimes books seem to meld into one. I hope that i am not driving you mad with this, but does this figure in the story anywhere.

Many many thanks, you are a girl of patience

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 20 Apr 2007, 20:01

My mistake - according to Google it is the Reluctant Schoolgirl and has a phantom IN it. But apparently it's not the one anyway

Kate Mary · Post by **Kate Mary** » 20 Apr 2007, 21:17

Maybe it's not The Merryfield Mystery, but I recall a similar book by the same author called "The Lilac Grange Ghost" does that title seem familiar?

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 21 Apr 2007, 12:07

Kate Mary wrote: Thanks for the welcome Moonraker, I've been reading the forum for some time but this is the first time I've been moved to respond and it's not even about an Enid Blyton book! Sorry it turned into an essay.

You are most welcome, Kate! Don't worry about writing an essay, it is most refreshing to read a post containing more than six words about what someone's mobile phone looks like!

Good to see your remark about the great Kenny, you must be getting on a bit!

annabeldaisy · Post by **annabeldaisy** » 21 Apr 2007, 12:53

Hello

Thanks for your responses which i am trying to research - i will keep you posted.

If anybody has any other ideas please post them.

Bye for now and thanks again,

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » 21 Apr 2007, 13:22

Can you remember the rough era of the publication of the book, the publisher, board colour, artist, type of illus, how many pages roughly, that kind of thing, in case it isn't the Marjorie Cleves Kate Mary suggested? The only MC I can remember reading is The School in the Dell - it did seem like that kind of sensational story style, but I've only sketchy remembrances - I could try and look it up when I'm at home with my books next, if you like? Or maybe Rita Coatts - she had some mad storylines! Sorry, though, I really can't think of anything very helpful.

*Edit* I've just found The School in the Dell on my slushy school story shelf, I must have brought it with me for light reading. The ghost in that is called The Lavender Girl. She uses a cupboard in the library, and the heroine, Jane, finds an embroidered hanky inside it - and a trap door? Other important characters included Jacqueline and Rosemary. The school is called Larkshaven. My copy's got no wrapper, so I can't copy the blurb. Plot doesn't pan out exactly as you remember though.

Kate Mary · Post by **Kate Mary** » 21 Apr 2007, 18:57

[quote="moonraker"][quote="Kate Mary"]

You are most welcome, Kate! Don't worry about writing an essay, it is most refreshing to read a post containing more than six words about what someone's mobile phone looks like! :wink:

Good to see your remark about the great Kenny, you must be getting on a bit!

Too true, 'fraid I've never learned to text on my mobile phone, even my computer outsmarts me quite often, but I'm a few years younger than Noddy

Kate Mary · Post by **Kate Mary** » 22 Apr 2007, 10:08

Addendum to my previous post. See, I told you this computer can outwit me and takes a malevolent delight in doing so.
I was trying to do one of those neat little quotation box thingies. I pressed the quote button, deleted the bits I didn't want and added my two-pennyworth, but it didn't come out like I expected.

If anyone can tell me how to do it, please let me know under plain cover marked 'For the Attn. of Stupid'.

Please help me!

Please help me!

Mystery Book