Worst of Blyton's school girls.

[un PC]

Well there are a few contenders for Enid's most obnoxious schoolgirls. I've decided to stick to St Clare's and Malory Towers.

I'm sure that Gwen will win hands down- mainly because she is a constant and features throughout all 6 of the MT series.

However there are a few other contenders. I'm going for Erica from St Clare's (the O'Sullivan Twins). She was a sneak. She was quite happy to let Margery take the blame for the mean tricks she played and only confessed after Margery saved her in the fire.

There's also Elsie from Second Form at St Clare's. Left down after her classmates go into the third, she ends up as joint headgirl by default. Spiteful, a sneak and ends up with egg on her face after she tried to tell tales about the Midnight Feast.

Prudence from Summer Term at St Clare's. A snob who is horrified when the rest of the form don't look down on Carlotta when Prudence discovers she is from the circus. She ends up being expelled after the Sadie kidnapping issue

Angela - (Claudine at St Clare's). She has looks, money, but no class. A snob of the worst order and has a cruel streak, notably to Eileen over here brother Eddie, to Pauline when she discovers her mother is poor and as a fifth former is unkind to Jane Teal who worships her. Angela gets her come uppance by failing the School Certificate

June - Upper Fourth at Malory Towers -Alicia's cousin, but does not have Alicia's good points. She is the cause of Darrel losinhg her place as head of the head of the form and in Fifth Form at Malory Towers almost gets expelled for writing spiteful letters

There are a few others like Moria from Fifth form at Malory Towers and Mirabel from St Clare's and also Pauline from Claudine at St Clare's. However they do redeem themselves to a certain extent

[70s-child]

Nice topic! I am voting for Erica. There is something seriously nasty about her actions. Every time I read the book, and come to the part where she destroys Pat's knitting and tramples on her notes, it gives me the creeps. It takes a terrifying level of malice and a complete absence of morality and character to do something like that.

[Tilda]

Could Maureen Little and Catherine Grey from Malory Towers be added? I'd vote for them!

[Yak]

I'd probably go for Erica or Prudence. Elsie was spiteful but she did attempt to redeem herself towards the end of that book. Erica seemed to have very little about her in the way of redemptive qualities - though that said, the other girls were really quite unpleasant to her (witness Tessie's actions against her in particular). Prudence was a hypocrite, which is a hard fault to forgive. Gwen - I don't know. She was not likeable and some of the things that she did were despicable, especially in the lower forms, but I guess that she 'came good' in the end!

[Billie]

I always felt sorry for Catherine in Malory Towers. There was nothing malicious or nasty about her - she was just too desperate to get people to like her, and it showed. (My interpretation of her character anyway.)

[ria ann]

I hate Prudence very much.It was really hateful of her to look down at Carlotta who is such a nice person

[elizabeth]

I hate Pauline as she is spiteful and trying to compete with the angelic snob Angela.She was ashamed of her mother and that's the worst thing a child could to her poor mother who sacrificed her things for her daughter.
And Gwendoline who never said goodbye to her father while going to Malory Towers and spoke coldly to her father.They both need to understand that in our life parents are very important.My father and mother would be heartbroken if i was ashamed of my mom and spoke coldly and said those wretched things Gwendoline said to her father to my father.

[booklover]

Hi everyone

Great question! I had to vote 'Other' because one particularly awful schoolgirl is not on the list.

The abominable, rich, stuck-up princess, Her Ladyship Arabella Buckley from The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor! She is one of Blyton's greatest female anti-heroes from her school stories! The worst of the worst!!!

[centcat]

Gwendoline Mary Lacey is undoubtedly the winner of this dubious distinction.
Her treatment of her father is unforgivable and to top it all she claims to be proud of the nasty things she said to him. In the fifth book I did think Gwen was going to alter herself but she proved me wrong.
Her spite towards Mary Lou in the first book is also pretty hard to forgive.
She is probably one classmate whom I would hate to interact with.

[70s-child]

You really should post on the Malory Towers readathon Centcat. It would be good to read what you have to say. And BTW, welcome to the forums!

[Yak]

Pauline learned the error of her ways fairly quickly though. As Miss Theobald said - she boasted and lied because she wanted to be thought better than she was .. maybe, to her, it seemed to be the best way to fit in in an environment that was completely new to her.

[centcat]

Thank you 70s-child. I absolutely love reading enid blyton.

[Icecream342]

Is there a june in St. Claires? I have never read the series. Otherwise, There is the name "June" twice.

Everyone makes mistakes

[MJE]

     Normally I might have voted for Gwen, and to make a really good vote I'd probably have to re-read all the books and remind myself of all the girls' characteristics and history. But I've just voted now on what I happen to recall.
     I chose Angela, not Gwen. Gwen was pretty appalling in many ways, actually, and maybe she did cruel things I just don't recall now; but in many ways she is tragic (indeed, on an epic scale) more than nasty, whereas (as others pointed out) Angela was quite deliberately and calculatedly cruel on occasions, and a terrible snob. Probably worse in the end than poor Gwen, who seemed to be merely a sniveller and complainer and general spoiled brat. Not nice, but probably less blameworthy in a sense than deliberate cruelty like Angela showed.
     Now I suppose someone is going to remind me of a serious cruelty Gwen committed which I've forgotten, and completely upset my reasoning!
     One of the funniest scenes I've read in Blyton is the one about Angela and the "anchovy paste". It kills me every time I read that. Serve the little so-and-so right!

Regards, Michael.

[centcat]

Angela was cruel. I voted for Gwen simply because I feel that Gwen playing nasty pranks (I only call them pranks as I can't think of another word to describe them ) on Mary Lou was far more cruel. Isn't it really low down to pretend to be friendly with somebody and then be mean to them behind their back?