Poll - St Clare’s v Malory Towers

[Silky moon]

St Clare’s or Malory Towers? Which series do you prefer?

[Irene Malory Towers]

Much prefer Malory Towers - my reasons
1) one book per form shows more better progression throughout the school and it is important to finish on the last term which gives a strong sense of where the characters will end up whereas St Clare's finishes on an anti climax, in the 5th.
2) from upper fourth, Darrell's younger sister Felicity joins and you see the school from more than one angle
3)Darrell, Sally, Alice, and even Gwen and to a lesser extent Irene, Belinda, Bill and Mary Lou form a strong group of characters and you see them develop (or not in the case of Gwen) whereas you don't get that in St Clare's apart from Alison, the twin's cousin. Yes in each term a new character develops but apart from Alison and perhaps Mirabelle in the fifth they emerge as fully developed characters. The twins virtually disappear from St Clare's after the first couple of books.The characters are more fleshed out in Malory Towers eg, Alice compared with Bobby, Zerelda compared with Sadie
4)setting - Malory Towers - amazing with the sea and the 4 towers
5)interchange between the 2 Mesdemoiselles - hilarious especially in the 2nd form with the feud
6)the rescue incidents in St Clare's just over the top - eg Carlotta rescuing Sadie and Marjorie rescuing Erica whereas the incidents in Malory Towers were dramatic but more believable.
7) finally - hard to say exactly but I find the writing in Malory Towers much more mature.

[Jack400]

Last time I looked it was split equally between the two. I didn't vote as apart from watching MT on TV I have no knowledge of either. I hope I haven't pressed the wrong button as my phone locked up and after several attempts to see how the vote was going I find the results have changed dramatically. It was interesting to read Irene Malory Towers observations of the two series.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Malory Towers for me, for much the same reasons as Irene. I particularly like the stronger character development, the improved overall structure of the series and the beautiful location.

[Splodj]

I prefer Malory Towers, but I think an either/or vote is going to show a wider margin over St Clare's than it deserves!

[Boodi 2]

Good point Splodj! While I much prefer Malory Towers for the reasons mentioned above I still enjoyed the St. Clare's series and don't think the difference between them is as great as the margin in the present poll would suggest.

[Irene Malory Towers]

With a small sample you can get extreme results. I did enjoy St Clare's and the last 2 books are good. But for me Malory Towers wins every time. As an adult I now find the first 4 books (St Clare's) grating on me. But there are some great incidents in St Clare's particularly the midnight walking scene where Mademoiselle locks up around 4 burglars and finds them all school children !

[Anita Bensoussane]

I find the first St. Clare's book particularly disappointing as it's so episodic. Nevertheless, the series brings us some memorable incidents and wonderful characters even though it lacks structure. I enjoy Mam'zelle's nighttime prowl in Fifth Formers too, and the shoe-polish scene and Anne-Marie's poem trick from the same book. Anne-Marie is an interesting character and I also loved reading about Carlotta, Claudine, Pauline and Mirabel as a child.

[Wolfgang]

Actually it's quite interesting that the St Clare' series (Hanni und Nanni) has produced far more follow-up books than Malory Towers (Dolly) in Germany. The difference is is the Malory Tower books went on chronologically until Darrel becomes Headmistress of Malory Towers, while the St Clare's books only dealt with the twins as pupils. Of Pamela Cox' thzree continuation stories two were published in German, Kitty in St Clare's was published in time when another bunch of continuation stories were published which were basing on each other.
Pamela Cox' 6 Malory Tower books haven't been published in German as far as I know. I suppose it would be difficult to call the Dolly books as they are not following the timeline of the German continuation stories.
So far 70 audiobooks of Hanni und Nanni are published in German, and if I remeber correctly, only 20 or 21 are based on published books.
As far as I know 39 "standard" books are published, four books of the German films and 2 continuation books of the film books.

[Silky moon]

It’s really interesting, I’m one of the few who prefer SC . But if I had to pick the best book out of both of the series, it would be Second Form At Mallory Towers

[dsr]

St Clare's for me. I've always had a soft spot for twins, though EB doesn't use them much. But Claudine and Fifth Formers are, to me, the best books of the twelve.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Fifth Formers of St. Clare's is skilfully crafted and packed with interesting characters whose situations are explored in some depth, though last time I read it I was struck by how many of the girls suffer prolonged misery, strain and isolation with no support, despite being (supposedly) part of a school community. An absorbing book but rather unsettling.

Second Form at Malory Towers is a compelling read too, Silky moon. It's fun but also very dramatic, with the stories of Daphne and Ellen being intriguing psychologically.

[Nair Snehalatha]

Very difficult to choose between.the.two-- Both make lovely reading.so I am afraid I adore both.the series.The tricks are in both books -- so also midnight feasts -- the Mamzelles-- and the tricks played on them-- you are really.spoilt for choice.

[Irene Malory Towers]

I reread the fifth formers and Claudine's at St Claire's and both are great reads - despite me preferring Malory Towers. However, in the fifth there were some disturbing elements like Jane Teal being bullied and Anna Pudden also being bullied and although she is not nice and Felicity being pushed to a nervous breakdown and hardly any support for them. I don't know how much of this was overdramatised to make the book exciting, or how much of this was typical. I reckon more the latter as in those days as I know even in my time the schools hardly supported children with various issues. I enjoyed reading them as children and still enjoy them as an adult but yes it is more disturbing now.

[Moonraker]

The problem with a two-section poll is that it makes the loser look as if it isn't of any quality. Both series are extremely good, in my opinion, but like most, I think I prefer MT (I haven't read the SC series for decades and can't remember much about them).