One of my own happiest discoveries in doing this list; I've now enjoyed all four of Walsh's charming Imogen Quy mysteries |
At
long last, I have managed, based on many wonderful suggestions from readers, to
update my Grownup School Story List. I've discovered a few new titles on my
own, but most of the changes come from the comments and emails I received from
all of you.
A new addition courtesy of an anonymous commenter |
A
couple of people who commented with suggestions chose to remain anonymous, so
thank you to those Anons (one of whom also recommended the Paul Bailey
biography, Three Queer Lives, which I
have since very much enjoyed). In addition, warm thanks to Frances, Brian
Busby, Barbara from Call Me Madam, Jerri, Gina in Alabama, Foose, Sue in
Suffolk, Cassandra Lin, and Jenefer. (And thanks to anyone else I've failed to keep track of but who also made suggestions.) I also, thanks to a heads-up from Jerri, removed a Clara Benson title based on the newly-revealed fact that the author, whoever it might be, is in fact contemporary, not from the 1930s at all. Regardless of the quality of the novels (I have not and will not be sampling them), fraud leaves rather a bad taste in my mouth, so I have chosen not to keep her (if it is even a woman) in the section for more recent titles of interest, and I will also be removing Benson from my main list and my Mystery List.
A new addition to the list courtesy of Brian Busby (and, truth be told, an image stolen from his blog) |
Should
any of you (or anyone else) come across additional titles that fit the list,
please do let me know.
The
updated list is below (the original list is still here).
I hope it leads you to additional reading pleasure!
NON-MYSTERIES BY
WOMEN
|
||
RUTH
ADAM, I'm Not Complaining (1938)
|
||
Depression-era
grammar school.
|
||
MABEL
ESTHER ALLAN, Here We Go Round
(1954)
|
||
Grammar
school. Recently reprinted by Girls Gone By.
|
||
VERILY
ANDERSON, Daughters of Divinity
(1960)
|
||
Memoir.
University (?).
|
||
SYLVIA
ASHTON-WARNER, Spinster (1959)
|
||
New
Zealand. Grammar school.
|
||
MARY
BELL, Summer's Day (1951)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
FRANCES
BELLERBY, Shadowy Bricks (1932)
|
||
Progressive
school.
|
||
WINIFRED
BLAZEY, Grace Before Meat (1942)
|
||
Village
school.
|
||
EDWARD
CANDY, Parents' Day (1967)
|
||
Coed
boarding school.
|
||
HESTER
W. CHAPMAN, Long Division (1943)
|
||
Boys'
prep school.
|
||
HESTER
W. CHAPMAN, Ever Thine (1951)
|
||
Boys'
prep school.
|
||
IVY
COMPTON-BURNETT, More Women than Men (1933)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
ELIZABETH
COXHEAD, A Play Toward (1952)
|
||
Village
grammar school.
|
||
CLEMENCE
DANE, Regiment of Women (1917)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
ANNA
DE BARY, Letters of a Schoolma'am
(1913)
|
||
Possibly
non-fiction? Uncertain of type of school.
|
||
VERA
G. DWYER, A War of Girls (1915)
|
||
Australian.
Uncertain of type of school.
|
||
MENNA
GALLIE, Man's Desiring (1960)
|
||
University.
"Comedy of contrasts about a Welsh man and an English woman at a
Midlands university."
|
||
RUTH
M. GOLDRING, Ann's Year (1933)
|
||
University.
"[A] story combining school and business life in its period."
|
||
RUTH
M. GOLDRING, Educating Joanna
(1935)
|
||
Oxford.
|
||
HELEN
HAMILTON, The Iconoclast (1917)
|
||
About
a schoolteacher's romance. Uncertain of type of school.
|
||
MARGARET
HASSETT, Educating Elizabeth (1937)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
MARGARET
HASSETT, Beezer's End (1949)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school. Sequel to Educating
Elizabeth.
|
||
RENÉE
HAYNES, Neapolitan Ice (1932)
|
||
Oxford.
|
||
ROSE
MARIE HODGSON, Rosy-Fingered Dawn
(1934)
|
||
University.
Described by Anna Bogen as an "experimental university novel."
|
||
PRISCILLA
JOHNSTON, The Narrow World (1930)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
PRISCILLA
JOHNSTON, Green Girl (1931)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school. Sequel to The Narrow
World (?).
|
||
BEL
KAUFMAN, Up the Down Staircase
(1965)
|
||
American.
Inner city high school.
|
||
ELIZABETH
LAKE, The First Rebellion (1952)
|
||
Girls'
convent boarding school.
|
||
MADELEINE
L'ENGLE, A Small Rain (1945)
|
||
American.
First section set in Swiss boarding school.
|
||
JOAN
LINDSAY, Picnic at Hanging Rock
(1967)
|
||
Australia.
Women's college.
|
||
CHRISTINE
LONGFORD, Making Conversation
(1931)
|
||
Part
girls' boarding school, part Oxford.
|
||
LILIAN
VAUX MACKINNON, Miriam of Queen's
(1921)
|
||
Canada.
University. Set around the turn of the century at Queen's University in Kingston,
Ontario. See Brian Busby's review here.
|
||
ROSEMARY
MANNING, The Chinese Garden (1962)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
MARGARET
MASTERMAN, Gentleman's Daughters
(1931)
|
||
Girls'
school.
|
||
MARY
NICHOLSON, Itself to Please (1953)
|
||
University.
Set at Oxford in the 1930s.
|
||
KATE
O'BRIEN, The Land of Spices (1941)
|
||
Girls'
convent boarding school.
|
||
FRANCES
GRAY PATTON, Good Morning, Miss Dove
(1954)
|
||
American.
Small town grammar school.
|
||
WINIFRED
PECK, Winding Ways (1951)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
SUSAN
PLEYDELL, Summer Term (1959)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
SUSAN
PLEYDELL, A Young Man's Fancy
(1962)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school. Sequel to Summer Term.
|
||
HENRY
HANDEL RICHARDSON, The Getting of
Wisdom (1910)
|
||
Australian.
Girls' boarding school.
|
||
DORA
SAINT (aka MISS READ), Village School
(1955)
|
||
Village
grammar school.
|
||
ELEANOR
SCOTT, War Among Ladies (1928)
|
||
Girls'
high school.
|
||
BARBARA
SILVER, Our Young Barbarians, or,
Letters from Oxford (1935)
|
||
University.
Review describes "faithful chronicling of a fairly ordinary
routine."
|
||
MAY
SMITH, These Wonderful Rumours!: A
Young Schoolteacher's Wartime Diaries 1939-1945 (2012)
|
||
Diary.
Elementary school.
|
||
MURIEL
SPARK, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
(1961)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
D.
E. STEVENSON, Summerhills (1956)
|
||
In
part about setting up a boys' school.
|
||
DOROTHY
STRACHEY (aka OLIVIA), Olivia
(1949)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school in France.
|
||
MARY
STURT, Be Gentle to the Young (1937)
|
||
University.
|
||
NETTA
SYRETT, A School Year (1902)
|
||
University?
|
||
GERTRUDE
WINIFRED TAYLOR, The Pearl (1918)
|
||
University.
|
||
ANGELA
THIRKELL, Summer Half (1937)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
ANNE
TRENEER, A Stranger in the Midlands
(1952)
|
||
Memoir.
Girls' high school in Birmingham.
|
||
ROSALIND
WADE, Children Be Happy (1931)
|
||
University.
|
||
ANTONIA
WHITE, Frost in May (1933)
|
||
Girls'
convent school.
|
||
MARY
WILKES, The Only Door Out (1945)
|
||
University.
|
||
D[OROTHY].
WYNNE WILLSON, Early Closing (1931)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
MYSTERY NOVELS BY
WOMEN
|
||
LOIS
AUSTEN-LEIGH, The Incredible Crime
(1931)
|
||
University.
"[A] witty take on academic life in Cambridge." (Soon to be
reprinted by British Library Crime Classics.)
|
||
JOSEPHINE
BELL, The Summer School Mystery
|
||
Summer
school for music students.
|
||
JOSEPHINE
BELL, Death at Half Term (1939)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
DOROTHY
BOWERS, Fear and Miss Betony (1941)
|
||
Wartime
girls' boarding school.
|
||
JANET
CAIRD, Murder Scholastic (1967)
|
||
Scottish
secondary school.
|
||
AGATHA
CHRISTIE, Cat Among the Pigeons
(1959)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
EILEEN
HELEN CLEMENTS, Cherry Harvest
(1943)
|
||
Wartime
girls' boarding school evacuated to a country manor house.
|
||
AMANDA
CROSS, The Theban Mysteries (1971)
|
||
American
girls' school.
|
||
ANTONIA
FRASER, Quiet as a Nun (1977)
|
||
Girls'
convent school.
|
||
MAVIS
DORIEL HAY, Death on the Cherwell
(1935)
|
||
University.
|
||
P.
D. JAMES, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
(1972)
|
||
Cambridge.
Only somewhat college-related.
|
||
ELIZABETH
LEMARCHAND, Death of an Old Girl
(1967)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
ELIZABETH
LEMARCHAND, The Affacombe Affair (1968)
|
||
Girls'
prep school.
|
||
HELEN
MCCLOY, Through a Glass Darkly
(1949)
|
||
American.
Girls' boarding school.
|
||
GLADYS
MITCHELL, Death at the Opera (1934)
|
||
Coed
day school.
|
||
GLADYS
MITCHELL, St. Peter's Finger (1938)
|
||
Girls'
convent boarding school.
|
||
GLADYS
MITCHELL, Laurels Are Poison (1942)
|
||
Girls'
training college.
|
||
GLADYS
MITCHELL, Tom Brown’s Body (1949)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
GLADYS
MITCHELL, Convent on Styx (1975)
|
||
Girls'
convent boarding school.
|
||
DOROTHY
L. SAYERS, Gaudy Night (1935)
|
||
Oxford.
|
||
NANCY
SPAIN, Poison for Teacher (1949)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school.
|
||
JOSEPHINE
TEY, Miss Pym Disposes (1946)
|
||
Girls'
physical training college.
|
||
ETHEL
LINA WHITE, The Third Eye (1937)
|
||
First
part set in girls' boarding school.
|
||
MARGARET
YORKE, series featuring Patrick Grant (1980s)
|
||
Oxford.
|
||
MYSTERY NOVELS BY
MEN
|
||
NICHOLAS
BLAKE, A Question of Proof (1935)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
LEO
BRUCE, Carolus Deene series
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
W.
J. BURLEY, A Taste of Power (1967)
|
||
Grammar
school.
|
||
MILES
BURTON, Murder in the Coalhole
(1940)
|
||
Grammar
school (but no students appear).
|
||
MILES
BURTON, Murder Out of School (1951)
|
||
Boys'
prep school.
|
||
CHRISTOPHER
BUSH, The Case of the Dead Shepherd
(1934)
|
||
Coed
high school.
|
||
V.
C. CLINTON-BADDELEY, Dr. Davie series
|
||
Cambridge.
|
||
EDMUND
CRISPIN, Gervase Fen series
|
||
Oxford.
|
||
GLYNN
DANIEL, The Cambridge Murders (1945)
|
||
Cambridge
(obviously).
|
||
S.
F. X. DEAN, Professor Kelly series
|
||
University.
New England college.
|
||
D.
DEVINE, His Own Appointed Day
(1965)
|
||
Scottish
high school.
|
||
MICHAEL
GILBERT, The Night of the Twelfth (1976)
|
||
Boys'
school.
|
||
D.
DEVINE, His Own Appointed Day
(1965)
|
||
Scottish
high school.
|
||
MICHAEL
GILBERT, The Night of the Twelfth (1976)
|
||
Boys'
school.
|
||
REGINALD
HILL, An Advancement of Learning (1971)
|
||
University.
|
||
JAMES
HILTON, Murder at School (1931)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school. (Author of Lost
Horizon.)
|
||
JOHN
LE CARRÉ, A Murder of Quality (1962)
|
||
Boys'
boarding school.
|
||
NORMAN
LONGMATE, A Head for Death (1958)
|
||
Boys'
school? Coed?
|
||
J.
C. MASTERMAN, An Oxford Tragedy (1933)
|
||
Oxford.
|
||
KENNETH
MILLAR (aka ROSS MACDONALD), The Dark
Tunnel (1944)
|
||
American.
University. See Brian Busby's review here.
|
||
SIMON
OKE, The Hippopotamus Takes Wing
(1952)
|
||
Convent
school.
|
||
STUART
PALMER, Hildegarde Withers series
|
||
Withers
is a schoolteacher, but books feature few scenes in school
|
||
Q
PATRICK, Death Goes to School
(1936)
|
||
Boys'
school.
|
||
IVAN
ROSS, Teacher's Blood (1964)
|
||
American
high school.
|
||
ERIC
SHEPHERD, Murder in a Nunnery
(1940)
|
||
Convent
school.
|
||
ERIC
SHEPHERD, More Murder in a Nunnery
(1954)
|
||
Convent
school.
|
||
TOO LATE BUT
POTENTIALLY OF INTEREST
|
||
EVE
BUNTING, Spying on Miss Muller
(1995)
|
||
General
fiction/thriller. Belfast girls' boarding school during WWII.
|
||
SARAH
CAUDWELL, Hilary Tamar series (1980s)
|
||
Mystery.
Law school
|
||
PAMELA
DEAN, Tam Lin (1991)
|
||
Fantasy.
University. Combines a young woman's life at college with a retelling of the
traditional Scottish fairy ballad "Tam Lin".
|
||
RUTH
DUDLEY EDWARDS, Matricide at St.
Martha's (1994)
|
||
Mystery.
Cambridge. One of Edwards' Robert Amiss mysteries, this time in a university
setting.
|
||
BETH
GUTCHEON, The New Girls (1979)
|
||
General
fiction. American girls' prep school in the 1960s.
|
||
JOANNE
HARRIS, Gentlemen and Players
(2005)
|
||
Mystery.
Boys' boarding school.
|
||
HAZEL
HOLT, The Cruellest Month (1991)
|
||
Mystery.
Oxford.
|
||
HAZEL
HOLT, Murder on Campus (1994, aka Mrs. Malory: Detective in Residence)
|
||
Mystery.
American university.
|
||
RONA
JAFFE, Class Reunion
|
||
General
fiction. University. Brain candy partly set at Radcliffe in the 1950s.
|
||
ANGELA
LAMBERT, No Talking After Lights
(1990)
|
||
Girls'
boarding school. Semi-autobiographical novel based on Lambert's own unhappy
school days.
|
||
ARTHUR
MARSHALL, Girls Will Be Girls
(1974)
|
||
Perhaps
not strictly fitting this list, but definitely of interest. This is a
compilation of Marshall's humorous writings about school stories.
|
||
CLARE
MORRALL, After the Bombing (2014)
|
||
General
fiction. Girls' school. Set partly in 1942 and partly in 1963. Reviewed by
Call Me Madam here.
|
||
ROBIN
STEVENS, Wells & Wong mysteries (2013-present)
|
||
Mystery
series set in a 1930s girls' boarding school, featuring two schoolgirl
detectives.
|
||
DONNA
TARTT, The Secret History (1992)
|
||
Bestselling
thriller set at a posh Vermont college.
|
||
JILL
PATON WALSH, Lapsing (1986)
|
||
Early
non-mystery by Walsh, about a young undergraduate at Oxford in the 1950s,
whose romantic travails lead her into a crisis of faith.
|
||
JILL
PATON WALSH, Imogen Quy mysteries (1993-2007)
|
||
Series
of four smart, cozy, Mrs. Malory-esque mysteries whose main character is a
nurse at a Cambridge college.
|
||
JILL
PATON WALSH, The Late Scholar
(2013)
|
||
One
of Walsh's new mysteries featuring Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey; this one
takes place primarily at Oxford
|
||
JACQUELINE
WINSPEAR, A Lesson in Secrets
(2011)
|
||
Mystery.
Cambridge. One of Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mysteries.
|
I can certainly attest to the wonderfulness of some of these novels, which I would NEVER have stumbled across, had it not been for Scott's overwhelming lists. In particulalr, I loved LeMarchand's Death of an Old Girl!
ReplyDeleteIF you ever get into more contemporary MEN, there is a Robert Barnard mystery you might enjoy, set against a boy's school, School for Murder (which, peskily enough was also released as Little Victims!) Tom
Miss Read/Dora Saint's Village Diary and Storm in the Village also fit your time criteria, I believe, though the sequels [many] are more recent. They are first person narratives from the point of view of the head teacher. But it wasn't a grammar school - or at least not in the sense we understand one in UK. It was a village school - which means it took pupils from ages 5 to 11. Grammar Schools [which were in many cases closed down and/or turned into Comprehensive schools in the 1970s] were for 11 to 18-year-olds. Her Fresh from the Country also qualifies, I think ... see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Read#Bibliography
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the cover illustration of Miriam of Queen's, Scott, so much so that I spent a fruitless hour or two trying to determine whether the train station depicted actually matches that of fin de siècle Kingston.
ReplyDeleteYour readers may be interested in knowing that just a few days ago, by great coincidence, John Norris posted a very good review of Q Patrick's Death Goes to School. It can be found here on his Pretty Sinister Books blog. More great covers!
My comment echoes Abbeybufo; the term 'grammar school' in the US generally equates to 'primary school' in the UK. A real grammar school was where one went to learn Latin grammar, after having learnt the rudiments of letters, numbers, etc. Latin Grammar schools still exist in the US. The first school in the US was the Boston Latin School, founded in 1635 and going strong today; its counterpart, the Girls' Latin School was not founded until 1876, but still exists as Boston Latin Academy. There were others, but those still extant are now privately funded schools such as Roxbury Latin and the Chicago Boys' Latin School.
ReplyDeleteHave you read 'Shady Cloister' by Winifred Lear? 1950 Set in a girls' boarding school, from the point of view of a young teacher. Sharp observation of staff and pupils with mild, though unfounded scandal. I enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't ever come across that one, but you can bet I'm going to add it to my list now! Thanks very much for mentioning it. I also notice that her other novel The Causeway is set partly during the Blitz, so she may end up being added to two of my subject lists. Thanks again!
DeleteMy apologies to everyone else who commented here. Until I got the anonymous comment on Winifred Lear, I didn't realize I had left comments here without replies (though I remember seeing these comments and intending to respond at the time, so there was just a mental glitch somewhere). Sorry, and thanks for your comments!
ReplyDeleteSorry no new titles but I must object to the inclusion of Sarah Cauldwell. Although her detective is a law professor, all the action takes place off campus in a set of barristers' chambers Sally
ReplyDelete