Old school, new pupils: modernising Enid Blyton's Malory Towers
A black character appears in one of four new stories designed to renew the appeal of Blyton’s boarding school for 21st-century readers
The girls of Malory Towers will be welcoming a new pupil later this month. Homesick, proud and lonely, Marietta is also the first black character to join Enid Blyton’s famous boarding school by the sea, which is enjoying an unlikely renaissance.
First dreamed up in 1946, a television adaptation of the school series is in development, and a theatrical musical that calls it “nostalgic, naughty and perfect for now … the original ‘Girl Power’ story” will tour England from July. But Marietta is the star of a new Malory Towers story from Patrice Lawrence, one of four commissioned by Blyton’s publisher Hachette, which will be released later this month.
