St. Clare's (series) - Story

Story

In the first book, The Twins at St. Clare's, twins Pat and Isabel do not want to go to St. Clare's. Their parents decide to send them there, anyway, saying that they were spoiled at their fancy prep school, Redroofs. At their new school, the twins earn the nickname "the stuck-up twins", and are initially quite unpopular. However, through their basic kindness and fairness, they gain the affections of the other girls, and eventually settle down. Throughout the series, as the twins move through the school, they meet Janet, who loves tricks, Hilary, who is head of the form, Alison, their feather headed cousin, and many more schoolgirls and teachers. The characters tend to be stereotypes and are very similar to the set of characters in Blyton's other boarding school series, Malory Towers.

In the first novel, The Twins at St. Clare's, Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan are described as speaking with an "Irish lilt". Owen Dudley Edwards suggests that the choice of surname and nationality of the twins derives from Blyton's desire to resist national stereotyping, following an Irish Republican Army bicycle bomb attack in Coventry in 1939

One of the main characters in the St. Clare's (series), Alison debuts in the second book, The O'Sullivan Twins. She is described as a 'pretty little feather-head'. She is horrified when she learns that the younger girls must wait on the older girls and is taught how to light a fire, albeit harshly by Rita and Belinda (two older girls). She spent most of her time with Pat and Isabel. She also reveals that Margery has been expelled from 6 schools as she thinks Margery is responsible for all the mean tricks being played on Pat. She feels guilty when Margery is proclaimed innocent. At the end of the term, she and Doris tie for bottom. In Summer Term at St. Clare's, Alison becomees best friends with Sadie Greene, an American girl who is a new student. Sadie starts filling silly ideas into Alison's head and she loses most of the common sense which had been knocked into her the previous term. Both of them are constantly bottom and despair the teachers continuously. When Sadie gets kidnapped, she is extremely worried about her. When Sadie leaves, she makes her promise to write to her (unfortunately, Sadie forgets to). In Second Form at St. Clare's, Alison takes a fancy to the drama mistress, Miss Quentin. Alison gets a nasty shock at the end of the term when she discovers that Miss Quentin laughs at her behind her back. She is then very cold to Miss Quentin, and drops her. In The Third Form at St. Clare's, Alison becomes sandwiched between two new girls, Fern and Rachel. Alison tries to form a threesome with them; however, when Fern shows her spite against Rachel, Alison is shocked at her true colours and drops her. At the end of the term, she is heartbroken when Rachel tells her that she is going back to her old drama school. In Kitty at St. Clare's, Alison starts worshipping Margaret Winters, the deputy head girl, who becomes head girl after framing Jenny Mills. Alison also does Margaret's jobs for her, an unusual thing for a third former. This leads to a feud between her and Helen, Margaret's other admirer. This further develops into a battle between the second and third forms; it gradually abates. Alison helps Kitty to expose Margaret after discovering how evil Margaret was. In Claudine at St. Clare's, Alison becomes best friends with the Honourable Angela Favorleigh. She always agrees with her, but feels uncomfortable when she looks down on Claudine, Carlotta, and Eileen but she never goes against her. During half-term, she doesn't go out with Angela as she doesn't like her mother who keeps criticising St. Clare's. She instead takes out Claudine and Eileen which leads to a temporary rift between her and Angela. She is furious when Angela is catty about Pauline's mother. Pauline had boasted that her parents were very rich but it was proven that she was lying about everything. Her mother was hard-working, tired and plain. Alison and Angela's friendship is ruined for sometime because of this. When Angela wants to leave St. Clare's because of everyone's indifference to her, her father gives her a good scolding. Alison supports her that time and is a good friend to her. In Fifth Formers at St. Clare's, she and Angela share a study and get furious at Antoinette (Claudine's sister) when she serves them shoe-polish toast. She and Anne-Marie vie for Miss Willcox's preference. Afterwards, when Anne-Marie faces Miss Willcox's wrath, she turns against her and sees that she is just a pretender, she turns against her and traps her very cleverly. Alison is very upset because of this but she also sees how insincere Miss Willcox is. Alma develops a grudge against Alison when Alison tells Claudine that someone has been pilfering the goods which were to be used for the second form feast (the culprit is Alma). She then starts taking Alison's things and Anne-Marie is blamed for her deeds. When she is discovered to be the culprit, Alison is disgusted but later sympathetic when she learns of her problem.