L’s Reviews > The Manor House School > Status Update

They moved from a school with sewage problems to one infested with earwigs, caterpillars, bats, rats and mice?!

If these kids start doing sneaky spy following off this caretaker then this is going to get even more entertaining.

The silliness of this treasure hunt and the grouchy old caretaker is quite fun.

Complete removal of dialogue tags means I don't really know who's talking... Eh... It seems like it doesn't really matter who says what.

Mademoiselle says she is 'bien elevée' and 'très gentille', and that's a great compliment, for she doesn't admire English girls as a rule"

Did all these Mademoiselles go to the same teaching school to develop such similar feelings and thoughts about English students? Or were they all traumatised by teaching these kids.

They might never sit without permission in the presence of their parents or teachers, and they were beaten for the slightest offences.

Honestly, given how often kids are smacked, beaten and abused in The Famous Five, I'm not sure this would be all that different for when these books were written. Though middle class girls probably didn't get smacked as much. Corporal punishment was definitely still used though.

'After being accustomed to electric light and modern bedrooms,'

Electricity as a luxury... Kind of worrying that there are still places this would apply to in the world 120 years later.

Christ, and I thought the language in The Chalet books was dated. Genuinely stunned these girls are allowed to go to school in this era given the views on girls education 20 of years later...

Miss Russell had indeed been much alarmed by the sanitary inspector's report. She was determined to make the change without delay, and hurried on the preparation as speedily as possible.

Because if kids do themselves an injury through daft choices there's some wiggle room. Dysentery from poorly maintained plumbing is quite another matter.

'Well, it turns out that he's a sanitary inspector, and he's sent a report to Miss Russell to say that the drains are wrong, and must be taken up immediately'

Bloody hell, some kind of health, safety and risk inspection in a boarding school?! Does this bloke not know these kids are meant to be basically left to fend for themselves and try not to die in the process?