The Twins at St. Clare's

The Twins at St Clare's is a children's novel by Enid Blyton set in an English girls' boarding school. It is the first of the original six novels in the St. Clare's series of school stories. First published in 1941, it tells the story of twin sisters Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan in their first term at a new school. They meet many new friends.

Plot summary 
The two girl twins, Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan, having just finished school at the elite school Redroofs, are expected to move on to senior school. While most of their friends at their old school (including Mary and Frances Waters) are moving to the equally elite Ringmere, the twins' parents are reluctant to send them to an expensive school as they are afraid the twins might become spoilt and snobbish. Furious at their parents' refusal to send them to the school of their choice, the twins are determined to be as difficult as possible at St. Clare's.

They are quickly mocked for their behaviour by the other students and nicknamed the 'stuck up twins'. Only a student named Kathleen is willing to befriend them, as she is also disliked. Whilst Pat refuses to do her chores and is banned from going to town, Isabel does them for her and has Pat take her trips to the town. The twins miss their favourite sports of field hockey and tennis because only lacrosse is played at St Clare's. However, Pat turns out to be quite good at lacrosse. She is selected by sports captain Belinda Towers, but it is when Isabel is pretending to be Pat so the latter can go to town. Pat decides to tell the truth, and is surprised when Belinda lets her stay on the team.

The twins also clash with the eccentric French teacher Mam'zelle who is appalled at their French. When they sneak out to a movie instead of doing extra work and then try to complain about Mam'zelle, she turns it back on them and forcing them to join her for extra French tutoring.

Janet, a sarcastic and blunt student, leads the year in a series of pranks against their new History teacher Miss Kennedy, who is a very timid and insecure though highly qualified. After Miss Roberts arrives and immediately understands her as the culprit, but the twins take the blame as well, gaining respect. Afterwards, the girls organise a secret midnight feast, and are caught, but Miss Kennedy pretends to not have noticed anything.

Money has been going missing from all of the students causing everyone to get suspicious of a thief. Eventually, the thief steals from some seniors causing threats of expulsion. The twins discover it is Kathleen, who stole the money in order to buy her friends gifts. Her family spends most money to send her to St Clare's and she wanted to seem the same as everyone else.

Janet continues to play pranks on the teachers, such as hiding a cat in Miss Kennedy's room due to her known phobia. However, one day Kathleen and the twins overhear her talking to a friend about giving up her job, despite needing the money to help her sick mother, because she cannot control the class. The girls all write a letter of apology and decide to only prank the other teachers.

Kathleen finds a stray dog and smuggles it into school where all the girls take care of it. However, it eventually escapes and is discovered, but Kathleen is allowed to keep it. Another student named Sheila is extremely posh and constantly mocked by the other girls for her way of speaking. She is eventually made prompter at the Christmas play and Janet is advised by head girl Winnifred not to exploit Sheila's insecurities.

The twins head home for the end of the term, surprised by how much they don't want to leave.

References

External links
 Enid Blyton Society page

1941 British novels
Methuen Publishing books
St. Clare's novels
Twins in fiction
Fictional twins
Novels set in boarding schools
1941 children's books
Children's books set in boarding schools
Children's novels set in schools