Bording School Books

I am working on a production of The History Boys as dramaturg next year. In starting to think about research, it struck me that Bennett is playing with the long history of boarding school books or influential teacher books. I was trying to think of some I might recommend as reading to actors without being overwhelming especially since I will offering them the many books, poems and movies that are referenced in the play.

Tom Brown's Schooldays
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Goodbye Mr. Chips
The Browning Version
Frost in May
Lucky Jim

I'm sure there are many other useful titles that haven't occurred to me.

Not so well known is Lord Dismiss Us, by Michael Campbell. I no longer have my copy, but my review of it on Bookcrossing is here.

My favorite under this heading is Rudyard Kipling's classic Complete Stalky and Co. Set in the 1880's, it offers hilarious hijinks and profuse allusion and is also a commentary on the formation of the jingoist mindset.

I think you're on the right lines with Mr Chips and Miss Jean Brodie: Bennett's obviously playing with that whole tradition of the elite group of pupils and the eccentric teacher. Stalky & Co. is certainly nearer the mark than Tom Brown. If you want a sample of more conventional boarding school literature, try Frank Richards or Percy F. Westerman. Probably best served in small doses. Early P.G. Wodehouse (Mike at Wrykyn, The gold bat, etc.) is a bit more readable.

For a really negative view of teachers, what about Decline and fall?

Given Bennett's background, and the kind of school where he sets the play, you will need some northern social realism to contrast with the elitist public school literature - Kes or Billy Liar, perhaps, rather than Lucky Jim.

Further afield - what about tossing in Professor Unrat and Blackboard Jungle?

R. Delderfield's To serve them all my days.

When I was younger I used to love boarding school books so my suggestions are children's titles.

The Twins at St Clares and The Naughtiest Girl in the School series by Enid Blyton.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Decline and Fall is excellent and it has been years since I read it.

Foxhunter, thank you for the compliment. I will take it as such sans motorcycle and accompanying transgressions.

I do realize that the play is not set in a boarding school but I was interested in the whole school genre which I think is more culturally present in England than in the States. I think Bennett plays with the genre (both the pro school and anti-school books) in ways that are not as familiar to Americans.

Also, I think the headmaster's desperation to get his boys into Oxbridge is part of that inferiority complex vs. the public school stuff. I also think the sense of life after this shining moment at school being different than expected is a thwarting of the kind of glossy version of the pro-school books.

I am still early in the process and so exploring and don't have my ideals fully formulated. I find that much I research goes by the wayside in rehearsal if it doesn't seem useful to the process but often I need to explore many avenues myself.

Yes Lucky Jim is not quite the fit but I added it because of the ambivalence and cynicism about the academy which I think seems to come out in some of the boys later in life and in Irwin and yes not Oxbridge.

I suspect this reading list is more for me than for the actors. I tend to immerse myself. Don't worry about me cluttering actor minds. While I have had a few zealous actors who want research more want quick answers. (Very difficult when I was explaining Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle during a production of Copenhagen.) I much prefer that they understand the things they are quoting first but I am still interested in giving them a taste of a school environment that is very different than what they have experienced.

I suppose my other purpose is that is seemed a good thread for this group. And I love having "to read" lists.

Thanks everyone. I look forward to seeing what other titles emerge.

Oh no offense taken Foxhunter. I knew what you intended by the Hector compliment but couldn't resist distancing myself from his pedacilloes.

I hope I didn't sound defensive I can tell you enjoyed the play and appreciate thoughtful comments.

I have the film on my netflix queue. I know directors sometimes avoid seeing other productions or films but I am curious how it made the transition. It feels like a play (perhaps because it is a play) and not a screenplay. Some plays feel like screenplays. I will look for your own dere ole skool when I watch it.

This will be the first production in Chicago so I am curious to see how it will go. I am a fan of the play and an anglophile and a fan of meaningful education so I am not impartial.

Thanks for the well wishes.

# 8

Someone else remebers Molesworth ! Good man, he was excellent, as any fule kno.

More generally, it`s strange the appeal of `school stories`. I went to a 1970s Midlands Comprehensive, but I read school stories as a youngster (presumably with some degree of puzzlement) and as I recall I enjoyed them.

There were many, many writers in that genre during the `30s. Prominent among them was Charles Hamilton, a man whose many pseudonyms include Frank Richards and Owen Conquest. Detective story writer Walter Tyrer cut his teeth writing this sort of material (he is is quoted on the subject in E. S. Turner`s Boys Will Be Boys, which also looks at Hamilton IIRC), as I think did John Hunter.

Another name that springs to mind is Constance Mackness.

In the `60s, W Howard Baker ran his own publishing company Howard Baker Books and published, inter alia, annuals containing reproductions of Boy`s School magazines like The Gem and The Magnet in annual form. The Gem and The Magnet were more or less exclusively outlets for Baker`s childhood hero Hamilton in his many forms.

You might pick up some Howard Baker reprints fairly cheaply online if you`re lucky.

Oh Foxhunter sorry I am so slow responding. I have been moving and working and preparing for company and preparing to visit the UK in a couple weeks and neglecting this thread entirely.

The History Boys got pushed to the end of the season because of casting reasons. So I am actually just getting ready to be dramaturg on a new play based on Sophie Treadwell's writing of the play Machinal which should be very interesting. I helped workshop it last year so I am looking forward to the latest draft.

I did see the movie which I enjoyed but I missed the inherent theatricallity of the play. I like the moments for connection with the audience and I liked the cutting back and forth in time of the play. I enjoy seeing Richard Griffiths (alwways) and Frances de la Tour (always) but it felt a little flat to me in a film version and it just made me wish I had seen them on stage. But never fear I will be back at work on this very soon. The fall feels like the right time to be back at school.

Thanks for asking.

Yes it is sneaking up on me. In fact I meet with the director and assistant director next week.

I can see why a personal connection to the location would add to the film.

We will be seeing some theater. It looks like something at the Globe and then perhaps something we can get cheap tickets to. Although my husband is an actor we are neither of us that taken with musicals so we may have to be creative.

We are also spending a chunk of time hiking in Snowdonia so it will be a varied trip.

Now I feel I should have scheduled some time for dramaturgical research while I am there.

Machinal is an expressionist play- very interesting- based loosely on a woman's murder of her husband. Treadwell was also a journalist in a time when it was not a common employment for women so she herself is an interesting figure. It is worth reading but I think it is better in the staging. The copy I have actually has a photograph of Fiona Shaw on it so she must have played the roll at some point.

I don't believe Anne Digby was mentioned. She wrote stories that take place in the fictional boarding school of Trebizon. I've never actually read any of her books but I've heard excellent things about her. Most of her stuff is out of print but the independent publishing company Fidra Books has reprinted two of her rarest Trebizon stories : Fifth Year Friendships at Trebizon and Secret Letters at Trebizon (which are respectively #13 and #14 in a series of 15 books and I don't know if you can read them out of order but you should be able to find the first titles second-hand).

Bit surprised no-one has mentioned the Billy Bunter (of Greyfriars School) books although #12 (nickhoonaloon) mentions their author Frank Richards. Perhaps wrongly I always think him as contemporaneous with the "Just William" character of Rachmel Crompton (not sure I've spelt that name right as it's just off the top of my head).

Ah thanks for more suggestion, I will have to try the BBC link Foxhunter.

We start first rehearsal tomorrow so it will be very interesting to dig into it with the cast. The director and I gave them homework on the poets to have prepared before first rehearsal so I will be curious to see how that turns out as well.

Oh and the trip was incredible and not long enough. I am quite smitten. Theater was interesting. We didn't want to see musicals or Mousetrap I am afraid and the things we were interested in we couldn't get tickets for but with the museums and just London to walk around in I wasn't too chagrined. I will plan a little better next time.

Thanks Foxhunter. It got pretty stellar reviews and the Wall Street Journal reviewing in Chicago who knew. It is such a lovely show, it was a delight to work on.

A couple of classic Enid Blyton ones have been already mentioned here, I see, but I'm surprised the best known of her boarding school books isn't here yet. The Malory Towers series is probably the foundation for the boarding school dreams of every other girl who grew up in England in the 60s.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but how about To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield. I read it many years ago and really enjoyed it. Kind of reminded me of "Goodby Mr. Chips"