Chin Up, Chest Out, Jemima

First published in 1989, this updated and enlarged edition published by Girls Gone By is another excellent example of what the dedicated publisher can achieve to the benefit of Author and reader alike.

Mary’s ‘new, revised, and extended edition’ does even more credit to the subject than the original. As with all of her work, this compilation demonstrates her knowledge and love of her subject matter. The original brief was to produce an anthology of her favourite schoolgirl authors – together with her own inimitable comments on various aspects of the subject.

My own introduction to girls’ school stories was my sister’s Chalet School Stories; then one memorable day, a friend gave her a bound half-year volume of School Girl. To meet Barbara Redfern (my favourite) and her Cliff House Chums was a great moment! In those uncritical days of just reading, and never criticising, the stories were (and remain) a joy. From these, even then, slightly tatty pages came the discovery of a new world – of girls! I was actually quite upset to discover that there was another school nearby – Greyfriars!

To revisit The Chalet School, Angela Brazil, Morcove, The Abbey Girls, not forgetting Dimsie, and all the other memorable Heroines of the early and middle Twentieth-Century, remembers an age of innocence and charm coupled with the ideals of that now long-gone era; an age when loyalty to ones chums, form and school were paramount. There might have been an element of didacticism but, to the youthful reader, what mattered was the new friends you made between the pages – no matter who the book was intended for.

Mary captures the essences of that period with every choice she makes in her selection of material – whether printed or drawn. Her own comments are, as always, to the point, encapsulating the Spirit of the Age, and ensuring that her reader (whether already a convert or an acolyte) will be the better informed and able to enjoy the story better than before.

The only problem with such a book as Jemima is not what to include but what to omit; the canvas is so vast, the material so rich, the personal favourites so memorable, that I am certain that no author could ever satisfy all her readers! There has to be a ‘cut-off point’ but perhaps a thought for one or two modern stories could be in order – Antonia Forest, or Schoolgirl Chums, and St. Ursula’s in Danger (two of my favourites, even if written for television). However, this is merely to carp for carping’s sake.

From the introduction to the subject in which she reviews the history of the Girls’ Story, to the introductions to each author’s work, then to the marvellous selection from each, the book drags the reader along a precipitous path of rediscovery (and even discovery); schools never previously appreciated suddenly acquire a new postulant. The copious illustrations, many now in colour, add a further layer of enjoyment to this voyage.

Like so many books of this nature, the reader is always left with a sense of disappointment – it is too short and there are always more examples you would like to see. However, this is a disingenuous line to take – unfair to the subject matter and to the author. What must be looked at it the book itself in the context of its original brief. And, to that end, Mary succeeds – as she always does – in enhancing the aficionado’s love of the subject and reminding him of just how much there is to be enjoyed in the world of Jemima and her Chums! In short, this is another excellent contribution to the knowledge of the subject; worthy of a place on any bookshelf (whether to dip into or to use for research), and one of which Mary should be proud.

 Peter McCall

Reprinted from The Friars' Chronicles, Volume 22, Number 99, Christmas 2004, by permission of the Editor.