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cyphomandra) wrote2025-03-13 09:27 am
cyphomandra) wrote2025-03-13 09:27 am
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WWI: Angela Brazil
Brazil published 11 books during the Great War, not all of which I was able to track down. The Girls of St Cyprians came out in 1914 and rather unfortunately not only has no war in it but ends with its musical heroine winning a three-year scholarship to the Berlin Conservatoire, which must have come as a bit of a clanger to its readers. The Jolliest Term on Record and The Luckiest Girl in the School have a few war references (patriotic societies and the need to save money, for example), but only two of the books I could find really felt like war books.
For the School Colours, 1918. This is a rather bitsy story (it wanders between protagonists and seems unsure whether it's mainly about school or a family action adventure). It starts with two schools being amalgamated, the Hawthorns (a day school) joining Silverside (boarders), and there’s a new girl, Avelyn, whose family property borders that of “a nauralised German”, the uncle by marriage of one of the other girls, Pamela, whose father died in the retreat from Mons. Uncle Fritz starts out evil (forbidding his niece to walk with her friends on his property, stealthily enclosing land that belongs to a neighbour) and progresses to destroying a will that would disadvantage him and having a secret signalling station to pass information to the enemy.
At one point the girls visit a munition hostel and the book goes all informative (you can tell Brazil must have either done the exact same thing or read about it) while making class barriers quite clear - the women who work in the munition factory have some rough elements and have recently rioted over being served rice pudding :D We see the canteen, the purpose-built rooms, and later visit a creche where some of the women leave their babies while they’re working. The babies range from a few weeks old to four years, and include one whose mother is in prison for ill-treating him and another who was initially malnourished due to his mum feeding him on tea and herrings. They have to learn that they will not get picked up when they cry and only when routine allows but at least one of the girls is obviously breaking this rule.
Then the Lavender Lady - an artistic type - shows up to impress Avelyn and offer solutions to the boarders versus day girl tensions, the uncle is denounced, and Pamela’s dad turns up not dead after all, hooray (he embraces his family briefly and then heads back to the Front after Pamela reads him an inspiring poem).
A Patriotic School Girl 1918. This is one of Brazil’s better books and I liked it a lot. As well as being more coherent, it has some fascinating character stuff and a lot of interesting ideas about war and individual loyalty. I am about to spoil it extensively though so feel free to read it here.
Marjorie (a surprisingly normal Brazil name) has three brothers and a father at the Front, and is desperate to do anything to support the war effort. But her thoughtless enthusiasm gets her into trouble, mainly for inappropriately approaching men - she is told off by a teacher for asking a random soldier to help her with her luggage at a station, then she leads a group of girls on a walk over to a French fighter pilot who has just landed to get his autograph (the headmistress not only tells them all off publicly but then shreds all the autographs), and then nearly gets herself expelled by sending a letter to a soldier at the Front (her mother is doing this and Marjorie copies an address to send a letter and a photo), who promptly responds to the school with a proposal (“I like your photo, and when I get back to Blighty should like to keep company with you if you are agreeable to same.”). Only the recognition that she is driven by patriotism rather than desire saves her.
In the second half of the book Marjorie calms down somewhat and makes friends - an intense Brazil friendship - with a new girl, Chrissie Lang. They start a secret patriotic society with some other girls - Chrissie’s brother isn’t fighting and she is reluctant to talk about him, but she is keen to hear about all the other girls’ male relatives at the Front - and are appalled when it appears that someone is signalling to the enemy from the school. Things come to a head when the girls are preparing a charade that requires Chrissie to be in army uniform, and Marjorie promises to get her brothers (he’s home on sick leave) - Marjorie’s sister stops her, and Chrissie is furious, far beyond reason. Marjorie doesn’t understand - until Chrissie runs away, leaving a letter that makes it clear that she is German and responsible for the signalling, her brother is a prisoner of war in a local camp, and the uniform was to have enabled his escape. It is actually quite a touching letter and Marjorie is obviously unsure what to think about it:
So she asks her headmistress - “Is it right to forgive the enemies of our country?” And the headmistress replies: “When they are dead.” Which is essentially the end of the book. It’s the same point that comes up in the Bruce and Turner books - individual loyalties and principles must be sacrificed to a greater good - but it’s surprisingly brutal because Chrissie hasn’t been portrayed as all terrible. She saves Marjorie when Marjorie manages to set the paper costume she’s wearing on fire, for example, and her letter is not that of someone triumphant at their deception. Brazil goes on (briefly) to tie everything up, and have Marjorie decide that she wasn't unpatriotic, but I find myself thinking about this afterwards and I feel Marjorie might have as well.
For the School Colours, 1918. This is a rather bitsy story (it wanders between protagonists and seems unsure whether it's mainly about school or a family action adventure). It starts with two schools being amalgamated, the Hawthorns (a day school) joining Silverside (boarders), and there’s a new girl, Avelyn, whose family property borders that of “a nauralised German”, the uncle by marriage of one of the other girls, Pamela, whose father died in the retreat from Mons. Uncle Fritz starts out evil (forbidding his niece to walk with her friends on his property, stealthily enclosing land that belongs to a neighbour) and progresses to destroying a will that would disadvantage him and having a secret signalling station to pass information to the enemy.
At one point the girls visit a munition hostel and the book goes all informative (you can tell Brazil must have either done the exact same thing or read about it) while making class barriers quite clear - the women who work in the munition factory have some rough elements and have recently rioted over being served rice pudding :D We see the canteen, the purpose-built rooms, and later visit a creche where some of the women leave their babies while they’re working. The babies range from a few weeks old to four years, and include one whose mother is in prison for ill-treating him and another who was initially malnourished due to his mum feeding him on tea and herrings. They have to learn that they will not get picked up when they cry and only when routine allows but at least one of the girls is obviously breaking this rule.
Then the Lavender Lady - an artistic type - shows up to impress Avelyn and offer solutions to the boarders versus day girl tensions, the uncle is denounced, and Pamela’s dad turns up not dead after all, hooray (he embraces his family briefly and then heads back to the Front after Pamela reads him an inspiring poem).
A Patriotic School Girl 1918. This is one of Brazil’s better books and I liked it a lot. As well as being more coherent, it has some fascinating character stuff and a lot of interesting ideas about war and individual loyalty. I am about to spoil it extensively though so feel free to read it here.
Marjorie (a surprisingly normal Brazil name) has three brothers and a father at the Front, and is desperate to do anything to support the war effort. But her thoughtless enthusiasm gets her into trouble, mainly for inappropriately approaching men - she is told off by a teacher for asking a random soldier to help her with her luggage at a station, then she leads a group of girls on a walk over to a French fighter pilot who has just landed to get his autograph (the headmistress not only tells them all off publicly but then shreds all the autographs), and then nearly gets herself expelled by sending a letter to a soldier at the Front (her mother is doing this and Marjorie copies an address to send a letter and a photo), who promptly responds to the school with a proposal (“I like your photo, and when I get back to Blighty should like to keep company with you if you are agreeable to same.”). Only the recognition that she is driven by patriotism rather than desire saves her.
In the second half of the book Marjorie calms down somewhat and makes friends - an intense Brazil friendship - with a new girl, Chrissie Lang. They start a secret patriotic society with some other girls - Chrissie’s brother isn’t fighting and she is reluctant to talk about him, but she is keen to hear about all the other girls’ male relatives at the Front - and are appalled when it appears that someone is signalling to the enemy from the school. Things come to a head when the girls are preparing a charade that requires Chrissie to be in army uniform, and Marjorie promises to get her brothers (he’s home on sick leave) - Marjorie’s sister stops her, and Chrissie is furious, far beyond reason. Marjorie doesn’t understand - until Chrissie runs away, leaving a letter that makes it clear that she is German and responsible for the signalling, her brother is a prisoner of war in a local camp, and the uniform was to have enabled his escape. It is actually quite a touching letter and Marjorie is obviously unsure what to think about it:
“This letter is to say a last good-bye to you, for you will never hear from me or of me again. By now you will have found out all. Believe me that what I did was not by my own wish. I hated and loathed it all the time, but I was forced by others to do it.”
So she asks her headmistress - “Is it right to forgive the enemies of our country?” And the headmistress replies: “When they are dead.” Which is essentially the end of the book. It’s the same point that comes up in the Bruce and Turner books - individual loyalties and principles must be sacrificed to a greater good - but it’s surprisingly brutal because Chrissie hasn’t been portrayed as all terrible. She saves Marjorie when Marjorie manages to set the paper costume she’s wearing on fire, for example, and her letter is not that of someone triumphant at their deception. Brazil goes on (briefly) to tie everything up, and have Marjorie decide that she wasn't unpatriotic, but I find myself thinking about this afterwards and I feel Marjorie might have as well.
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Anyway—I'm probably not going to read these particular books, but this is a very cool review, thank you for writing it up! The twists of A Patriotic School Girl do sound fascinating, wow.
I like the sudden munitions factory infodumping and the Lavender Lady.
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I have not! Will take a look. I will be posting shortly about another Dorothea Moore tho', which is actually the first vintage girls' school story I've read that needs content warnings D:
I read a nonfiction memoir of the head of CID during WWI and about 75% of their work was dealing with people panicking about spies where no spies were actually present. Some of the rumours ("I did a favour for a random person who turned out to be German, and in exchange they muttered a warning to stay out of the Underground on X date") sounded very familiar.