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No Talking After Lights
Long light evenings, swimming and tennis, striped cotton frocks...it's summer term at Raeburn. New arrival Constance King hates her boarding school on sight, yet dreams of being accepted by the other girls. Instead, she finds a ferment of frustrated hopes mingled with excited expectations...
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First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Angela Lambert
21 books7 followersAngela Maria Lambert was a British journalist and author. She is best known for her novels A Rather English Marriage and Kiss and Kin, the latter of which won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 5, 2018
This is a school story for adults. The experience of going to boarding school for the first time is viewed through the eyes of Constance King. Constance is sent to Raeburn school because her parents are moving to Kenya and her father’s new employers will pay part to the school fees; Constance however feels that she is being abandoned. This is definitely a book for adults and we see life from many perspectives in this microcosm where teachers, house staff and pupils are all living together in the sultry atmosphere of one hot English summer term.
Some of the girls love being at the boarding school but for some it is a place where they feel they have been put because they are in the way. We get to know the teachers and gradually their own particular problems, past and present are revealed. Some of them are going through hard times and are reliving past memories of their youth when they were also unhappy.
Every aspect of life is covered from the young third year pupils, eager and excited to the seniors coming of age and learning what it is to be a grown up. Teachers and staff are coming to terms with their loves and hates and facing illness and death.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story, it took me back to my own childhood and my time at school, and it was easy to empathise with the girls and the small things that took on huge proportions in the glasshouse atmosphere of the somewhat isolated school.
Some of the girls love being at the boarding school but for some it is a place where they feel they have been put because they are in the way. We get to know the teachers and gradually their own particular problems, past and present are revealed. Some of them are going through hard times and are reliving past memories of their youth when they were also unhappy.
Every aspect of life is covered from the young third year pupils, eager and excited to the seniors coming of age and learning what it is to be a grown up. Teachers and staff are coming to terms with their loves and hates and facing illness and death.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story, it took me back to my own childhood and my time at school, and it was easy to empathise with the girls and the small things that took on huge proportions in the glasshouse atmosphere of the somewhat isolated school.
June 3, 2017
Abandoned the audiobook 1 hour 17 minutes. Nothing has happened, and I'm not drawn to any of the characters. Pity, because it sounded like the sort of classic boarding school book that I adore.
September 16, 2017
I first discovered No Talking After Lights aged 13, in a box of books that were being given away by the school library. It had a striking cover featuring a painting by Tamara de Lempicka, and had been signed by the author herself. To this day I wonder what I did with that copy. I don't understand the mediocre ratings on this site; I loved it on first acquaintance and have read it periodically ever since.
It's a story of many sides. The treacheries of adolescent "friendship," the communal nature of hysteria, how feckless and thoughtless adults can be towards the children in their charge. We have three narrators, all female, all superbly drawn; you can't analyse the novel without looking at them and their plot-lines.
Constance: The presumed author avatar, Constance is the intelligent and sensitive new girl who has been dumped there by her oblivious parents. Since she is a year younger and considerably brighter than her peers, she's a misfit from the start. Adrift and unhappy, she dreams of escape but becomes embroiled in the schemes of Charmian, the manipulative class flirt who uses her parent's divorce as an excuse for borderline sociopathic behaviour. I felt a close interest and sympathy in Constance, who reminded me of myself as a bookish preteen.
Henrietta: I realise I may be in the minority here, but I didn't warm to her as a character. Aristocracy fallen on hard times, she has never loved her terminally ill husband and struggles with the challenges this tumultuous term throws her way. It didn't help that her backstory was significantly more interesting than her present; I wanted to learn more about her girlhood and her brother Jamie, invalided in the war. She exemplifies Victorian values - every time she prayed or passed judgment on other people, I rolled my eyes. When it turns out her son has fallen in love and married a Chinese girl, I capered with glee!
Sylvia: I will go against the grain again. While other reviewers hate Sylvia, thinking there's too much focus upon her and wishing she'd get her comeuppance, I felt sympathy for her. Yes, she's an awful human being, and her lust for Hermione is criminal, but it's abundantly clear her father sexually abused her and she is still traumatised. Even without this detail (the hackneyed explanation for lesbianism back in the day), she's a working class Welsh woman who has had to come to terms with her homosexuality in the *Fifties*, of all the possible time periods. She would have been raised thinking that she was either mentally ill or a sinner, which could only have moulded her into the angry lush we meet. And poor Diana! I like that she's bi and genuinely seems to love Sylvia, despite everything.
I'm also puzzled by the continued references to the "bad ending." All storylines were wrapped up: Constance got what she wanted (though she changed her mind!); Henrietta was going to have to swallow her superiority and racism to embrace a non white daughter in law. As for Sylvia, her actions were foreshadowed by the memory of her father's funeral. She fantasised about lighting the gas then and she does it here, when she believes she has lost everything. What's everyone's beef?
It's a story of many sides. The treacheries of adolescent "friendship," the communal nature of hysteria, how feckless and thoughtless adults can be towards the children in their charge. We have three narrators, all female, all superbly drawn; you can't analyse the novel without looking at them and their plot-lines.
Constance: The presumed author avatar, Constance is the intelligent and sensitive new girl who has been dumped there by her oblivious parents. Since she is a year younger and considerably brighter than her peers, she's a misfit from the start. Adrift and unhappy, she dreams of escape but becomes embroiled in the schemes of Charmian, the manipulative class flirt who uses her parent's divorce as an excuse for borderline sociopathic behaviour. I felt a close interest and sympathy in Constance, who reminded me of myself as a bookish preteen.
Henrietta: I realise I may be in the minority here, but I didn't warm to her as a character. Aristocracy fallen on hard times, she has never loved her terminally ill husband and struggles with the challenges this tumultuous term throws her way. It didn't help that her backstory was significantly more interesting than her present; I wanted to learn more about her girlhood and her brother Jamie, invalided in the war. She exemplifies Victorian values - every time she prayed or passed judgment on other people, I rolled my eyes. When it turns out her son has fallen in love and married a Chinese girl, I capered with glee!
Sylvia: I will go against the grain again. While other reviewers hate Sylvia, thinking there's too much focus upon her and wishing she'd get her comeuppance, I felt sympathy for her. Yes, she's an awful human being, and her lust for Hermione is criminal, but it's abundantly clear her father sexually abused her and she is still traumatised. Even without this detail (the hackneyed explanation for lesbianism back in the day), she's a working class Welsh woman who has had to come to terms with her homosexuality in the *Fifties*, of all the possible time periods. She would have been raised thinking that she was either mentally ill or a sinner, which could only have moulded her into the angry lush we meet. And poor Diana! I like that she's bi and genuinely seems to love Sylvia, despite everything.
I'm also puzzled by the continued references to the "bad ending." All storylines were wrapped up: Constance got what she wanted (though she changed her mind!); Henrietta was going to have to swallow her superiority and racism to embrace a non white daughter in law. As for Sylvia, her actions were foreshadowed by the memory of her father's funeral. She fantasised about lighting the gas then and she does it here, when she believes she has lost everything. What's everyone's beef?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2025
Classrooms. Daisy chains. Kick the can. Sports day. Starting your period. Rumours. Secrets. Friendship. Sex. Rape. Suicide. Envy. Angst. Death.
Three generations of girls and women share their often unspoken darkest inner worlds whilst the constantly unravelling thread of boarding school life ties them all to one another. In particular the matriarch, headteacher Mrs. Henrietta Birmingham, presents a woman who has lived to tell the tale. Coming of age during the war, losing her brothers and her innocence at that too, Mrs. Birmingham gracefully demands an almost monarchical respect in every room she resides. She reflects the acceptable image of woman and her place in 1950s English society. Yet on the inside we hear from someone often held hostage by her own memories, plagued with grief and a guilt surrounding her duties. Though you can extract a quiet desperation as she divulges secret feelings of inadequacy in her husband, regret in their union and her living to serve those nearest and dearest to her, there is never a shred of self pity evoked. For a moment she considers if the friend of her brother Jamie, the boy whose presence she cannot erase ever since her youth due to his role in her becoming a woman, would’ve been a more suited counterpart in marriage but she quickly dismisses any such suggestion.
Henrietta Birmingham is a god fearing woman who believes that happiness is not granted in this life, that we should not feel so deserving of it and she despises those who do. Therefore the question of whether or not she is (happy) never enters her mind, for she dare not even ask it. Despite this, she holds within her a great empathy for those around her, especially the young girls within her care. Mrs. Birmingham never fails to show up as a calm, steady and benevolent figure to all who rely on her; students, teachers and her dying husband. As she keeps them all in her prayers, just as she did the german soldiers fighting her own kin, Henrietta continues to subside the involuntary moments of doubt and shame that prick up towards others and ultimately herself. She perseveres for more than anything she wants a better future for these young girls.
I unintentionally read this, a British 1950s female coming of age story, immediately after reading Lord of the Flies. Endless scenes are depicted and phrases shared that sent me down my own trail of memories, some that haven’t been evoked so strongly since they were formed. Running around the playground with reckless abandon, rolling in fresh cut grass, sweaty checked school dresses in peak summer heat, singing Christian hymns. Friendships and rivalries gained as quickly as they’re lost. A complete submergence in the presence, every day as fresh as the last. It was as real as it felt and even more crucial. I look back with a joy that’s exaggerated more in knowing how alike the experience was some 50 years later to these girls.
Three generations of girls and women share their often unspoken darkest inner worlds whilst the constantly unravelling thread of boarding school life ties them all to one another. In particular the matriarch, headteacher Mrs. Henrietta Birmingham, presents a woman who has lived to tell the tale. Coming of age during the war, losing her brothers and her innocence at that too, Mrs. Birmingham gracefully demands an almost monarchical respect in every room she resides. She reflects the acceptable image of woman and her place in 1950s English society. Yet on the inside we hear from someone often held hostage by her own memories, plagued with grief and a guilt surrounding her duties. Though you can extract a quiet desperation as she divulges secret feelings of inadequacy in her husband, regret in their union and her living to serve those nearest and dearest to her, there is never a shred of self pity evoked. For a moment she considers if the friend of her brother Jamie, the boy whose presence she cannot erase ever since her youth due to his role in her becoming a woman, would’ve been a more suited counterpart in marriage but she quickly dismisses any such suggestion.
Henrietta Birmingham is a god fearing woman who believes that happiness is not granted in this life, that we should not feel so deserving of it and she despises those who do. Therefore the question of whether or not she is (happy) never enters her mind, for she dare not even ask it. Despite this, she holds within her a great empathy for those around her, especially the young girls within her care. Mrs. Birmingham never fails to show up as a calm, steady and benevolent figure to all who rely on her; students, teachers and her dying husband. As she keeps them all in her prayers, just as she did the german soldiers fighting her own kin, Henrietta continues to subside the involuntary moments of doubt and shame that prick up towards others and ultimately herself. She perseveres for more than anything she wants a better future for these young girls.
I unintentionally read this, a British 1950s female coming of age story, immediately after reading Lord of the Flies. Endless scenes are depicted and phrases shared that sent me down my own trail of memories, some that haven’t been evoked so strongly since they were formed. Running around the playground with reckless abandon, rolling in fresh cut grass, sweaty checked school dresses in peak summer heat, singing Christian hymns. Friendships and rivalries gained as quickly as they’re lost. A complete submergence in the presence, every day as fresh as the last. It was as real as it felt and even more crucial. I look back with a joy that’s exaggerated more in knowing how alike the experience was some 50 years later to these girls.
November 12, 2025
This book was a bit of a mishmash between what could almost have been an Enid Blyton school story and the darker undertones of something much more adult. As an ex boarding pupil, there was much that was recognisable (though cultural references were a decade or so earlier than my experience), but I felt the author wasnt quite sure which direction she was headed in. The experience of the bullied lonely child during her first year away from home was well portrayed but her parents seemed somewhat unbelievable figures. The headmistress had a tragic back story but seemed almost too kind - maybe thats just because my headmistress (also very religious) was a much more malevolent. It was an interesting read but three stars only due to my feeling that it headed off in different directions and the ending seemed contrived. Worth a read though.
October 13, 2017
From the new girl struggling to be accepted to the teacher struggling to reign in her temper, this is the daily life & difficulties faced by both students & teachers. An engaging story set in a 1950's boarding school which in this case includes petty theft, an attempted rape & the school being infected with a serious viral disease......Enid Blyton it ain't :o)
May 15, 2019
An interesting read about a young lady struggling to adjust to her new surroundings in a new boarding school. She feels left out and struggles with bullying and fitting in-something many people can relate to. I liked how it was more realistic than a boarding school story where everyone seems to be always happy and always gets along with everyone.
August 13, 2021
very boring for me
i only wanted constances pov and not everyone in the book
adult fiction?? -lesbianism, rape, death
i only wanted constances pov and not everyone in the book
adult fiction?? -lesbianism, rape, death
May 6, 2025
extremely well written & easy to read. quite moving & sometimes funny. The characters believable. rather an abrupt ending, would like to have know exactly what happened to main characters
August 20, 2012
Not normally the type of book I pick up but I was on holiday and had just finished the book I was reading and needed another and this was one of four left in the gite in which I was staying. The other three were much too "chick-lit" for me. It was a very easy fun read and adequate enough for a holiday read but I didn't get a great deal of satisfaction at the end.
The story focuses on a new girl starting at a boarding school in the 1950s plus some focus on the personal lives of the teachers.
I don't think the story could work out if it was meant to be a children's book or an adult's book. The schoolgirl segments took up the majority of the story and were in much the same vain and content of a St Clare's or Mallory Towers book that I might have read 20 years ago as a teenager. Intermingled were segments focusing on the teachers - but only on two of the teachers despite others being mentioned quite a bit - and this got into more adult themes of marriage and sexuality. The good thing about the mixing of children and adult story lines was that you could get a picture of what was happening in different peoples' lives at the same time knowing that the schoolgirls were oblivious to the adult's dramas.
I wasn't quite sure where the story was going and it seems just to be a story about what happened during one school term (much like Mallory Towers/St Clare's) and the ending was disappointing. There was much too much focus on one particular storyline and I just wanted this done and dusted much sooner and the person to get their comeuppance.
Fine for a holiday read but you may be left feeling a little unsatisfied.
The story focuses on a new girl starting at a boarding school in the 1950s plus some focus on the personal lives of the teachers.
I don't think the story could work out if it was meant to be a children's book or an adult's book. The schoolgirl segments took up the majority of the story and were in much the same vain and content of a St Clare's or Mallory Towers book that I might have read 20 years ago as a teenager. Intermingled were segments focusing on the teachers - but only on two of the teachers despite others being mentioned quite a bit - and this got into more adult themes of marriage and sexuality. The good thing about the mixing of children and adult story lines was that you could get a picture of what was happening in different peoples' lives at the same time knowing that the schoolgirls were oblivious to the adult's dramas.
I wasn't quite sure where the story was going and it seems just to be a story about what happened during one school term (much like Mallory Towers/St Clare's) and the ending was disappointing. There was much too much focus on one particular storyline and I just wanted this done and dusted much sooner and the person to get their comeuppance.
Fine for a holiday read but you may be left feeling a little unsatisfied.
January 12, 2008
This book was a random find in my local library when i was a teenager. It's a grown-up take on the girls' boarding-school story, concentrating on a single term at Raeburn in 1952, where Constance King is the 'new girl'. Having been sent away while her parents go to work abroad, she hates the school on sight and longs to run away, but soon becomes embroiled in mysterious events there. The story deals with the common points of the girls' school story - prep, midnight feasts, bullying and friendships - but also looks at more serious issues such as family break-up, sexuality, alcoholism and a sexual assault. It's very evocative of the time, using 50s slang and 'teen talk', and i've always enjoyed re-reading it.
October 1, 2012
A bitter sweet tale of boarding school life in the 1950's.
Constance King is enrolled at Raeburn - which she loathes on sight. Her father has been seconded to Kenya, she must remain in England for her education. She finds it difficult to be accepted by the other girls and has to learn to negotiate her way through the rituals of boarding school life and her new teachers, all the while feeling betrayed by her parents.
It is an intelligent, sensitive tale, very accurate to the period - having been educated during the fifties, I could relate to it completely and it bought back many memories.
Great adult fiction
Constance King is enrolled at Raeburn - which she loathes on sight. Her father has been seconded to Kenya, she must remain in England for her education. She finds it difficult to be accepted by the other girls and has to learn to negotiate her way through the rituals of boarding school life and her new teachers, all the while feeling betrayed by her parents.
It is an intelligent, sensitive tale, very accurate to the period - having been educated during the fifties, I could relate to it completely and it bought back many memories.
Great adult fiction
June 1, 2010
poor ending but nice story
June 2, 2013
Great book, terrible ending. I have read other books featuring Constance and am very fond of her. I enjoyed finding out about her early life.
May 30, 2015
I found most of this book more suited to teenagers but with a quite macabre strain running through it, and the ending really weak.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews