What do you think?
Rate this book
Junior Captain
- GenresSchool Stories
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
4 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Breary
57 books1 followerBorn in Brixham, Devon, in 1907, Nancy Breary was the eldest daughter of bank manager Arthur Henry Breary, and his wife, Edith Florence. Her younger sister, Gertrude, known as Gretchen, was born in 1908, and her younger brother, Gerald, in 1913. The family moved to London when Breary was still a baby, living in Clapham Park, and then Streatham. She was educated at Kingsdown School in Dorking, where she was sent as a boarder, from 1918 to 1924.
Intending to become a dietician, Breary took a domestic science course upon leaving school, but ended up working as a mannequin in a court dressmaker’s shop instead, while also running the family home, after her mother became an invalid. Breary wrote in her spare time at first, eventually switching over to writing as a full-time occupation in 1943, following the publication of Give a Form a Bad Name. Her sister Gretchen, who worked as an illustrator (her work was credited to "G.E. Breary"), was the primary breadwinner in the family, during this period. The Brearys lived briefly in Canada, in the 1950s, before returning to Great Britain in 1955, settling first in Rye, and then Winchelsea. Nancy Breay died, in Winchelsea, in 1988.
Breary was a prolific contributor to the Girls' School Story genre, publishing her first novel, Give a Form a Bad Name, in 1943, and going on to author twenty-six more, concluding with the 1962 Too Many Girls. Although her work does address some of the realities of the school experience - the jealousies amongst the girls, the unpleasantness of being new, and an outsider, the conflict between duty and pleasure - it is rarely intended to be a depiction of "normal life" in a boarding school. Rather, her books offer amusing stories - sometimes almost parodies - complete with many over-the-top elements, from schoolgirl feuds, to secret societies.
Intending to become a dietician, Breary took a domestic science course upon leaving school, but ended up working as a mannequin in a court dressmaker’s shop instead, while also running the family home, after her mother became an invalid. Breary wrote in her spare time at first, eventually switching over to writing as a full-time occupation in 1943, following the publication of Give a Form a Bad Name. Her sister Gretchen, who worked as an illustrator (her work was credited to "G.E. Breary"), was the primary breadwinner in the family, during this period. The Brearys lived briefly in Canada, in the 1950s, before returning to Great Britain in 1955, settling first in Rye, and then Winchelsea. Nancy Breay died, in Winchelsea, in 1988.
Breary was a prolific contributor to the Girls' School Story genre, publishing her first novel, Give a Form a Bad Name, in 1943, and going on to author twenty-six more, concluding with the 1962 Too Many Girls. Although her work does address some of the realities of the school experience - the jealousies amongst the girls, the unpleasantness of being new, and an outsider, the conflict between duty and pleasure - it is rarely intended to be a depiction of "normal life" in a boarding school. Rather, her books offer amusing stories - sometimes almost parodies - complete with many over-the-top elements, from schoolgirl feuds, to secret societies.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 27, 2025
Nicky knows that being Junior Captain wouldn’t be easy. But surely being reunited with her sister Gay will make everything better? And then Gay arrives - and her complete lack of interest in knowing the school rules, never mind keeping them, makes everything worse…
Nancy Breary always seems to write with one eyebrow cocked in amused appreciation of the desperate sincerity with which younger girls want to do everything right and of the despair into which they plunge when things go wrong. This is one of her strongest books, especially in the portrait of Head Girl Natalie, who is witty and charming but a little too fond of delegating responsibility to others and then dispensing wisdom from on high when they inevitably fail. Nicola’s growing recognition of this and Natalie’s self-awareness when called out on it are some of the best bits of this book.
I was much less convinced by Gay, who apparently has been at another school for years but seems utterly unaware of even the concept of unspoken school customs. If she had been homeschooled, or one of the many child stars we see in books, she would be more believable, but then one of the book’s plot points doesn’t work. Also problematic is the treatment of Esme, the unpopular prefect, and the book’s suggestion that she should have stayed in her humbler lane instead of mixing with these well-off girls. But this is one of those school stories that delightfully evoke summer, and it is all the better for Nicola being shown to be a wise and competent leader in her own way, where so often books with this trope have our heroine almost collapse under the strain.
Nancy Breary always seems to write with one eyebrow cocked in amused appreciation of the desperate sincerity with which younger girls want to do everything right and of the despair into which they plunge when things go wrong. This is one of her strongest books, especially in the portrait of Head Girl Natalie, who is witty and charming but a little too fond of delegating responsibility to others and then dispensing wisdom from on high when they inevitably fail. Nicola’s growing recognition of this and Natalie’s self-awareness when called out on it are some of the best bits of this book.
I was much less convinced by Gay, who apparently has been at another school for years but seems utterly unaware of even the concept of unspoken school customs. If she had been homeschooled, or one of the many child stars we see in books, she would be more believable, but then one of the book’s plot points doesn’t work. Also problematic is the treatment of Esme, the unpopular prefect, and the book’s suggestion that she should have stayed in her humbler lane instead of mixing with these well-off girls. But this is one of those school stories that delightfully evoke summer, and it is all the better for Nicola being shown to be a wise and competent leader in her own way, where so often books with this trope have our heroine almost collapse under the strain.
Displaying 1 of 1 review