Redhead at School

by Constance Savery

Charity Browning has been sent to stay with the Chevenix family at St. Matthew's Vicarage and to attend King Arthur's School. Charity, who is accustomed to getting what she wants, so alienates the Chevenix children that she gets little friendship from anyone other than their foster sister, Ivory Hampton. Then Charity and Ivory do something so outrageous that the whole school is angered.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Born in 1897, in All Saints' Vicarage in Froxfield, Wiltshire, Constance Winifred Savery was the daughter of the Rev. John Manly Savery, and his wife, Constance Eleanor Harbord Savery. The family moved to Birmingham when she was nine years old, and Savery was educated there, at King Edward VI High School for Girls. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied English, and was in the first cohort of woman students to be granted degrees, in 1920. She earned a Post-Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education from Birmingham University, and M.A. from Oxford in 1927, and taught briefly (and unhappily), before her mother's death necessitated a return to her father's household in Middleton-cum-Fordley, Suffolk, where she helped him with the parish work.

Savery never returned to teaching, earning her living from then on by writing. She published close to fifty books, and numerous short stories and articles, all informed by her deep Christian (Anglican) faith. She died in 1999.

Reviews

[Alias · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, cozy little book. It's been a while since I've read a "new" Constance Savery book, and I enjoyed the experience very much. This was the first book of hers I've read that was written in first person, which is neither here nor there, but was a surprise to me at first. Even in a short little school story like this, I was struck by the excellence of Savery's writing. It has a simplicity without being cliched. Where a tired figure of speech might be expected, Savery uses her own unique similes that make the page come alive.

The characters all seem very real, like they have lives of their own that began long before the book began, like they're doing plenty of things during the course of the book, even if it's not written about, and they will continue having adventures even when the book is over. There are a lot of characters, and they've (almost, anyway) all got distinct personalities, and probably my main complaint is that we don't get to spend enough time with them. The book feels a little episodic, and fairly short. I wished it would have been longer and we could have gotten to know these characters better and had more adventures with them, cause they really are delightful.