Changes at Melling

Melling School #9

by Margaret Biggs

This summer term ought to be a lovely one for Kate, but it brings some surprising changes, particularly for her friend Becky, who may have to leave Melling. This seems to be driving a rift between the two girls, and Kate finds a new friend in an unexpected place. Can she and Becky regain their old friendship? There is also an environmental change which has driven away some of the most beautiful Fen butterflies, and a trip to Wicken Fen is an important part of what Kate comes to think of as ‘the butterfly summer’. Schooldays are punctuated by weekends at home, when there is an extended visit by Aunt Susan, and then Kate acts as bridesmaid at an important family wedding. During this summer term many people have to adjust to changes in their lives, and even Aunt Susan has to grow up at last.

Genres: School Stories

182 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

Born in 1929 in Orpington, Kent, Margaret Biggs was the daughter of a local Sales Manager for Chivers. Her family moved to Barnet, in Hertfordshire, in 1935, where she attended Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School until 1946. When she left school, she went to work for the editorial department of the Evans Brothers publishing company, in Bloomsbury. She married David Cadney in 1953, and moved with him to Finchley, and then (in the 1960s) to Solihull, in the West Midlands, where she still lives today. She has one daughter and two sons.

The author of a number of popular and collectible girls' school stories, Margaret Biggs is probably best known for her Melling School series, which is set at a weekly boarding school and is unusual, in that it shows boarding school life and home life side by side. The interaction between girls and boys is also atypical of the genre at that time.

Reviews

[Lady_bercilak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bittersweet read - on the one hand I enjoyed one more story of Melling and its inhabitants and friends, but on the other hand I knew this was the final Melling story, and I felt I wanted to read it very slowly to savour it as long as possible. Kate is an appealing protagonist, with all the charm of her mother and aunts but with a personality completely her own. I also enjoyed reading about Susan’s romance, though I would have liked more about Roddy, whom I much preferred to Susan. I was sorry that the romance for Roddy which was hinted at in the earlier books had not eventuated.

[Jen Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The whole series of Mellings stories are wonderful and I just adore the two families at its centre. This last one ends the series beautifully. Butterflies, fairytale endings and people learning and growing. Delightful!