Boarding School Fantasies

I *loved* boarding school books. Still do if I'm being honest. Some of it was about the potential (very rarely realised) for spanking, but mostly it was just about the whole world. The idea of being sent of on a train to boarding school, hockey or lacrosse stick in hand, to share a dormitory with other girls, live the daily rituals of meals, prayers, uniform, lessons, games, time in the common room, thrilled me to bits. There was just something about the rituals associated with boarding school that I loved the idea of. A mysterious world full of special rites of passage and vocabulary that the new girl had to learn. I mean, what exactly was a Middle?! I also enjoyed series of books - seeing characters progress over the years from shy and timid first years, new to their houses, with crushes on prefects, to being those responsible and "elderly" prefects was always a joy. I longed to be one of those girls, part of that world. Of course, the reality is I would have hated it. Sharing a room constantly with people? Bathing in a few inches of water? Hearty runs around the hockey field? I would have been the worst boarding school girl ever. Didn't stop me loving the dream though.
If I recall rightly, my introduction to the world of boarding school books was probably Enid Blyton's St Clare's, and the infinitely superior Mallory Towers series. For some reason I think the Naughtiest Girl books mostly passed me by, I certainly don't have any real memories of them.
I loved the Antonia Forest books about the Marlow family, consisting of six sisters (and probably some brothers, though I was never much interested in them in boarding school books!), and focusing on the youngest two, twins Nicola and Lawrie's trials and tribulations and they followed their successful elder sisters to school. I also discovered the Trebizon books, by Anne Digby which I enjoyed, though they were much more contemporary than most of my previous reading. All of these were series consisting of between about 6 and 10 books.
My holy grail, however, was just around the corner, for I was about to discover an author who gladdened the heart of any serial lover: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, the author of 58 Chalet School books. Yes, you read that right. 58! This series follows a school from its founding, with 3 pupils, through to the eldest daughters of the original first pupil leaving school. The books would never be classed as great literature, or even as particularly well written, but the appeal for me was the consistency of the characters through the years, both in terms of their personality traits, and their presence in the series. The consistency of the world as well - the "ideals" of the Chalet School and its traditions stayed the same through all the books. No, they may not have been well written, but the universe that Brent-Dyer created was an intriguing and enticing one for any young boarding school series fan.
So while my primary motivator for reading boarding school books was not the spanking references, I can't help feeling that years (and I do mean years, most of those books are still sitting in storage!) of indoctrination have left me with a taste for a certain type of school girl role play (and of course sadly departed boarding school blogs!)