This book was first published in 1934 and it’s just the second book by Gladys Mitchell which I have read. As with the other one, Watson’s Choice, Mrs Bradley is the sleuth. The school is putting on a performance of The Mikado, with most of the parts being taken by the staff. The show is only going ahead because Miss Ferris has been generous enough to finance the whole thing, because of this she’s given the part of Katisha, much to the disgust of the P.E. teacher who wanted the part. In fact, it turns out that the shy and retiring Miss Ferris has accumulated quite a few people who aren’t exactly fans – oops that was nearly a pun!
I quite enjoyed the characters and plot, but Mrs Bradley herself really annoyed me because she called everybody ‘child’. Just imagine how much you would hate anyone who was like that in reality.
Gladys Mitchell herself was a teacher in a high school and she captures the atmosphere of a school, behind the scenes. Obviously things haven’t changed too much in the past 80 years since this book was written, staff-wise. At one point a member of staff begins to talk about a pupil and everybody in the staff room shouts SHOP – and she has to pay a fine of one shilling. I wish I had thought of that years ago – I would be very rich by now.
Nice review. I have not read any books by Gladys Mitchell, so was interested in what you thought of this book. The setting sounds interesting.
TracyK,
Mitchell isn’t close to being my favourite vintage crime writer, but still worth reading as a vintage crime fan, if only so that you know what her writing was like. I meant to say that she had two mentions in this one about red-heads being a bit hot-headed, I think it might be a feature of her books, I want to read another one just to see if she mentions red-heads.
That is interesting, Katrina. I remember you mentioned the disparaging remarks about red heads in your review of the other book you read by Mitchell.
TracyK,
It’s seems strange – to me anyway but I think it was quite common in Victorian novels for the red haired person to be the baddie, almost like the guy with the black hat in an old western, but it really annoys me because I don’t think there’s any difference between getting at someone because of the colour of their hair – or the colour of their skin, both of them should be taboo, it’s not as if you can help what you are born like!
Agreed. Everyone has prejudices, even though it is embarrassing to admit it. How a person looks is obviously a poor indicator of their behavior or traits. I guess sometimes novelists are lazy in using stereotypes. Maybe not so much nowadays, as it is less acceptable.
TracyK,
Ginger-ism as they call it here is the only prejudice which is allowed, there have even been adverts which used red-headed people in a derogatory way. I’ve been told that it’s a hangover from when we were invaded by Romans, Normans, Saxons and whoever else. The original Celtic people often had red hair so it was a way of keeping them down. We’re all around the edges of the UK though Scotland,Ireland,Wales and Cornwall, not forgetting Brittany in what is now France.