Angela Brazil

A Popular Schoolgirl Angela Brazil

Ingred Saxon and her family struggle with their reduced circumstances in this girls' school story from Angela Brazil, published in 1920 and set in the direct aftermath of World War I. Although far more fortunate than most - Mr. Saxon and his two eldest sons, Athelstane and Egbert, return unscathed from the fighting - the family must confront (relative) financial hardship, as the income from their investments decreases, and Mr. Saxon, a trained architect, struggles to find his feet again in his profession. Forced to rent out Rotherwood, their family home, and to live in a small bungalow on the wolds outside Grovebury, the Saxons each have their cross to bear. Eldest son Athelstane must make do with a provincial medical degree, rather than the more prestigious London degree he had hoped for, while eldest daughter Quenrede (Queenie for short) must do without the elegant "coming out" she had envisioned. Ingred herself, who is the focus of the story, finds that she must become a boarder at the "hostel" - a sort of cross between a dormitory and boarding house - in order to continue to attend Grovebury College, the girls' school where she had long been a pupil. Keenly sensitive to slights both real and imagined, her distress at the change in her family's circumstances is compounded by the appearance on the scene of new girl Bess Haselford, whose family has rented Rotherwood, and who seemed to offer - through her musical talent and general popularity - a rival to Ingred.