A School for Sophie

Plot

Sophie Masters was school mistress at Oxley village in 1840. The school was maintained by a special trust, but there had to be at least three pupils on the roll or it would be closed. Elsa Bradley, the squire’s daughter, pretended to be Sophie’s friend but was plotting against her.

Notes

  • Artist: Dudley Wynne

Appeared

  • A School for Sophie – Bunty: #1673 (03 February 1990) –  #1683 (14 April 1990)

Jumping Jack

Plot

Tara Trent was looking after Jack, an abandoned pony who proved to be a natural jumper. Tara was working as groom for Mrs Lacey and had accompanied her and her daughter, Stella, to Ireland. Stella and Tara both entered in the working class pony competition.

Notes

Appeared

  • Jumping Jack – Bunty: #1666 (16 December 1989) –  #1677 (03 March 1990)

Model Princess

Plot

Princess Lana of Berkstein, was in Britain to learn social graces and perform a few public functions. A dream had come true when she was accepted by the House of Frage as a model. However, she didn’t dare let her Aunt Florence, the Duchess of Ranningham, find out, so she changed her name to Salty Smith and disguised herself by wearing a wig and sunglasses.

 

Notes

  • Art: Douglas Perry

Appeared

  • Model Princess – Bunty: #1633 (29 April 1989) –  #1642 (01 July 1989)

The Outcast (1989)

Plot

When her father died bankrupt, thirteen year old Anna Curtis was made to work as a kitchen maid in the school she had previously been head girl, in order to pay off her school fees. Her father’s ex-partner, believed that Mr Curtis had sent Anna a valuable diamond before he supposedly died.

Notes

Appeared

  • The Outcast – Bunty: #1628 (25 March 1989) –  #1637 (27 May 1989)

Mandy Annual 2007

This Christmas I’m looking at the last Mandy annual published. While it’s common to call these books annuals, they didn’t actually say that on the cover majority of time, instead it would be some variation on “Title for girls” or “Title Stories for Girls”, a trend that stayed with Bunty up to its last annual in 2009. Mandy however did start adding in “Annual” on the cover in 1999, calling it Mandy Annual 1999 for Girls, then it this last book it drops the for girls, though it those have the splash of  “For girls Like You!” so you could argue that is part of the title.

Inside the book itself there are there is traditional multi part story that would appear in Mandy annuals. There are 3 photo stories, reprinted stories and lots of features. (For just a list of contents go to the next page)

 

Picture Stories

Rowan Lodge [4 parts] (Pages: 7-12, 52-57, 91-96, 110-115)

Art: Peter Wilkes

Alice “Allie” Raymond is spending her school holidays with her grandmother while her parents are abroad. While at her grandmother’s another older relative, Auntie Mac, takes a fall. Nan and Allie go to stay with her at Rowan Grange. Auntie Mac, is nearly 100 year old and her first name is also Alice. She tells Allie stories of her brother, Cyril who was killed in World War I. Allie is quite bored in the isolated house and unhappy staying in the old nursery with its old hard furnishings and barred windows.

Exploring the gardens she finds a walled off part with a locked door, she climbs a tree and sees a  a small lodge but Mrs Green, the housekeeper, stops her from investigating further. Later back in her room, she finds a photo of Auntie Mac and her brother from when they were young.  Then she hears some noises in the locked cupboard, that startle her, but she reasons it must be the old heating system. On a trip to village, she meets a girl, Kelly, who tells her there is a legend that there is treasure hidden in the house and that Lady Jane Grey once stayed there. This story makes Allie think it will be more interesting to stay at Rowan Grange after all.

At the house, Allie explores the attic, she doesn’t find treasure, but she finds out more about Auntie Mac as she finds a painting of her dressed up for her birthday and Cyril’s old war uniform and a page from diary. Mrs Green again interrupts her. Allie’s not giving up yet though, down town she looks at old war monument and finds out Cyril was killed on Auntie Mac’s birthday. She meets Kelly again and tells her about noises she heard and some funny things going on, Kelly tells her she has heard there is supposed to be ghost in a secret room near the nursery and she should stay away from it.  Allie does not take the advice and asks Auntie Mac if there is a key to the room, but when they go to get key it is missing but Auntie Mac tells her about another way to enter.

Allie gets in and finds a map addressed to Lally from Rilly. Hearing someone coming she hides and is surprised to see Mrs Green enter with Kelly. It turns out she is Mrs Green daughter and had no where to spend the holidays and had been hiding out in the house. Allie says they can talk to Auntie Mac and she is sure Kelly could come and hang out with her. Allie keeps the map secret, she realises the map refers to Rowan Lodge rather than Grange and must be the place in the garden. Allie dreams of Cyril who warns her not to trust the Greens, when she wakes up the map is gone. She tells Nan and Auntie Mac everything, they find the Greens at the Lodge,they are trying to figure out a riddle on the map but they run off when confronted.Auntie Mac then tells Allie where to look, the map referred to an old game she used to play with her brother. They find a doll that Cyril had bought his sister before going off to war. Unknown to them Cyril is watching over events. Mrs Green is reported to police and Auntie Mac gives the doll to Allie, to keep it in the family, rather than selling it off. Allie senses Cyril and promises to look after the doll.

Staying Over (Pages: 30-37)

Reprint of Living with Lucy from Mandy Annual 1996

Jane and Lucy are best friends and want to spend all their time together, so when Lucy’s parents go away on holiday, they are excited that Lucy will stay at Jane’s for 2 weeks, but of course it doesn’t go as planned. Sharing homework lands them in trouble, Lucy annoys Jane with her untidiness, Lucy is upset when Jane borrows her new skirt without asking and then accidentally rips it and Jane has to turn down  date because her mother insists she can’t go out while she has a guest. At the end of the stay the girls are no longer talking to each other but when they unknowingly end up on a double date together they make up.

Long Distance (Pages: 60-64)

Reprinted from Judy Annual 1989

Art: John Armstrong

Jen uses her great grandmothers old fashioned phone as a prop for a play.One of the set people, Brian, says he will set up a ring for it, then during rehearsals when it rings Jen answers it and a girl talks about Bleriot flying over the English Channel. Jen thinks Brian has set up a fake message but he says that would be impossible on the old phone and that he hasn’t even set up the ringer. When leaving rehearsals, Jen hears phone ring again, she answers it and the same young girl asks for help, that she is trapped in a fire. Jen runs to the address given and finds herself transported to the past. SHe rescues the beridden girl before passing out from the smoke fumes. She wakes up her own bed, she tells her mom about the fire in her dream, her mom tells her its a funny coincidence that her great grandmother was rescued from a fire when she was bedridden as a young girl, and the girl who saved her disappeared. Jen believes she knows what happened, on the night of the play when the phone rings, she wonders what will happen.

Sadie’s Summer (Pages: 69-74)

Art: “B Jackson”

Reprinted from Bunty Annual 1998

Sadie works for a family in Victorian times, she is excited when the family plan to go to seaside and bring the servants with them, but the master cancels all time off, so they are expected to work and there will be no opportunity for Sadie to see the beach.  A chance encounter with a dog, she meets a young girl, who insists on rewarding her for catching her dog. She comes from an influential family and is able to get Sadie a day off so she can fulfill her wish to enjoy the seaside. Even better the family offer a Sadie a job so she gets a job with a nicer family and to live by the seaside permanently.

Lucky! (Pages: 81-87)

Art: Juan Velasco

Reprint of Lucky and Lisa from Mandy Annual 1996

This is another reprinted story, it’s also the only story in the annual that was a weekly serial originally appearing as Lucky and Lisa in M&J comic issues #211 to #231. In this story Lisa and her horse Lucky win a place at a European ‘Rural Riders’ Camp, which big-headed Maxwell is also going to. Maxwell is sure he will win the trophy for best rider at the end of the week. He goes to practice the cross country route, but his horse, Midnight, slips and gets stuck, Lucky and Lisa find them and help them out. Maxwell is even happy for Lisa when she wins the trophy at end of camp for a good showing at all events and being most helpful member.

Timeout! (Pages: 98-102)

Art: John Armstrong

Reprint of Wishing Your Life Away from Judy Annual 1989

A second John Armstrong story and both have a label of “it’s spooky”. In this story Sandy buys a second hand clock and finds she can use it to skip forward in time. She uses it to skip boring stuff like homework and tests and skip forward to when her favourite TV show is on and to the weekend, but she doesn’t think of the consequences disappearing for large chunks of time. As time still happens normally for everyone else, her parents call the police, when she doesn’t return from school. Sadie goes to shed to try and fix things winding the clock backwards, but it is slower process. She borrows her dads hand drill to help but then accidentally winds it forward 10 years! Eventually she manages to wind it back, injuring her hand but she is home and decides to give the clock back to shop.

 

Text Stories

The Kidnap (Pages: 26-27)

Writer: Susan Elizabeth Issacs

Art: Susannah Fishbourne

Clara has a lucky toy rabbit mascot named Carlos. Another girl Andrea teases her about it, so when Carlos goes missing with a note demanding money for his return, she accuses Andrea of stealing it and says she will tell her mom. Andrea breaks down crying that her mom left a few months ago. They come to an understanding, that Andrea has been teasing Clara because se was jealous of her home life, but they will be friends now. It turns out Carlos was stolen by some boys as April fools joke, and her friend Sasha was in on it.  One of the boys uses the opportunity to ask her to an upcoming dance, which she is happy about.

Considering how upset she was when Carlos was missing and how angry she was when she thought it was Andrea, Clara takes it surprisingly well, when it turns out to be a “joke” by her friend!

It’s Magic! (Pages: 66-67)

Writer: Tracy Joy Holroyd

Art: Susannah Fishbourne

Amy likes a boy John who cycles by her house every weekend, she finds excuses to work in the garden but he never notices her. She talks about her troubles to her cat, Wush. She then has the idea to try out a magic spell, from a book her mom got her for the birthday. The next time she sees John, it seems he is going to ride straight by again, until Wush suddenly runs across him causing him to crash. Amy helps him and insists he come into house to recover. It turns out he likes Amy too but was too shy to say anything before. So Wush has helped Amy out, almost like he knew what he was doing!

Photo Stories

Only a Name! (Pages: 17-22)

Daisy is annoyed with her older sister, Poppy, who keeps calling her Daze and Dopey Daze. After talk with mom, Poppy promises to try and call her by her actual name. When Poppy’s boyfriend breaks up with her because a girl tells him Poppy has been cheating on him and Poppy can’t remember were she was, Daisy saves the day with her diary. She doesn’t mind sharing it with Poppy as it is only full of day to day activities rather than any secrets, though Poppy does notice, after all her complaining about her name, that Daisy has her own nickname, “Pops” for her sister.

The One For Me! (Pages: 41-47)

Reprint of “The Boy For Me!” from Bunty Annual 1998

Louise is excited when Paul asks her out but he does not get along with the dog her family are currently fostering.  The dog, Ben, is a bit troublesome, but Louise is hoping she can convince her parents to let her keep him, when Ben warns family about leak in the bathroom, they come around and agree he can stay. Paul isn’t happy to hear this news and gives her an ultimatum, him or the dog. It’s an easy choice for Louise and she chooses Ben.

Secret Admirer! (Pages: 120-125)

Dawn finds a note in her book from a secret admirer and with the help of her friend Steve is trying to track down who wrote it. She narrows it down to boys in her English class and can eliminate some as they already have girlfriends or are interested in in someone else. She eventually finds out it was Steve who wrote the note but was nervous if she would see him as more than a friend. Dawn is happy at the revelation, as she likes him too but also didn’t think he fancied her.

Features

There’s a whole variety of features, with puzzles, quizzes and factual features, plenty to keep reader occupied.

Puzzles

  • Spring: picture and wordsearch (Pages: 2-3)
  • Summer: picture and wordsearch (Pages: 28-29)
  • A B C (Pages: 38-39)
  • Criss-Cross! (Pages: 65)
  • Autumn: picture and wordsearch (Pages: 78-79)
  • Spot the Differences! (Pages: 90)
  • True or False? (Pages: 103)
  • Puzzles! Puzzles! Puzzles! (Pages: 106-107)
  • Winter: picture and wordsearch (Pages: 126-127)

Quizzes

  • How Superstitious Are You? (Pages: 16)
  • Dodgy or Divine? (Pages: 48-49)
  • Ready, Steady, Go! (Pages: 80)
  • Are You Psychic or Sceptic? (Pages: 108)
  • Best Friends! (Pages: 118-119)

Posters

  • Poster: Fearne Cotton (Pages: 6)
  • Poster: Girls Aloud (Pages: 40)
  • Poster: Konnie Huq (Pages: 75)
  • Poster: Hilary Duff (Pages: 97)

Reader Features

These articles focused on girls, around the readers age and different aspects of their life like what their bedroom is like, what their favourite hobby is and favourite things.

  • Girls! Girls! Girls! : Room to Talk! (Pages: 13-15)
  • Girls! Girls! Girls! : It’s Fun! (Pages: 50)
  • Girls! Girls! Girls! : Meet Me! [Sarah] (Pages: 76-77)
  • Girls! Girls! Girls! : Meet Me! [Caroline] (Pages: 104-105)

Factual Features

Different articles, from animals, celebrities, dolls houses and writing tips from Tracy Joy Holroyd, who wrote the text story “It’s Magic” for the annual.

  • We Love Dolphins! (Pages: 23-25)
  • Focus on… Jennifer1  [Aniston] (Pages: 51)
  • House Proud! (Pages: 58-59)
  • The Write Way! (Pages: 68)
  • Mystic Maggies! (Pages: 88-89)
  • Focus on… Jennifer2  [Lopez] (Pages: 109)
  • Sleep Tight! (Pages: 116-117)

Final Thoughts

This is a good annual, although it has a lot of reprints, most readers wouldn’t have seen them before. Obviously the weekly M&J issues had long finished at this stage, and there is no big presence of regular characters here, only Lucky and Lisa appeared in M&J before. This is change from the previous years’ Mandy annual which had a lot of recognisable characters; Pennys Place, Angel, Wee Slavey and Cinderella Jones. I enjoyed the long story Rowan Lodge, with its mystery and supernatural elements, I think it’s not as strong as some previous long stories we’ve seen, but decent enough. Timeout! is my favourite story here, some memorable imagery with Sandy in the future.  While we get drama, mystery, spooky, I think we are missing some humour stories in this annual, the photo stories are fine, pretty standard, the text stories are fine, out of the two, I liked It’s Magic! best.

With this being the last Mandy annual,  I noted it has the same number of pages as previous annuals, while Bunty would go on to have 2 more annuals after this, there was a reduction in pages, likely due to decline in readership not able to justify the production costs. Mandy had a good run, 37 annuals, and ended its run decently.

Sandra and the Runaway Ballet [1961]

  • Sandra and the Runaway Ballet – Judy: #86 (02 Sep. 1961) – #106 (20 Jan. 1962)
  • Reprinted – Judy: #387 (10 June 1967) – #408 (4 November 1967)
  • Reprinted as Sandra of the Castle Ballet – Lucky Charm: #2 (1979)
  • Art: Paddy Brennan

Plot

Picking up from the Sandra of the Castle Ballet story, Sandra Wilson and the rest of the class are still at the island castle, with the holiday season at a close, Madame Sierra collapses from exhaustion. Her doctor advises her she needs complete rest for six months, so she heads for Switzerland, leaving the school in the care of an old friend, Sarah Lester. She has placed the school in the wrong hands, as Sarah, a good dancer but never a star, is jealous of Madame Sierra’s success and wants to ruin the school. She acts lazy not showing up to practices, she doesn’t teach the girls anything, cancels practices as punishment and they find their dancing getting worse. Knowing that this can’t continue, Sandra comes up with the plan for the class to runaway to London to get jobs on stage for experience and use their earnings for ballet lessons.

Needing money for their trip, one of the girls Marion convinces her father Mr Pickford, who runs the holiday camp, to give them the money to go. As they had been entertaining the holidaymakers he actually had money set aside for them, so he tells them they earned it. There good start doesn’t last long as a policeman sees them board the train and is suspicious and alerts Sarah Lester. When they get of train in London there are more police waiting for them. They split up and most of them manage to evade the police, but 2 girls are caught until Sandra manages to cause a distraction and they get away. They end up at a rough boarding house and while practicing ballet, and disaster strikes when Rose takes a fall when a banister breaks. Rose is badly injured and has to lie in plaster for several weeks, Lois volunteers to stay back and look after her while the other girls go look for work. The girls have no luck the first day, and when they get back seems they missed a caller description matching Sarah. It seems their luck is turning when the caller returns and it is Marion’s aunt with news of an audition, but their luck doesn’t last long as Sarah is on the hunt and tracks them down to the audition. She is determined none of them will be ballerinas. Sandra, Pearl, Alicia and Marion all pass the first part of the audition but when they have to audition with a male partner, Sarah has gotten to him first. Ramon an old friend of Sarah’s makes the girls look clumsy,and they lose out on the part. Knowing where they are now, Sarah will continue to make trouble for them.

Sandra is not giving up so easily, she comes up with an act the girls can tryout for variety theatre. Sarah meanwhile has manipulated their landlady to get them thrown out. They get new lodgings but Rose can no longer stay with them and goes to hospital. The girls have no luck at auditions, but after performing at hospital Sandra realises that they have been too tense at the auditions. They succeed at their next audition when Sandra helps them relax, making them believe they are not being watched. But Sarah is ready to stop them again, she gets the chorus girls that the Castle Ballet girls might replace, to confront the girls. They manage to call police and get to the theatre with a little delay and have a successful performance resulting in a month’s contract.

After nights of being booed on stage, they finally find out that Sarah has been the one making trouble for them, including hiring the roughs to boo them. Undeterred they have now earned enough  money to get lessons from reputable teacher, Madame Bartok. At the dance school they see an old class picture with Madame Sierra and Sarah. Sandra wants to investigate further and tracks down the old teacher, Madame Markus. Nina Sierra and Sandra had been good friends until after an audition for a touring company that they both wanted, Nina got picked and Sarah vowed revenge. Sandra figures out Sarah is ruining their career chances as part of her revenge. Meanwhile, the girls get a letter from Madame Sierra demanding they return to school with Sarah. Not wanting to anger Madame Sierra most of the girls agree to go back with Sarah until Sandra returns and tells them the truth of Sarah’s past.

Taking more drastic measures, Sarah hires some people to kidnap Sandra. They lock her in a boat but Sandra does risky thing of setting fire on oil on the water next to boat and escapes back to theatre when the coastguard come to rescue her. Rose is still in hospital during all this and while she should be walking,she won’t even try as she is disheartened believing she’ll never dance again. Sandra comes up with the idea to spend their money on pavlova ballet slippers to encourage her and Rose does start to recover. With their time in the Victory theatre finishing, Sarah  is up to her tricks again to get them to spend last of their money. Things are looking bad for the girls and then Madame Sierra shows up with Sarah, not listening to their protest, she demands they go back to school. But she slips Sandra a note to trust her, she pretends to leave the girls with Sarah,but sneaks back and hears all her revenge plan. She banishes Sarah and having recovered enough she stays on to teach the girls again. A few weeks later Rose returns, then Madame brings Edmund Lawrence of a prestigious ballet company for the girls to audition for. He chooses Sandra, so her time at the Castle Ballet ends, but she is off on new adventures.

 

Notes

This would be last time Sandra’s story involved Madame Sierra’s Castle school. Of course they don’t spend a lot of time actually at the castle in this story, but the girls are together throughout and show their closeness, when all are genuinely happy for Sandra’s success in the end, which contrasts to Sarah and Nina’s friendship. Sandra being the main character is driving force for moving the plot forward and coming up with solutions, getting them to go to London, helping them succeed at audition, tracking down Sarah’s old teacher. When Sandra is unknowingly kidnapped and the girls may have to dance with her, they concede that no one can dance the part as well, while they don’t give up and make do with a substitute, there is relief when Sandra reappears in time for the performance. Sandra certainly is the star of everything! It is good to see some of the other girls have some character as well though, Pearl and Alicia don’t go along with the rest of the girls who are going to go back with Sarah and we see Rose struggle through her own crisis after her injury.

There are some questionable actions by some of the adults in the story. Mr Pickford is in support of his daughter Marion and the girls scheme, but never tells Madame Sierra the problems that Sarah is causing. Initially they plan to say at Rose’s aunts boarding house but as its full they have to make do with the rougher one, Rose’s aunt never inquires after them. Although we never see Rose’s aunt so its unclear if she was expecting or interested in helping the girls in the first place. Sandra does some risky things such as setting fire near boat, she was locked in, lucky it works out in her favor! The story does keep things exciting and quick-paced. Sarah is a sneaky antagonist, she manages to cause a lot of trouble for the girls in London, before they find out she in the city. Luckily she is exposed for what she has done. While readers probably would have expected that the girls would win in the end, it is more surprising that Sandra leaves the school,ending an important chapter of her life.

I mentioned in the previous Sandra post it was odd that the change of title to “Sandra of the Castle Ballet” was for just a short period. In the Lucky Charm reprint it is called “Sandra of the Castle Ballet” and does have that story arc but the majority of reprint is the Runaway Ballet story. It is interesting that the Secret Ballet/Castle Ballet title was dropped after her first return, and the story titles then changed per story arc, after the Runaway Ballet, the next issue starts with Sandra and the Frightened Teacher. No matter what the title Sandra remained a popular character appearing in different sequels, reprinted stories as well as annuals and picture libraries throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

List of  Sandra stories