Characters / Malory Towers

Characters who appear in the Malory Towers series:

Students

Introduced In First Term At Malory Towers

Darrell Rivers

The original focus of the series. An averagely intelligent, sensible girl who loves being at Malory Towers and enjoys every aspect of life there. She later discovers that she has a talent for writing. Head-girl of the fourth form, games captain in the fifth form and also head-girl of the school in her last year.

• Beware the Nice Ones: One of the nicest girls in the form...but has an explosive temper that can escalate to physical violence when provoked.
• Big Sister Instinct: Particularly protective of her little sister Felicity in the first term.
• Cool Big Sis: To Felicity. She brings up their relationship when explaining to Sally why it's fun to have a younger sister.
  "It's lovely to have a sister. Mine looks up to me no end and thinks I'm wonderful."
• Blinded by Rage: Tends to happen when she really loses her temper. At one point she even has to resign as head girl of her form for losing it with June.
• Dumb, but Diligent: Downplayed in that Darrell is not really dumb, but discovers in her first term that if she slackens at all, her work will suffer. Contrasting Alicia.
• Fatal Flaw: Her Hair-Trigger Temper, which tends to get her into trouble throughout the books. She's very aware that it's a problem, and she promises over and over not to lose it again, but it takes a while for her to be strong enough to keep that promise.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: When she loses her temper, she really loses it. To be fair, it mainly comes to the fore when she thinks someone is being unfair or a bully, but she mentions that her father had the same problem, but has learned to control it and only loses it over things worth losing your temper for, which she intends to learn to do.
• Nice Girl: One of the kindest and most straightforward girls in the series. In the fifth book, her attempts to keep the peace has a couple of the girls tease her, calling her "Saint Darrell"

Alicia Johns

The main joker of Darrell's form. Honest and well-liked but rather hard-hearted and very snarky.

• Birds of a Feather: The base of Betty's and her friendship is that they are both cheeky pranksters WHO enjoy playing practical tricks.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: She doesn't have to work hard to get top marks, and usually doesn't bother.
• Brutal Honesty: Alicia doesn't sugarcoat her words, and isn't afraid to say very insulting things even if it angers others.
• Deadpan Snarker: She is known for her sharp tongue and can say very cutting remarks towards those she dislikes.
• The Determinator: Won't give up on any skill or outcome. In the fifth book, it's state that despite being the hardest thing she's ever done because it requires more practice than brains and skill, she won't give up on her conjuring and juggling for the pantomime because she wants to do it perfectly.

Gwendoline Lacey

A spoiled girl with a dramatic personality. She is disliked by the other girls due to her vanity and emotional outbursts.

• All of the Other Reindeer: She's easily the least popular girl in her form, and no one really pays attention to her or talks to her unless they have to. Justified as Gwendoline is vain, spoiled, attention-seeking and manipulative, and her treatment by her classmates is not portrayed sympathetically.
• Book Dumb: One of the worst and laziest students in her grade.
• Dumb Blonde: Very proud of her long fair hair and always bottom of the form.
• False Friend: To Mary-Lou in the first book. She befriends her, but plays tricks on her and tries to frame Darrell to get back at her for a conflict earlier on (which ironically happened because Darrell saw her bullying Mary-Lou).
• It's All About Me: Her general mindset.
• Meaningful Name: Most likely intentional, but her name means "fair", and she has long fair hair.
• Rich Bitch: Gwen comes from a very wealthy family who have spoiled her (except her intelligent father) and as such is vain, shallow, idiotic, naive and cruel.
• Vanity is Feminine: As well as being extremely vain, Gwen is also very feminine. She shudders at not wearing a dress, is more concerned about her looks than her health, refuses to take part in sports as she deems it to unfeminine and expects to be waited on even at school hand foot and finger.

Sally Hope

A sensible, quiet girl who becomes Darrell's best friend. She lacks Darrell's fierce temper, and was head girl in the second form, also substituting for Darrell briefly in the fourth form.

• Fatal Flaw: She gets jealous easily, and this serves as a point of conflict with Darrell in earlier books.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In the first book, she's so jealous of her baby sister that she ignores her at home and then denies having a sister at all when Darrell brings it up. In a later book, when she arrives at school late and Darrell has been hanging out with Alicia, she doesn't want to share Darrell's friendship.
• Infant Sibling Jealousy: Towards her baby sister at first. Darrell uses her own experience with her little sister to turn things around, and by the time of the second book, Sally is over her jealousy completely.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Calm, collected blue to Darrell's hot tempered red.

Mary-Lou

A very shy girl who is scared of almost everything, and nice to everyone. She often shows exceptional courage when pushed.

• Cowardly Lion: Scared of everything, but does things like throwing herself into the pool to save Darrell even though she can't swim well, and taking Daphne's parcel to the post office in the dark on a cliff during a gale even though she knows that she might be blown off the cliff. She also does better in her School Cert than expected. In general, she is at her best when she's under pressure. Averted when Darrell attempts to make her ashamed of being scared to make her face her fears - however, this treatment makes her worse.
• Morality Pet: To Daphne, eventually.
• Nice Girl: One of the nicest girls in the form. Never says anything mean and is always willing to look up to others.
• Shrinking Violet: Starts off this way and never quite gets over it. Still, she goes as far as to successfully play the lead role in her form's pantomime of "Cinderella".
• Third Wheel: Up until the second book, she tags along with Darrell and Sally, and is happy to be their second-best friend, even though she knows they prefer each other over her.
• Token Good Teammate: She's the only one who doesn't join in with teasing Catherine in the fifth book, allowing her to help her out.

Katherine

The head girl of the first form in the first book. She did not appear in subsequent books.

• Reasonable Authority Figure: How she's portrayed.

Jean McDonald

A down-to-earth Scottish girl. She becomes the head-girl of the third form, but is moved up to the form above later on.

Irene

A musical genius with absolutely no common sense.

• Genius Ditz: Exceptional at maths and music, but forgetful and scatterbrained in normal life.
• Running Gag: Forgetting to bring her health certificate. In the sixth book, she purposely gives Matron a photo of herself, a dog's license and a sketch of her scolding Irene for forgetting it before giving her the real thing.

Emily Lake

A quiet girl who is very good at needlework. Darrell asks her out during her first half-term, but she only appears in the first two books.

Betty Hill

Alicia's best friend. She's more daring, and while most known characters are in North Tower, the matrons refused to have her and Alicia in the same tower, so Betty was put in West Tower.

• Satellite Character: She only appears around Alicia.

Introduced In Second Form At Malory Towers

Belinda Morris

An artistic girl with no common sense. Irene's best friend.

• Ditzy Genius: An amazing artist, but a total scatterbrain. Intentionally written to have enough similarities to Irene to make them perfect friends.
• Eccentric Artist
• Art Reflects Personality: Belinda's often very candid and, she's also rather unkind in her art, including drawing pictures of Catherine as an angel to mock her several times, and of Mam'zelle Rougier as an assassin. Her favourite thing to do is collect people's scowls - her first reaction on seeing any scowl is to tell the person to "hold it" so she can draw them.

Ellen Wilson

A scholarship girl who ends up overworking herself to exhaustion. She moves up a form after the second book.

• Dumb, but Diligent: Downplayed, since she‘s no Ditz, but Ellen archived her scholarship due to hard work and strict discipline, not because of an academic gift; she‘s of average Intelligence at best. She struggles to fulfill the high expectations she‘s facing as a Scholarship Student.
• The Perfectionist: Works as hard as possible, but gets stressed and irritable to the point of becoming sick. After coming back, she begs for extra coaching from her teachers, who tell her not to worry, she's not strong enough and she won't have too much expected of her. She gets better after it is revealed that she just needs rest.
• Scholarship Student
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Ellen was suspected as the thief who had been stealing jewelries from the other girls. Ellen, who is struggling to keep up her grades, decides that if everyone already thinks of her as a thief, she might as well be a cheat

Daphne Turner

A charming but dishonest girl who is very manipulative. She later on makes friends with Mary-Lou and becomes much nicer later on.

• Becoming the Mask: At first, she only befriended Mary-Lou to help her with her French homework, but ends up genuinely liking the other girl.
• Big Damn Heroes: Very much the manner in when she goes out to find Mary-Lou during a storm, who has fallen off the cliff and can only hang onto the cliff face for seconds. Daphne can't pull Mary-Lou up, but she manages to keep her from falling until help arrives.

Introduced In Third Year At Malory Towers

Mavis

Starts off as a show-off with a lovely singing voice. She later on loses her voice temporarily after an illness and has developed into a much nicer person when it comes back.

• Beautiful Singing Voice: She plans to be an opera singer when she grows up, and shows off about this considerably at first.

Zerelda Brass

An American girl who dreams of becoming a movie star. She has a hard time adjusting to Malory Towers at first, but eventually settles down. The fourth book mentions that she left between books.

• Bad "Bad Acting": Wants to be an actress, but has her dreams crushed when she acts Juliet in drama class and it's so bad that the teacher thinks she is fooling around. After being told Zerelda wanted to be an actress, she tells Zerelda she wouldn't have yelled at her in that way if she'd known she wanted to act professionally.
• Funny Foreigner: As an airheaded American.
• Give Up Your Dreams: Miss Hibbert tells her very gently that she just doesn't have enough talent to be an actress and that she should just try being a proper schoolgirl like everyone else.
• Nice Girl: Zerelda is shallow and superficial, but unlike Gwendoline, she‘s very friendly.

Wilhelmina Robinson

A horse-crazy girl with seven brothers who prefers to be called Bill. Her closest friend is her horse, Thunder.

• I Have Brothers: She's a tomboy to the extreme because she's been treated as One of the Boys by her seven brothers.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Asks the girls to call her Bill on their first day. By the end of her first term, no one calls her anything else.

Introduced In Upper Fourth At Malory Towers

Felicity Rivers

Darrell's little sister. Shyer and less sure of herself than Darrell, with less of a temper.

• Little Sister Heroine: Becomes this in the Pamela Cox continuation, as she has taken over from Darrell.
• Nice Girl: Like her sister, a kind, reasonable girl. She also has a kind, sensible best friend.

June Johns

Alicia's younger cousin. Similarly smart and hard-hearted, but also considerably less honest and more daring. Also has exceptional talent in sports and playing tricks.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Subverted as she is Alicia's younger cousin, not her sister, but her behaviour has this for most of the series, almost getting her expelled in her second term.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Similar to her cousin. June is really talented, but lacks discipline and prefers fooling around.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Develops into this in the Pamela Cox books, even planning to become a games teacher after she leaves school. Has shades of this in the early books, even being pointed out by Amanda as the most promising sportswoman in the lower school and being disappointed when she's not chosen for a lacrosse match (mainly because she didn't have enough team spirit).

Connie and Ruth Batten

Twins that join the form. Very close, but Connie mostly speaks for both of them. Eventually, Connie fails School Certificate and Ruth passes, allowing them to be in different forms and for Ruth to start speaking for herself.

• Always Identical Twins: Averted - Connie is bigger and more muscular, with straighter hair than Ruth.
• Single-Minded Twins: Connie invokes this by always speaking for both of them and never letting Ruth answer for herself. This later leads to Ruth doing a series of mean things to Connie, and then always feeling guilty and trying to fix whatever she did.

Clarissa Carter

A quiet girl with a weak heart. Eventually opens up when she goes horseriding with Bill, and they become best friends and talk about nothing but horses.

• All Girls Like Ponies: Shares this with Bill. By the fifth book, they stick together and talk about nothing but horses, not paying attention to anyone or anything else.
• Beautiful All Along: Started off wearing rose-tinted glasses and braces, but later in the fourth book, she got rid of her braces and glasses, exposing green eyes and perfect teeth. She was so beautiful that Mrs Lacey, who had met her at half-term and remarked that she was unattractive, didn't even recognize her, thinking she was very pretty.

Introduced In In The Fifth At Malory Towers

Maureen Little

A girl who is almost Gwendoline's double, in both looks and personality.

• Dumb Blonde: Just like Gwendoline, her old school didn't give her a good grounding in education, and she values having long fair hair.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the sixth book, Gwen keeps talking about a fight within her family when she made her father agree to send her to finishing school. Maureen, despite being a lot like Gwen herself, is just as disgusted as everyone else, because "she, at least, loved her parents".
• Small Name, Big Ego: Thinks she is good at everything. The girls try to cure her of it by giving her a chance to show what she can do and then laughing in her face, saying everything she did is amusingly bad.

Moira Linton

A harsh, disagreeable girl with good leadership skills regardless.

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite her bad attitude, she isn't actually that bad a person - she just has no patience for anyone she dislikes and isn't afraid to say what she thinks - see No Social Skills below.
• No Social Skills: The reason she's not a complete success as head of the fifth form. She's got good organizational skills and an eye for detail, but the way she dictates things is so terrible that Alicia even resigns from the form's pantomime, only returning when Moira saves her cousin from being expelled.
• Pet the Dog: The moment when she saves June from being expelled, admitting that she has been pretty awful and it's no wonder June hated her enough to write the notes. Her generous act defuses all the tension in the fifth form.

Catherine Gray

A girl who does her best to help everyone. However, her saintly manner simply annoys everyone.

• All-Loving Hero: Clearly wants to be this, but fails because everyone finds her so annoying. She admits to herself how hard it is, but all she's doing is trying to be a good person.
• Extreme Doormat: Part of her character - she is always offering to do things for others and even when she tries to stop acting like a saint, she still can't stop herself and mostly does things for the only person who will accept her.

Introduced In Last Term At Malory Towers

Suzanne Rougier

Mam'zelle Rougier's niece, who has to go to North Tower, despite her aunt living in South Tower (it's full). She speaks very poor English and usually doesn't want to bother.

• Catchphrase: "Police?", meaning "please" when she doesn't understand (or pretends not to understand) something.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Only seems to have trouble speaking English when it benefits her.

Amanda Chartelow

A sporty girl from a school famous for sports.

• Career-Ending Injury: She injures her legs badly after swimming in the dangerous ocean, which will ensure that she could no longer compete in the Olympic Games.
• Passionate Sports Girl: To the point of an obsession.
• Sarcasm Failure: Done when Alicia says sarcastically that Amanda must be planning to go in for the Olympic Games. Is taken aback when Amanda says that yes, she's planning to apply for several events.

Introduced in the Pamela Cox books

Amy Ryder-Cochrane

A stuck-up snob who is extremely spoilt.

• Alpha Bitch: Bonnie is her only real friend, but her behaviour comes off this way.
• Undying Loyalty: Much to everyone else's shock, when Bonnie is sent to Coventry for an (unproven) crime, Amy declares that she's not going to join in and she doesn't care if they send her to Coventry, too. After circumstances suggest that Bonnie is innocent, it is even pointed out that Amy was the wisest because she knew her best friend wouldn't betray the form.

Winifred "Freddie" Holmes

A cheerful funny girl who likes to play jokes.

• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: To contrast with June. Freddie is blonde and has a soft spot for people she cares about.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Is known as Freddie to girls and mistresses alike. Her initial appearance is the only time her real name is mentioned.

Bonnie Meadows

A small, seemingly childish girl who turns out to be very smart and manipulative. Starts out as Felicity's neighbour. She eventually is sent to Malory Towers because she wants to be with Felicity, but eventually becomes closer to Amy.

• The Determinator: Will never stop at anything, whether it's trying to be Felicity's best friend, figuring out who's been stealing from the local stables, or just getting Esme to speak with a British accent.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Not that terrible, but Bonnie is very good at appearing innocent, no matter how guilty she is.
• The Fashionista: Makes all her own clothes, and they are every bit as good as any designer outfit. Amy first comments that she has similar dresses that she got abroad. Bonnie also makes her a dress for her birthday and they even plan to open a dress shop together when they leave school. Bonnie also acts as wardrobe mistress for the play the form performs.
• Older Than They Look: So small that the third form assumed she was a first former the first time they saw her, when she was actually their age. Even as a sixth former, she still comes off as much younger than she really is.

Veronica Sharpe

Left down in the third form for an extra term, a girl known for being sneaky and spiteful.

• Even Evil Has Standards: When someone starts playing tricks on Felicity, Veronica is accused due to circumstantial evidence and history. Later on she says she'd never do that after Felicity asked her out at half-term when Amy didn't.
• Exact Eavesdropping: On two occasions, this happens. Veronica never means to eavesdrop, but picks up some information every time she overhears. The first time, she hears enough to know that Amy is upper-class, and the second time, she overhears that Felicity was the one who told Bonnie to befriend Amy, and she did it partly because she wanted Bonnie to stop following her around.

Lucy Carstairs

A new girl in the third form who loves her horse Sandy.

• All Girls Like Ponies: Shares this with her friend Julie.

Esme Walters

Lucy's cousin, starts off in the third form due to schooling in America. She's actually a year older, and goes up a form at the end of her first term.

• Funny Foreigner: Subverted - Esme isn't American, but wears makeup and speaks with an accent. At one point, she even despairs of being able to pronounce the 'd' in "wonderful" - just as she manages it.

Olive Witherspoon

Comes off as a miserable antisocial girl with a spiteful edge. It turns out to be due to mistreatment.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Her younger stepsister Annabel tells Bonnie that she enjoys causing trouble and framing Olive for it, and that no one ever suspects her.
• Berserk Button: Annabel in general, mainly because she keeps pushing it. It comes to the point that even girls who look like Annabel have the same effect. She mentions that the first person at Malory Towers she met was Nora, and she was rude to her just because Nora reminded her of Annabel.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Wants the love of her family that Annabel gets. Averted when Amy insists that the reason she hates Nora and Bonnie is because she's jealous, as it turns out she is wrong.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Her default character.
• The Un-Favourite: To Annabel.

Sylvia Chalmers

A good-hearted but bossy, loud girl who is used to taking charge of others.

• Catchphrase: "...if I do say so myself", after listing a skill or trait she is proud of possessing. At one point, the girls call her "Say-So Sylvia".
• Nice Girl: Despite being bossy and domineering, she never says anything mean and the things she boasts about are actually true - she really is a good, fair leader. The girls even admit that even though they don't like her taking over, that it's hard to dislike her completely because she's actually a nice person.
• Walking Spoiler: She is the niece of Miss Tallant, a temporary mistress who has an informant that the girls assume is also her niece. It turns out she's not the spy after all - it's actually Olive, who is being blackmailed.

Millicent Moon

A musical genius with an intense edge and a tendency to be extremely critical.

• Classical Music Is Cool: States at the start that she only knows how to play classical music, although she does teach her orchestra a composition she wrote herself.
• No Social Skills: Her orchestra gets cross because of the ruthless way she points out mistakes. By the end, she's had to replace a trumpet player, a cello player and a pianist because the original players resented her criticism. At one point, Bonnie, who was making pennants for the orchestra, threatens to stop making them because Millicent yelled at Delia and then seemed to think there was no reason for her to apologize.

Delia Norris

An underconfident girl, very nice, but believes there she is talentless. She turns out to have an amazing singing voice.

• Beautiful Singing Voice: She breathes new life into Millicent's orchestra with her voice, causing them to win the school orchestra competition.
• Singer-Songwriter: She not only sings for the orchestra, but puts words to Millicent's music, causing them to write them down in Millicent's notebook and then trying to find it before Millicent reads it so she can tear it out, assuming she'll be made fun of for it.
• Unlocking the Talent: Gillian does this. However, Delia doubts it as her aunt and cousins have said her singing is like a parrot squawking in pain. When Gillian finally persuades her to sing for the orchestra, they are astonished at how lovely her singing is, even inspiring one of the violinists.

Gillian Weaver

A talented violin player and tennis player, very popular with the other girls.

• Elegant Classical Musician: A brilliant violinist.
• Sleepwalking: Starts doing this due to practicing her orchestra solo and practising tennis for the interschool games. She turns out to be the fifth-form thief, constantly taking random belongings of the girls and putting them in a cupboard downstairs while sleeping.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Also does this while sleepwalking. She later on theorizes that she was searching for her sense of fun, since all the fun of violin playing and tennis had disappeared when she started practising too hard.
  "I've found it. I just hope I remember where it is tomorrow."

Alice Johnson

A quiet girl who joins the sixth form, always willing to help. She turns out to be a student who was expelled earlier in disguise, who asked for another chance.

• Big Damn Heroes: When she saves first-former Violet from a fire. This actually convinces some of the girls that she's a good person.
• Spoiled Sweet: Has become this since her last appearance, where she was more of a Rich Bitch. She insists she's totally ordinary, but admits at one point that her family has plenty of money, and she always offers to help the other girls out with domestic or study-related chores.
• Walking Spoiler: She's actually Josephine Jones in disguise, who has become a much nicer person and has been given a second chance.

Lizzie Mannering

A very serious girl, extremely focused on her studies and almost never takes time to relax.