This is a list of the characters in Enid Blyton's series of books St Clare's,
See here for characters from the anime.
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Students
Introduced in The Twins at St. Clare's
Patricia and Isabel O' Sullivan
- Always Identical Twins: The only difference seems to be Pat has more freckles than Isabel.
- Character Development: They start as petulant snobs but mellow a lot for the end of the first book.
- Character Title: In the first two books, though they don't have a lot of protagonism in the second one.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: In one book, Isabel accidentally comes across the answers to a prescribed test and ends up reading them. She ends up wracked by guilt, but it turns out the test was actually for another class, so she was fine (but she ended up being so relieved she screwed up some of the questions.)
- Demoted to Extra: Their roles gets increasingly smaller as the series progress, the focus often emphasized more on the newer students that were introduced in the book.
- In-Series Nickname: Patricia is always called Pat by her family and friends.
- Twin Switch: In the first book, Pat can't go to the town unless she does the chores and fagging for the older girls so Isabel takes her place and Pat goes to to town despite the punishment. It works, but Pat feels guilty after Belinda Towers gives her a place in the lacrosse team, so she confesses to Belinda.
Janet Robins
- Gone Horribly Right: In the second book she pranks Mam'zelle by putting bugs in the latter's glasses case and then, along with the rest of the classroom, pretend not see them. Mam'zelle thinks she is actually suffering from hallutinations and winds up in the infirmary.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In the Pamela Cox's book Third Form at St. Clare's she resents Carlotta after the latter is made head of the form. Unlike other examples she knows it's wrong and feels guilty every time her envy controls her.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: She becomes best friends with Bobby. Also Birds of a Feather, given their mutual love for pranks.
- The Prankster: Always willing to get a good laugh with a practical prank. Her favourite victim is Mam'zelle.
Hilary Wentworth
- Nice Girl: Always kind and helpful to her classmates.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She is head girl in all the books sans Second Grade and Claudine. The only reason she is not chosen for the position at the end of Fifth Grade is because her family is moving to India.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She gives one to Angela in Fifth Grade in regards of Angela abusing her power over the first years the entire year.
- Series Continuity Error: Hilary was described as a "cheeky-looking blonde" in the first book. In later books, she was always described as dark.
Doris Elward
- Book Dumb: Is absolutely terrible at her lessons. She later finds out that if she acts her lessons and makes it ridiculous, she can remember it, but she can't remember anything if she tries to learn or recite anything appropriately for exams.
- Class Clown: Keeps the class laughing by her imitations of other people.
Introduced in The O' Sullivan Twins
Alison O' Sullivan
- Aesop Amnesia: She has learned several times to not put people in a pedestal, but she always repeats that mistake. She ends Claudine at St Clare's standing up to Angela and changing their relationship dynamic just to go back to the same in Fifth Formers. In fairness to Alison, she's certainly not the only character with this issue.
- Ambiguously Gay: Her admiration of Sadie and Angela resembles a crush. Her mentions of their beauty don't help.
- Brainless Beauty: Alison is described as having big blue eyes and a sweet smile, and she almost always gets low marks.
- Hero-Worshipper: She's always looking for someone to admire, gush and slave after. Usually, that "someone" is a more attractive girl or teacher.
- Hidden Depths: When Alison wakes up to find Sadie missing, she immediately recalls Sadie's previous kidnapping in America, and wakes up Pat and Isabel to double-check her instinct to wake up a teacher (she's right). In a later book, when she finds out that one of the younger girls is being mistreated, she immediately swings into action to put a stop to it.
- Prone to Tears; Cries easily. She starts to grow out of this as she ages.
- Spoiled Sweet: This is also the probable cause of her Brainless Beauty persona. We never see Alison's father (or even have it confirmed she has one!); her old nurse (who is still employed by her mother) all but worships her and constantly talks about how pretty she is, and her mother is very much like Alison, only far more so. It's said once that Alison is always much sillier in the first couple of weeks of term (which is also when all her Hero Worshipping starts), probably due to her home life (which could also explain both her low marks, if she grew up in a household where intelligence and scholarly effort weren't valued, and even her habit of idolising people who are always far more confident and usually accomplished than her - an insecure teenager simply looking for guidance?). However, while Alison tends to drive her more sensible classmates to frustration and annoyance frequently, there's nothing really terrible about her. It's said more than once "But there was no meanness or spite in Alison", and despite the fact that Alison doesn't have much good in her, there's nothing terrible either. She's also generally sympathetic, even towards people she doesn't particularly like.
- Swapped Roles: More of a partial one in one of the Pamela Cox books. Alison is very kind towards a first-former, who in turn hero-worships her. It's not until she mentions it as a problem to her form that it is pointed out that Alison is being treated the way she treated other people over the years and should know how to deal with a younger version of herself.
Margery Fenworthy
- Big Damn Heroes: After a fire breaks out in the sick room, trapping second-former Erica, Margery immediately comes to her rescue despite the danger.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Her classmates realize she was innocent and apologize for their bullying and her father finally acknowledges her.
- Expelled from Every Other School: A girl who used to be at a school Margery went to tells the O'Sullivans that she kept getting expelled due to rudeness and disrespect. The teachers at St Clare's try to give her more of a chance and let some of her rude behaviour slide, although she almost gets thrown out of her history class entirely.
- Freudian Excuse: Several other students rightly guessed that her behaviour problems stem from a difficult past.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Very ill-tempered due to her problems at home and being in first year despite being sixteen years old. For example, she completely loses it when Miss Lewis confiscates a letter from her family. She gets better.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Margery admires her father very much, but he disapproves of her constant conflict with her stepmother and sends her to St. Clare for her bad behaviour, completely ignoring his own role in the issue. Suffice to say, his "betrayal" only makes her worse. After her classmates write to him about Margery's rescue of Erica, their relationship is mended.
- Working Out Their Emotions: Margery Fenworthy is an angsty teen and she often directs her anger and frustration into sport (which she's very good at): "She plays games and does gym as if she was fighting someone all the time."
Lucy Oriell
- The Ace: Archetypal popular school story girl. Pretty, smart, kind, from a good family, loved by her entire class...
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Her worst subject. She aces everything at school and only maths is hard for her.
- Nice Girl: She's always kind to everyone, even people who don't deserve it.
- Grade Skipper: When it looks like she has to leave, she ends up working for a scholarship against girls two years older than her. She is put up into the second and later third form early to work on it.
- Spoiled Sweet: She's very bright and popular, and she's obviously a pampered girl loved by her family, and girls and teachers at St. Clare's (some girls comment that there's no reason she shouldn't always be happy). Her family has money until her father's accident but she is never a snob. She's always sweet and kind to everyone, even to girls and adults at school who don't deserve it.
- Teen Genius: She competes with girls two years her senior to get a scholarship for St Clare's. She gets it (although it's also mentioned that she gets special coaching from the staff to help her compete, because she's so awesome they really want to keep her. However, she gets moved up a year with no problems). She then gets another scholarship to an art school.
- Tragic Dropout: Almost happens when her father is seriously injured and her family is not able to afford the school fees. This happens just after she tells one of the girls that she loves St Clare's so much that she's planning to be head girl one day.
Introduced in Summer Term at St Clare's
Carlotta Brown
- Ambiguously Brown: She is described as "dark like a gypsy", but it is never really confirmed that she is one.
- Big Damn Heroes: She rides off to rescue Sadie, calls her circus friends to help and then gets Sadie back to school.
- Circus Brat: Carlotta was raised in a circus, and is often described as a fickle little monkey due to her wild Circus antics.
- Characterization Marches On: Even if they went for separate ways for a while, it was clear that for the end of Summer Term, she and Pam were very good friends. In Fifth Formers she doesn't share her study room with Pam and the other girls even think she would share it with Hilary because "they have always been good friends" despite Hilary not being more friendly to Carlotta than to the rest of the class.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She had this when she started at school, flying into a rage at tiny things such as Alison pointing out her uniform isn't tidy. It's also noted that her way of showing anger is childish and that she has no qualms about getting violent. She eventually grows out of it, which makes the rare times that she does lose her temper even more frightening.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: In Summer Term she flies into a rage and 'addressed the startled teacher with a flurry of furious words in Spanish, some of which Mam'zelle unfortunately understood'. It doesn't end well.
- Nice Girl: Surprisingly generous and kind, mostly only to people she likes, but on occasion to others. Notable instances including being friendly to Eileen because she didn't like the way Angela was treating her or inviting Pauline to visit her and Claudine's study because Pauline hated her study mate. She didn't like either girl but her generous nature was still extended to them.
Roberta "Bobby" Ellis
- Brilliant, but Lazy: In Summer Term she doesn't give her all in lessons or sports because she prefers to have fun. Miss Theobald calls her out on it and she decides to start working properly.
- Heel Realization: She never was a bad person, but she realizes that by lazing around she is wasting her parents' money, the school resources and her own talent.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Janet.
- In-Series Nickname: Just the teachers call her Roberta and by the end of the series, nobody actually does it.
- The Prankster: Her biggest hobby and she never completely gets over it. Even in the fifth form, she plays a trick at the end of term.
- Tomboyish Name: Her given name is Roberta but she goes by Bobby.
Prudence Arnold
- All of the Other Reindeer: Other girls at school don't socialize with her and later she's outright ostracised. Justifed, given her nasty personality.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: She tries to cheat in a test but she is caught red handed.
- Holier Than Thou: She is always judging other girls and thinking of herself as an exemplary student and person.
- Hypocrite: She talks a lot about morality and good behaviour but then she decides to cheat in a test and is only sorry that she got caught.
- In-Series Nickname: The girls call her "Sour Milk" whenever she makes a cruel comment.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Her last attempt of ruining Carlotta ends with Sadie being kidnapped and Prudence being interrogated by the police and kicked out of St Clare's
- Spoiled Brat: Miss Theobald thinks she could have been better "if only her parents had punished her instead of just getting upset and begging her to do better".
Pamela Boardman
- Characterization Marches On: At the end of Summer Term she and Carlotta became really good friends, though Pam was left behind because she was too young for second grade and temporarily changed schools. In Fifth Grade, Pam decides to share her study room with Doris and the narration states Pam "never had a real friend", despite Carlotta helping Pam to get rid of Prudence.
- This might be because the friendship was not organically developed - Miss Theobald asked Carlotta to befriend Pam, although Carlotta didn't seem to mind at all.
- Extreme Doormat: To Prudence. She gets better later on.
- Put on a Bus: In Second Grade it's explained she was too young for second grade. Fifth Term reveals she changed schools for a while.
- The Bus Came Back: She is reunited with the class again in Fifth Term.
- Shrinking Violet: One of the reasons she is so fixated in study it's because she is really shy. Prudence takes advantage of this. Apparently, she got over this later on, because Miss Theobald mentioned that Pam would make an ideal head girl, meaning she must have gained some leadership skills.
- Stress Vomit: Not exactly, but Pam becomes so scared of her "friendship" with Prudence that it makes her physically ill. When she recovers, Carlotta befriends her instead.
- Teen Genius: Pam is the youngest in the form, yet always comes top. The teachers actually try to go easy on her because they feel she is inclined to work too hard. Her way of getting away from her fears in "Summer Term" was to concentrate on her schoolwork to the point of illness.
Sadie Greene
- Damsel in Distress: She has been almost kidnapped in the past. She is kidnapped again at the end of the book.
- The Ditz: Her only concern seems to be clothes and celebrities.
- Expy: Of Zerelda Brass. However, this may be the other way around, as Zerelda was introduced in a book after Sadie.
- Funny Foreigner: The "airhead and irresponsible American" variety put among English school girls.
- Skewed Priorities: After almost being kidnapped a second time, her only concern is that the incident undid her hairstyle.
- Spoiled Sweet: She's an American girl, obviously very pampered and used to the best treatment. She's revealed to come from a very prominent family. She's ditzy and interested mainly in her appearance, clothes, hair, beauty procedures and celebrities. For all her shallowness, she is really nice to everybody. Alison is infatuated with her and basically adores her.
Introduced in Second Form At St Clares'
Elsie Fanshawe
- Hoist by His Own Petard: She ends thoroughly humiliated when her attempt of making Miss Jenks catch the girls throwing a midnight party ends with her looking like a complete fool.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Prudence Arnold, being spiteful, an outcast among the form, and even snobbish at times.
Anna Johnson
- Character Development: She starts off too lazy to do anything. When she is made joint head-girl with Elsie, she starts to show some signs of leadership, as the other girls don't accept Elsie. Anna doesn't necessarily want to accept leadership, but does it since she's as sick of Elsie as everyone else.
- Informed Attribute: She owns a violin but she is never seen playing it.
- Nice Girl: Anna is "too lazy to be spiteful" and she tends to be very easygoing. When she is insulted (see You Are Fat below), she just shrugs it off. She's also the only person who is inclined to invite Elsie to Carlotta's birthday feast and later is the one to suggest they give her a leftover slice of birthday cake.
- You Are Fat: In an early chapter, one girl calls Anna "fat and lazy", and even she herself acknowledges her weight. This is later joked about, as one girl teases Anna for saying she's full after a midnight feast, and at the end of term, one girl calls out to her not to eat too much Christmas pudding. She doesn't seem to mind her weight, though.
- The comments about Anna's weight have been cut out of the most recent versions of the books.
Gladys Hillman
- The Ace: After she gets better from her depression she is revealed to be a great student and athlete on top of being a Master Actor.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Shy and a bit of an doormat, but she stood up to Mirabel twice when she thought her friend was making a mistake.
- Corner of Woe: When Gladys feels particularly sad in her first book, she goes to sit in the corner of a dark room. This is why she hears Mirabel playing music, since she was in the music room and Mirabel didn't bother turning the light on and didn't know she was there until she heard sobbing.
- Master Actor: She is considered a prodigy of acting, to the point Ms Quentin completely changes her tune after seeing her act.
- Shrinking Violet: Initially very withdrawn, mostly because of her mother's condition. She blooms and opens up later when others notice her talent in acting.
Mirabel Unwin
- Asshole Victim: Her deliberately horrible attitude ends with the rest of the form bullying her.
- Characterization Marches On: In Second Term music is both her talent and vocation. Comes Fifth Term and she is suddenly a sports nut and good enough to be made captain.
- Drunk with Power: She becomes a dictator after being made sports captain.
- Elegant Classical Musician: She is a prodigy of piano and violin.
Introduced in Claudine at St Clares
Angela Favorleigh
- Aesop Amnesia: She learns to be more humble at the end of Claudine at St Clare. She is back to her old self for the next book.
- Beauty Is Bad: The most beautiful girl in the school - apparently no one can look at her without admiring her - but also one of the cruelest. One girl remarks that Angela often says the cattiest things with an angelic smile.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Everyone thinks Angela looks like an angel, but she's catty, manipulative and snobbish, and uses her looks to get her own way at times.
- Ironic Name: Combined with Meaningful Name as in she looks like an angel, but she's not in the least angelic in personality.
- Manipulative Bitch: As a fifth former, she is allowed to get in younger girls to do jobs for her, but purposely piles extra work on them she's not allowed to, using her looks to keep them willing. The younger girls apparently will do anything to get a smile out of her, thinking she's wonderful.
- Rich Bitch: Loaded and a stuck up jerk.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Angela looks a lot like her mother. Starts to lean towards Generation Xerox, as Angela's mother is also a spoiled brat who complains about everything in a loud voice. Even Angela herself sees these faults and is ashamed.
Pauline Jones
- Green-Eyed Monster: Pauline is described as envious over and over. It's clear by the end that she's jealous of Angela being rich and beautiful. There's a note in the text that she's pleased that at least she gets better marks than Angela does.
- Mock Millionaire: Pretends to be extremely wealthy, often trying to compete with Angela. At one point, she is offended when Mirabel compares the gift she gave her for her birthday to the one Angela gave her, stating that if Angela can do it, so can she.
- Red Herring: Angela suspects she was the thief because she lied about her family's wealth. She was horrified when she realized she'd been suspected of stealing, stating that she'd never steal.
Eileen Paterson
- Big Brother Worship: She idolizes her brother Edgar.
- The Stool Pigeon: The other girls know she tells tales to her mother (who is Matron for a term), and she retaliates by tearing their laundry and then piling mending on the offender. She denies it early in the story when Angela confronts her, but admits to it later when Bobby strikes a deal with her that involves her no longer tattling. She explains that she finds it hard not to answer when her mother questions her, and the narration states that Bobby feels sympathetic towards her, but feels that letting her tattle isn't the answer.
Claudine
- Affably Evil: A good-natured, friendly girl who doesn't let social and school rules get in the way of letting her do whatever she wants, including locking a staff member in a cupboard and getting her little sister to ruin a school meeting.
- Book Dumb: Not very good at her lessons, although it's hinted that's because she doesn't try. At one point, she copies someone else's sums, and all she takes away from the head girl speaking to her about it is that she should copy from someone who gets better marks. She then says she'll stop copying if she's forgotten to do her prep.
- Cool Big Sis: To Antoinette, her little sister who joins the second form. Antoinette even tells Angela that she has five sisters, and Claudine is her favourite.
- Funny Foreigner: Subverted in that her humour comes from her rebellious nature rather than being French, but she is defined by being Mam'zelle's niece and uses American slang and dislikes sports and the outdoors, in contrast to the other girls.
Introduced In Fifth Formers At St Clares
Felicity Ray
- Absent-Minded Professor: Takes on these traits when she's working on her music. She is extremely apologetic when she realizes she'd forgotten to go to Mirabel's meeting, and is confused when Mirabel asks her where she was when the fire-bell rang, apparently not having heard it.
- Book Dumb: Not a very good student since she spends more of the time focused on her music.
- Elegant Classical Musician: She is a violinist preparing for a very difficult music exam.
- Sleepwalking: Does this because of her overworking herself. This eventually leads to her seeing a specialist who says she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
- Insufferable Genius: Averted - Felicity never shows off about her music, and being called a musical genius never goes to her head.
- Nice Girl: One girl mentions that she likes Felicity because she never shows off about her music. She's also extremely apologetic when she forgets to go to the meeting Mirabel holds.
- Stage Mom: Her parents want her to take the music exam despite her being too young for it. They finally back down how they realize how much the stress is hurting her.
Anne-Marie Longden
- Green-Eyed Monster: She is jealous of Felicity's talent and Allison's closeness to Ms Willcox.
- Insufferable Genius: In contrast to Felicity, she thinks of herself as a genius poet, but is really talentless.
- True Art Is Angsty: Her opinion of her poetry. The others consider it pretentious nonsense.
Alma Pudden
- Big Eater: She is always eating. Justified because of her glands issues.
- Book Dumb: The book actually mentions that Alma was terrible at her studies and failed the exam, which she hadn't expected to pass anyway, but that she has a sly side that is its own kind of clever.
- Embarrassing Last Name: Pudden sounds a bit like "pudding", which is Lamp Shaded, and the girls tease her because they think she looks like a pudding.
- Fat Bastard: Obese and unpleasant.
- Fat Slob: Pauline describes her eating as "ruminating like a cow".
- Ill Girl: We find out at the end of the last book that she has something wrong with her glands that can't be operated on yet.
Introduced In the Pamela Cox additions
Libby Francis
A horse-crazy girl who attends as a day girl for one term before leaving for America.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Her defining trait - the girl who loves horses.
- Nice Girl: The girls describe her as "ever so nice and good fun", and she's one of the nicer girls in the third form.
Fern
Libby's cousin. She also attends St Clare's as a day girl, and is very girly.
- Fatal Flaw: Jealousy, mainly directed at Carlotta for being welcomed into her family, and Rachel because they both want to be Alison's best friend.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Libby's tomboy.
Rachel Denman
The daughter of two actors who leaves drama school to experience "real life".
- Break the Haughty: Fern tries to invoke this when she discovers Rachel's secret, but since Rachel has stopped showing off, the other girls all take Rachel's side.
- Brainy Brunette: An early chapter states that Rachel is very good at her lessons, especially English, to the point that she even writes the third form's play. Her only flaw is that she can't master a French accent.
- Cope by Pretending: Rachel can't face the idea that she won't have a future in the theatre, so pretends at the start of the book that she wants to follow in her parents' footsteps. Janet later suggests she can still have a future in the theatre as a playwright or director.
- The Reveal: She actually left drama school when the head of the school said she didn't have enough talent and that she would do better at a regular school.
Amanda Wilkes
A younger girl who joins the third form, while her sister is in the second form. She becomes close with Isabel.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: A friendship variety - she knows that Isabel has a twin who is coming back later, and worries she will lose Isabel's friendship when Pat arrives.
Kitty Flaherty
A mischievous Irish girl who stays at St Clare's for one term while her parents are working. She also brings her pet goat, Mc Ginty, with her.
- Funny Foreigner: Even though Ireland isn't that far away from England, the girls still see Kitty as an unusual kid, as she has a unique way of speaking, red hair and is outspoken and amusing.
Morag Stuart
A Scottish girl who is sent to St Clare's for her last year of schooling. She is angry and homesick, but eventually opens up to Carlotta.
- Hates Everyone Equally: The way she comes off at first. However, she later has some major conflicts with Pat.
Phyllis Bentley
A Cockney girl who prefers to be called Fizz. Her family inherited huge amount of money and she got some mean treatment at day school after it happened, so preferred to go to boarding school.
- Blue Blood: She turns out to have lied about her Cockney origin, as she is actually the daughter of a Duke, pretending to be lower-class so people will not try to make friends with her on the basis of her status.
- In-Series Nickname: Introduces herself as Fizz from the start and is so unused to being called Phyllis that she forgets to respond to it when her form mistress first calls her name."I'm not used to answering to Phyllis, you see. Most people call me Fizz."
- Meaningful Name: Anne-Marie remarks that Fizz's nickname suits her because she's so bubbly.
Priscilla Parsons
An old sixth-former who is disliked by the whole form due to her spiteful, snobbish and nosy nature.
- Kick the Dog: Her treatment of Joan Terry is painting her in a horrible light. She is expelled at the end after she's reported for blackmailing and bullying Joan.
