Lorna at Wynyards

Horrified by Lorna's end of term report which says that the family baby is bumptious and self-satisfied, her mother Bess Carey decides she must leave small Bury House and go to Wynyards, the big day school where her cousin Kit Arnold is a prefect. This means that 13-year-old Lorna must also live with Kit and her aunt, Kath Arnold, during term time.

The contrast between her the large, careworn Carey family and the close-knit Arnolds, who are more like friends than mother and daughter, couldn't be more marked. Lorna is inclined to rebel at first at the expectation that she will help around the house, and her jaw drops more than once at her Auntie Kath's youth and informality. But this is nothing compared to the shock she gets at school. Used to making it to the top of the class in every subject with room to spare, Lorna finds herself having to work hard for every single mark if she is to keep up in the Upper Third at Wynyards.