was Alison O’Sullivan in Enid Blyton’s “St Clare’s” series sapphic? she’s one of my favourite characters, if not my very favourite Enid Blyton character though its been eons since I last read :” she’s fundamentally kindhearted, not very talented at lessons from what I remember (like me!) and often described by her peers as “feather-headed” (which is what I am!) I never see her being mentioned or remembered by many but I had a particular focus on her throughout my reads because I personally found her absolutely endearing :”
i’m remembering things from the top of my head so it may not be word-for-word accurate.
in the book, her classmates all describe her as someone who “moons around” female figures she admires. her teachers, seniors, and even classmates. i believed she idolised someone different each term.
•she adored her new American classmate Sadie, copying her accent and hairstyles, even having her school principal Miss Theobald comment that Alison had “her head properly turned by that American girl”. her classmates even come up with a “song” to tease her idolisation, going something like “sadie says, sadie says, what does sadie say?”
•she adored her new drama teacher Miss Quentin, slaving hard for her classes, and as the book describes, “would eat out of her hand”, “waited around corners for her”, “pictured honeyed words of praise from her lips”. she cried till her eyes were swollen when she found out Miss Quentin was leaving.
•she worshipped her new classmate Angela, one time upon seeing her sitting at the window with sunlight shining at her face, whispered wistfully “you look so beautiful, Angela”.
there are many more examples of Alison, as she idolized someone every term from what I remember, like her poetry teacher Miss Wilcox and her senior Margaret Winters, which involved her competing ardently for their praise and attention through different means like beefing up her poetry writing (iirc).
there is much speculation that Enid Blyton has written LGBT characters in her books, like George (Georgina) in Famous Five or even Bill (Wilhelmina) in Malory Towers. i’ve yet to see Alison O’Sullivan being discussed so what are your thoughts?
by anonymissyy