The people who keep the school

Miss Eleanor Winthrop

Tall. Precise. Formidable. Kind in a way that catches you off guard. The voice of the school is hers.

Mrs Dorothea Cartwright

“Dotty” to nobody’s face. Trunk lists, name-tapes, the San, and an aphorism for every occasion, whether or not one was requested.

Miss Larkspur

Keeper of the Library, and not a woman to be trifled with in it. She knows exactly where everything is. She also knows exactly who has been looking at it, which girls discover rather too late.

Miss Pemberton

Brisk on the touchline, warmer off it. She would like Elm to have the Cup back, though she would never say so.

Miss Danbury

Believes, correctly, that the past is a place you can visit if you pay attention. The school’s own history rather proves her point.

Miss Townsend

Once the victim of a paper butterfly, released mid-lesson. She took it rather better than expected, which somehow made it worse for the culprit.

Madame Moreau

Insists the language is not difficult, only shy, and must be spoken to gently. She is right, and half the school will one day thank her for it.

Miss Montford

Conductor of the school song, which she has never once heard sung quietly, and no longer expects to.

Mrs Chattoway

Reads aloud so well that the class forgets to misbehave. A dangerous gift, wisely used.

Mr Wells

He has been the gardener here a very long while.

He is a quiet man. He knows the name of every tree on the estate and the temper of every one of them, and he can tell you to the week when the elm at the gate will come into leaf.

That is all there is to say about Mr Wells.

That is all the school has ever thought to say about Mr Wells.