The Twins at St Clare’s is a children’s novel by Enid Blyton set in an English girls’ boarding school. It is the first of the original six novels in the St. Clare’s series of school stories. First published in 1941, it tells the story of twin sisters Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan in their first term at a new school. They meet many new friends.
The two girl twins, Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan, having just finished school at the elite school Redroofs, are expected to move on to senior school. While most of their friends at their old school (including Mary and Frances Waters) are moving to the equally elite Ringmere, the twins’ parents are reluctant to send them to an expensive school as they are afraid the twins might become spoilt and snobbish. Furious at their parents’ refusal to send them to the school of their choice, the twins are determined to be as difficult as possible at St. Clare’s.
They are quickly mocked for their behaviour by the other students and nicknamed the ‘stuck up twins’. Only a student named Kathleen is willing to befriend them, as she is also disliked. Whilst Pat refuses to do her chores and is banned from going to town, Isabel does them for her and has Pat take her trips to the town. The twins miss their favourite sports of field hockey and tennis because only lacrosse is played at St Clare’s. However, Pat turns out to be quite good at lacrosse. She is selected by sports captain Belinda Towers, but it is when Isabel is pretending to be Pat so the latter can go to town. Pat decides to tell the truth, and is surprised when Belinda lets her stay on the team.
