Library News: Who Are Zinnia and Gwendoline?

When we first decided to start this blog we wanted to come up with some fun names that weren't ours so that our identity could remain a mystery, although if you have come to one of our workshops you will know who we are.  After a considerable amount of deliberation we decided on the names of antagonists, or villains, in some of our favourite childhood books.  If one of these ladies piques your attention, you could always find their books in the library!

Zinnia Wormwood is the name of Matilda's mother in Roald Dahl's Matilda and she isn't a very good mother to her.  The vain mother obviously doesn't take her role very seriously and never protects poor Matilda from the terrors that are her Father and her Headmistress at school, Miss Trunchbull.  The ditsy nature of the character is often the source of much comedy in the book and the movie based on it, with lines such as "You chose books and I chose looks.".  Her obsession with playing bingo and watching television soap operas makes us glad that it's poor Matilda and not us who have to have her as a mother.


The Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton is where we meet Gwendoline Lacey, a spoilt only child who is sent to live at the boarding school with the rest of the girls and is famous for having to brush her hair 100 times a day.  She isn't very widely liked as many of her classmates see her as lazy, selfish, a hypocrite and untruthful and throughout the book a rivalry forms between her and the other girls.  Gwendoline doesn't really have any true friends in the books, only posing as one when she has something to gain from someone.  Her actions did lead to a lot of antics in the story, like her playing tricks on another girl and trying to blame others for it!

So Zinnia and Gwendoline are the girls you love to hate, because really without them some of the books we so love to read would be totally boring.  We hope that throughout the year we have been a form of entertainment to you just like we have really enjoyed bringing new content to you each week.  Some really exciting things will be happening when school resumes in a couple of weeks time.  Until then you could spend the holidays catching up on all the posts you have missed throughout the year...  Zinnia and Gwendoline


Character: Mrs Wormwood [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.tumblr.com/search/character:%20mrs%20wormwood

What happened to Gwendoline Lacey [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.compulsiveconfessions.com/2014/04/what-happened-after-malory-towers.html