Chapter Text
You are very welcome to skip this introduction / mini-history lesson and go to the first chapter. It will not effect the story.
Influenced by shows such as The Bletchley Circle, Frankie Drake Mysteries, and Murdoch Mysteries, I played around with my favourite group of characters and threw them into a world beyond school and university where they could get themselves into a wide range of trouble. Such as keeping themselves busy by solving crime in their spare time. As you do.
Much like in parts of the shows that prompted this idea, there is a mix of light-heartedness and character-driven story underpinned by some of the serious topics and contexts of the time. While many of the societal events are influenced by real-life occurrences, there is a certain amount of creative licensing. I enjoy research and do my best to be close to accurate but this is written for fun so I may miss some details and nudge some others.
Based 7 years after Malory Towers, it's 1959 and the original characters are in their mid-twenties. As well as the original 6 canon books, I have dipped into characters and events from the 6 post-canon Pamela Cox books and the New Class at Malory Towers book.
Below is the societal context, particularly in Britain, that Darrell Rivers and her former classmates find themselves trying to navigate in this story as they make sense of who they are as adults while getting caught up in investigating a crime. Knowing the history absolutely isn't needed at all for the story but I felt it was important to highlight the events of the time for those interested.
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In the UK in 1959, the effects of World War II were still felt and despite progress towards women's rights earlier in the century, there was a swing back towards marriage and family to "restore tradition" post-war. The very fact that many of the girls from Malory Towers even remained in education beyond the age of 15 was unusual for the time and was only afforded to them because of financially comfortable and privileged backgrounds. Often women who weren't to be married shortly after leaving school were needed by their families to bring in money so went into work as secretaries, machinists, and other such roles from the age of fifteen upwards. In the 50s only 1.2% of women went to university, it was unusual even amongst middle and upper-class families, and it was very much considered a stop-gap until they got married and started a family. Women were still paid much less than men and married women were often solely reliant on their husbands for financial stability as there was still an expectation that they would quit their work upon marriage. Abortion would not be legalised for another 8 years, married women still received allowances from their husbands, and while there were changes upon the horizon with the 60s bringing more progressive views and changes, the women's liberation movement wouldn't start until the late 60s.
Homosexuality, and indeed anything other than heterosexuality, was still widely considered and treated as a mental illness. Legal sanctions, prejudice, and brutality towards people from the LGBT+ community increased after World War II and continued to peak through the fifties and sixties. Gay Rights Activists were forming protest groups and making progress but while the Wolfenden report had been issued arguing for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, changes to the Sexual Offenses Act wouldn't take place until 1967. World-changing events like Stonewall in the USA, and the forming of Gay Liberation Front groups in multiple countries including the UK wouldn't happen until the very end of the 60s.
The 50s had seen the British government encourage people from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia to move to the UK — in part to fulfill working roles that had been left empty with the post-war labour shortage — only for those who did make the move to face racism, discrimination, and violence upon their arrival. The Notting Hill Riots took place in August 1958, where a mob of over 300 white people attacked Caribbean residents of Notting Hill with petrol bombs, projectiles, lead pipes, and knives. The American civil rights movement was underway and the UK saw its civil rights movement grow at this time too. This would eventually lead to boycotts against companies who used the "colour bar", a racist system where companies openly refused to hire Black or Asian people or allow them to enter their establishments, and landlords refused to rent rooms to Black or Asian residents. The movement would also lead to the establishment of the Race Relations Act in 1965.
There were varyingly sincere talks about supporting disabled people outside of institutionalisation, equality in housing and employment, and inclusive education but the Disability Act wouldn't come into being for nearly four decades and those talks rarely moved into being anything other than talks. Disabled people experienced horrific ableism, exclusion, and humiliation at the hands of society and institutions. In response, disabled people formed groups to fight back against discrimination and mistreatment, and to campaign for equal rights. Mental health conditions were seen as something shameful or as a personal fault to be hidden away and asylums were still open and regularly used, deinstitutionalisation wouldn't start in any real way until over two decades later. Electroconvulsive therapy was still frequently used for treating mental illness throughout the 50s and for many years after, often without consent or anaesthetic.
Police corruption, cover-ups, and brutality were an open secret, something that was particularly well known to oppressed minority groups who were often on the receiving ends of these acts, but more formal reports wouldn't start to appear until the 60s.
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Finding out that you're not the anti-establishment maverick that you thought you were. Discovering that the world doesn't accept you solely because of who you are or who you love. Facing the realities of loneliness and isolation. Losing friendships that you once thought were so strong they could never break…
Life isn't easy once the backdrop of school and the safety net it provided are gone but even then, people can come back together for the right cause.