Dora and the Lower Fifth by Josephine M Bettany

Both images thanks to Angela Smyth Artist on Instagram 

Title: Dora and the Lower Fifth 

Author: Josephine M Bettany 

Publisher: not known 

Source book: Joey Goes to the Oberland (Chalet School #29)

Len Maynard, not even 12, tells her mother (well known author Josephine M Bettany) that she likes her book Dora and the Lower Fifth best. Dora is aimed at readers older than Len and her sisters. Len says she likes Dora and wishes her mother would write another book about her. Robin too likes Dora but wants to know why Jo gave her heroine such a ghastly name? 

Jo has given the characters in Dora the plainest names she could think of: Dora, Susan, Mary, Agnes, and Jane. And she has dedicated the book to “my sister Madge, who prefers names of the Plain Jane variety”. Apparently Madge had been teasing Jo about the fancy names she gives her characters, not her actual children, so Jo gets her own back with this dedication.

Meanwhile, the book that Jo is currently working on, Audrey Wins the Trick, about older schoolgirls, will have to wait to be finished until the family has moved house to Switzerland. 

EBD is a fine one to talk about Plain Jane names. One of her heroines is called Beechy (what?), and another is called Carnation (neither of these is a Chalet School character). I must say, given the choice between Dora and Audrey, or indeed Beechy, think I would choose to be called Dora. I have a hard  enough name to deal with, but thank goodness my parents never thought of Carnation!

Somehow Audrey feels very old fashioned to me. A name for a grandmother perhaps. Although, very strangely, young women in the United States now seem to be called Aubrey instead. Almost exactly the same, but Aubrey used to be a man’s name, at least in Britain. How did that change come about I wonder?

None of these names seem to be in fashion these days. But hyphenated names are. I suppose you might be called Dora-Kate or Mackenzie-Sue. But perhaps not Audrey-Jane. More likely Aubree-Mae.

Hands up anyone who wants to change their name to Carnation.