Oh dear, I'm afraid I did. I'm terribly sorry if I shouldn't have. I just enjoy this board so much I wanted to share it with any other CS fans that might have read that article.

Some of my favourite books in the world are in that list.

By Sarah Ebner, who has been shortlisted four times at the British Press Awards, in 2008 for feature writer of the year. She was a producer and occasional reporter for BBC Newsnight, and also edited Supernanny.co.uk. Sarah has two children and lives in London.

School Gate - Times Online - WBLG

August 07, 2008
The 25 best boarding school books

PotterBooks about boarding school have always been popular, but they've often been seen - like the schools themselves - as old fashioned and well past their sell-by date. This may no longer be the case - for the school, and their fictional equivalents.

The Boarding Schools Association say that both independent and the 35 state boarding establishments, are in robust health. The numbers of boarders is up for the first time in three years.

Meanwhile Wild Child, a film about an 16-year-old American sent to a British boarding school to be "tamed" is released next week, while School Friends, a new boarding school series aimed at girls of eight and up, is published at the end of August. Its publishers are claiming that it's "Malory Towers for the new Millennium." My daughter is already a fan, proclaiming concisely that she "really, really likes them."

All this good news reminds me of how I used to love reading boarding school books myself. Here's my top 25 - mostly for children, but with a few special books aimed more directly at adults in there too. Feel free to disagree!

1) The Chalet School Books
Yes, I know you're going to wonder why this made it on top, and the reason is that this is my list! I absolutely adored the vast series of Chalet School books, and read (and re-read) them for years. But be careful, what's great about these books is that the characters actually grow up, get married, have children and (obviously) send their own children to the school. If you read one from early on (when it's set in Austria) then come upon from the school's move to Guernsey (because of the war) and then to Plas Howell and finally to Switzerland, you may get confused! Dated? Very possibly. But classics? Absolutely.
Find out about the Friends of the Chalet School.

2) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
This is a very different book to many of the others on the list, and the school is not its main focus, Mr Rochester takes care of that. But whatever the other many attractions of this book, Jane's time at Lowood Academy will stay in a reader's mind for a long, long time.
Discuss Jane Eyre

3) The Malory Towers series, by Enid Blyton
Ah, the joy of reading about Darrell Rivers and all her friends. Don't mock. I was enthralled by these six books when I was young - although obviously I was terrified by the thought of Matron.

4) The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling
These modern books have put boarding schools finally back on the map - albeit by inventing one which is full of mortal danger, magic and adventure. The films may be good, but the books are so much better.
See J K Rowling's official site.

5) The Autumn Term, Cricket Term and Attic Term by Antonia Forest
Forest wrote only 13 novels, all but one connected with the Marlow family. Ten of them were about the Marlow children, beginning with the Autumn Term (written in 1948) and were fabulous tales of the six girls and two boys. They deserve to be better-known.
I particularly remember Nicola and Lawrie, the two youngest sisters, who didn't quite live up to the standards of their hugely successful older sisters at Kingscote, the family boarding school.
Autumn Term, and its sequels, The Cricket Term and the Attic Term and were funny, beautifully written, and seemed far more realistic than many of the other boarding schools books around (especially when it came to the relationship between all the sisters).

6) Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Dotheboys Hall is not the kind of school you'd like to be teaching in (like Nicholas Nickleby himself) and you definitely wouldn't choose to send any child there - if there was a choice. It's also not the kind of school anyone connected with modern boarding schools wants you to mention. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't read about Nickleby and the awful Wackford Squeers.
Read more about Charles Dickens and his novels at David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page.

7) The Trebizon Series by Anne Digby
Another fictional girls' boarding school, in the tradition of so many others. But what's different about these 14 books is that (at least when I was a child) these were far more modern. Written in the 1970s and 80s, they are about protagonist (and excellent tennis player) Rebecca Mason, who actually joins from, shock, horror, a comprehensive school.
Read an interview with Anne Digby.

Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes
Tom's adventures, and his dealings with the bully, Flashman, kickstarted a whole new era of school stories. A joy to read about boys at school, rather than girls, and a definite classic.
Read the full text (it's rather long...)

9) Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
One of the few modern titles on my list, this quirky tale of a rather unusual young man includes his appalling time at boarding school. Brilliantly written and very evocative.
Read the Times Online review of Engleby.

10) A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
This children's story about seven-year-old Sara Crewe is utterly fantastic and will continue be loved from generation to generation. Written over a century ago, it's sad, exciting and really rather perfect.
Find out more at tickled orange

11) Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
This is an excellent fantasy story for slightly older children. It's about Charlotte Makepeace, a new girl (of course) who goes to bed and wakes up the next day as Clare Moby, a schoolgirl living 40 years before in the midst of the First World War...
This book is the inspiration for the famous song by the Cure, as you can read in Penelope Farmer's blog

12) The St Clares series by Enid Blyton
Another school series by Enid Blyton, this time about the O'Sullivan twins. Great fun, but not quite as good as Malory Towers, and somehow more dated.
Read more about the St Clares books.

13) The Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge
Buckeridge wrote 25 books about the adventures of Jennings and his hapless friend Darbishire at Linbury Court School. Entertaining and timeless.
Read about the staying power of these books.

14) Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld's exceptional novel was turned down by 14 out of 15 publishers. They must have felt rather stupid when the book began climbing the New York Times best-seller list and was optioned by a major Hollywood studio. It's the story of scholarship girl, and misfit, Lee Fiora, and her time at an exclusive new England prep school. A fine coming of age tale.
Read an extract.

15) St Trinians by Ronald Searle
These demonic girls are the antithesis of the jolly hockey-sticks found in Enid Blyton and Angela Brazil. Drawn fantastically by Ronald Searle, they're still going strong in film form today (although the original films are so much better!).
Read more about Ronald Searle and the genesis of these books.

16) The Billy Bunter books by Frank Richards
Still incredibly popular (and good fun) after 100 years.
Facts and figures about Grayfriars and Billy Bunter

17) A Fourth Form Friendship (and many other boarding school books!) by Angela Brazil
This prolific author has entranced girls across the generations. She's the kind of person who made you ache to go to boarding school.
Read more about Angela Brazil

18) Stalky & Co by Rudyard Kipling
This one often splits Kipling enthusiasts as it's quite different from some of his other work. But if you like boarding school high jinks - good and bad - written by a true master of literature, then this is one for you. The stories are based on Kipling's own school, the United Services College at Westward Ho!, in Devon.
Find out about the Kipling Society.

19) Boy by Roald Dahl
Dahl may have written delicious fantasies for children, but his own childhood wasn't easy. Boy - his memoir - recounts the beatings, homesickness, prejudice and abuse he faced at boarding school in England. Not the rosiest picture of this school system that you will ever read, but gripping. And there's a lot of lighter moments in the book too.
Find out more from Roald Dahl's official website.

20) The Dimsie books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce
These are probably what you would call "ripping yarns" about Daphne Isabel Maitland (nicknamed Dimsie) and her adventures at school. Written between the two world wars, these are definitely dated, but still delightfully nostaglic.
The Dorita Fairlie Bruce homepage.

21) The Egerton Hall trilogy by Adele Geras
Written for teenagers, these books, set in 1962, are not just about friends, Megan, Alice and Bella and their boarding school. Instead, the stories are based on fairy tales - Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Very clever, and very enjoyable too.
Read more from Adele Geras.

22) Flashman by George Macdonald Fraser.
Flashman's own novel begins with his explusion from Rugby School (see Tom Brown's Schooldays), and goes on to tell of his adventures, heroic and not so heroic.
Not strictly a boarding school book, but a hard one to leave out of this list.
Find out about the Flashman Society.

23) Nancy Breary
If you like Angela Brazil, Dorita Fairlie Bruce and Elinor M Brent Dyer, you will like Nancy Breary. If you don't like those kind of classic, now somewhat cliched stories, you won't! But if you give her a chance, you'll find that Breary is funny, writes well and is truly enjoyable to read.

24) The Secret Life of a Boarding School Brat by Amy Gordon
Another very good American offering, this time aimed at pre-teens. The Secret Life tells the story of Lydia Rice, who wanders around her new boarding school at night and befriends Howie, the night watchman.
Find out more from Amy Gordon.

25) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger
"Sleep tight, ya morons!" yells Holden Caulfield, as he leaves his prep school, and it's the start of one of the best books you will ever read. If you haven't read it for a while, do so again, as it just gets better with age!
If it's such a classic, you're probably asking, why this book only just squeezes onto the list. It's because, let's be honest, it's not really a boarding school book, is it?