James and Jacqueline

Brentfield Academy For Young Ladies Was One Of Those Old English Schools Built Around 1910 To Cater For The Education Of The Daughters Of The Aristocracy And The Rich Who Recognised That Girls Were Potentially Just As Clever As Boys. Their Mothers Would Have Supported The Aims If Not The Means Of The Suffragette Movement And Their Fathers Would Have Gone Along With Their Wives Both For A Quiet Life And Because Frankly They Were Totally Apathetic About The Whole Question Of Sexual Equality. It Was Quite Close To A Leading Boys' School Which Was Only Two Miles Away In South West London. In The Following Spring By Which Time The Current Sixth Formers Would Have Left And Be At University The School Was Going To Be Celebrating Its Centenary. Like Many Leading Schools It Was Divided Into Four Houses Both For Academic And Sporting Purposes. Each Was Named After A British Female Monarch; Mary Elizabeth Anne And Victoria. The Head Girl That Year Was Helena Clarke Who Therefore Was Not Allowed To Be A House Captain As Well. As It Happened The Four House Captains And The Head Girl Had All Been Very Close Friends For Several Years Although In Different Houses. But The Most Important Thing They Had In Common Was That All Of Them Were Earmarked For Places At Oxford Or Cambridge. Helena Was A Maths Genius And Also Very Good At Music. She Was Hoping For Cambridge. Jennifer Tremayne Captain Of Mary House Also Wanted To Get To Cambridge To Read Neuroscience But At A Different College To Helena. The Other Three House Captains Were Hoping For Oxford Colleges Sylvia Johnson Of Elizabeth To Read Modern Languages Gillian Watson Of Anne To Read Classics And Anne Mcfarland The Oldest One Of Victoria To Read Geology. All Were Also Senior Prefects In Charge Of School Discipline But None Of Them Bothered To Enforce The Purely Venial School Rules Too Seriously. More Serious Misdemeanours Were Discussed When They Had An Officia