Book of the Month: The Moochers

Published in 1950, The Moochers is Jane Shaw's first ever school story. It chronicles the first term of cousins Fiona Auchenvole and Katherine Morton at Pendragon Manor in Cornwall. The story is delightful and contains many elements that would become recurring themes in the author's later school stories such as Susan at School and the Northmead books: the bossy head girl, the sarcastic maths teacher and the long-lost treasure. The book was published by Lutterworth Press and is one of the harder to find Jane Shaw stories. But it is well worth trying to locate a copy. It was followed by The Moochers Abroad in 1951. The manuscript of a third story, Moochers and Prefects, was sent to West Regional Television and lost while the TV station was considering it for dramatisation.