Star & Thea at Court

The Hildencourt Chronicles, Book 1

By AV Kakkad

The hate was expected. The love & friendship, not so much.

It is 1959 in England.

It would be nearly a decade before Enoch Powell gave his famous speech.

Over a decade has gone by since the Windrush arrived, bringing immigrants from the Caribbean to labour, as with the rest of the Commonwealth, for England’s comfort and growth.

The empire is nearly gone but nostalgia has replaced it.

Change is everywhere. As is resistance to it.

Rosamund Gladstone and Leoni Emsworth come together with their best friends to shape their old school—The Hildencourt that catered to the rich and the well-endowed—into something new. Something that would teach young girls to build a better world.

Or so they hope.

A teacher and a school mate they didn’t expect seems to be the next step.

After an incident at work, Althea Atherton is forced to leave her job at a research institution. Hurt and left with no recourse, she joins Leo and Rosamund’s school as a physics and mathematics teacher. She couldn’t continue with her career in core physics and has two seventeen-year-olds to care for. Teaching girls seemed to be the best path to take.

Asta Atherton has never been to a boarding school before, let alone one so posh. All she can do is follow the rules and focus on her physics. Friendship or popularity. Not something she can hope for. She has never had them. With her brother in another school, she settles down to a life of loneliness and studies.

Aldyn Hawthorne has been chosen to be the Head Girl this term. All her focus is on making the year the best for Hildencourt. Ensure that the students don’t make mischief. That the Christmas play is chosen and performed well. She has no time to cater to the new girl and her sensibilities. She hopes that the girl, a sixth former, can do that on her own.

Change is here. As is resistance. Will the quintet be able to live up to their dreams?