The Youngest Girl in the Fifth

The Youngest Girl in the Fifth is billed on its title page as "A School Story" by Angela Brazil. Its chapter titles include "An Unexpected Remove," "Trouble in the Fifth," "Keeping Christmas," "Gwen Turns Henwife," "A School Gymkhana" and "The Tennis Tournament." The Gascoyne family lives in the fishing village of Skelwick Bay on the North Sea, where Mr. Gascoyne has charge of the church of St. John the Baptist. He has seven children and a small income, and twenty-year-old Beatrice has run the household for four years.

In one scene Gwen is full of enthusiasm for a swimming course and, with Lesbia, begs their father to let them take it. He points out that nobody has told him the fees, which Winnie gives as half a guinea each with admission to the baths threepence a time. Another passage has Gwen worrying about an exam for which she suspects she is among the chosen candidates, and unhappy at a proposal that she stay at home for a fortnight.