Wishing for Tomorrow

When she drove away from Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies it seemed that was the last anyone would hear about Sara Crew and her fellow pupils, but in Wishing for Tomorrow Hilary McKay has done a superb job of breathing new life into familiar characters and adding a few new ones.

The story takes up soon after Sara’s departure, with some flashbacks to earlier times. Most of the unfolding events are seen through the eyes of Ermengarde, just turned 13 and with very low self-esteem, and there are letters written by Ermengarde to Sara and by Sara to Ermengarde. Lavinia, Jessica and the irrepressible Lottie all have feature roles – Lavinia’s efforts to secure a better education plays a prominent part. Present-day readers will be shocked at how much freedom the girls have within the obvious constraints of the times, and especially at the laxness of teaching standards at Miss Minchin’s. A notable new character is housemaid Alice, who plays a strongly comic part and pretty well manages everyone in the Select Seminary, including Miss Minchin.

McKay controls her characters and her narrative with a light touch, ensuring that girls (this is definitely not one for the lads) who have never heard of Frances Hodgson Burnett or A Little Princess will thoroughly enjoy Wishing for Tomorrow and may seek out its precursor when they have finished it.