This was better than I expected. It is a sequel to A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett which is one of my favorite books in the world. It tells what happens to everyone left behind at the school when Sara Crewe leaves to live with the Indian Gentleman. Not everyone in the book is believably the same person that Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote. The unpleasant girl Lavinia who was jealous of Sara, turns out to have been nasty largely because she felt trapped by the female lot in life during the Edwardian Era, and in this book she discovers that women who study hard can go to Oxford, and becomes a slightly nicer person. Whereas my impression of her character was that she would have sneered at any woman who devoted herself to academics, or any person who wasn't bog standard ordinary. Hilary McKay does have a history of redeeming bullies in her books.