Pupil Viewpoint Education
My Tudor Girl I
am sitting here next to My Tudor Girl writing this piece. Matilda Marchmont is 13, just four years older than me and has dark blue eyes, ruby red
Lily Heathcoat -Amory, 9, loves the way a Tudor doll is helping her learn her history
lips and long brown hair. She is delicate with long eyelashes that she fl icks when I am not looking and she has lots of jewellery. She has become Lady in Waiting to Katherine Howard and I think she is desperate to become Lady in Waiting to the future Queen Elizabeth I, because she is wearing a velvet coat lined with fur and a taff eta dress. I just hope she doesn’t catch the eye of Henry VIII or she may lose her pretty head. I don’t usually play with
dolls but Matilda is diff erent. She comes with an activity book, which is brilliant. It shows you how to design Matilda even more dresses with which to fi ll her wardrobe. You can share secrets with her and keep them in folders. It teaches you how to plait her hair – and mine – so we can both look like Tudor queens. There are even recipes for Tudor cupcakes and delicious biscuits to cook with her and there are even ideas for a Tudor sleepover! There is also a family tree that shows Matilda is a cousin of
Katherine Howard, one of Henry VIII’s wives and the third in a family of four. She lives in the countryside and has an older brother Robert and sister Frances and the baby is called Kate. Matilda writes in her diary that she fi nds Henry VIII repulsive because he is so huge and has very unsightly sores. I think she is probably in love with a knight who is the best jouster at court rather than the fat old men. In her book, she tells you how to make a bum roll and how
to fl atten your tummy with a corset. I am glad that nowadays I can wear jeans and T-shirts. I love Matilda’s rings and charms, though, and I would have loved to dance at court. Matilda’s worst nightmares are all about torture and the rack, whereas mine are about forgetting to hand my homework in or my pony stopping at a jump! But Matilda gives you a code wheel so you can send secret messages if you are in danger and some wax so you can seal your envelope. It’s fantastic for play dates but also for history lessons because I now know everything about the Tudors. I love Matilda because you can braid her hair and she has a huge selection of clothes. There is also a novel about her called
Matilda’s Secret so you almost begin to think like her. She loves her horse and pretending to be a witch, making potions
with plants – so we share the same hobbies. You soon know all her secrets and worries and she is desperate to go to London and go to Court so she can see everyone in their glittering clothes. She visits Hampton Court Palace and even the Tower of London, where her cousin Katherine fi nally has her head chopped off . Now I think there may be a need for a Victorian girl and an Elizabeth II girl…maybe that could be me!
with her own book and wardrobe. See page 81
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk Michaelmas 2011 FirstEleven 15
✎
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84