Release date is 2025-10-24

Al Haines

"Sally Cocksure" by Ierne L. Plunket is a school novel written in the early 20th century. It follows clever, headstrong Sally Brendan as her pranks, bravado, and sporting skill collide with the rules and hierarchies of Seascape House, a girls’ boarding school. Themes of pride, popularity, discipline, and risky friendship emerge, especially through Sally’s fascination with the charismatic rebel Trina “Peter” Morrison.

The opening of the story shows Sally’s mischief at home—tying a goat in the parish lecture room with a mocking note and sewing her governess’s skirt to the carpet—events that push her mother to send her to Seascape House. On the train she taunts older girls, is bullied, then dramatically escapes along the footboard between carriages, earning equal parts notoriety and censure. At school she tops her class under the approving Miss Castle but becomes unpopular, is sidelined in junior games, then stuns everyone with her bowling and is promoted to the senior practice group. A measles quarantine cancels matches, fraying tempers; a seaside scuffle sees Violet Tremson defend Sally, only for Sally to snap back. Craving attention, Sally courts danger at the cliff “Portholes” and is drawn into Peter’s orbit, cutting afternoon prep to visit Peter’s cousins by car and slipping back over the school wall. Peter browbeats a timid prefect into setting only lines; Sally, eager to please, writes both sets and misses practice. The segment ends with Sally swallowing a public slight from Peter, while Violet bluntly calls Peter out—signaling the costs of Sally’s new allegiance. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: London: Oxford University Press, 1929