The Worst Witch
The Worst Witch is a series of children's books written and illustrated by English author Jill Murphy. The series are primarily about a girl named Mildred Hubble who attends a witch school and fantasy stories, with eight books published. The first, The Worst Witch, was published in 1974 by Allison & Busby, and the most recent, First Prize for the Worst Witch, was published in 2018 by Puffin Books, the current publisher of the series. The books have become some of the most successful titles on the Young Puffin paperback list and have sold more than 5 million copies.
In 1986, the first book in the series was made into a television film of the same name. A TV series based on the book aired from 1998 to 2001, and has inspired two spin-offs, Weirdsister College, aired in 2001, and The New Worst Witch, aired in 2005. Another adaptation premiered in 2017.
Background
The author Jill Murphy began writing The Worst Witch at the age of 15, while still at school, and based many points of the stories on her own school experiences at Ursuline Convent in Wimbledon, England, with Singing becoming Chanting, Chemistry becoming Potions and so on. Recalling how the story was initially inspired by her own school experiences, she said in an interview: "My two friends and I used to come home in our dark uniforms, looking very scruffy at the end of the day – my dark plaits sprouting tufts, with lost hair ribbons. My Mum used to say 'Look at you all. You look like the three witches!' and it gave me the idea for a witch's school – so that it was exactly like my school, but with a subtle touch of magic. All the characters are based on my school friends and teachers".Murphy completed the first book at the age of 18, but it was rejected by many publishers, so she "put it in a drawer" and concentrated on other things, including working as a nanny and in a children's home, and for a time living in West Africa, where her first husband was studying.
Publication of The Worst Witch finally came about, as Jill Murphy recalled, "thanks to a series of coincidences involving me spending time in Ghana, and a friend meeting Margaret Busby at a publishers' party in London". The Worst Witch was finally published in 1974, when Murphy was 24, by the small independent company Allison and Busby.
Series overview
The books in the series all focus on Mildred Hubble, a young witch who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a school of magic. Although well-intentioned, Mildred's clumsy personality leads the girl to disastrous situations, and she is thus considered the worst student in the school. The benevolent headmistress, Miss Cackle, is generally understanding, whereas Mildred's form teacher Miss Hardbroom thinks she just is not trying hard enough. Mildred's friends include Maud Spellbody, a rotund, sensible girl who is always trying to avoid confusion, and Enid Nightshade, a practical joker who is more likely than Mildred to get them all into trouble. The three girls have a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow, a high-born, snobbish and vindictive classmate.Each book covers one term at the school. There are two terms each year: the Winter term, from September to January, and the Summer term, from March to July. In First Prize for the Worst Witch, the most recent book, Mildred is in the Summer term of her fourth year.
Books
''The Worst Witch''
The Worst Witch was first published in 1974 by Allison & Busby, and proved to be an immediate success, selling out within two months.;Plot
The novel begins with Mildred Hubble and the upcoming traditional assembly where all of the first-years are given their own black cats that they will teach to ride on their broomsticks with them. Unlike the other girls, who receive black kittens, Mildred receives a tabby cat, which she simply calls Tabby. The kitten is unable to sit on a broomstick, so Mildred carries Tabby in her bag. Miss Hardbroom disapproves, and Mildred has to stop. Afterwards, another witch called Ethel Hallow teases Mildred about it and dares her to turn her into a frog. Mildred loses her temper and turns Ethel into a pig instead.
In the next chapter, Mildred and Maud inadvertently make an invisibility potion instead of a laughing potion in their class test.
In the following chapter, the girls are practising for a broomstick display for Halloween. Ethel lends Mildred her spare broom, on which she has secretly put a spell. During the Halloween festival, Mildred's broom starts bucking, causing all the girls to fall from their broomsticks. The Chief Magician denounces the academy, and Mildred is summoned to a meeting with Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom the next morning. Mildred, fearing expulsion, decides to run away with Tabby.
When walking through the forests near the academy, Mildred hears voices through the trees and comes across a group of witches, headed by one who looks like Miss Cackle. After hearing their plot to turn every teacher and student witch in the academy into frogs, Mildred turns the group into snails, packs them into cardboard boxes, and takes them back to the academy. At first, Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom refuse to believe her, but when Mildred describes the leader, Miss Cackle realises she sounds like her identical twin sister, Agatha. They turn Agatha and her associates back into humans. Mildred's interview is cancelled for saving the school. Later that morning, Ethel is exposed as the cause of Mildred's broomstick mishap, and Mildred is vindicated and praised as a hero to the rest of the academy.
''The Worst Witch Strikes Again''
The Worst Witch Strikes Again was first published in 1980 by Allison & Busby and features a new character, Enid Nightshade.;Plot
Mildred Hubble returns to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches for the Summer Term of her first year. Miss Cackle has trusted Mildred to look after the new girl, Enid Nightshade, and help her settle in. Since Mildred has to spend a lot of time with Enid, Maud becomes angry and jealous and breaks off their friendship, siding with Ethel in retaliation.
Mildred starts showing Enid around the academy, only to discover that Enid has smuggled a monkey into school with her. During the assembly that follows, Miss Cackle announces her birthday celebration. During a chanting lesson with Miss Bat after assembly, Enid deliberately sings awkwardly and out of tune, causing Mildred to burst into laughter. Mildred is sent to Miss Cackle's office. When going up to her room, Mildred checks on Enid's monkey, causing it to escape. Mildred chases it down the stairs and bumps into Miss Hardbroom, who sends her to the library to study.
After spotting the monkey on top of one of the castle towers, Mildred jumps onto her broomstick. Miss Hardbroom turns the monkey into its original form, a school regulation black cat. Enid secretly reveals to Mildred that she turned the cat into a monkey for fun.
On Sports Day, Mildred and Enid become partners. Enid places a spell on Mildred's pole, so in the pole-vaulting contest, Mildred springs high into the air and lands into Miss Hardbroom's study via the window. Moments later, Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom, and Miss Drill arrive, and Miss Cackle angrily says that if there is any more bother from Mildred that term, she will be expelled.
Determined to avoid expulsion for the rest of the term, Mildred refuses every daring suggestion Enid makes. Enid decides to skip Miss Cackle's boring birthday celebration and hides in a store cupboard, pulling Mildred in with her. Seeing an opportunity to get Mildred expelled, Ethel Hallow spitefully locks the door behind them.
Inside the cupboard, the two girls find an old broomstick that they use to fly out of a slit-window leading into the assembly hall. As luck has it, Maud is on stage, having been chosen to recite the first years' contribution to the recital. Having long regretted her jealous behaviour, Maud introduces Mildred and Enid as a surprise broomstick display item. The display doesn't go especially well, but Miss Cackle decides it is the thought and effort that counts and praises them highly. The three girls become friends and are delighted when the end-of-term bell rings with Mildred still a pupil at the academy.
''A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch''
A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch was published in 1982. It features Ethel Hallow's little sister, Sybil Hallow, and her friend Clarice Crow.;Plot
Mildred Hubble returns to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches for her second year, determined to lose her embarrassing reputation as "the worst witch in the school". After Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade arrive, the three bump into two first-years. The one who seems familiar bursts into tears and clings onto Mildred when she hears that many of the teachers are quite strict. Mildred also accidentally slips a made-up story about Miss Hardbroom turning a student into a frog when she was just two seconds late for a lesson. To the girls' horror, they also learn that they have Miss Hardbroom for another year.
The next morning, a fire bell rings. Mildred scrambles into her clothes, notices from her window that Miss Hardbroom standing in the playground surrounded by hazy purple smoke. Thinking she is in a state of shock, Mildred tries to douse her in freezing cold water, but the bucket slips off her broomstick and lands with a clang on Miss Hardbroom's head. After witnessing the incident, Ethel Hallow confronts Mildred at lunchtime, saying that the girl she told the frog story to was her younger sister, Sybil. After much provocation, Mildred loses her temper and insults Ethel's family —"All you Hallows are weeds, weeds, weeds!"
After an unfortunate flying lesson, where Tabby makes another terrified attempt to avoid sitting on the end of the broomstick, Miss Hardbroom sends Mildred to her room to calm down. When sitting in her bed, however, Mildred accidentally falls asleep and does not hear Ethel creeping into her room.
Mildred is awoken by her bedroom door shutting, only to find that everything looks giant-sized, even Tabby. Peeking in the mirror, she finds that somebody has turned her into a frog. When jumping onto her bed, the frog-Mildred notices a tatty handful of weeds on her pillow, no doubt left by Ethel as a reference to her family's insult and why she turned her into the frog.
Panicking, Mildred squeezes under the gap under her bedroom door and hops off to a potions lesson, where everyone has noticed her disappearance. Miss Hardbroom, however, discovers her and puts her in a jar. During the lesson, Mildred manages to escape from the jar and hops over to Ethel's desk, where she drinks an invisibility potion. Taking advantage of her invisibility, the frog-Mildred hops out of the academy and lands in the lily pond on the castle grounds.
There, Mildred meets another frog who was also a human once called Algernon Rowan-Webb. Algernon reveals that, rather like Mildred, he was turned into a frog by a fellow magician after an argument and can only be turned back into a human by another magician. Algernon also reveals that the one thing he craves is to have a "proper tea again, with buttered toast and crumpets with honey".
Promising to return for him, Mildred hops back up to the academy. Maud and Enid, who have been worrying about their friends' disappearance, suddenly realise what has happened when Tabby shows affection towards the frog-Mildred, and take her to Ethel, who reluctantly turns her back into a human. Miss Hardbroom comes by, and Ethel tells her that she caught Maud, Enid, and Mildred sneaking around the school. Mildred furiously attempts to tell the truth, and the disbelieving Miss Hardbroom is about to give her a punishment when she notices that Mildred's feet are still invisible. Mildred realises that this proves her story and tells Miss Hardbroom what happened in the potion lab. Miss Hardbroom tells Mildred and Ethel to report to her office the next day.
In the morning, Miss Hardbroom reprimands both Mildred and Ethel for their ongoing feud, and they are both punished with lines – Ethel for turning Mildred into a frog and attempting to lie her way out of trouble, and Mildred for upsetting Ethel's sister. The two girls are also banned from attending the Halloween ceremonies – the only chance Mildred would have had to find a magician who could turn Algernon back into a human. Mildred feels she has no choice but to kidnap somebody who is going to the Halloween festival. She tricks a third-year witch, Griselda Blackwood, into looking under her bed for an imaginary beetle before tying her up and taking her cat.
Shortly afterwards, Ethel discovers Griselda being held captive in Mildred's room, and the two fly off to the festival to turn Mildred in. When exposed, Mildred takes the plunge and strides up to chief magician Mr Hellibore, handing him the box that contains Algernon. As luck would have it, Mr Hellibore was one of Algernon's fellow magicians at the time of his transformation, and he immediately turns him old friend back to his human form.
As a last request from Mildred, Mr Hellibore magics up a pot of tea and a plate of toast, crumpets, and butter. Algernon himself then conjures a pot of honey for the crumpets and the three head off to enjoy the supper.