In the novel Cat Among the Pigeons, Meadowbank School for Girls is a prestigious English prep school. Founded by the principal Honoria Bulstrode and her friend Miss Chadwick, the school combined traditional methods with Miss Bulstrode's personal and unconventional methods. The school was enormously successful and attracted royalty and nobility but also others. Miss Bulstrode selected pupils not because of their family connections but because they showed "promise".
Because so much of the events in the book are set in Meadowbank, a large number of characters are from or connected with the school.
The exact location of the school is not stated but a nearby town is Hurst St Cyprian.
Contents
Teachers
- Miss Honoria Bulstrode, headmistress
- Miss Chadwick, a long-serving and senior teacher who helps found Meadowbank
- Eleanor Vansittart, a senior teacher who taught German among other subjects
- Eileen Rich, a teacher
- Miss Grace Springer, a Games teacher
- Angèle Blanche, a French teacher
- Miss Blake, a Botany and Physics teacher
- Miss Rowan, a teacher
- Miss Jones
- Miss Laurie
- Geneviève Depuy
Non-teaching staff
- Briggs, gardener
- Mrs Gibbons, cook
- Adam Goodman, gardener
- Elspeth Johnson, the matron
- Ann Shapland, Miss Bulstrode's secretary
- Doris Hogg, maid
- Vera Lorrimer
Pupils
- Princess Shaista, a Middle-Eastern princess
- Julia Upjohn, a friend of Jennifer Sutcliffe
- Jennifer Sutcliffe, a friend of Julia Upjohn
- Margaret Gore-West, Senior Prefect
- Princess Ingrid, a Swedish princess
- Henrietta Hope
- Pamela
- Lydia
- Alison Hargraves
- Patricia Forbes (non-canonical - ITV adaptation only)
- Jane Valence
- Hedwig von Eisenger
- Paula
- Lois
- Mary Vyse
- Meroe Anderson
- Giselle d'Aubray
- Mary King
Parents and relatives of pupils
- Lady Veronica Carlton-Sandways, the disruptive and tipsy mother of twin daughters enrolled at the school
- Major Carlton-Sandways
- Edith
- Joan Sutcliffe, Bob Rawlinson's sister and Jennifer's mother
- Henry Sutcliffe, Joan's husband and Jennifer's father
- Mrs Upjohn, Julia Upjohn's mother, and a former British intelligence agent
- Baron von Eisenger
- Aunt Isabel
- Aunt Rosamond
- Mrs Arnold
- Lady Garnett
- Mrs Bird
- Lady Violet
- Major Hargreaves
- Mrs Gerald Hope
- Lady Valence
- Hellstern von Eisenger
- Professor Anderson
- Mrs Gina Campbell
Relatives, friends and acquaintances of school staff
- René Dupont - friend of Angèle Blanche
- Monica Lord - former employer of Ann Shapland
- Andrew Peters - former employer of Ann Shapland
- Mervyn Todhunter - former employer of Ann Shapland
- Dennis Rathbone - boyfriend of Ann Shapland
- Edith and her husband Dick - sister and brother in law of Miss Johnson
- Oliver and Kate - friends or relatives of Miss Johnson
- Gloria - friend of Miss Vansittart
