AFTER a few pints of beer, most men will admit to a curious fascination with convent girls. They seem to think that beneath the innocent facade there lurks a budding nymphomaniac, desperate to be diverted from the path of godly devotion and ripe for corruption. "Show me a girl wearing a cross round her neck and I'll show you a dead cert!", used to be a familiar saying.

The number of convent schools may be declining but the myths and images associated with them remain strong: sadistic sisters ruling their pupils with a rod of iron, the rustle of black serge skirts and the clacking of rosary beads; sex and spirituality.

The anthology, Convent Girls, includes personal recollections by well-known women including Germaine Greer, Anne Robinson and Maeve Binchy. In accounts that range from the witty and hilarious to the sombre and scathing, they talk about the effects convent education had on their early lives.

"If you have ever stood on a chair in front of 200 girls with your green knickers showing, reading out loud from a holy book - nothing truly daunts you after that," recalls Anne Robinson. It could account for a lot.

The tradition of convent education dates back to the 16th century and the foundation of the Ursuline order. The Ursulines did not remain cloistered and their mission was to serve God and teach in the Christian spirit. They educated young girls within the walls of their convent and their work formed the basis for all future teaching orders.

During the last few decades the number of convent schools has fallen dramatically. In 1964, there were 5,000 teaching nuns in the UK but by 2001, the figure had dropped to just 252.

A girl joining a convent in 1950 would have had a very similar experience to one joining in 1900 but lately things have changed so much that even today's convent girls would have difficulty identifying with their forebears.

"Of the 'new breed' of convent girls few seem able to recite the catechism, whilst the majority appear to support the idea that sleeping with a steady boyfriend is the normal thing to do - behaviour that only a generation ago would have been more than enough to justify immediate expulsion and have the whole community on their knees, praying for the sinner's soul," says co-editor Rosemary Forgan.

Sex - or rather the avoidance of it - certainly seems to have been a concern for the nuns, and it had repercussions for their pupils. Former Cosmopolitan editor Deirdre McSharry describes her convent education in Ireland during the war years, when the obsession with purity was so strong, girls weren't supposed to see their own bodies, let alone anyone else's. They had to put on a knitted bathing costume before getting into the bath to wash.

"The constant admonition 'not to' seems to have worked in reverse, turning it into a major preoccupation," says Rosemary.

Germaine Greer's years in a convent school were a factor in the development of her feminist theories. She recalls: "I just decided that dating was the pits and that was my convent training... I found the whole thing disgusting and, frankly, I couldn't do it. I was either too passionate or too cold. I either wasn't coming on enough or I was coming on for something. I'd get it wrong all the time. I began arguing against sexual guilt and hypocrisy while I was still a virgin. I mean that's a very nun-like thing to do!"

While the anthology explores the myth of the sexually-repressed convent girl, it also looks at that of the feisty and rebellious one. Rosemary and fellow editor Jackie Bennett claim that each contributor's education has played a key part in their rise to fame, encouraging them to develop a spirit of independence and rebellion.

But the picture that emerges is not a simple one. Along with several others, DJ Annie Nightingale questions whether her rebellious nature is linked to her convent education. For her, the most important thing the nuns taught was how to feel close to God.

More harrowingly, author Marian Keyes claims that she was too damaged by nuns to rebel against them, recalling a time when one nun brought a 6ins carpenter's nail into class so the girls could "experience" the crucifixion.

To those of us who have not experienced life inside a convent school, it seems brutal but, explains Rosemary, it was the very essence of the system.

"What really separated the convent school from any other school, religious or secular, was that they convinced you they had God on their side - and woe betide anyone who forgot that," she says.

* Convent Girls, edited by Jackie Bennett and Rosemary Forgan, is published in paperback by Virago priced £6.99