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Original poster

AIBU To Think That The Plots Of The Chalet School Books Were Really Improbable

453 replies

TheShellBeach · 22/02/2023 15:30

.................................such as Prince Cosimo, the endless kidnappings, all the train crashes/bus crashes/car crashes/plane crashes/boat sinkings hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings

Okay, I've just remembered that there were a couple of near misses with boats when the CS was on the island. Joey was nearly flung overboard once (a missed opportunity for EBD to get rid of her IMO) and there were probably others.

Anyway - all aboard and ahoy there.

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saffy9876 · 27/02/2023 14:19

I think Juliet had one of each, Donal and Meg who doesn't get mentioned as going to the CS, her niece does though Tessa.

RobinHumphries · 27/02/2023 13:31

No not Felicity! She was a spineless jellyfish if ever there was one! Howling cos a door knob fell off and she was stuck in a room….. I would’ve liked to have more about Tessa de Bersac for instance.

Onto a different subject, I’ve just finished Highland twins and it says Juliet had a daughter…. I thought she only had sons? And why didn’t the girl go to the CS? It seems a demonic contract that alll female descendants must go to the CS school. Also how come Biddy O’Ryan got renamed throughout to Biddy O’Ryan?

RafaistheKingofClay · 27/02/2023 13:09

Yestothis · 27/02/2023 12:01

Margot's plot line gets repetitive, particularly because EBD slows down to a book or more per term in Switzerland, and the triplets start young. Imagine if Joey had been in school for 30 or so books instead of a dozen or so. Grizel had a great story arc in four.

I suspect EBD didn't want to lose the triplets, but it's a pity she didn't have the momentum to push them on and bring on a new generation of anyone but Jack L.

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Joey had enough kids after the triplets that she could have lost them and brought on a new generation. Felicity particularly.

Yestothis · 27/02/2023 12:03

Fimofriend · 27/02/2023 07:49

In the Danish book series "Puk" from the fifties ( I think) the plot in one of the books evolves around archeologists finding a Roman road in Denmark. That would be huge as the Romans didn't come up this far north. The poor girl, Puk, must have looked very basic as through the 50+ books she encountered three dubbelgängers. Same age as her and everything.

I suppose her doubles were relatives on her father's side who looked inexplicably like her mother (Adrienne)

Yestothis · 27/02/2023 12:01

ZacharinaQuack · 27/02/2023 11:27

I'm actually a bit more convinced by Margot Maynard now (though not yet up to the bit where she brains someone with a bookend). EBD is clearly preparing for her becoming a nun well in advance (aged 15ish, won't tell her classmates what her career aspirations are) and her struggles with her conscience are at least a bit different from the identikit Chalet Girl that most characters eventually become.

Margot's plot line gets repetitive, particularly because EBD slows down to a book or more per term in Switzerland, and the triplets start young. Imagine if Joey had been in school for 30 or so books instead of a dozen or so. Grizel had a great story arc in four.

I suspect EBD didn't want to lose the triplets, but it's a pity she didn't have the momentum to push them on and bring on a new generation of anyone but Jack L.

ZacharinaQuack · 27/02/2023 11:27

I'm actually a bit more convinced by Margot Maynard now (though not yet up to the bit where she brains someone with a bookend). EBD is clearly preparing for her becoming a nun well in advance (aged 15ish, won't tell her classmates what her career aspirations are) and her struggles with her conscience are at least a bit different from the identikit Chalet Girl that most characters eventually become.

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 27/02/2023 09:42

Gremlinsateit · 27/02/2023 06:46

What was poor old Jane to do when Jack had her by her plait? Turn the other plait? Seriously, Jack should have been on the first train to a reform school.

Along with Margot Maynard.
That would have wiped the smirk off Joey's face.

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Fimofriend · 27/02/2023 07:49

In the Danish book series "Puk" from the fifties ( I think) the plot in one of the books evolves around archeologists finding a Roman road in Denmark. That would be huge as the Romans didn't come up this far north. The poor girl, Puk, must have looked very basic as through the 50+ books she encountered three dubbelgängers. Same age as her and everything.

Gremlinsateit · 27/02/2023 06:46

What was poor old Jane to do when Jack had her by her plait? Turn the other plait? Seriously, Jack should have been on the first train to a reform school.

LavenderLaughs · 26/02/2023 21:38

Not to mention roughing up poor Jane Carew across the bonnet, so to speak. And then Jane was totally victim blamed by the staff and prefects while they tiptoed around beastly bullying Jack. Jack is simply crying out for a bookend to the head.

Talia99 · 26/02/2023 21:31

LavenderLaughs · 26/02/2023 21:16

Jack has not one redeeming feature. If only Margot had thrown the bookend at her.

I can’t believe the junior teachers were persuaded to let her loose on their shared car. Leaving to one side her (appalling) character, she has no qualifications whatsoever to allow her to fiddle with probably the only actual asset they have!

LavenderLaughs · 26/02/2023 21:16

Jack has not one redeeming feature. If only Margot had thrown the bookend at her.

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 26/02/2023 20:19

LavenderLaughs · 26/02/2023 20:16

I’ve said it here before, but in the midst of all the madness there are some wonderful moments. Auntie’s letter to Jacynth is still so touching. But don’t get me started on Jacynth’s ghastly namesake Jack Lambert. No one other than Jack could make me prefer Margot and her devil

Jack Lambert is the nastiest girl in the history of the CS.

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LavenderLaughs · 26/02/2023 20:16

I’ve said it here before, but in the midst of all the madness there are some wonderful moments. Auntie’s letter to Jacynth is still so touching. But don’t get me started on Jacynth’s ghastly namesake Jack Lambert. No one other than Jack could make me prefer Margot and her devil

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 26/02/2023 12:26

"Oh Grizel - whatever is it?" faltered Biddy.

"I set Len Maynard on fire," Grizel replied dully.

AIBU to think that the mistresses at DD's school should be more careful when they throw their cigarette ends away. Should school have a no-smoking policy. WWYD.

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Talia99 · 26/02/2023 12:09

Or if not a baddie, at least *not a real Chalet School girl’.

Talia99 · 26/02/2023 09:09

TheShellBeach · 25/02/2023 23:19

Oh, so it is. I'd forgotten that.
Serve her right for running away without enough money to bribe someone posh and rich.

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You could tell she was a baddie - otherwise someone’s cousin would have given her a free lift on his palatial yacht (which would have been inexplicably cruising the seas around the UK in the middle of a war).

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 25/02/2023 23:19

hels71 · 25/02/2023 22:01

In Goes To It, the boat Gurtrud Beck is on is torpedoed.

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Oh, so it is. I'd forgotten that.
Serve her right for running away without enough money to bribe someone posh and rich.

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Original poster
TheShellBeach · 25/02/2023 23:17

Yestothis · 25/02/2023 17:10

YABU - you should have read the prospectus before sending her Grin

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"AIBU to think DD's school should send their prospectus in English.
DH and I cannot read Russian.
CFuckers also sent a CD of someone called Josephine Maynard singing The Red Sarafan. WWYD.
DD says this school has a spectacularly good academic reputation for RG university entrance but DH not convinced - would Roedean be a better bet"

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hels71 · 25/02/2023 22:01

Tanith · 25/02/2023 20:39

"hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings"

Goodness me, yes! PPs have mentioned the torpedo escapes and thrilling motorboat rescues, but Joey was also shipwrecked during 'Peggy' and the Barras parents were drowned somewhere before 'A New Mistress'.
There were almost as many boat casualties as mountainside tumbles.

Tricky things, boats!

I've got 'The Crown Of Success' somewhere. I think at least one child is badly injured in that, too.

In Goes To It, the boat Gurtrud Beck is on is torpedoed.

Tanith · 25/02/2023 20:39

"hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings"

Goodness me, yes! PPs have mentioned the torpedo escapes and thrilling motorboat rescues, but Joey was also shipwrecked during 'Peggy' and the Barras parents were drowned somewhere before 'A New Mistress'.
There were almost as many boat casualties as mountainside tumbles.

Tricky things, boats!

I've got 'The Crown Of Success' somewhere. I think at least one child is badly injured in that, too.

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 25/02/2023 20:01

The Crown of Success was the book Jennifer Penrose (she of illicit Gone With The Wind/Forever Amber reading) grabbed in haste to read in the garden and didn't read but would almost certainly have flung down in disgust if she had.

HollyGolightly4 · 25/02/2023 19:35

@RobinHumphries Wonderful - totally agree. Also, she doesn't wear ponytails, so she's safe from Matey!

Laineythenomad · 25/02/2023 19:22

Yestothis · 25/02/2023 17:42

What was it again?

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They used a weird sounding children's book called The Crown of Success in which "the cottages (in the village) were their heads and were filled with knowledge". I've got to the initial plan, can't wait to see how they actually do it!

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 25/02/2023 18:36

MargaretThursday · 25/02/2023 18:06

My copy of Chalet Girl from Kenya is the same. Just at the point Jo Schott's parents go missing.

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Have a look for the relevant pages in the dropbox.

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