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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.

OP posts:
MargaretThursday · 22/02/2023 20:23

ZacharinaQuack · 22/02/2023 16:34

hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings

Annis Lovell doesn't sink but she has to leap out of her boat so as not to be dashed against the cliffs, I think.

The boat Joey (and the triplets) escape from Guernsey on is attacked and in danger of sinking.

Naturally Joey behaves as a spineless jellyfish faints because she is so emotional and leaves Freda and others to look after the babies.

ZacharinaQuack · 22/02/2023 20:17

@CrackedLookingGlass one of the more surprisingly probable bits for me is just before they move to Switzerland and Miss Slater is given plenty of space to explain why she doesn't want to go, and would rather move to a school where she can be a head of department and develop her career with a view to becoming a headmistress eventually. She also wants to try out some methods that wouldn't fit the Chalet School. Obvs she is evil because she dislikes Margot Maynard for not being good at maths, but I thought it was uncharacteristically balanced,

MissyB1 · 22/02/2023 18:53

SweetestThing · 22/02/2023 18:20

Me too. Mary Lou is a complete pain in the butt. I'd be cutting off her Kenwigses during hobbies club, accidentally on purpose.

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Don’t get me started on Mary Lou, the original Queen Bee! Her and her bloody “gang”!

SweetestThing · 22/02/2023 18:20

LaurelGrove · 22/02/2023 17:43

Here for the Kaffee und Küchen, and the general merriment at the plots. And obviously to sneer at Mary Lou.

Me too. Mary Lou is a complete pain in the butt. I'd be cutting off her Kenwigses during hobbies club, accidentally on purpose.

CrackedLookingGlass · 22/02/2023 17:54

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 22/02/2023 17:07

Yes, but the kidnapper takes the wrong girl - but when he offloads her, he makes sure she has a valid train ticket back to the Chalet School. What a kind kidnapper!

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Yes, that’s the part that kills me. This kidnap gang is fine with abducting a girl they think is the daughter of their police nemesis with the intention of getting her addicted to drugs and then giving her back as a hopeless wreck, but still are correct about valid train tickets, administer the sedative they knock her out with in the inevitable ‘rich, creamy milk’ and the hard-bitten female gang member knits when on duty. Grin

Am I alone in kind of liking Miss Bubb? Or at least liking that she was apparently the only CS staff member ever to be more interested in academic results than in preventing the girls getting TB? (When really, is the best thing to do against a highly infectious disease to collect a lot of ‘delicate’ girls with close family members who actually have TB and keep them in the same building?)

LaurelGrove · 22/02/2023 17:43

Here for the Kaffee und Küchen, and the general merriment at the plots. And obviously to sneer at Mary Lou.

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 22/02/2023 17:42

Warrensrabbit · 22/02/2023 17:32

The plot to Harry Potter is improbable, that’s what makes it fiction

HP didn't purport to be set in the real world, though! (Apologies if, with that statement, I have shattered any illusions) Grin

crosstalk · 22/02/2023 17:35

@Warrensrabbit How can you shred my mental health in just one sentence? When I'm not investigating cupboards for entries to REAL albeit SNOWY worlds, I'm am bashing my trolley into various platform entrances at King's Cross.

Warrensrabbit · 22/02/2023 17:32

The plot to Harry Potter is improbable, that’s what makes it fiction

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 22/02/2023 17:28

@ZacharinaQuack
Miss Bubb did die, and she jolly well deserved it.
Fancy trying to stop the girls playing hockey.
She was always destined for a sticky end.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheShellBeach · 22/02/2023 17:24

ElinoristhenewEnid · 22/02/2023 16:37

I remember the motor boat plots in the last two books - 'the girls will not let the idea of motorboat races drop' states a mistress - then they are never mentioned again.

also Miss Ferrars jumping from one motorboat to another when one threatened to crash - physically impossible!!

Not for the intrepid Kathie.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheShellBeach · 22/02/2023 17:23

MissyB1 · 22/02/2023 16:11

Was it “Redheads” when one of the girls gets kidnapped? The plots were getting ridiculous by then, Brent-Dyer was losing the plot!

Loads of girls were kidnapped. In loads of the books. But yes, in Redheads, Val is kidnapped and then told off once she gets back to school. Obviously it was her own fault that she was kidnapped and Miss Annersley even threatens her with expulsion.
Victim-blaming at its finest.
Grin

OP posts:
PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 22/02/2023 17:07

MissyB1 · 22/02/2023 16:11

Was it “Redheads” when one of the girls gets kidnapped? The plots were getting ridiculous by then, Brent-Dyer was losing the plot!

Yes, but the kidnapper takes the wrong girl - but when he offloads her, he makes sure she has a valid train ticket back to the Chalet School. What a kind kidnapper!

EmpressaurusOfCats · 22/02/2023 17:06

Melanie Lucas. Quite early on someone said something about the last Breton girl at the school having been Jeanne le Cadoulec and the mere idea that Melanie might have been related to her was ridiculous because it would be far too much of a coincidence.

Near the end, Melanie mentions that she's related to Jeanne le Cadoulec and everyone says oh, yes, naturally.

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 22/02/2023 17:05

Here for some creamy milk and a solid lump of comfort.

hels71 · 22/02/2023 16:49

ElinoristhenewEnid · 22/02/2023 16:37

I remember the motor boat plots in the last two books - 'the girls will not let the idea of motorboat races drop' states a mistress - then they are never mentioned again.

also Miss Ferrars jumping from one motorboat to another when one threatened to crash - physically impossible!!

Oh yes, the jumping from.boat to boat thing!!! Unless of course Miss Ferrars was really James Bond in disguise???

Bloatstoat · 22/02/2023 16:48

I think because EBD made the Chalet girls really against the sort of thing that usually makes up the plots of school stories (midnight feasts, playing tricks on each other etc) she had to introduce crazy plot lines. Chalet School and the Linton's has Joyce organising a midnight feast that leaves her and others seriously unwell - that would never have happened at Malory TowersGrin

DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry · 22/02/2023 16:47

oh yes, hair going white overnight was a good example.

German aviator dropping letter to the Chalet School that lands in the C S grounds shortly after they'd moved from Guernsey to the Welsh marches.

PepsiMaxCan · 22/02/2023 16:42

Walk through a tunnel (cave- cant quite remember) and your hair turns grey

ElinoristhenewEnid · 22/02/2023 16:37

I remember the motor boat plots in the last two books - 'the girls will not let the idea of motorboat races drop' states a mistress - then they are never mentioned again.

also Miss Ferrars jumping from one motorboat to another when one threatened to crash - physically impossible!!

ZacharinaQuack · 22/02/2023 16:34

hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings

Annis Lovell doesn't sink but she has to leap out of her boat so as not to be dashed against the cliffs, I think.

DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry · 22/02/2023 16:28

ps, thank you for the new thread!

DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry · 22/02/2023 16:27

Getting hit by a thunderbolt that cleverly digs a hole big enough for a swimming pool. In a suitable location. That and Professor Richardson thinking he has any hope of reaching escape velocity in his home-made moon rocket.

MargaretThursday · 22/02/2023 16:24

The number of girls who are "still and to all appearances dead" over the books is more than the average school.

MissyB1 · 22/02/2023 16:11

Was it “Redheads” when one of the girls gets kidnapped? The plots were getting ridiculous by then, Brent-Dyer was losing the plot!