Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Chalet School

I had another look at the recipe earlier and I note it involves an awful lot of faffing about proving, which is v poorly suited to my un-Anna-like cooking preferences.

It might sound complicated, but in fact it's a lot easier than the recipe makes it appear. Having said that, I don't think I'd fancy doing it every week, much less every day which I bet Anna would fall over herself to do if she thought Joey would like it.

Oh, I wasn't doubting that there was a retrospective comment somewhere in the later books which I can't be arsed to re-read - just that I can't recall any of the books where Marie is a schoolgirl being called Cinders.

It doesn't make sense for that to be Marie's nickname anyway, given that virtually every mention of her beauty has to be followed up with a reminder that Wanda is the pretty one really...

And isn't the point of Cinders that she''s the downtrodden younger stepsister dressed in rags and tatters, her beauty scarcely visible under layers of grime and soot? That hardly describes anything we're told about Marie.

I recognise it too (the years-later comment, not as something anyone ever said when Marie was actually at school), but I've just checked the encyclopaedia and it seems to be mentioned only as coming from one of the newsletters. I'm sure that's not right - I haven't read them, so I'm certain it's in one of the Swiss books too.

It doesn't make sense for that to be Marie's nickname anyway, given that virtually every mention of her beauty has to be followed up with a reminder that Wanda is the pretty one really...

Mormington I'm trying to remember where it comes up.

I think it's a newcomer seeing Marie's daughter/niece and thinking she's beautiful. Maybe it's Jack Lambert in Leader? Was Wanda Marie's daughter perhaps?
Something along the lines of "...little knowing her mother had been known as Cinders at school for her legendary beauty and her Aunt was known as the most beautiful girl to go through the school."
That's not word for word, but there's something like that, might swap mother and Aunt.

Oh, I want to be your guest. I had another look at the recipe earlier and I note it involves an awful lot of faffing about proving, which is v poorly suited to my un-Anna-like cooking preferences. Still, I shall persevere and not be a spineless jellyfish in the face of convoluted baking...

I drank a lot of milky coffee in AchenkirchTiernkirch, mostly because I thought it was compulsory. Now every time
I have one (weekend breakfast, mostly) I have really strong memories of the lovely Chaletian setting and it makes me so happy.

The rolls are yummy! I made some this morning - though I have to confess to not having them with a bowl of milky coffee because I can't bear milky coffee. They're quite filling though, so I had another one this afternoon and I've got one each for breakfast and tea tomorrow. If I make them again it'll be when I have guests as they're much nicer freshly baked.

I can't ever, ever, recall Marie being called Cinders.

Lonny?

There's a bit where I think they say that Marie was known as Cinders for her legendary beauty-but it's one of those EBDisms, where she tells you later, but I don't recall it ever happening at the time. However, I've only read the Armadas so I may have missed it.

Veta?

I'm going to make that for breakfast next weekend! Funnily enough I thought of this thread when I was making breakfast today anyway - the first couple of pancakes fell to pieces thanks to DS adding far too much milk to the batter, grr and I cheerfully renamed it kaiserschmarrn.

Do any of the continental girls have nicknames or shorts? I'm trying to think of some, but the only one who comes to mind is Simone's Therese who is addressed as 'Tessa' by the trips in To the Rescue. Are there others who are routinely shortened/nicknamed (as opposed to the occasional affectionate shortening)?

Look what I've found!! A little something for breakfast tomorrow. I'm quite tempted to give them a try - mind you I haven't got a Tyrolean maid-of-all-work to bake them for me so it might be brunch, though, rather than brekker.

Ah, well, shortened forms are allowed. Hence Joey, Len, Con, Margot etc etc. But not outright nicknames. So Dickie, Jack, Vanna and Nella are ok, as are people with accepted variants (Daisy, Peggy). But yes, Robin is the ultimate example!

And Cecilia Marya is called Robin, Delicia Christy is Dickie, and Vanna and Nella upthread apparently have fancy names, or even just in the Swiss books Jacynth Lambert is Jack!

And I agree that Reunion's a good 'un! Even if it does feature the first Len/Reg bit, grr.

Now on the joy that is Redheads and being irritated that Flavia can't be called Copper, because nicknames aren't allowed, but Lucinda Muriel can be called Tom!

Haven't read Juniors, but I don't mind if people discuss it!

I have a suspicion that Rosalie Dene and Mary Burnett are both referenced in Jo of as starting next term. Both ex-Taverton girls who feature briefly in School At. So they ought to be there in Princess. I would have thought that Peggy would be too young - far more likely that it would be Kitty, though! Peggy's a fair few years younger than Mary.

I know there are many here who disagree, but I have a real soft spot for Reunion. Partly just for the simple fact of Grizel finally getting her happy ending. But also I think it's a refreshing change in subject matter and one that EBD handles well, I think - especially compared to her writing in the other books at that's point in the series, and especially given that she's not much been sympathetic towards Grizel's character before that point. Joey is utterly ridiculous in it, I realise - but she's so ridiculous it's just eye-rolly and sometimes genuinely funny. (This is perhaps also why I find Joey more frustrating as a younger mother - she's running around doing that 'look at ME, I have triplets you know' thing, and she's not yet reduced to predictable, harmless, irrelevant bonkers, which is how I see her in the Swiss books.)

So, Juniors. Can we discuss it properly, or is it still too spoilerish? I found it a very enjoyable read, but for me, it failed the GGBP fill-in requirement that it can't contain anything EBD wouldn't have referenced in other books. I found the 'EBDism' it's aimed at correcting a completely harmless one, whereas the suggested explanation here, whilst a really interesting idea and well executed, would certainly have been mentioned in Princess.

Also - this is super pedantic, but it's also in a similar vein to the 'EBDism' of Princess, so I'm raising it - I don't think Peggy Burnett ought to be there. None of the Burnetts appear in Princess - Mary is there in Head Girl and isn't new then, but there's a term gap between the two books and that's when I would envisage her starting. The younger two don't get a mention until Rivals. So for me, that jarred somewhat - especially in the context of a book about explaining why someone is somewhere they shouldn't really be.

And it's weirdly inconsistent. In Reunion she falls downstairs and headbutts the newel post, but is essentially ok. That's an actual proper injury! But she recovers faster than the box incident.

I've just moved house and finally have space to have my Chalet School books displayed. After 40years, I am reading them in order (think I have them all). I have my mum's copy of Jo To the Rescue - published in 1947 - that's probably my favourite.

Ooh, I'm very on all counts. All my books are double-shelved (ie there's a row at the back of the shelf, and another row in front of it) and a fair few are in piles because I just don't know where to put them. On the plus side, double shelving means I'm likely to forget what I've got, and it can be a nice surprise when if ever I get round to rotating the rows on each shelf to see what's at the back. My CS collection is Armada p/backs and some GGBP versions. I think I have some gaps in the middle of the series somewhere and one of these days I'll do a stocktake. I'd love to have some hardbacks, but I don't think it's going to happen.

The drippiness/being unable to cope stuff all really dates from Exile onwards, once she's an adult.

Poor Jo is an object lesson in what happens when you take a bright, quirky, resourceful girl, and shoe-horn her into a wife-and-mother role to which she's eminently unsuited. She really doesn't have enough to do to occupy her mind, and it kind of turns in on itself, I think. Her youthful rebellion against growing up and determination not to marry were rather prescient, and make me very sad that she didn't go to university and live the bo-ho lifestyle she was clearly cut out for.

Although I'm not sure where to class getting brain fever/pleuro-pneumonia/standing at the door and nearly getting pneumonia

I don't mind those, because they were physical weakness which she tried her best to overcome through strength of personality. In one of the fillers (I think) - or perhaps on this thread, even - someone suggested that she was asthmatic at a time when the condition wasn't known about and certainly couldn't be managed. But they're a far cry from having to be put to bed because she's fallen into a trunk.

I quite forgot that Reunion was on OneDrive! I was just considering buying a GGBP copy and thought I'd read Redheads for the craic, and lo and behold, there it was! So I'm reading it instead, because chronological order and all that. Grizel is quite clearly suffering from depression at the beginning, isn't she? I was surprised to find EBD describing it so well - suspect she either suffered from it herself or knew someone well who did. And Grizel is described as "heading for a breakdown" - I wonder if nervous breakdown = clinical depression in many Victorian books?

Older mother Joey definitely annoys me the most. Running into the school every 5 minutes, insisting on having a finger in every pie, having zillions of new babies and ignoring the boys. Although I think it's maybe War when Bill kicks her out of a class, which makes me laugh.

I would like to differ re never dealing with difficulties, because she does as a child. She goes off up the Tiernjoch after Grizel, rescues Elisaveta from her mad uncle and tries to rescue Maureen from the lake. The drippiness/being unable to cope stuff all really dates from Exile onwards, once she's an adult. Although I'm not sure where to class getting brain fever/pleuro-pneumonia/standing at the door and nearly getting pneumonia! I think I class those as things she can't help. Whereas having to be practically carried home by Jack in Exile in mental agony is utterly pathetic. And all the bits later on where Mamma mustn't be worried because she's "busy" again just make me sorry for her existing children. I think perhaps it's because when she's a kid she's awfully delicate (i.e., physically), whereas much is made of the fact that she outgrows that (witness Peter Chester when the Triplets are born), but she remains subject to mental stress to a ridiculous degree.

Just reading Joey Goes to the Oberland.... she falls into a trunk, needs 2 adults to get her out...then requires a sleeping tablet and bedrest to recover. How does she manage to get dressed by herself in the morning!! I love the concept that it takes all morning to sort out the table linen for packing (mine would fit into a carrier bag)
I've just moved house and finally have space to have my Chalet School books displayed. After 40years, I am reading them in order (think I have them all). I have my mum's copy of Jo To the Rescue - published in 1947 - that's probably my favourite.

Ijii uj

I find generally Older mother-Joey more trying. Simply because the teenage triplets say things like "you'll love mamma, she's a poppet."
That's not what teens say, they say "Mum is so embarrassing". And that's teens with perfectly normal parents, not ones that are trying to pretend they're teenagers too.

I remember one time when I was mid teens we shared lifts with a friend. When mum took us she was so embarrassing, she asked questions about things she should know and said things I'd rather she didn't say and I spent the entire journey with my toes curled. When my friend's dad took us he chatted nicely about things he had an interest in, and thought we'd be interested in and it was lovely...
One day my friend got out of the car and said "I'm so sorry about dad, he's so embarrassing..."

I think Margot occasionally skirts on the edge of that, but we're clearly supposed to disapprove of her attitude.

I suppose Joey's collapse was typical of her. She never faced up to difficulties, always left other people to deal with it. When she's single it's okay, but I find the abandonment of the triplets to Daisy and Robin so thoughtless. Daisy and Robin are obviously going to be distraught too, and probably the triplets by the reaction round them. They're lisping sentences, so must be around 2yo and certainly mine at 2yo would have been very aware of the distress around them.
She is the best example of a spineless jellyfish in the books.

With the exception of Rescue, i find young-mother-Joey particularly trying.

That's true, but at least the faithful Anna is there to say "come with thy Anna, my little lambs" - or words to that effect!