Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Children's books

Join in for children's book recommendations.

Original poster

Chalet School - plot inconsistency bothering me

218 replies

VintageGardenia · 26/10/2008 19:19

I don't know why I suddenly thought of this but perhaps my first 3 consecutive glasses of postnatal wine have brought out my inner dullness.

There is a Chalet School book (Exploits?) where some of the girls bake apple pies and mistakenly use cloves of garlic instead of cloves.

Not believable and silly.

OP posts:
nymphadora · 02/11/2008 20:24

Dick inherited the Quadrant. Think they got good payout from Nazis when they left austria ()

I love Exile apparantly EBD was actually ahead of the comman thinking when she wrote that as not much was known about how bad stuff was gettingat the point

mankyscotslass · 29/10/2008 09:49

EBD also started her own girls school, there is a brief bio on wiki.

permanentvacation · 29/10/2008 08:48

My recollection was that she grew up in South Shields and her father was a sailor, so not around much, but did earn enough to allow EBD to go to private school and get an education that would stand her in good stead later in life.

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:50

Oh dear:

In 1912, her brother Henzell died at age seventeen of cerebro-spinal fever.

Illness was a big deal for her, then. It shows.

(There's a name you never see on Baby Names.)

OP posts:
Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:42

Would have been dreadful stigma at the time.

And many of the girls don't have strong father characters, or am I starting to make things up?

I have to go to bed now.

In morning will research and write biography, mental note.

OP posts:
Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:41

Would be interesting to read biography of EBD actually - why are her books so riddled with women? Interestingly actually, I think that she had a similar situation to Enid Blyton in that the father left (as in abandoned, not just separated from) the family while she was still a child.

OP posts:
PortofinoPumpkin · 28/10/2008 22:35

of - I mean

PortofinoPumpkin · 28/10/2008 22:35

So a few people have mentioned a thesis in relation to this topic. Own up, has anyone got a PhD based on stories on girls' boarding schools?

NorthernLurker · 28/10/2008 22:30

No Madge and Dick for that matter just end up oddly well off considering their original dire straits. How on earth did Dick ever afford the cornish mansion that is the Quadrant??? I've always thought that Jack and Jem have basically the same character actually - and that's why Madge and Jem are all but written out of the books as soon as Joey grows up. EBD needs to keep the men off the same stage because she could only write one husband model!

PortofinoPumpkin · 28/10/2008 22:27

Ooh good memories - you're right of course. Though i can't decide whether an in depth discussion of the real financial workings of such fictional organisations is a good thing - or not! I'm off to trawl Amazon!

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:24

Argh tired can't type coherent posts.

OP posts:
Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:24

Presumably Jack bought into a partnership with Jem at some stage but considering the whole school was started because Madge was broke, there's never much examination of people's circumstances, or the business end of the school itself either.

Jack Maynard (though handsome on my book cover) wasn't much of a character, though, in my memory - wasn't written up to Jo.

OP posts:
NorthernLurker · 28/10/2008 22:19

Vintage - that's an interesting question - what was the financial position of the various sans? The orginal austrian san definately just belonged to Jem - ditto the Channel Islands one - but then at some point Jack seems to become an equal partner in the welsh san and has sole responsibility for the swiss san....

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:17

"Oh Jack, what a solid lump of comfort you are!"

or something similar was Joey's declaration of lurve.

OP posts:
NorthernLurker · 28/10/2008 22:17

no jem was her bil! Jack was her husband - she married him after they'd escaped the nazis together...

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 22:17

No Jem married Madge. Joey married Dr Jack Maynard who worked with (for?) Jem at the San. Their romance is in Exile.

OP posts:
PortofinoPumpkin · 28/10/2008 22:11

It was the early ones I remember reading. I don't think i had any of these really grown up ones - though i remember Joey falling in love - was it jem?

NorthernLurker · 28/10/2008 22:04

I think they're still pretty good tbh - especially the early ones.

PortofinoPumpkin · 28/10/2008 22:02

I loved these and can't believe this post has stayed at the top for a few days. If i order some, will they be crap now I'm a grown up and spoil my childhood memories....? I've been on a roll with dd and the Magic Faraway Tree.

NorthernLurker · 28/10/2008 22:02

Speaking of Joey's house - it was massive and I notice they never had to fret about how much it cost to heat! That'll be the marvellous effect of the porcelain stoves that warmed the room so throughly...

Original poster
VintageGardenia · 28/10/2008 21:59

That's where I first heard about the Passion Play, I though it sounded amazing. I would still like to see it.

Remember Joey had so much help though, always cooks and maids and the Coadjutor. All she had to do was write six bestselling books a year, churn out the multiple births, be a brick to her husband and solve all the School's problems - she never had to worry about apple pies or how to keep her house fresh, dainty and pretty.

OP posts:
Tallis · 28/10/2008 21:44

Who remembers how any Chalet girl who dared speak above a whisper was forced to write out that Shakespearean claptrap: ''Her voice was ever sweet, gentle and low - an excellent thing in a woman'' ? Did love them though. Mary Lou and the bending-knees - was that on the school trip to Interlaken? Or Oberhausen and the Passion Plays? Oh dear, getting muddled.

And Joey's life-saving hairwash: I remember she asked in German for heilige wasser instead of heisse wasser (or was it the other way round?) anyway, asked to be rinsed in holy, not hot, water.

Gosh, how we laughed.

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 28/10/2008 21:17

Wow! There are loads of us nutcases fans out there!

dilemma456 · 28/10/2008 20:46

Message withdrawn

dilemma456 · 28/10/2008 20:44

Message withdrawn

Swipe left for the next trending thread