Chalet school Books

I have all the CS books and am gradually collecting the re-prints (girls gone by publishing if nooone has mentioned them so far). I also have all the fill ins. official (GGBP) and unofficial (Chalet girls grow up and the one on either Hilda or Nell -one is offical one isnt!)

Didn't Joey end up with triplets who were identical but with different coloured hair?! I remember being a bit even at 11 or 12!

Also loved the idea of them growing up trilingual ... sure that's why I was so keen on DP who is bilingual.

Oh - I loved all the St Clares, Malory Towers and Chalet School books - had them all , gave them away and have been slowly repurchasing for DD now 11.

Done St C and MT and now starting her on CS but they are so hard to get hold of or expensive! Bought her the first 2 for Xmas!!
Why doesn't somebody reprint??????

[has been standing in the corner for some time]

Loved Chalet School obsessively aged about 11 and have had various phases since. I longed to be a prefect and have nice meetings in the room decked with gay cretonnes. Unfortunately actually being a prefect was a nightmare...

I loved then and still love Sue Barton, also like Carol the actress. Reading the obstetric/children's bits now are a bit chilling - babies all getting a brisk slap on birth and no parents allowed to stay with their children because it would OBVIOUSLY be inconvenient for the staff.

Having had a crush on Antonia Forest's Patrick for a couple of years, I suddenly realised he was a complete prick. That was sad.

I went off to boarding school happily thinking all the other girls would be like the ones in Chalet School books, Mallory Towers, St Clare's and so on, and that I would make lots of friends quite easily (because I am secretly a bit like one of those jolly hockeysticks girls underneath).

What did I find? My school was full of very many Saudi and Kuwait-based boarders who were actually quite unfriendly in a nasty way, mainly because they had been abandoned at the school and the age of 7 and hardly tended to since IMO. There were also some very cliquey Hong Kong Chinese as well, who came later on. There were hardly any UK-based girls on the boarding side, and certainly no jolly hockeysticks ones. I still feel very sad I had to spend seven years like this with them.

What would I find now? Probably a load of Russians and mainland Chinese, equally abandoned and unfriendly.

Schools are not what they were.

Happiness for me aged 9 was either practising gymnastics or reading a Chalet School book..

I loved the Chalet School - remember they spoke English, French and German on different days? Great idea.

I also loved the Malory Towers carved rock swimming pool, and the Trebizon series. When I did actually get to go to boarding school myself I was a little disappointed tbh. Not nearly as dramatic as in the books!

gallery- that was the Trebizon series.

I loved them for their lost world ambience. Even in the midst of war it all seemed to safe and cosy and posh.

Kaffee und kuchen!!

Joey was always a bit odd and irritating though. She fainted at the Oberammergau passion play, it moved her so much. She was spirited, talented, deeply moral and hugely attractive to everyone especially possessive French Simone.

(Tiptoes in...)
Do you remember the perfect Christmas Chalet school when Joey and her sister and the Robin went to stay with Freda's family? The Christmas silk dresses and the presents in the shoes...
DD is just not interested. She prefers vampires to cold baths. Can't think why.

this is brill thread. I loved chalet school and managed as a child to hunt some weird titles down (the highland twins at the chalet school). They were fun and I read loads and agree about re reading them. Sue Barton- I had totally forgotten. She was rather more grown up though. Thanks for bringing fond memories back.
I recalled Antonia Forrest recently and went on a hunt to find her books- there are more than I read at the time- and they are rathre too expensive to buy for nostalgic read.
All fun memories - though I am now trying to remember the tennis based series I read which was also a boarding school

Oh I loved Sue Barton - this thread brings back some memories! I found a complete set in a charity shop and bought them for DD to read when she is older. I had the seventies set with cover photos of a red-headed girl in different uniforms...I wanted to marry a doctor like Bill Barry. I think she had a daughter Tabitha, and maybe twins?? - and friends called Kit and Connie...will have to rummage in the loft for the box they are in!

Kaffee und Kuchen was mid afternoon - instead of tea. I started with The Chalet School and Eustacia which I found in teh school library when I was 10. Carried on reading collecting until Imy mid teens and then picked up again in my early 20s when I discovered FOCS (Friends of the Chalet School).

There were 58 books in the origional hardback series, 62 in the abridged Armada reprints.

I love the early Tyrolean books and these are the ones I tend to read most frequently. Joey does get a bit wearisome in the later books, as she acquires hoardes of immpecably behaved babies, and EBD's attempts to be 'modern' towards the end of the series are a bit cringeworthy.

But my Chalet School books are like a comfort blanket, to be taken out and re-read in times of stress. I loved reading boarding school stories when I was young (they seems so exotic in comparison with my local comprehansive!) but the CS is the only series I still go back to. I suppose that, dispite the irritations, its a world populated by characters that I care about.

love this thread, can I join? They had coffee in cakes in the afternoon as well didnt they? Wasn't it coffee with "delicious bread twists" or some such thing mid morning? How were they always so slim?? Seem to remember chubby or plump was not an admired chaletian quality

I loved the quaint sounding German names for meals. Didn't they have kaffee und kuchen or something mid morning?

lemonpuff

I am pretty sure you do mean Masha! I remember reading the Youngest Lady in Waiting when I was about 10 and finally finding Masha at the library. Oh the joy of getting home, lying on the bed and reading the whole book in a day!! Searched for it for dd1 some time ago and it costs hundreds now.

Loving this thread as also read entire Malory Towers, St Clares, Chalet School, Sue Barton ect.

Was also a big fan of Jill books (Jill gets a pony etc.) DD1 has read these recently and they stand up very well. Jill is quite a determined feisty sort!

I have the full set of Chalet School books. I only owned about a dozen when I was a child but have built up the set over the years. I actually reread the lot last year from start to finish and it was a bit of an eyeopener. Quite funny to see what was acceptable at the time - women were definitely second-class citizens as were foreigners. I am still very fond of them, though.

Did anyone read the sequel called 'The Chalet Girls Grow Up'? Not written by EBD and not at all in the keeping with the original series. The main characters all had affairs, went mad, committed suicide or suffered other dire fates.

Pogleswood, thimk you may be right. I will have too look again have tried various sites with no results, I still love sitting down with a thick book thinking this is me for the day, please supply tea and wine at apporiate times

lemonpuff,do you mean Masha,and The Youngest Lady in Waiting? They were set in Russia, but I don't remember a ballet theme.In the first one I think she was in an orphanage,and the second she was at court,and there was sub plot about the decembrist uprising.I loved these too - they are available on the second hand market,but sadly way above my price range!
And if it wasn't these,I hope someone else can help!

Does anyone remember a book titled Marsha? believe there were two books, set in Russia. Ballet theme, would love to get hold of them again.

Have most of the Chalet books, later ones are more expensive - smaller print run. Even have a copy of the cookbook!!!

Did you know that Helen Dore Boylston was a friend of Rose Wilder Lane, who was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder who wrote all the Little House books? In 1926, Lane, Helen Dore Boylston and their French maid traveled from France to Albania in a car they had named "Zenobia".

dwardle - I remember Mazo de la Roche! I just looked on Amazon here and found Jalna - I haven't thought of that for years! All the unusual names etc.

This thread is fab!

Sue Barton district nurse - I had forgotton all about those
I loved the malory towers series
and the Naughty Elizabeth series

Purchases may be required

Helen Dore Boylston wrote Sue Barton,dwardle.Loved those - and the Chalet School,but Antonia Forest the most! I think Eleanor M Brent Dyer got a little carried away when it came to Old Girls having families though,a little "two or three children are lovely, so how much better if they have 10 or 12".

Can anyone remember who wrote the Sue Barton series? I loved them and had forgotten about them until I saw this thread. My school library had all the chalet school books - I loved them. I also remember a series by someone called mazo della roche??? But cannot remember what they were about! I think they had red and white covers!