To wonder whether you'd prefer to go to Malory Towers or the Chalet School

[Vintagejazz]

I just heard to girls about 11 years of age having an earnest discussion about this on the bus. I didn't think kids even read Chalet School books any more.
I think I'd opt for Malory Towers. They seemed to have more fun. I'd probably be expelled from the Chalet School for cursing, wearing lipstick and forgetting to speak German every Wednesday or whatever it was.

Jack and Joey calling themselves Mamma and Papa is just another way of showing that the Maynards are Special and Different, isn't it?

Joey's sons are a weird absence throughout... bar a few mentions during each one's babyhood they barely exist at all. Presumably they get sent back to boarding school in England from the age of 8... one can easily imagine the therapy sessions in later life.

Chalet Girls in Camp available to anyone who wants it in EPUB format!!

Just PM me your email address and I'll get it out to you!!

newyear email sent!

Today's read is Princess at the CS for me.

I think Len and Con were what other adults would describe kindly as odd 'quaint'.

Joey would presumably be dead by now. Do you think the 'spirit of the Chalet School' is still drifting around some hotel or apartment block in the Tirol, searching in vain for long departed schoolgirls and wondering where all the classrooms, hockey pitches and science labs have gone?
Oh, I feel sad just thinking about it.

The Chalet School has probably been renamed the Joey Maynard Academy in her honour...

Joey can not be dead.........that is just too sad......and how old would the trips be??? Oh dear....

Did you miss the National Week of Mourning hels? And the people prostrate with grief throwing flowers at the hearse?? And gathering in the park so they could hear the service on loud speakers?

What do you mean, that wasn't for Joey Maynard?

To be fair to Joey she did say they could call her mother but that that was hard for 'tinies' to pronounce. My 6 year old calls me by my name rather that mummy most of the time! Mind you someone asks Joey if she's going to 'go all modern' and let them use her name iirc!

I always wanted to be a Chalet Girl. I even did both French and German at school entirely because of it. My tiny village primary school bizarrely had lots of the Armada paperbacks and I remember on the opening evening of secondary school being sure to check out which ones they had. I tried to get hold of them all through the library in the late 90s but wasn't able to get hold of many.

When I was finishing my degree I discovered ebay... I think I've read them all except Exploits now, but some I have only the faintest recollection of.

I also wanted to go to Linbury Court, but my absolute favourite was "This Time Next Term" by Nancy Breary - poor, awkward not particularly pretty or special Bridget who knows from the start that even the headmistress is dismissing her as one of the colourless background girls.

But most of all I wanted to be Daisy from Secret Water (Arthur Ransome).Akarabgandabarak.

It's "gnad" Grayling!!

Every. Single. Time.

Grayling57

I should have finished transcribing Exploits in the next couple of days!!

I picked up all of the St Clare's and Malory Towers this morning at a car boot sale.

10p each.

Just finished Chalet Girls in Camp. So Bill thinks a woman's first duty is to make a home for her husband and children or if she's not lucky enough to have them, to help other women who do?

Even if she's squaring teaching as helping other women with their DDs, what does that say about her view of people like Mary-Lou or Stacie or Mary Burnett, all pure career women? Or Margot for that matter?

But when Bill says that she was talking to girls who actually were expected to do nothing but make a home for husband/children. By the time Margot and Mary-Lou were leaving school times had changed (even if much of the Chalet School had stayed the same!)

I think one of EBD's limitations as a writer is her inability to give her characters their own mouthpieces. Everything else about Bill's character in the series suggests that she would have been a feminist of her time, and encouraging girls to get out there and lead an interesting life. But EBD wasn't that person and there is not a single authority figure in her stories who presents any opinion that varies much from each other. At least we have the 'strong women' spiel, even if that's just for being pretty damned disciplined about keeping your husband's laundry list up to date.

Thought no one else had read these books. I'm 54 so thought they'd died out?

Chalet school for me because of the amazing scenery, chance to master languages, and less jolly hockey sticks.

Empress,

I can't believe you've read it already!!

I went up to my mum's attic this afternoon to get my old Armada paperbacks. I also found a 1955 hardback copy of Changes for the Chalet School (which I'd just read in transcript yesterday!) and a 1941 original edition of The Chalet School goes to it. .

Erm... I know I'm an unknown new poster, but is there any chance I could have transcripts? I had quite a few of the Armada paperbacks as a child, along with a very few 1960s (I think) hardbacks, and have been keeping an eye out for them ever since... I'm sure they were one of the main reasons I did A Level French.

They were definitely the reason I opted for German instead of Spanish as a second modern language at school. Apparently EBD makes hideous mistakes in both French and German in the books, but I've never noticed them.

Factual inaccuracies? Surely not!

I did like the fact that they seemed generally gentler and less obsessively sporty than Malory Towers - I loved the MT books too, but always knew I'd never fit in there, being shy, asthmatic and ungainly and with no compensating outstanding talent.

Pontefractals

If you'd like to PM me your email address I'm happy to send you all the transcripts I've got!!

Ooooh, thank you very much, will send pm as soon as I've worked out how (not on a proper computer tonight). Much appreciated!

Please would one of the very kind senders out of transcripts explain how they work? Do they pop into your kindle or lurk on your laptop or Ipad? If the latter, don't they clog up the works?