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.

[DeWee]

I seem to remember an odd conversation between two members of staff at some point in the later years where they come to the conclusion that they really have a notably good-looking staff.
I'm not sure whether that was EBD realising she had described a disproportionally large number of the staff as "abnormally pretty" or whether she thought that the staff would be pleased to comment on it.

Mind you, when I was year 10 they appointed a new head of Physics, who was rather small, to go with the head of Chemistry and the head of Biology-none of whom (all male) would have been 5'6. With great delight some of the staff did their research and announced proudly that we had the smallest average height of heads of science in our county. Not quite sure what the heads of science made of this, but I suppose it was sort of scientific research.
So maybe this sort of thing is important to staff.

[Summerbreezing]

I don't think I've ever read another series of books where the characters looks are dwelt on so frequently. Every second girl in the school is described as pretty or 'not pretty but a face full of character' and so on. And the amount of unusually beautiful girls must be very atypical. No wonder they were all snatched up by doctors as soon as they exited the school gates .

In the Lintons at the Chalet School, when talking about Joyce she was rated as being as beautiful as 'the Robin and the Van Eschenau girls who up to that point were the most beautiful girls who had ever been in the school.
In Bride of the Chalet School there is an earnest discussion amongst the prefects as to which girls in the school were prettier than the Diana girl.
In Peggy of the Chalet School Jo decides that Sybil Russell is 'the pick of the second generation'.
And I'm sure there's an equivalent in practically all of the books. It gets a bit annoying after a while.

[flugella]

Were there any butt-ugly CS pupils? I can't remember any, even the non-pretty ones had "clever faces" or "character".

[MooncupGoddess]

I can't remember any either. Also, hardly any of them wear glasses - after Richenda has to have glasses temporarily following the overindulged child acid attack it is made a really big thing of.

[flugella]

Perfect eyesight, beauty and a tendency to bronchitis five minutes after looking at snow seem to be the admission criteria, don't they?

[squoosh]

There were a couple of fatter girls weren't there. Was one of them called Sophie?

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Yes, Sophie Hamel was fat and blonde and jolly. Also Tom Gay is always described as plain, as is Bride for a long time. Some characters have weak faces - Floppy Williams, for example. Many ppl seem to get 'her face would pass with a shove' - how rude!

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Sophie Hammell is the person you mean, I think. And Winifred Embury (a former St Scholastika's pupil) is described as being the 'size of a house' when she encounters some of the Chalet School girls and staff on the ferry.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Bride wears glasses as a child but has ditched them by the time she's Head Girl. I'm sure a number of minor characters wear glasses too...can't remember who, though.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Margot is described as plump by her prefect days...and there's a lot of contradictory info about Jo in the Canada years (although that could be mystery pregnancies not Ickes up by the Staff). Madge goes to some sort of slimming farm (cannot for the life of me remember the actual description) to lose weight at one point! Her 'rounded slenderness' is clearly drifting towards rounded at that point.

[Summerbreezing]

Yes, but by the final book in which Bride appears as a pupil she suddenly looks very pretty in one of the last pages and her Aunt Madge tells her parents that soon 'they will have three pretty daughters to boast of, not two' (as already quoted upthread). So big sighs of relief all round. Her plainness wasn't a chronic condition after all.

[Wabbitty]

Don't remember Margot being described as fat but I do remember Jo, before the move to Switzerland, finding an old dress too tight. Molly Bettany puts on a lot of weight as does Jack's sister (the one who went to Australia) both probably due to hypothyroidism although it is never named.

[Summerbreezing]

Hadn't Joe just had twins though? Or maybe EBD assumed that five minutes after you had a baby you just slipped back into your size 10 clothes.

[Wabbitty]

Cornelia Flower was also called fat (by Jo) when she first went to the school

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Joey's referred to as a 'regular tub' at one point, isn't she?

[SelectAUserName]

hels, what do you mean "as though they were real"...?

[Vintagejazz]

Ignore her select. Of course they're real.

Blimey, this thread is soon going to reach 1,000

[Toospotty]

Poor old lazy Hilda Jukes (I always thought I was possibly her) was fat. And I think Barbara Henshell also at one point is a bit tubby.

Mollie Bettany is of course the major fatty of the core characters, but luckily it's all her thyroid (she has a quinsy I think) and she turns back into her beautiful young self.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

It's not a quinsy she has - that's a peri-tonsillar abscess - but I can't remember the name for what she had. I'll turn in my nursing certificate.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Wasn't it goitre?

[DeWee]

It's kind of ironic that EBD dwells so much on looks, when she makes such a thing about it not mattering "just what God gave you", to the point she seems to have a permanent down on Sybil for thinking she looks pretty.

Several of the characters go from looks that could "pass at a shove" to being referred to as pretty. Bride is probably the one most is made of that, she's referred to as the plain one I think in Lavender Leigh and other books. But also Mary Lou having been regarded as not particularly pretty, has the toboggan accident, her hair is shaved off and comes back in curls... and she's then regarded as pretty. Kind of makes you wonder why they don't all start wearing their hair in curlers doesn't it?
The other one who's referred to as not pretty is Betsy Lucy, I think. There's a bit of a funny thing when Jo meets her mum, in that Jo apparently is struck dumb by how un-pretty she is.
But then EBD refers to them as "puckish" which is obviously meant to sound rather nice, so she gets round it that way.

[MooncupGoddess]

Poor old Sybil, so obsessed with her looks that she becomes a horrid vain child and nearly kills her younger sister Josette through carelessness.

Of course she totally reforms her character as a result and is last heard of aiming for a career in church embroidery

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Yes, SGB - that's what I was trying to remember - thank-you!

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Sybil gets married in the end...as does Josette. They both get married at the same time with much harping on the fact that Josette is about 5 years younger than Sybil and gets engaged at 18. I liked the bitchy Sybil...Madge is clearly not Mother of the Year, because she just goes oh well, poor little Sybs, it's hard for her having all these older cousins around so she feels she has to keep her end up.

What's with that, anyway? I can't really imagine saying to my twin 'yes, I'll look after 4 of your kids for about 10 years while you piss around in India being totally unable to look after them because white kids can't stand the climate , even though your Second Twins manage to stay out there until they're 8, unlike poor Bride and Jackie who I've had since about the age of 1'. Imagine: AIBU to tell my brother to take his kids to live with him, whether that means he has to change job or not? I already have my dead SIL's two kids and (at the time) 4 kids of my own, plus my ward who is the daughter of an old friend of my father's. AIBU to think that enough's enough?

I do like the description of angry toddler Sybil when she gets kidnapped by the Mystic M. She has a giant tantrum and wears them all out, which is exactly what would happen if a bunch of kids kidnapped my 2yo DD. EBD knew what she was talking about in that instance, anyway!

[Toospotty]

Goitre, yes!