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.

[curiousuze]

I'd be with you burren. Us, Joan Baker and that bad Francie who was 'funny about boys'.

[nennypops]

DaisyMasie, you can get reasonably priced reprints of some of the Chalet School books through Girls Gone By.

[DaisyMasie]

Thanks Nenny. Will have a look on there.

[Toospotty]

The GGB books can even be bought in some bookshops. I know Foyles have them, for example.

[curiousuze]

Crap I don't mean Francie Wilford, it was Betty Wynne Davis and Elizabeth Arnett who'd've had the fags (and boys)

[Aeroflotgirl]

Definitely Malory towers, haven't read Chalet School. Live all that jolly hockey sticks stuff

[almapudden]

St Clare's, obviously :D

Although Isobel and Patricia would much rather have gone to Red Roofs and not had to share a dorm. You get a much better class of gel at Red Roofs.

[rumbleinthrjungle]

I agree Robin is a big downside Burren, but next school trip we can just drop her in the Tiernsee or down a well, or leave her in a cave somewhere, it happens every term. And Joey can sing at the funeral. Try and stop her.

[Burren]

Excellent, Curiousuze. Our 'common' CS posse is growing. Eventually we'll overcome and strangle Mary-Lou with her own Kenwigses (except for the fact that she only became really insufferable after she had her accident-cum-makeover, and became slim, gorgeous and short-haired, because it clearly didn't suit EBD to have one of her favourite characters be sturdy and plain...)

[Ewieindwie1]

Have to say always thought church at Chalet school done quite well and Joey brings up her kids catholic as Jack is that way inclined so don't remember snarky remarks. I liked the idea of Hobbies club despite hideous lack of artistic ability. And the CS food always sounded yummy: carbs based with a good helping of fat and sugar... Hmmm.
Best book? Chalet School in Exile - cried over death of Wanda's husband. And the stuff on oppression of the Jews and opponents of third Reich was ahead of its time. Darrell and Alicia would have been wearing the brown shirts I think....

[curiousuze]

Mary-Lou had that drippy mother as well but I did like her Grandma.

You wouldn't even need to drop The Robin down a well ; five minutes exposure to a toddler with a runny nose would hospitalize her

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Dd says she'll keep her school thank you very much (she's only read Malory Towers though not Chalet School)

She goes to a school where they don't have to do any PE but do ballet every day. The boarders get to walk into
town on Saturdays to shop & visit Costs (but McDonald's not allowed)

The school is located 10 mins away from a Roman town but its up the muddle of a country lane

She loves it.

[Burren]

I'm always happy to join a plot against the Robin's 'happy little life'. Though I think she'd probably be harder to kill than Rasputin, despite all that delicacy and the tragic TB mother.

I should feel sorry for her, really, I know. Not only does she lose both parents young, but she has Jem 'Great Doctor - Worship Me' Russell forcing milk down her throat and making her go to bed at six o'clock until she was about seventeen and Joey always singing her lullabies and mooning over her with eyes 'like pansies'. No wonder she ended up becoming a nun on a different continent.

[AndIFeedEmGunpowder]

Chalet School every day.

I used to dream about jumping over candles at the end of term, and yodelling in caves.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

ewie - oh, not hugely snarky ... just the assumption that Catholics are mostly foreign and it's terribly, terribly open-minded to accept all of this. It does become less of a theme later on, IMO.

But you mentioning the stuff on the Nazis being ahead of its time made me think that it's not completely unprecedented - Dorothy Sayers was writing well before the outbreak of war and still has characters openly discussing Hilter and eugenics and disapproving of what is happening.

And that made me think - what I really want to do is go to university in a Dorothy Sayers novel. I'd sunbathe in my bra on the lawn and climb over walls to meet boys, and if I wanted to be an academic I'd just need to spend a few afternoons in the library reading whatever I fancied and taking twenty or thirty years to write my book. Perfect.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Chalet school, definitely - the Swiss branch. I quite like the idea of coming back as a teacher, and then marrying a doctor from the San.

[curiousuze]

The whole thing with the Robin was nuts. You'd be reading this whole bit about how she ran into Joey's arms prattling baby talk and sitting on people's laps, then realise she was meant to be about fucking fourteen!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

It's not possible 'delicate' was meant to imply something non-physical with the Robin?

Excuse me if that makes no sense - I skipped over all of her bits so I dunno.

[DaisyMasie]

You're all being very nasty about the Robin and I am laughing my head off. Wasn't she still sleeping in a cot at an age when today's kids would be trying their first cigarette?

[MollyBdenum]

Miss Wilmott and Kathie Ferrars are the Chalet School lesbian teachers.

[Martorana]

If I said Miss Pym Disposes,boulder anyone know what I meant? [hopeful emoticon]

[Martorana]

Miss Annersley and Mrs Maynard are an item too, surely?

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogroves]

Oh! I've read that about six times, Martorana. I absolutely love it. I expect you know Josephine Tey went to a PE training college?

[DaisyMasie]

Seriously Molly?? I never picked up on that. Mind you I was only about 11.

Sorry Martorana rings no bells.

[EmpressOfJurisfiction]

Daisy - Nancy Wilmot and Kathie Ferrars. Have adjoining bedrooms, share a car, do everything together and there's a scene where Kathie's collapsed with appendicitis or something and EBD more or less spells out how much Nancy loves her.
Then there's Tom Gay, and there are also schools of thought on Nell and Hilda or Nell and Con Stewart.