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.

There seems to be a whole website dedicated to allowing people to make up new Chalet School stories on line... bizarre!
www.sallydennylibrary.co.uk/index.php

Dear thebody

That sounds absolutely topping! Do come to English tea on Tuesday. You can walk back with Anna, just in case any of those simply dreadful Nazis are about. Miss Wilson said they quite made her hair turn grey! But we do have three crates of books and a tea service to be carried down to the Sonnalpe so needs must!

Here comes Matron with my hot milk so no doubt I'll be awfully sleepy in a moment

Stacie

Bloody hell Treadsoftly I'm supposed to be working... I can see me spending a happy hour or 25 on that site...

Careful with that martorana - it's Limited for a reason, and could throw some of the Thirds a bit.

I was quite disappointed when my children had no notion of being brought up to "strict obedience at all times" - though reading some of the unabridged Chalet books since having kids has been quite entertaining - being amazed that two and a half year old Cecil can produce some baby talk, teenagers being too young to hear any bad news (while being educated to be "strong and helpful women"), and the terrible cookery done by anyone except faithful Anna.

I'd probably have fitted in best at Kingscote, and hung out with Jan Scott and been written off as an Uncooperative Type.

I'm being won over to the Chalet School so think I will ditch Malory Towers and go and find my passport. I'd forgotten all the madness that went on there: Jo and her 99 kids following the school all over Europe like a group of demented spirits; the doctors hovering around waiting to nab a comely schoolgirl before she had time to change out of her gymslip into civvies; girls falling off cliffs, escaping nazis, and catching life threatening colds; and, of course, the endless supply of cream cakes.

I'd like to have been a fifth and sixth former in St Clare's. Didn't they all have 'fags' who tidied up after them and made them cups of tea and toast?

Chalet School every time! Preferably in the Tyrol or Switzerland. Although I'd prefer not to fall in a lake and contract pleurisy, if it's all the same to you, nor am I completely sold on the need to have 27 children.

CorusKate

CorusKate, I was exactly the same. It was only when I was older and reread the books in a rough chronological order that I realised some of it wasn't me, it was EBD - she was clearly never edited for chronology, consistency etc.

There are characters that get younger over the course of a few books and end up in forms with girls who were several years below them, or who change names, fiancés, jobs and religions. Belsornia (where Princess Elisaveta comes from) moves around to border on entirely different countries. To mention only a few...

I used to have such a MASSIVE crush on Jack Maynard.

Then I re-read The Chalet School in Exile, I think, where Joey and Jack get engaged.

Operation Yewtree would indeed be interested.

I feel like my teenage dreams are in tatters.

But Thurlow, he was such a solid lump of comfort...

I always thought he sounded so dishy.

Though I had completely forgotten that Joey had triplets at about 18 without the slightest bit of difficulty

I would probably plump for Malory Towers, for all the brilliant reasons already mentioned. The first thing that happened to a girl upon entering the Chalet School was that Joey changed her name to something like Bill or Roy and then someone else barked 'Catholic or C of E?' at them. Too much stress man! Also EBD's Irish characters were usually feral little scraps with muck on their faces. I'm far too glam for that.

I like to think I would have developed into being one of Malory Towers or St Clare's fast girls, with an over developed bosom (sure sign of lax morals) and an eye for the gardener's son.

Personally I was mad for boys boarding school stories, the baddies weren't always saved.

Not only without the slightest bit of difficulty, Thurlow... but without her sister noticing that she was even pregnant.

I agree re the Chalet books written in the sixties. They were so out of touch it was ridiculous - in a decade where teenage girls would have been back combing their hair, hoiking up their skirts and buying Beatles and Rolling Stones records, the CS girls were still behaving like pre-war kids in gingham dresses and ankle socks. She should have stopped writing at least ten years earlier.

Joey’s womb had more inhabitants than the populations of Mallory Towers and St Clare’s combined.

My favourite CS quote, thus proving EBD knew nothing about babies, is something along the lines of:
"Cecil was a determined young lady but, at the age of 4 months, was finally beginning to realise that no meant no."

My solid lump of comfort reckons that the falling over cliff type story line was EBD as a teacher fantasizing about pushing pupils she didn't like off cliffs... He couldn't stop laughing when he tried reading one.

And whossis von whasserface ended up marrying the Baron who presented the school cup! And they always went on about how girls married early in

It's weird really. At four months poor Cecil was meant to behave like a seven year old, and at about seventeen Robin was still being treated like a cute little toddler. I think EBD hadn't a clue about kids. I can't believe she was ever a teacher.

Kingscote for me. Forever in Miss Cromwell's UIVA.

I'd rather be an Abbey Girl.