To think we are all ready to remove to Inter V at the Chalet School.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

New thread for all the Chalet School fans!

EBD stole the kenwigses from another earlier school story - Pixie O'Shaughnessy. The's not very honourable at all. She'd never had cut it as a Chalet School girl.

So, CS Mastermind candidates - how did Jem know Afrikaans well enough to hold a whole conversation with Mr Flower in the language? What have I missed?

And my dicker said nothing about eiderdowns relating to plumeaux. It just said feather dusters. I like the idea of true Chalet girls sleeping under feather dusters … especially when Matey stitches them to the blankets to stop them from throwing them on the floor.

I am sure I read somewhere a theory that Mr Denny was delicate as a result of shell shock/being gassed in WW1.....I know that somewhere he is referred to as being a friend of Ernest Farrar who composed Brittany, the song Joey is always singing. (It's a beautiful song by the way). Farrar was killed in 1918.

Thanks to TheCSLibraryPree I am about to start reading the books in the bath.

Do you think I need to wear a bedjacket and can I semi-recline or should I be bolt upright?

will I drop the tablet?

Juniper - I know that baths should be cold (or maybe chill-off) but I don't think wearing a bedjacket will make any difference. I suggest a very quick bath to leave you glowing and then, if you have to read in bed, obviously you must sit up and that is when the bed jacket must be worn.

No thank you! Nice HOT bath with lots of bubbles. I wonder what Bette would have made of bubble bath considering she freaked out about the sherbet fizzing up in the basin saying it was witchcraft?

Oh what a jolly jape that was

Poor Juniper - are you coming down with a cold? In that case, you must indeed have a hot bath. Then wrap yourself in blankets and go to bed with a hot water bottle and, if it might be life-threatening, perhaps some brandy. But beware of HCPs bearing hot milk - it may be drugged

Well if we're going back to foundation stones (of which I am one of course) who is up for a spot of Vaselineing the blackboards?

Also, are there more transcripts floating about? I have all Empresses ones...

I have some french chalk here to stick a mistresses drawer shut, or some pepper to fling about maybe?

Hot bath - check, blankets - check, medicinal draft - check! Absolutely no hot milk in it though.

*draught

Or wet sponges in beds like Cornelia flower did.

Mind you she was a bit of a rubber neck four flusher!!

juniper my lamb what about your first aid kit?

Matey insists.

That's why all chalet school expeditions/trips are so safe and risk assessed.

I'm going to bake some cakes - but I will accidentally put sulphur in them, rather than saffron. Oh, the fun!

I'd guess Jem and Mr Flower know Afrikaans from fighting in the Boer War (referenced in Exile, I think) in Jem's case, and possibly Mr Flower or father made their fortune from gold/diamonds there?

Now why in all that's holy does Mary-Lou insist that she and Verity-Anne "aren't stepsisters" when her mother has married Verity's father? Surely that's the very definition of steps?

The new matron says we can only keep bibles by our beds. I'm tried telling Madame but she wouldn't listen.

Oh fruit my lamb tell Joey and she will bring up the change in rules to Bill.

Bill will understand and sort her out. She has to go as she dislikes Joey. I mean how/why?

Off to listen to a tizange band.

fair if you're baking, lend me some flour, I'm going to go and dust the hair of the middles. What larks!

But Posy you know the rules. Borrowing is almost as bad as passing notes or stealing - strictly verboten. But I see you have plenty of treacle, maybe that'd do...

How old was Jem if he fought in the Boer war? the second one finished in 1902.
However there were TB Sanatoriums in South Africa.

I assume that EBD thought that to be step-sisters you had to have a shared parent rather than marrying after the death of spouses. I wonder if that was just her or a general thing at the time though

Ah, you're right mummytime - Chalet School was founded around 1924, though given Jo is 12 then and in 1938/9 only 20, anything is possible! But Madge must have been born around 1900 (12 years older than Jo). Of course he's an established doctor by 1926 so likely a bit older, say born 1890, but unlikely to be 18 in time to see action in South Africa unless it's a EBDism similar to Jo ageing only 8 years in 16 real years!

Just as well EBD wasn't a pupil or Miss Slater would have given up even earlier...

I think the war forced EBD to tie ages to the characters more firmly, otherwise she'd have just kept the series going and it would be accepted that their ages didn't match the dates of publication (the Harry Potter series takes place over 7 years but was published over ten, this doesn't mean the ages are incorrect!) So with the Anschluss happening in 1938, which the school had to be affected by, that gave a solid date to match ages to. This does, however, mean that the first few books were technically published before they happened (Jo was ~20 in Exile so would have been 12 in 1930, though The School at the Chalet was published 5 years earlier!

With either set of ages though, Jem would have to be really quite old and creepy to have fought in the Boer war!

I've just finished Exploits and Matron told Jo off for throwing cold water over people in November. It's cause for bed, hot baths and doses. Maybe winter baths are lukewarm?

Tired from reading with my electric torch after lights out. I did sit up though to protect my weak eyes and my plumeau was firmly across my bed.