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

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

New thread for all the Chalet School fans!

I think my favourite is Exile (this was when I was a child though, haven't got back to it yet!)

Posting from the San where Joey sang me out of a coma after I fell down a crevasse because of my own arrogance and my hair turned white and curly and I became a beauty with pansy eyes and a sweet peacekeeping temperament.

Am really enjoying revisiting the books!

Thank you DeWee! Excellent summary. I have heard of the refusal to sing a German carol thing, maybe on another discussion board. Do some girls not 'splutter' at Verity, and are then punished for making a fuss or something??

Yes, some of them splutter and are told they're silly little girls and get into dire trouble. Can't remember who, but fairly innocuous characters like Claire Kennedy or Christine whatever or someone who you never really hear much of importance about.

The not singing German is an interesting one, because she was probably only doing what a lot of schools/other people would have thought.

I wonder whether the Chalet School would have come under English suspicion for coming from Austria and then continuing to use German? or would the very name of Jem Russell being connected to it be enough to dispell any concerns?
I would think that in a small place like Armshire, there would be a lot of suspicion about anyone moving in, without them having connections to the enemy.

I always liked verity because she stood up to Joey and wouldn't sing. Good on you verity Anne.

DeWee my lamb a masterful précis. Can you argue to cause and effect too?

My favourite is joey goes to the oberland as she masterfully takes 8 children, including 2 babies across Europe having forgotten macs, managed to tell Frieda that Gretchen looks frail compared to Margot, dissed Simone's fantastic inherited castle as a white elephant and falls off a ladder.

What larks!

When I was a child I liked the one where two badly behaved twins fired catapults at Joey and the Robin and into Madge's soup, and later attacked Dr Jem and kidnapped Madge's baby, and everyone was combing the mountain for them - not because of the baby, but because the twins' mother was dying in the San and had asked for them, but because of their bad behaviour they were found too late. I presume the baby (David? Sybil?) was fine. I don't know what it was called.

Re the huge amounts of food - didn't they have supper as well, of huge mugs of hot milk and bread and butter? Or was that Abendessen, and it was sometimes veal and sometimes bread and milk? I remember being disgusted at the idea of bowls of milky coffee as well - why couldn't they drink out of cups???

Pehaps they pinned up the chaiet school peace league on the wall to dispel fear!! If that didn't sound suspect what does!! Xxx

Sorry about the kisses!!! I got confused!!

In Joey Goes to the Oberland, she refers to the children as brats constantly, and comments that her baby daughter is flirting with a waiter.

Joey also falls into a box. Prob my second favourite, actually.

Wasn't innocuous Clare Kennedy the one who looked like a nun, according to EBD? I always pictured her in a habit rather than a school uniform, whenever I read that.

My absolute favourite bit of book is the description of the first christmas in Tyrol in book 2 (Jo of?) I just love all the snowy descriptions, Vater Bar (inc. umlauts) meeting them at the station and the whole description of christmas eve and christmas day. Its very evocative and a nice read on a rainy day.

I'm also a sucker for the non-school stories. Joey & Co in Tirol, Barbara, Camp etc.

The early stories are the best. An adventure as well as a school story.

Yes agree the early stories are very descriptive. By the time she got to adrienne the stories had gone Barmy.

Beeyump forgot the felicity flirting incident yes that was weird. I think jack calls her a hussy. She's about 14 months I think.

Yes to the brats too. I imagine Joey talking like celia Johnson in brief encounter but in louder tones. Ever so often breaking into golden song.

Didn't those younger teachers ever just go to the local Pub or inn and get pissed as rats. I mean why wouldn't you?

"I'm also a sucker for the non-school stories. Joey & Co in Tirol, Barbara, Camp etc."

I've just read Barbara at the Chalet School. It's set in the School and is all about her first term.

DeWee you have really whetted my appetite to re-read Three Go......

'Every so often breaking into golden song.' Spot on.

I never could get a handle on how the falling into a box caused so much trauma and stress - did something get stuck into Joey's back? (Not a knife, sigh.) Heck knows, but it was written very oddly.

Yes, quite often the amount of drama in an incident and how much stress it caused seemed oddly disproportionate. And similarly how severely punished something was and how bad it actually was .

There's one incident where someone gets locked in a classroom so that they can't play in a school tennis match and they have to smash the windows to get out. When the culprit finally confesses, the victim is informed that they are equally to blame for making the culprit dislike them so much, and that they will magnanimously overlook the crime of smashing the windows on this occasion, as you couldn't really expect someone to remain in captivity indefinitely, especially when they are supposed to be representing the school at tennis.

But then other relatively mild things like passing notes or talking after lights out are treated like the crime of the century.

Joey goes to the Oberland always really grated on me, she doesn't call her children brats before or after this book as far as I can remember, it was almost as if EBD was trying to 'jazz' Jo up or update her or something, maybe the readers didn't like the change.

Wilson - breakfast wasn't just rolls and jam, my lamb - have you forgotten scrambled egg on toast, or smoking hot porridge, before setting off on an expedition? And how Emerence hated the porridge.

Not to mention the great, stonking wedges of school cake - didn't Yseult throw hers on the floor and stamp on it, when told to hurry up and stop eating in such a mimsy fashion?

Daisymasie Wed 28-May-14 13:49:44
"I'm also a sucker for the non-school stories. Joey & Co in Tirol, Barbara, Camp etc."

I've just read Barbara at the Chalet School. It's set in the School and is all about her first term.

Oh bum! You're right. Its the book set in the holidays before that term, when Joey moves.

Chalet School in the Oberland is an appallingly written book. EBD had no idea how to deal with a finishing school did she?

Yes, I really liked Mary-Lou in Three Go To...

She was still fairly normal in CS and the Island, bearable in Shocks. Then the School relocates to Switzerland and she transforms into a bossy, know-it-all prig.

I LOVED Chalet School in the Oberland and the illicit bridge (whist?) playing!

I think the one with the Balbini twins and the Mystic M is The New Chalet School. It's also the one where Miss Annerlsey takes over officially I think.

Diana Skelton is the girl who stamps on her cake...
(Wonders if I have read these books too many times!)

I also really like Three Go. And in the hardback we discover who the Peter Young (?) Gillian Linton falls for is.

Hels - you are right, it was Diana. Fret not, I shall write out all my corrections before I start my prep tonight.

thebody of course I can argue from cause to effect: The cause is usually Joey in some form or other and the effect is Joey trying to sort it out. If it's not it's Mary Lou.

I've always assumed that despite the large amounts of food, the portions must have been pretty minuscule. They get pudding as well - apfelstrudel, none of this low fat yoghurt or fresh fruit nonsense.

Although for those who want to know exactly what they were eating, EBD also published The Chalet Girls' Cookbook - I keep meaning to buy a copy.