To ask all Chaletians to get ready for Madame's birthday?

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

Pop to the splasheries my lambs and after you've brushed your hair till it shines we'll have a quick practice of 'I sing of Margaret so fair'.

Once we've finished casting the movie, that is....

Actually I keep cringing at the sexist attitude to men.
Jack can't cope with his daughter crying, shuts Joey and Frieda in a bathroom when he thinks they might cry and so on.

Actually their weirdest bit in Joey Goes to the Oberland is that Joey really reminds me of my (infuriating at times) SIL.

Of course in Enid Blyton men are even less present in the School stories as far as I remember. (And I think the sideline men in the Chalet school, often seem quite nice - I don't mean the creepy ones).

Well my lambs, it's Madame's Birthday in 3 days and we should be rehearsing our tribute! Are we all ready for the festival?

Opens mouth and sings......it always specifies she opened her mouth first

I can't decide whether to have the silvery notes of a lark, or go with a golden chorister tone.

Well I have that certain something in my golden voice that no boy could ever have!

i sing of Margaret, no fairer maid than she

I have a picture if the Tiernsee and a dainty coffee set.

Totally agree about Bill by the way. I missed her when she went to St Mildred's. As did Nell.

EDB has 2 types of men. The main type are strong, manly, empire dependable types and the second are almost impossibly bad, Daisy and Juliet's fathers and the baddies in princess and redheads. Almost pantomime baddies

They are sexist of course but I suppose that was the times she lived in. People in general 'knew their place and what was expected of them'.

EB's school stories only really have adults as wallpaper (whether parents or teachers), so the absence of men is less striking. It's an odd juxtaposition in the CS that marriage is a fairly central concept, almost as soon as girls leave school, and yet the men they marry are either invisible or are the Jem-Jack hybrid. That said, I don't think marriage is as central as it's sometimes claimed to be - there are plenty of women who escape it without drawing negative comment (Stacie Benson, OOAO, Tom Gay, Nell Wilson, Hilda Annersley, Rosalie Dene, Kathy Ferrars, Nancy Wilmot), and more still who delay it (Dr Daisy, Juliet Carrick etc). As ever, I suspect EBD was fairly forward-thinking for the 1930s-40s and much less so by the 1960s.

More importantly, I think I shall have the silvery voice of a lark and silvery curls and violet eyes to go with it.

As for the shunting off of Nell to St Mildred's, I can only imagine EBD thought it was professionally unconvincing to have two 'co-heads' for an extended period, or to expect Nell to step down again (fwiw I think Nell would have done so quite happily - Miss A has the very slight upper hand throughout imo). Or she originally planned to feature the finishing school more than she actually did? Or that Nell was a necessary sacrifice in order to move the school to Switzerland slowly, so she could have kept the main school in the UK if it had been poorly received? I find it quite hard to gauge what her intentions were with much of the Swiss books, really.

I think EBD must have planned to do more with St Mildred's; and it's also odd that a branch of the school is left behind in Wales, and then never mentioned again. I wonder if she had various grand plans but never quite summoned up the energy to carry them out, and just got stuck on a conveyor belt of mountain dramas/new girls who have to be taught to conform/Joey reproduction.

The golden voice of a blackbird for me, please, to go with my jet black mane and violet eyes.

EB only has two types of man in her school stories:
The strong, decisive man who wants the best for his children even when the children argue against it (and he's right)
The careless (and usually rich) man who thinks loving is giving his children everything they want. (and is wrong)

I've half a feeling there is a male caretaker in MT-I think he appears doing the lights in the panto Darrell and co put on, but I have no real memory of him except as a shadowy figure in the background.

I don't think any of the teachers are male?

I'd almost put the married into more groups than that

Those that married straight from school (mainly the early books, Wanda, Bernie, Gisela, Marie etc)

Those that married after some attempt of a career (Juliet, Daisy, Simone, Gillian, Biddy, Hilary (Julie lucy?)etc). This group could almost be subdivided into short term/ longer term careers eg Juliet, Daisy, Simone were all short term, Gillian, Hillary longer

Those that married after a few years out of school but no career (Joey, Sybil, Peggy, Joyce etc)

Those that were doomed to eternal spinsterhood but then forgiven whatever sins they portrayed on Joey (Grizel, Maria Marani, Evvy just don't ask what Maria or Evvy had done wrong).

I'm just reading the transcript of "Highland Twins", having previously only read the Armada version. I'm amazed - I knew Armada tended to abridge, but the cuts were brutal! There's so much in it that I haven't seen before - Elisaveta's return with broken nails, Miss Dene being stalked up the driveway in the dark...

I think I shall be tone deaf. There's always one... but usually a peripheral figure that EBD doesn't seem to care about. Or Jessica Wayne, who was - of course - angry and confused. Once Mary-Lou got her sorted out, I bet she sang like a lark.

Me for tones that are both silvery and bell-like please!

Here is the note: loooo

I thought Grizel's eventual marriage was really odd. I quite liked that she had become a spinster and gone off on her own, and then she suddenly got landed with this v unromantic (IMO) proposal and that's that. (I rather skimmed Reunion so if she actually doesn't marry him in the end, please do correct me - I'd be delighted!)

I must read the Highland Twins transcript next, I think. I reread the Armada recently so I wasn't planning to, but I like it and if there are big edits it is probably worth prioritising.

I think I'll have a sweet and pure voice, to go with my angelic lovliness.

I've only realised, after reading some of the Welsh books, how much of Peggy and Bride's childhood was spent living with Madge. Peggy must have been almost a teenager by the time her parents returned from India. I must say, I like Madge in these books. She hadn't yet become the remote, slightly cold figure she was in the Swiss episodes. Joey is also more involved in her own life and seems almost normal

I love Madge. I think she is brilliant in the very early books, when she first goes off to set up a school in Austria with Joey and Grizel in tow, and when she rescues that woman (forgotten name) off the train. I think she grows really convincingly into a kind mother/aunt, and I think her ongoing involvement in the school, after her marriage, is appropriate in its nature and its level. All the opposite of Jo!

There are times that EBD writes brilliantly and shows that she does understand human nature, like how Maeve resents Peggy at first (I wish we had seen more of that though) and Daisy when she is feeling unloved when Joey is pregnant with Stephen.

I was reading that scene between Robin and Daisy after Stephen was born, only last night. I thought it was very touching and she showed how difficult life was for Daisy who knew, on some level, that however much Madge and Joey loved her, their own children (and the Robin in Joey's case) would always come first.
The poor thing had to move out of Madge and Jem's home because Sybil resented them. Then, when Joey wasn't well after Jack went missing, she and Jack decided they would just spend Christmas with the triplets and Robin and poor Daisy was shunted back to Madge (and no doubt a resentful Sybil) for the festive period. She was part of the Russell/Maynard families but not a full part the way Robin was.

Yes but Robin knew she wasn't really family, theres the bit in Gay that breaks my heart where Robin says something about the trips that they aren't really related even though they call her Auntie and Con pipes up that the lady at the shop says she looks like both her Aunties or something like that.

Daisy at least had Prim, Rob didn't really have anyone. That's why I like Adrienne so much even though it is badly thought out and written, at long last Rob has family.

I also feel that they kept Rob that Christmas because she could be useful in playing with trips or whatever, so giving Jo and Jack some alone time ,rather than the fact that she is the adored adopted sister

There's a nice scene early on in Lavender where Sybil pipes up something about Robin not really being a part of the family and Madge says "She was a part of this family before you were even thought of". I liked that

Really need to remember these are not real people

Daisy there's a very sweet bit - is it in Tom or Rosalie? - where Bride writes to her mother saying she hasn't seen them for years and she hasn't even met the twins yet who are eight. I think Bride is about 12 and Daisy is 14.

I do wonder whether it was more the norm in those days for people to be bought up by extended family. It's probably still the case in quite a lot of places. My Bulgarian childminder has her 5 year old niece living with her as she can get a better education here.

Yes, and in Lavender or maybe Tom Storms (I'm reading them so fast they're all merging into one!) Robin more or less only does three days at school so she can be Joey's childminder the rest of the time

I think though there was a lot of displacement in the upper classes at that time, wasn't there? What with boarding school, parents being out in India and the colonies/former colonies, children usually went out to family if the mother died or was ill (rather than staying with the father). Attachment disorders all round!

TooExtra I agree that the relationship between Janie and Julian Lucy is a good one. It's a while since I read Anne's House of Dreams but isn't Anne and Gilbert's relationship more romantic and less jokey than theirs?

Yes I felt sorry for Daisy too. Though Joey does mention how chuffed Prim will be to have a proper home of their own when Daisy marries Laurie.

She does also call Margot after Daisy's mother to please her.

If you read coming home you do see how fairly commen it was to drop kids at birding schools for years and be abroad.

All these colonial families etc.

I was a tad confused in Highland Twins whether Robin had left school or not. It does mention her not going as too busy helping Jo but surely she was too old then anyway?

Happy she was still in school in Lavender, which is the book that comes after Highland Twins. And she still isn't Head Girl so I presume she has another term or two to go. They mention that Amy Stevens, at nearly 19, is the oldest girl in the school but Robin must have been 18 at that stage so she must have been quite old leaving school as well.