Joey Maynard

[waitforitfdear]

Re visiting my collection of the womderful Chalet School and am puzzled. As a child I thought Joey the embodiment of all that was womderful in a wife and mother but now realise she's a monumental pain up the arse.

Aibu to not understand how Eleanor created the lovely Madge, Frieda,Simone Marie,Nell. Bill,Rosalie etc and made Joey the bloody heroine. She's so bloody irritating

I had such a girl crush on Joey when I was younger.

The whole thing with her husband was just a little unsettling with hindsight

The solid lump of comfert

Jack seemed to keep her drugged up for years! I loved those books growing up but rereading them as an adult is a bit odd.

Yes cold I know but once I started I couldn't stop.

He does drug her a lot and matron or any other random San doctor drugs the pupils. Most odd.

The competitive pregnancies and bsby weights too.

Mind you I wouldn't mind an Anna to run my house

He had mighty fine swimmers, that's for sure.

It's been a few years since I read any of them, I might dig a couple out tonight for a catch up! I did like the war years books, the chalet school in exile was one of my favourites.
And I always wanted to do a Christmas play like theirs at school, they were always written so well.

Ah but did your school have the lark like Joey or Verity?

Yes jack was virile but seriously who has triplets and 2 sets of twins. Good god

I thought the books and characters, even Joey, were great up until they left Guernsey (ish) and then they weren't completely downhill, very formulaic and the characters drearily 'good' in a way that Jo and her pals never were. Mary-Lou is nothing like Jo!

Went downhill

No larks here
A large bunch of young kids singing little donkey in very broad northern accents was generally the highlight!

I SO wanted to be a Chalet School girl! Then grow up to marry some nice Dr who worked at the San and be "busy" ever after !

Joey always stuck in my craw a bit though, she'd have been a nightmare for real, especially as an overgrown schoolgirl adult living next door.

I may have also borrowed the solid lump of comfort line to friendzone someone

waitforitdear yes, my eyebrows did shoot up when Len explains that they only had Cecil so Joey could have more babies than I think it was Madge?

I used to want to be just like her or, if I couldn't manage that, I would have compromised for being Mary Lou Trelawney. Like you, having re-read them as an adult, I find them both intensely irritating with some very odd relationships. I understand now why my mum despaired of me reading them over and over again.
Could you imagine how miserable life would have been at the school if you weren't one of the "in" crowd. Nepotism operated in every level of the school.

here it's little don kuy in a good brummie accent.

Yes Tam sgree the Swiss books see Joey maddder than ever with her 'hands full'

Why does she want to beat them all at child bearing? Her undercarriage would have been shot to peices!

Marylou is a loud rude nosey Parker but hey so is Joey.

Still the world they inhabit does seem quite comforting.

They manage 10 days in bed quite frequently which sounds like bliss

Joey is the embodiment of the ideal 20s/30s schoolgirl. Always truthful, always having good ideas, regularly in trouble but always takes punishments as a 'gentleman' and loyal to friends. So much so that in each of the first few books she saves someone's life, usually risking her own.

But the ideal schoolgirl of the 20s and 30s is squeezed into another 40 odd books on which she manages to have 11 children (including triplets and twins twice) and also author many books that all girls love above all others, and even continues to mentor millions of schoolgirls, have a hand in almost every school activity and problem, and fly off at a moments notice to comfort every sick and dying 'friend' and/or their children.

I don't LOVE the chalet school grows up, but I do rather think that joey deserves the fate meted out to her there.

@HunkyDory69 have you tried the Friends of the Chalet School to help you get books? It's devoted to all things Chaletian and includes getting the books.

It's only looking back that you realise how hard the place would be if you weren't a Bettany, Maynard or Russell or a crony of, a daughter of an ex-mistress, or a Mary-Lou type. Although the amount of drugging that goes on, you'd probably get help!

Joey seems VERY willing to sacrifice her pelvic floor for the sake of having the most children.

Come across to the Children's book section and join the Chalet thread there!

I found Joey an attractive middle, a bit of a moody immature senior, believable young adult, but a nightmare parent.
Can you imagine in your teen years having your mum bouncing into school in front of your friends and trying to join in? Wouldn't you cringe? But the triplets rather unrealistically just say "oh mamma's rather a poppet" to their friends.

Oh will come across thanks wit

Emerence the Chalet girls grow up was clever but cruel. Poor Lens life is horrible bless her.

Can you imagine a teen calling their mother mamma! Eeek

I always felt sorry for Sybil too. She's far better behaved than Margot but the family as a whole seem far harder in her. She was blamed for Josette being scalded and she was only 10!!

Even as a child I hated the portrayal of sainted motherhood and wifedom in those books

I think I was about 8. Showed them to older sister and asked if I was being U, she read the bit that freaked me out - Joeys older sister and her husband I think it was, with the woman suddenly incapable after finding a man, and my teenage sis said "um, why are you reading this?"

I had read a few by then, not in order. It was a bit shocking to see how they were depicted after finding men. But The Robin always freaked me out.

I think I may have been ahead of my time with regards to the chalet school books. I found them unreadable despite loving boarding school stories/books and collecting vintage copies for a time.

I know slim mind you I suppose they were a product of their time in that middle class women did give up work and men were seen as mentally superior I think. My sister was like yours but I loved the books and wanted to go to the chalet school soooo much

What makes me get the rage is daisy giving up a glittering medical career and it's never mentioned again that she's a qualified doctor who could advise the mothers on the many rashes their 'brats' have. She's home next door and they all contact a male SAN doctor

The Robin is designed to be a bit mystifying, I think. It's part of her nun-aura. I always quite liked Blossom Willoughby for rather bouncing through in comparison to the utter goodies. Always hoped Mary-Lou might go really off the rails post Chalet School too...

It's lucky that her SIL owned the school so presumably Jack and Joey didn't have to pay school fees for all their daughters.

I thought that about the Robin too. I wanted her to become a crazy hedonistic 50s movie star when she grew up.

Gave up on them quite quickly so don't know who Daisy is. Dad got whatever was in the library so I know I read a few from different time periods, in no particular order, but that selection was enough, I actually remember saying "I don't like these" and he was surprised because I loved the other boarding school ones. (He used the big library near his work so I couldn't often go with him to that one).