Not to have realised until now that Joey Maynard’s ‘displaced organ’ was a prolapse?

[QuaterMiss]

I know there is or was an enormous Chalet School thread but I can’t spend six weeks trawling through that.

Fascinated to note (because I’ve been reading the complete synopses how all the CS women taken seriously ill either went straight to the San or journeyed - over days - for a consultation with Sir James Talbot. It was he who diagnosed said ‘displaced organ’. At which point Joey had iirc nine children. May be wrong, lost count.

(I read and reread the entire series over my first three decades.)

YY, cutpurse, I do know what you mean - I just wonder if it wasn't so much assessing her social savvy, as indicating what was uppermost in their minds? Eg., Peter feeling conscious she's newly 'Lady Peter' and she's being faced with all of these conventions; Harriet giving off vibes of nervousness about it?

I dunno.

It does seem clear that one of the things between Peter and Harriet (in addition to her ethical debt over the legal case) is the fact that if she marries him she will be subsumed into a world of extreme privilege.

Cutpurse - Jarvis did have distressing tendencies didn’t he? But I couldn’t abide Teddy’s milkiness - Perry was infinitely more liveable. Veering slightly sideways Peter Wimsey was my ideal for many a year and responsible for first college boyfriend - whose straw colored hair, prominent nose and highly strung disposition segued into narcisissism (put me off the books for years but you’ll be glad to know that is now resolved). Adored Joey as a child (and still adore child Joey if that makes sense) but adult Joey is nearly as annoying as Dear Mary-Lou. My small ones are miaowing ao updates will be intermittent

Shirley Nielsen, proprietor of the Old Children's Bookshop has very recently opened a new shop - Priorsford Books in Peebles. I can't easily make links, but if you look for Greyladies Books, there are contact details there.

Encore Books and Topsy Turvy books are online and owned by keen fans of the Chalet School and other old children's books and sometimes have hardbacks available. My dealings with them have always been very good.

As mentioned, GGB are an excellent source - all their books have full original text and are well-produced on good-quality paper.

Disclaimer - no personal connections, just a grateful customer

I'm another person who can't seem to log into the OneDrive

Is there a secret way of doing it or am I lost forever?

'You're right, the KKK stuff in Rivals is mid-blowing, especially the way in which it's viewed as sort of colourful American 'fighting for your rights' stuff.'

Ugh, yes. This very clearly is the consequence of Joey (and her creator presumably) reading too many of the ghastly Elsie Dinsmore books. I like and collect 19th century children's books, but those are insane! Very reactionary in political tone, even by the standards of the time; and also just - eurgh! Elsie is a pious little girl, whose mother is dead, and whose father is a nasty bully, who tries to force her to play the piano on the Sabbath Day. She refuses; he insists that she stay there till she does as he's told; she eventually faints and he is remorseful and become pious and devoted to her, but still a bully. He keeps her totally dependent on him, withdraws affection to punish her on the rare occasion that she disobeys, e.g. when she tries to prevent him from repeatedly whipping her toddler half-brother. Eventually she grows up to be a saintly young woman who marries her dear papa's close friend and contemporary (it was obviously illegal to marry daddy himself!) I don't generally go in for Freudian interpretations of literature, but Freud really would had a field-day with that series!

Also the presentation of the ‘beastly’ Mau Mau in CG from Kenya. Though I guess if you were Jo Scott you could be forgiven gut thinking that.

For thinking that

Hold fire, those who still want the log in details because the blasted thing appears to have locked us all out.
@nellwilsonswhitehair if you’re reading this, I’ve sent you a PM begging for help.

Isn't there a passage in one of the early books about having to 'work like n***s to get all the work finished'. Its something to do with one of the fairs

DD has started reading my CS books (I have the full Armada set) however that's one particular book I have left off her reading list.

I have a bunch of books from previous sharing of one drive copies.
Just read Red heads at the Chalet school for the first time.
We've changed her surname so no one could possibly recognise our Flavia as the red head Flavia they want to kidnap.
When they kidnap Val by mistake, keep her drugged for several days before dumping her on a random stranger (who happened to be an old acquaintance of Jack's) the victim blaming of poor Val was appalling. (You were truanting so it's ALL YOUR FAULT that you got kidnapped)
It got worse after that, but I'll stop with the spoilers.

I think someone’s already mentioned it upthread but the ‘Chalet Schools Sales and Wants’ group on FB is very good and includes some of the bigger dealers in school stories like Gill Bilski. The Armadas usually go for not much and hardbacks minus a dust jacket have fallen in price since GGBP began reprinting.

Never mind the question of why Miss Twiiterton knew how to address wives of the
minor nobility. How did Harriet, aged 31/32, remember the maiden name and occupation of Miss Noakes the village schoolmistress from some time more than 40 years previously?

Redheads is one of the more bonkers ones, IMO. Isn’t there a throw away line about how the people who kidnapped Val planned to ‘turn her into a drug addict’? It feels like EBD had been reading the kind of books the Chalet School would have strongly disapproved of.

I was also appalled at the presentation of the KKK as 'fighting for your rights', given that EBD was at least slightly progressive for her time. I wonder if she just didn't know.
Oh and I went to Interlaken on holiday a couple of years ago and got all wildly excited on the train - 'Lake Thun! The Jungfrau ! to the general bemusement of all the other people in the tour party.

@Squirrel26

In Rivals of the Chalet School, a girl is expelled from St. Scholastika's for

a) writing an anonymous letter to the King of Belsornia

and

b) having a book which isn't on the school's reading list in her desk

It doesn't say which book it is, but Miss Browne, the luckless head of St. S. says to the luckless expellee:

We want you girls to retain your purity of mind as long as possible. Do you think that you can soil your minds with the thoughts and deeds recorded in such a story and retain that purity?

Poor Vera. What was she reading? The Forsyte Saga? She was the only pupil Miss Browne had ever expelled.

Poor Vera. What was she reading?

Later on - post WW2 - some Chalet School girls got into trouble for reading the scandalously unsuitable book Gone With The Wind / Forever Amber (IIRC the exact title varies depending on which edition you’ve got).

Just to give you an idea of what type of book EBD considered unsuitable for schoolgirls!

Bloody hell. Gone With The Wind?

And EBD was obsessed with Guiding.

Elaine was just the type of girl to need all that the Guides could have given her

(Elaine, the mean, mean nasty girl, pushed the Robin slightly and outraged the entire CS as a result.)

I always wondered what Vera might have been reading, as well. Rivals was written in about 1932 so it was too early for DH Lawrence...

I haven't received a pm yet but don't sweat it because I remembered I downloaded lots onto an old tablet so I'm charging that one up (for the first time in months) to see what I do and don't have.

(Elaine, the mean, mean nasty girl, pushed the Robin slightly and outraged the entire CS as a result.)

Mind you, Joey had a screw loose about anyone who didn't immediately worship the Robin. Joyce Linton doesn't take any particular notice of her on her first evening at the Sonnalpe is she the one who says 'Oh, night night, kid', or is that someone else? and Joey puts it down as a Black Mark against her character.

In fairness, Joyce is annoying, but she has recently discovered her mother is seriously ill, had to leave her old school and home and trek halfway across Europe with her mother in an ambulance, and has just been thrust among a bunch of complete strangers after a long journey up a mountain -- it's hardly surprising she has more on her mind than a little girl she's never met before saying good night.

I read Forever Amber on the recommendation of it being a book for bad girls

Pascha and Bumply I wonder could you share? Are they pdf files?

I think all the email providers have got far more security conscious. I've been logging into my DM's email for years for her and the last time she asked, a couple of months ago, I couldn't get in. Not sure it's you etc., even though I know her password, my email is her alternate email, got a code sent to her phone and put it in etc. Still wouldn't let me, I suspect as we were in different locations. It is a Google account rather than Microsoft. But it's very annoying if you want to check something and don't have internet access, you can't get someone to check for you.

I read Forever Amber on the recommendation of it being a book for bad girls

Me too Svalberg

I saw it and thought, oooh, that’s the book that got those girls into trouble, let’s see what the fuss was about. Probably not the effect EBD had in mind

Am now wondering which books EBD did consider suitable for schoolgirls.

Possibly a different kind of books for middles as opposed to seniors and prefects.

Even sub-prefects. What subject did EBD teach?

Please don't say English Literature.

Oh and there's a slightly common girl at St. S.
Her name is Doris Potts. Very WC. How on earth did she ever gain admission to a boarding school for English ladies?

The same English ladies who denigrated the CS because it had 'foreigners' among its pupils.