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.)

I’m only reading the ones I haven’t read before, Tails. I’ve read most of them, so just catching up on the few I missed.
Phil there’s also a scene where two of the Maynard boys cover themselves in black polish of sone sort and the n word is used. I think it’s in one of the early books too where Daisy says she’ll “work like a n.....” because she wants to move up a form or has her exams looming or something.
This book has a different feel to most because it’s not set in the school and focuses on the adult Jo and her family, and I am missing the school a bit.

I love Con. She’s the only Maynard child I could stand.

Len is a bore and Margot a psycho.

@Papergirl1968 'Joey Goes to the Oberland' is the one we're both talking about, when Mike and Charles get covered in blacklead and Joey calls them 'n*** boys'. The CBB, incidentally, really do not like you bringing up the racism in the books because, oh, it was a different time.

Con going off and doing her own thing in CGGU is totally believable. I don't blame her for wanting to get shot of the Platz. I loved the bit in Triplets where she got dragged into the panto at short notice and ends up being brilliant.

Joey has just told Simone she was glad she’d had another baby as she knew Simone hated only having one child “while the rest of us were steaming ahead with real families.” It sounds like poor Simone had trouble conceiving. I’d have slapped the cheeky mare across her smug face, not brought her supper in bed.

In fairness, if ever a girl had a reason to zone out, it was Con.

Holy Moly, @Papergirl1968! I don't remember that!!

Jo’s not keen on the notion of only children. Even when it’s other people’s families.

There’s a bit in one of the other books where a new girl, Prunella, is being a bit problematic, and Miss Annersley is chatting to Jo about her.

Prunella is an only child, and only grandchild, as none of her uncles married, and Jo remarks that this is a “mistake”.
As if the uncles have a duty to marry and produce offspring just so Prunella has cousins!

And as an aside, it’s ridiculous how openly the teachers gossip to Jo about the pupils.

Clearly confidentiality was an unknown concept back then!

Maybe Simone was thinking, "At least I have a functional pelvic floor, bitch."

Simone is quite plausible as a stealth bitch at that part of the series. Unlike that sap Frieda.

Also EBD clearly couldn’t be arsed with giving Maria VE an actual personality beyond ‘pretty and rich’. I can’t think of anything else about her. Married some kind of aristo. After that I’ve got nothing.

Good at sport .. wasn't she Games Prefect?

That might well be true. Scans dusty back room of memory

I’m dreadfully afraid that it was EBD, stirring in her grave, who disappeared the long post I wrote on her fantasy life and the complete lack of loos in the CS world.

To my knowledge, at least so far in my re-reading, only one girl has ever needed ‘to be excused’ - and that as a prelude to the whole form finding themselves locked in their formroom. Otherwise, the splasheries appear to be used purely for washing hands and faces, brushing hair and mild bullying.

Anyway. I finished Althea yesterday. And then discovered that I absolutely do not have Prefects anywhere amongst the various downloads ...

Prefects, aka Grooming at the Chalet School.

Were splasheries not code for loos?

They did spend an inordinate amount of time brushing their hair. Sorry, mops of curls.

And why the fuck was no one capable of doing a plait that didn’t fall out?

QuaterMiss, I have Prefects as an ebook, from an earlier incarnation of the folder. If you could pm me the drive details I'll see if I can upload it, and check if I have any others that are currently missing - I won't be able to do it until later today, though.

The lack of loos seems to have been endemic at the time. Swallows and Amazons goes into minute detail about how to scramble an egg or line up a landing mark, but not one murmur about nipping into the bushes with a little trowel and a furry leaf after you've been one the island for days.

See also any Famous Five adventure.

When I was younger, I loved the romance of Prefects. Re-reading it, I was
Poor Len stuck with him for the rest of her life.

If you could pm me the drive details

This sounds like a very kind offer pontefractals Thank you. (Whispers - Where do I find drive details? )

Yes, Laurie they were. So it seems absurd that over the course of sixty odd books she never once acknowledged this. I know it was ‘the times’ - but for some reason I expect more of EBD than other children’s writers.

My lost post was about their obsession, increasing with age, with looking immaculate at all times. Every Single tussle with the prefects, a mistress or the Head involved a girl being sent, first, to make herself look presentable. And in either Sams or Althea the overriding priority of the mistresses after a horrible road traffic incident is to make the girls fit to be seen. Ffs.

I too have spent many an hour wondering about the lack of loos, and in particular how they managed on their long rambles when they inevitably ended up spending the night in a barn or mountain shelter due to a storm.
And not only for toilets, but (whisper it) sanitary towels.

Maybe Matey’s special milk took care of periods too?

Unless it was something in the jam ...

The one drive is no more. If you liaise with Parker when she returns from holiday, she can add Prefects to the Dropbox.

Ops, sorry, QuaterMiss, for some reason I thought you had them. Anyway, to rephrase, if Someone Who Knows could very kindly give me access to the drive I'll upload any missing books I've got, for the general good.
QuaterMiss, you could also ask for drive access, or if you prefer you can pm me your email address and I'll send you Prefects?

Thank you Papergirl1968, that's helpful!