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.)

God, yes, poor Sybil spent the entire rest of her life atoning for the fact that being pretty makes you spoilt and liable to spill boiling water on children.

I can't remember which book it is Joey, Marie, Frieda and Simone are all on holiday together in England during the war with their billion small children and a very subdued Sybil along as unpaid help? The one with the deeply dubious doctor-patient romance involving Phoebe Something who has rheumatoid arthritis and the doctor who is actually treating her (Dr Peters?), whose mother who had the same disease and has just died where some well-meaning neighbour remarks on how pretty Sybil is, and Joey ticks her off as if she's said something unbelievably insensitive and offensive.

Poor Sybil spends the entire novel either offstage looking after the triplets and whichever of their children the other three have produced by this point, or quietly reading in a deckchair when not needed and clearly having a crap unpaid working holiday.

Ooh I remember that book about the holiday! That’s when Reg Entwhistle Len’s future fiancé is introduced. He’s a schoolboy who wants to go to grammar school, Jack steps in and sorts it and Reg naturally becomes a Dr of course! God forbid men should have any other type of career

Jo to the Rescue, I think.

It is Jo to the Rescue, thank you. I'd forgotten it's where we first meet awful Reg who grows up to be a 26 year old medic perving over a 16 year old schoolgirl and asking her father (his boss!) if he can 'speak to her'. Ugh.

(And had forgotten the subplot about the valuable cello and pushy Zephyr Burthill, who has the best name in the entire series, but is turned into a Nice Girl by mere contact with saintly Robin. )

I just looked at the synopsis and Joey, Marie, Simone and Frieda go on holiday on the Yorkshire moors with their ten children and a giant St Bernard. Poor Sybil. Can you imagine anything worse than being sent on holiday with your aunt who doesn't like you and her three schoolfriends, in order to run around after ten babies and small children?

I’ve got a feeling the Maynards bought that house as a holiday home didn’t they? They never seem to have any difficulties buying enormous properties all over the place!

I know there’s a few of you still wanting the log in details for the transcripts. I’ll do it later, promise!

@Papergirl1968 i would love the link too please! My sis won the battle of keeping the books so i am bereft of fretwork...

Oh yes. I think it’s also been made clear to Sybil that she’s basically been sent away to do all of this unpaid child care to get her out of the way of her poor parents, who are suffering under the strain of having such a terrible daughter.

Is that also the one where we discover that Joey has basically been hiding Margot’s tantrums from Jack, because she wants everything to be nice when he’s around? Because that’s the way to build healthy family relationships.

@Papergirl1968 I would be so grateful if you could send me the one drive details, too! I adored the Chalet School, have almost all the books but don't really read them any more due to tiny typeface.

My pretties... should really squirrel them away from small children and Lego 🙄 maybe away from the window too. Just realised how sunbleached the spines are. Oops!

I've recently been reading one of the all-about-EBD books and there was an article which said, basically, that Joey was EBD's wish-fulfillment. EBD never married, and she had a brother who died in his teens. So no wonder she idealised marrying a doctor and having battalions of kids and still being able to write...
Also, to be fair to EBD and the way the later books still have people saying their prayers and Joey's deranged hairdo - EBD was an old lady by the end, and hadn't really kept up with fashion, or the wider world: even for sheltered middle-class girls in the early 50s, there wouldn't have been quite so much simpering piety.

I think it is, @Squirrel26. That's how you end up with a teenage daughter who almost kills a classmate by throwing a heavy bookend at their head, having spent most of her life blaming her outbreaks on her personal devil.

I mean, toddler tantrums = entirely normal. Mamma hiding from them from Daddy because that's not how a nice triplet behaves = not normal.

Mind you, from what I remember of their behaviour as depicted in Jo to the Rescue, it seemed unlikely that EBD had never actually met a toddler or a baby.

@Papergirl1968 yes please too to the onedrive!

Ha!

I am on holiday in the Scottish Highlands and have discovered that Sir James Talbot is staying in our B & B or so I told DH

DH had to endure hearing all about the CS this evening as a punishment for taking a wrong turning at Dalmally

I would love a copy on the one drive as well if it’s bit too much trouble. I loved the books - my aunt gave me her set

@Papergirl1968 if you’re not too irritated by now could I have the onedrive too please? I also had it but lost it about four phones ago. I too loved them and now have three first editions, one of which was my mum’s (Gay from China).

And my CS book didn't arrive in time for my holiday.

And my CS book didn't arrive in time for my holiday.

And my CS book didn't arrive in time for my holiday.

And my CS book didn't arrive in time for my holiday.

Der. Why does my laptop do that sometimes?

@Papergirl1968 if you get chance would also love the one drive. Thank you

I would also love the onedrive link if possible? Thank you!

Paperwork kindly sent me the link but it's given me a security message to help protect the account. I thought I was in!

Papergirl, not paperwork!

@Papergirl1968 I'd love the login too!!