Sir James Talbot tackles Mrs. Jack Maynard's Displaced Organ

[QuaterMiss]

Would I be unreasonable to initiate legal proceedings against this man?

Previous thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3624032-Not-to-have-realised-until-now-that-Joey-Maynard-s-displaced-organ-was-a-prolapse?

With thanks to Jemima232 for rifling through Sir James’ archives to supply the title of this one.

Since Prefects was first published in late 1968 or early 1970, after EBD had died, I think we can assume Prefects was CS-by-numbers assisted by other people. I like to think it was her ideas, maybe dictated and (re) written by some well-meaning assistants.

@Parker231 please could I have the dropbox details? I think I asked at the end of the last thread when you were on holiday so you won't have seen it.
Thanks for doing this, you're a star!

I think I’ve caught up with requests for the Dropbox link - some of you will have pm’s from me asking for your email address so I can send the link.

It really is incredibly kind of you to take the time to do this, Parker.

If only the Bettany/Maynard/Russell tribe were around to offer you a round the world trip in a private plane (belonging to a chap they went to school with) as a reward.

So, I'm genuinely considering getting a kindle just to read these books. Any recommendations from you kindle owners out there?

I read everything on the Kindle app on my phone.

(Other than actual paper books obvs.)

But having previously thought it would be cumbersome grappling with more than one ‘pocket’ device I’m now worrying about the endless hours I spend staring at this tiny screen ...

I used my kindle fire which I bought cheaply on Black Friday but the kindle paper white is definitely better. I found the glare from the screen on the kindle fire pretty irritating.

I don’t think you can go wrong with the basic kindle

I’m reading Reunion and it’s both funny and horrifying how size-ist it is.
They haven’t seen each other for donkeys years and pretty much the first thing they all say to each other is how fat (or stout) they’ve got. Mollie Maynard is described as buxom! Only Sophy Hamel seems to escape the bitchiness because she’s always been and still is fat.
Oh and Grizel, and Jo cheerfully tells her that while she was always slim, she’s now scrawny. Just the way to cheer up someone on the edge of a breakdown!

@Parker231 please may I have the link? Thank you!

Thank you Parker - I am having so much fun reading my way through these books.

I'm currently feeling sorry for Sybil Russell as even her own family don't seem to like her very much.

I would be most grateful for the link if anyone is willing to share please. x

You have to be added to Dropbox so you need to message Parker with your email address.

It’s not a link as such

Having finished the final volume I’d decided I would give the CS a rest for a few weeks - while I get on with neglected r/l stuff.

Did well this morning. Then started to feel a bit lonely and restless after lunch - too busy wondering what they were all doing to concentrate on my proper occupation.

I lasted til 16.43 pm ...

And am now bonding with Coming of Age, which is splendid so far. (I know I’ve read it before but don’t remember anything so it all feels new.)

When will this enchantment end? It’s taking up so much time ...

I know, it’s like an obsession. I’m hardly reading anything else at the moment.

Loving the Dropbox! I’m reading the later ones, some of which I hadn’t read before, and there does seem to be a weird amount of taking clothes off which I don’t remember from the previous ones.

Jack takes off her sunsuit (whatever that is) and lies in the Freudesheim garden until Len sends her in a for random shower, Evvy takes off her skirt to her it wrung dry by Sophy Hamel after getting it wet crossing a stream, and someone else (I think Jack, again) ends up in the woods minus her dress which is ripped off her back in a tree climbing accident. And nobody seems to worry about this - if I tore my dress or got it wet I’m pretty sure I’d keep it (or what was left of it) on in public, and I’m a lot less straight-laced than EBD!

I’ve also been slightly obsessively noticing all the not quite references to breastfeeding ‘the now satisfied and sleepy baby’ etc as I’m doing my breastfeeding counsellor reading in between all the re-reading.

No Chalet School in my life at present, but I have found a perfectly splendid Angela Brazil story. Sadly the girls have left their Swiss school due to some skull duggery by furriners, but the English school they have ended up with is very ladylike:

Molly and Meg... attended the class for Drill and Deportment held in the big hall by Miss Davis, the gymnastic mistress.

Special instruction was given in how to walk correctly—head erect, shoulders well back, and a graceful carriage. Any girl guilty of slouching or shuffling or swinging her arms was sharply reprimanded...
They were shown the best way to carry heavy satchels or cases of books, so as to avoid any danger of spinal curvature, and were also taught how to bow when passing anyone they knew, with shades of difference—respect for a teacher, head-prefect or a grownup acquaintance, and a more friendly greeting to a young companion
They were reminded of the rule that they must walk not more than three together when returning home, and must never allow the pavements to be crowded with groups of chattering college girls. A Watch Committee, consisting of prefects, were responsible for observing whether these rules were kept, and offenders would be reported when noticed.

That all sounds perfectly reasonable to me Allington! We certainly never had lessons in deportment at my 70s girls’ school - but there was the same rule about not walking more than three abreast in town. And never eating in the street. I’d have welcomed any lessons on how best to manage an impossibly heavy book bag.

The only Angela Brazil I’ve read had one of the most arresting openings ever, involving a swarm of locusts ravaging a plantation in, possibly, South Africa. Which I think was the reason two sisters were sent back to England to school. I don’t recall any of their school life, just the description of the black cloud of locusts descending over everything.

I've been trying to read the Two Chalet Girls in India fill in book but can't get into it. And ended up feeling sorry for Elisaveta married off at 17 to a much older bloke.

@QuaterMiss

Quite.

Knowing how to bow to an acquaintance in the street is an essential part of any gal's education

On the other hand:
Games were encouraged at the College but were not compulsory. There were several hockey teams, into which only keen players secured admission... If wet, there were meetings in the big hall for practice in public speaking, community singing and form competitions.

Whereas we all know that the regular humiliation of the non-sporty by compulsory games is Essential to Character Building

What do we want? Hockey for all
When do we want it? 1936

I’ve just read those books Behinda tractor, and in fact the bit about Sophy wringing out Corney’s skirt (it wasn’t Evadne) only a couple of hours ago.
I think a sunsuit is a sort of sleeveless playsuit. I did have to google tunics recently though as I wasn’t quite sure what they were, and discovered they are pinafore dresses. I think they look cute on little girls but on teenagers - not so much! However smart they might look in flame and brown or gentian.
In Reunion, Grizel has just offered Len a cigarette and she says no, we promised we wouldn’t smoke till we were 18. I wonder if that was because it wasn’t seemly for young ladies any younger.

I went to a Naval School in Singapore and we had deportment lessons. I remember them every so often but lapse almost immediately.
I'm reading through from the beginning too and I can't seem to read anything else at the moment either! Thank goodness for Kindle so thst I can pretend I'm reading serious literature

I’ve obtained a copy if Excitements at the Chalet school, one of the books missing from Dropbox.

Before I start the job of transcribing, I just wanted to check whether anyone else is doing the same thing?

Are the versions in the drop box the full ones or the Armada ones?

Papergirl You’re so right, I always get Corney and Evvy muddled. On sunsuit, I thought they were all in one top and loose shorts / culottes as that’s what H&M currently sells, but from the description it was some sort of button-through dress. There’s one mentioned in the Dark is Rising books (in a ‘why is my older sister wearing this stupidly impractical garment) way, which is 1970s, so I think they might have evolved but kept the same name.

Molly Having read a few of them, there were some passages I didn’t recognise from the books I have read in the Armada editions, so I think some at least are the full versions.

Oh I'm very excited now! I did read some of the originals from the Library as a child, and on re-reading was never sure quite how as a child I knew Jo and Jack would get together well before that book. Whatever EBD did it worked for a 10 year old.

An I am so relieved about the discussion of Prefects - maybe EBD would have written the Len and Reg thing so it wasn't so stomach churning (and actually I suspect she'd have only hinted at it for several books).

I always liked Fan fiction that had Len chuck him at Oxford (and Margot run off from being a Nun).