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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

954 replies

QuaterMiss · 02/08/2019 18:17

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.

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Squirrel26 · 21/08/2019 10:11

Whichever book comes immediately before Prefects is also really dull. I can’t even remember the name. It features a girl called Althea who’s middle names are the same as the triplet’s names, which really does scream ‘Good God, I’ve written 60 of these books, kill me now.’

Papergirl1968 · 21/08/2019 10:34

Apart from Exile, New Mistress and Problem are probably my favourites.
Ruey was a bit dull and I’m halfway through...is it Goes To It or Does It Again? The one about Prunella. And so far finding it a bit dull.

Pascha · 21/08/2019 10:40

@Bloatstoat thank you!,, I managed to get one book onto the kindle app. Now my broadband has crashed I have to wait for any more.

Bloatstoat · 21/08/2019 10:44

Another vote for 'Exile' here, I like 'NewMistress at the Chalet School' too, and have always had a fondness for 'The Chalet School And the Lintons' as the amada paperback was the first book I ever bought! I only discovered on reading the Kindle edition it was in fact half the book - feel v cheated after spending most of my holiday money on it in 1988!
I can't stand 'Feud in the Chalet School' or anything with Jack Lambert really. The older books are better for me - I've teacher 'Oberland' and thoroughly enjoying them, although confused as it seems to run concurrently with the previous 'Shocks for the Chalet School' and thus Matey is in two places at once.

Bloatstoat · 21/08/2019 10:46

@Pascha - glad it worked! Say goodbye to your free time Wink

QuaterMiss · 21/08/2019 11:22

Seriously - can these people never step outside a building without facing at least moderate peril? Hmm

Daisy, Tom and Elfie wandering around in the snow somewhere between the Round House and Plas Howell - naturally at least one of them requires ten days in San to recover from injury and trauma.

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Aroundtheworldin80moves · 21/08/2019 11:42

Exile was my favourite.

Helen McCelland (or something like that) wrote a filler for the term after Princess. It's quite enjoyable and feels like a real book. Called Visitors for the Chalet School.

rose789 · 21/08/2019 11:57

Ahhh just spent a lovely morning reading the synopsis of all of the books from the link a pp posted.
@Parker231 could I please have a link to this wonderful Dropbox if you get a chance. Thank you so much. Flowers

Papergirl1968 · 21/08/2019 13:27

It’s Does It Again that I’m reading. Does what again, I wonder? Reform a difficult girl, have students in mortal danger, or marry yet another teacher off to a convenient passing doctor? Wink
Reading one book after another, you can see that EBD had found her winning formula and stuck to it!

Glasscrab · 21/08/2019 13:55

@Parker231, could I be given the Dropbox details, too, please, if it's not an incredible faff? This thread is making me realise I'm confusing many books together, and obviously I don't want to mix up one misbehaving schoolgirl reformed by a single conversation with Mary-Lou with another. Grin

Howyoualldoworkme · 21/08/2019 14:19

I've just noticed that there are some 'Before the Chalet School' books by Helen Barber which look really good. One is about Madge when she was at school and another about how the decision to set up the school was arrived at. Apparently has a lot more about Mlle Lepattre in.
But they are amazingly pricey! Shock

Anyone read them? Are they worth the expense?

BehindATractor · 21/08/2019 15:25

The Helen Barber books are good - they feel quite like an EBD one but (if anything) better written. IME you have to buy them from GGB when they’re available, as they don’t keep all their titles in stock at one time.

I have to say, I love the domestic details in Jo to the Rescue and whichever it is where she moves to the Oberland via Simone’s new chateau. Exile I find hard to read, though good. New Mistress is also a favourite - the view of the school from a new teacher is actually an interesting perspective.

Squirrel26 · 21/08/2019 16:13

I really like ‘Three go to the Chalet School’. It’s mainly about little girls and is just really sweet. Also Gillian Linton gets together with a man who is NOT a doctor in for once quite a realistic way (they’re taking various kids to the cinema, the kids know each other, they bump into each other, he fancies her. No one falls off a cliff, into a lake or has to flee the country.) I like all the English-period books, actually.

RedskyLastNight · 21/08/2019 16:43

@Parker231 , please could I have the drop box details too? Thank you so much for doing this.

Glasscrab · 21/08/2019 17:11

And in Three Go, Mary-Lou is still an ordinary little girl cutting the toes off her favourite sandals so they last longer and hanging around with unsuitable bohemian-artists'-child Clem and Tony. Not the appallingly bumptious know-all she turns into.

And I like that Verity is a stubborn, self-willed, independent type in Three Go, not the useless, clingy person she seems to personality-change into overnight in the Swiss books, when she gets reinvented as someone weak that Mary-Lou has to carry as well as Doris Trelawney.

And actually, though it never occurred to me as I was reading the books as a child (probably because I read them out of order, and was skipping gaily about from Armishire to Tyrol to Switzerland at random) -- of course you would have had girls like Verity (and not just English ones, either) who in the years immediately after the war felt deeply uncomfortable or actively traitorous singing German songs or speaking German.

Even if it wasn't an issue for mistresses and girls who'd been at the Tyrolean CS, it would be pretty naive to think that, say, a new CS girl from somewhere like Coventry or somewhere else badly-bomb damaged, or who'd lost family in the war, would necessarily have been thrilled with functioning in German one third of the time just after the war.

CSmidlands · 21/08/2019 20:16

How have I not found this thread before!? Would absolutely love a link to the Dropbox if possible 🙂

PhilSwagielka · 22/08/2019 09:48

Exile is the best for me - Exile/Goes To It/Highland Twins are a very strong trio. Rivals is my favourite Tyrol book, Bride Leads is my favourite St Briavels one (Shocks comes close though) and my favourite Swiss book is Genius. I love Nina! The war books are the best, then the Tyrol ones, then the St Briavels ones, then the early Swiss ones where Mary-Lou is at school, then the ones after she leaves and boring Len becomes Head Girl.

Changes was absolute gash because NOTHING HAPPENED. It was one of the most boring books in the series. I didn't think much of Two Sams, titular characters aside - they were both really likeable, but the girls in their forms were such bitches. And Triplets pissed me off because of Margot nearly killing another girl and getting away with it because Len is an enabler.

QuaterMiss · 22/08/2019 10:58

Is anyone else listening to The Country Girls on r4 right now? The two girls have just arrived at their convent boarding school. Milk at night if special need - and no cretonne curtains.Shock It’s not sounding at all like the CS.

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Glasscrab · 22/08/2019 11:08

And their parents have to pay extra for the milk! And the food is so gruesome that the girls pass around surreptitious cake from home at night in bed, and dab Vick on their tongues to take away their appetites (or the taste of the food? Can't quite remember...) And there are sexy Seniors with bosoms and boyfriends, and crushes on nuns. Not to mention dirty notes! Grin

AlannaOfTrebond · 22/08/2019 22:10

May I have the dropbox details please Parker?

I've been lurking for a while, but had no time for reading, however I now have a holiday coming up and would love to catch up on some of the Chalet books.

jackparlabane · 22/08/2019 22:37

Could I have dropbox details please @Parker?

I'd like to share the link with MIL who is poorly and could do with light reading (she introduced me to the hardbacks).

They really go downhill after New Mistress, Theodora and Richenda. Though the glorious bonkerness of Redheads redeems it a bit, and I rather like Jack Lambert.

jackparlabane · 22/08/2019 22:45

In my 70s copy of Delia, she explains what garlic is and how it shouldn't be seen as scarily exotic. My American 70s cookbooks take it for granted but never use more than one clove in anything because that would be Too Much. So it's plausible that millionaire's daughter Cornelia has never taken a head of garlic apart (or knew the sections are called cloves) and has never seen cloves (the spice) to compare. Cooking was for servants, after all - unless you were Continental, in which case it was still for servants but nice girls needed to do it too.

QuaterMiss · 24/08/2019 05:56

Right, what shall I read next? I’m taking the weekend off from pretending to do other stuff but reading CS books in secret. This weekend I shall be out and proud ...

The book after Exile, that I’m not sure I’ve read? The book after Lintons, ditto? None of the Tirol set - too much like being force-fed cream cakes. I don’t remember much of Peggy. Or New Mistress ...

Tom was ... I dunno, maybe it peaked too soon. The dire peril in a teeny bit of snow happened too early - it just meandered after that. And anyway, the really exciting thing happened to Peggy and Breeda ...

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QuaterMiss · 24/08/2019 06:09

Ah, no, that’s Rebel after the Lintons. I’ve definitely read that.

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Howyoualldoworkme · 24/08/2019 08:18

It's 'Chalet School Goes to It' after Exile. I really liked that one. Then it's Highland Twins which is quite strong but totally ruined by the weird way that EBD makes Flora and Fauna talk! Robin is less annoying in that one too.
I've just finished that one as I'm treating myself to a re-read from the beginning.
Oh and Jo has thankfully stopped carting the triplets around in a big basket like puppies Hmm