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.

Oh, Jem was a German sleeper agent — he was running Gertrude during the Guernsey interlude, and Frau Thing and her son on the Sonnalpe, the ones who spied on Joey and co on their way to hide the secret CS League document in Robin’s cave...? And probably the pursuers who nearly catch Joey, Jack and Robin on the escape from Austria, when Joey pretends to be a gypsy.

Well the Gertrude thing was hella suspicious.

Girl with a German sounding name, clearly not a native English speaker, rocks up during the war when the nazis still have unfinished business the school.

Hilda was supposed be a smart woman ffs. What possessed her?

Now I know

It was subtly changing her name from Gertrud Becker to Gertrude Beck. Why would you need any better disguise than adding an ‘e’ to your suspiciously Germanic first name?

It sounds like one of Baldrick’s cunning plans.

It was subtly changing her name from Gertrud Becker to Gertrude Beck

That clearly did fox them

@MarieVanGoethem

I had no idea that yawning used to be significantly associated with jaundice in medical literature, that’s very interesting.

The possibility that EBD had fixed on that makes the whole early jaundice diagnosis from yawning thing a little less nonsensical.

(Although surely the doctors back then would still place more significance on the patient having developed a yellow tinge?)

I had no idea the Armada books were abridged.

Mind you, I remember reading them before I went to 'proper' school when I was seven, so maybe my mother knew they were more age appropriate. I'm assuming the abridged bits were more complex interactions though, not just slashing a chapter for length/boredom...?

@Parker231 pretty please may I join the dropbox? Will PM you my email if that's ok. Am agog to find out what I've missed.

I had no idea that yawning used to be significantly associated with jaundice in medical literature, that’s very interesting

It's more generally associated with liver failure, afaik.
You think they'd have been dropping like flies.

I'd assumed their jaundice was due to hepatitis A which was sometimes called "jaundice".

Jaundice itself is basically a symptom of a liver problem and can occur in lots of liver problems. Afaik.

One thing I noticed when reading a load of the middle to later books in a row was the interest the adults had in each other’s mail. Jo or Rosalie or someone would have a letter from a fellow old girl and it would be passed around half of the staff. Joey’s English teas were just an excuse for a good gossip, or to hear the Hanes, as she persisted in saying.

Probably fatty liver from all that cream

I'm watching The Dancing Years by Ivor Novello and its like the Chalet School set to music! And here comes the Anschluss...

I'd assumed their jaundice was due to hepatitis A which was sometimes called "jaundice".

Wasn’t there some mention of problems with the school’s drains around that time?
A hepatitis A outbreak would certainly fit with dodgy sewage drains.

Oh yes, hep A outbreak sounds plausible. Don't tell Matey but they clearly hadn't been washing their hands after using the Splasheries.

Some books are worse than others. Highland Twins had whole chapters cut out, like Elisaveta showing up. I think Ruey had quite a lot of the lacrosse cut, which is probably a good thing for most readers who were bored shitless by it. I've just bought the Girls Gone By edition of Theodora, which was also heavily cut.

Thank you @Parker231 ! Really appreciate it

Managed to get around the whole .mobi (huh?) business with a bit of persistence and swearing. Can't decide where to start... ones I've read (but probably not all of it turns out), or ones I haven't (but I'm not very current).

I rather liked the sound of Joey uselessly faffing about with trunks and tranquilisers in an attempt to get across the continent with a few kids. May start there...

Am I the only person that assumed that Vic Coles was female? Until people on the CBB went with the assumption that (s)he was male it never even dawned on me as a possibility.

I'm starting to think that I may have been naive enough to have been a chalet school girl.

Am I the only person that assumed that Vic Coles was female?

Don't know; I assumed it was a "he".
But I was a middle and awash with hormones when I read it.

(I pictured 'him' with slicked back, Brylcreemed hair, a leather jacket and possibly a moped. And with a wad of chewing gum in his cheek.

Umm..

Going to have a little lie down now)

Am I the only person that assumed that Vic Coles was female?

Nope, never occurred to me otherwise until you just said it! I assumed Vic was there as a dreadful warning of the 'other' sort of girl that Joan might become, if she didn't behave more like Ros.

I rather liked the sound of Joey uselessly faffing about with trunks and tranquilisers in an attempt to get across the continent with a few kids. May start there...

Do! It’s sweet - particularly the meetings with old friends.

(Usual caveats re ‘of the time’ language ...)

I assumed Vic was there as a dreadful warning of the 'other' sort of girl that Joan might become, if she didn't behave more like Ros

Me too!

Now it will forever haunt me

No, there's quite a few people who reckon Vic was a girl. I reckon he was probably a rocker or a ted.

Oberland is quite sweet in places but the n-word grates, as does Joey telling Simone what to do with her house and the endless use of 'brats'. Evadne is cool though.

I must have read Problem when I was hormone free. Vic Coles will always be female to me (although obviously no better than she ought to be given her unsavoury reputation).

At least twice it is mentioned that Bride is 'condemned' to wear glasses. Ffs.

And here is a description of Monica Marillar in 'Highland Twins'.. '...she (Betty) made haste to get behind big Monica Marilliar, who stood five feet nine in her stocking-feet, and was broad to match'

I think that Anna is also the cause of much merriment as she 'stomps' around the house. Even reading that as a kid, I remember thinking that seemed mean.

I thought a girl would be "Vick" or "Vicky".
Not like, say, Vic Reeves.
(I just don't want to let my fantasy go, do I?)

Was it Joan who brought The Forbidden Book into the school?

(Either "Gone With the Wind" or "Forever Amber", afai understand)

I assumed Vic was there as a dreadful warning of the 'other' sort of girl that Joan might become

That's what I thought.
Wasn't Joan described as "cheap" at one point?

And we all know what that means!

Vic definitely has Brylcreem and a motorbike, for me. Both because of the way Mary Lou goes red and says ‘She talks about boys! And not just boy chums!’

Plus the fact that I think EBD is more likely to describe a boy/young man as having an ‘unsavoury reputation’ (where it could mean drinking, gambling, loutish behaviour, frequenting bars, not holding down a job long etc) than a girl (where it would mean ‘can’t keep her knees together’) for her readership.

It was Diana in one of the Island books (I think 'The Wrong Chalet School'?) who smuggled in gone with the wind, she also preferred contact bridge to paper games in her spare time, the horror!