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.

I’m working off a very hazy memory, but I think the Rolf stuff happens (or is mentioned in dispatches) in and around the Carola era.

Does anyone know off the top of their head how many locations the CS occupied in the UK after guernsey?

I am hopelessly muddled on that.

Howells village, the Island, and then mainland next to island when school splits I think?

Re the Nazi episode, young Daisy was with the group, but perhaps too young to understand what is happening? So Robin is young enough to act, but old enough to understand the danger the goldmanns are in.

I get confused too. After Guernsey, do they move straight to Gwensi Howells' Armishire house, with Joey close by (is her house Plas Gwyn?), then they simultaneously get problems with the drains, and the school moves to Wales, to Dickie Christie's house on St Briavels, and Joey to the nearest mainland town, Carnbach.

From there the Swiss branch (and St Mildred's?) opens, with an 'English branch' staying on at Gwensi Howells' house? Which is possibly now called Glendower House?

Though is there also a separate junior branch somewhere in England referred to at some point?

I didn't have a problem with it being Robin who ran to the rescue in Exile: she was portrayed from the start of that book as more competent and confident than the soppy little baby angel of previous books - she's supposed to be mid-teens by then. And I think overall, to an extent, while she wasn't supposed to be a supernaturally wonderful creature, there is a bit of a story-arc about her being the sort of religious believer who is unselfish, ethically-motivated etc. And I can believe that a religious teenager with a strong code of ethics would jump in to a situation like that without thinking about the risks.

I actually liked Robin's little moment of badassery in Exile. Some fans have also pointed out she coped a lot better than Joey did in that incident.

I always felt sorry for Sylbil. She is a little shit but she's also sharing a nursery with four older cousins on her mum's side, two on her dad's, her older brother, and Robin. She's desperate for attention, and Peggy is everything her mum wishes Sybil was. The idea that being praised for her beauty is the reason why she injured Josette is a bit screwed up and very jarring when you see the constant obsession with looks in the Swiss years. And some well-meaning old biddy tells Len that she's pretty at Daisy's wedding and Len makes a snotty remark about how 'praise to the face is open disgrace' and 'we're as G-d made us', and Joey is totally fine with this instead of telling Len not to be so rude.

• First few books up to Exile: the Tyrol, in the fictional Briesau am Tierness, and I think the school moves up to the Sonnalpe but not sure

- Second half of Exile: Guernsey - Goes To It to Island: Howells village in Armishire, a kind of fictional Herefordshire - Island to Changes: St Briavel's, which I think is supposed to be on the Welsh coast - Barbara onwards: the Görnetz Platz in Switzerland, though a branch stays open on the mainland back in England

I finished Three Go earlier. So frustrating that EBD couldn’t make Clem come alive as she did M-L and Verity-A. And I didn’t enjoy already knowing what EBD had planned for Clem.

I felt almost sorry for Gillian Linton! With friends like Janey Lucy and Joey Bettany she was lucky not to be young and single now - they’d have had her face plastered all over Tinder without a by your leave.

And why was Joey so neglectful of Verity-A? It was ages until she invited her round to be Borg-ed. (I know the structure of the story demanded it but it seemed so unlikely.)

Having said all that ... I did cry for M-L’s poor, heartbroken mother and grandmother. And I loved M-L’s perspicacity and perseverance towards Verity-A.

Spotted this on Facebook about the cuts to many of the paperbacks.

Many titles were heavily cut when published by Collins in their Armada paperback series. This list shows those titles which were cut, but should be taken as guidance only, not as definitive.
Title Cuts in Armada pb
School Major
Jo Of Minor frequent
Princess Minfq
Head Girl Very Major
Rivals Minfq
Eustacia Minfq
And Jo Uncut
Camp Uncut
Exploits Uncut
Lintons Uncut
New House Minfq
Jo Returns Minfq
New Uncut
Exile V Maj
Goes to it Uncut
Highland Twins Major
Lavender Minfq
Gay From China Major
Rescue Uncut
Tom . Uncut
Rosalie . * Uncut
Three Go V Maj
Island Uncut
Peggy Minfq
Carola Minfq
Wrong Uncut
Shocks Major
CS Oberland Major
Bride Uncut
Changes Minfq
Joey Oberland Uncut
Barbara Minfq
Does it Again Uncut
Kenya Uncut
Mary-lou Major
Genius Uncut
Problem V Maj
New Mistress Major
Excitements Minfq
Coming of Age V Maj
Richenda V Maj
Trials V Maj
Theodora Major
Tirol Uncut
Ruey V Maj
Leader Minfq
Trick Minfq
Future Uncut
Feud V Maj
Triplets Minfq
Reunion Uncut
Jane Uncut
Redheads Uncut
Adrienne Uncut
Summer Term Uncut
Challenge Uncut
Two Sams Uncut
Althea Uncut
Prefects Uncut
Key to Abbreviations
Uncut Only odd words updated
Minfq Minor frequent cuts
Major Major cuts (eg whole chunks)
V Maj
Very major cuts (eg chapters)
Originally published ‘out of order’
Original is actually a pb

Verity was a real individual. Quiet, but knew her own mind. It's a shame how she ended up becoming a space cadet in the Swiss years and everyone treated her like a rock around Mary-Lou's neck.

I agree about Verity - she went from believable to a caricature of dreamy slowness. And the oft-repeated line about her ‘restraining M-L’s wilder flights’ is never shown in practice - as far as I can tell, M-L looks after Verity and doesn’t get much back.

And that her voice turns out not to be strong enough for the stage just seems like a symptom of the fact that EBD lost interest in her except for making her, like Doris, be a sort of human millstone around Mary-Lou's neck.

I do like stubborn younger Verity, though. And as someone else said up the thread, the storyline about her refusing to sing in German is in fact deeply believable given the time that Three Go is set, especially for British new girls who hadn't come over with the Tyrolean CS and who'd lost family or been bombed.

So is Lavender whingeing about the Peace League. Though I can understand the girls who were at school in Tyrol, Biddy and all that lot, being more OK with German people because of having gone to school with German and Austrian girls.

I’m 90% of the way through Island and oh-my-days ... the safeguarding issues are beyond anything. I know it troubled me even when I first read it (probably) in the 70s - but we didn’t have the vocabulary then. I accept that it was all intended to be perfectly innocent - but in an early 21st c context it’s incredibly disturbing to read.

Aside from that, I’d forgotten just how strong this volume is. Enthrallingly vigorous and colourful storytelling.

It occurs to me that the ever-present Mrs Maynard missed a trick. Nowadays she would have had a salaried position as Senior Tutor or Head of Pastoral Care at the school.

I do wonder how different the atmosphere would be if the school operated now. With DBS checks in place there would be none of the random wandering in and out of old girls, old girls’ husbands and curious visitors.

Is there a girls’ school anywhere, now, that is anything like the Chalet School? (Mine certainly wasn’t ...)

90% of the plots would be redundant with modern day health & safety / safeguarding.

No mountain rescues / falling in lakes / getting kidnapped / jumping over lit candles. Bummer.

We’d be left with the food and the sales of work. Boring.

Many thanks to those who clarified the UK locations, makes more sense now.

I hated the island books. Not sure why. No interest in birdwatching for a start.

I don’t think there was ever a real school that remotely resembled the CS — certainly EBD’s own school wasn’t!

Realistically, even if a real Madge, Joey, Simone and Mademoiselle had started a school on a remote Austrian lakeside in the 1920s, it would have been likely to stay a very small affair, possibly augmented in summer by the daughters of people with second homes at the Tiernsee, and wouldn’t have continued after Madge’s marriage, or, if she didn’t marry, after Joey left school and was making her own way in the world (as she’d have had to, presumably, if they were still poor, rather than just living at Die Rosen, continuing with her singing lessons and helping out with the babies?)

The fate of the Saints always seems rather more probable!

It’s an interesting question — what would Joey have done if she’d needed to earn her own living immediately after leaving school? Stayed on at the CS to teach? (Would her grades have been good enough to get her a place at a teacher-training college or university?) Trained as a singer? Gone to India to live with Dick and Mollie and discreetly search for a husband?

No mountain rescues / falling in lakes / getting kidnapped / jumping over lit candles. Bummer.

One of the party games at a Halloween style fete used to give me the shudders, even when I first read the books.

It was the one where someone's future was predicted by pouring molten lead into water and seeing what shape it formed.
The idea of molten metal in a crucible in a crowded hall (obviously crowded - the fetes were always a great success) gave me the willies.

Was that the same Halloween fete where Thekla got burnt from jumping over the lit candles.

She should have sued

Even by CS standards that event was an appalling H&S breach.

Was that the same Halloween fete where Thekla got burnt from jumping over the lit candle

I think so - fairly sure it was the mention of the candle-jumping that made me think of it.

Wasn't it all Thekla's fault anyway for wearing her frilly petticoat, instead of just a gym slip tucked into gym knickers?

No depths to which she wouldn't stoop to cause trouble for the CS, including self-immolation.

No wonder she was expelled. Tsk!

I’m reading The New Chalet School again as I’d forgotten a lot of it despite not reading it that long ago.
Re the previous question as to how the Russells and Maynards acquired their money, it says the school provides a steady if small income for its two owners - Madge and presumably Mademoiselle.
Joey, of course, is only 19 then. I’m alert for any hint that she takes special notice of Jack!
Mademoiselle is too ill to return despite the great Sir James Talbot being consulted!
Jen has just spanked Mario for firing catapults at him. The term used is whipped but as he’s out walking I can’t see what he’d use as a whip unless he found a branch or something.
When Sybil is kidnapped, Jem doses Madge and says he’d like to put Joey to sleep too but needs her help.
I didn’t really enjoy the island books either, Laurie as I too have zero interest in birdwatching!

I actually don't mind the bird stuff. The best thing about the island books is the lack of Joey. Also, Bride and Tom's friendship group. I'd have loved to hang out with them.

The best thing about the island books is the lack of Joey

That is a bonus

Isn't she still around quite a bit, even though she's in Carnbach (and in Canada some of the time, or am I getting my timelines confused?), plucking geese, letting her pram roll away, and pontificating? Isn't there a bit where she fills in for a missing/ill mistress, and actually makes herself almost disliked (!) because she keeps bobbing up and suggesting an extra lesson in free periods because the weather is bad, the ferries unreliable, and she doesn't know when she'll get across to the island again? Actually, doesn't the ferry capsize or something? Maybe EBD was considering killing her off ...