AIBU To Think That The Chalet School Matron Would Be In Prison Nowadays

[TheShellBeach]

..........................for giving unprescribed sedatives to the girls so frequently.

(lighthearted) (in case a million people tell me that IABU)

The Chalet School Matron was forever doling out sedatives to the girls, without even asking Jack Maynard to prescribe them first.
Shocking stuff. Nowadays, she would be jailed and struck off the NMC Register.

It might not be in the Armada version - Exile was cut dramatically and is missing a whole chapter and a lot of the stranger bits.

"......................its period detail and Elma smoking"

And having a highly unsuitable boyfriend, who is dealt with by Miss Wilson.

(AIBU to think my head teacher has no business telling my BF to fuck off)

I've got the GGBP copy.
I must reread it.

It's not just the oddness of them speaking Afrikaans there is also the general oddness of them knowing each other do

Mr Flowers is technically a customer of Madges and had no reason to interact particularly with her husband, and yet not only do they each know the other speaks a specific language Mr Flowers also buys the chalet school buildings in Austria in the middle of a war if I remember rightly. And arranged that via Jem I think.

Now I have two theories, both of them move in their respective governments circles and are aware of each other that way

Or, given the fan fic of a relationship between Jem and Jack, maybe the widowed, never married again Mr Flowers is Jems earlier relationship?

I'm not entirely sure here if I haven't got something from Mr Lannis and Mr Flower mixed up to be fair... Too many millionaires

Yes, it's beyond weird that he buys the buildings like that.
As if.

You're right - there is no discernible reason for Jem to know Mr. Flower.
Unless it's just assumed by EBD that anyone even tangentially involved with the CS will know absolutely everybody else?

Surely she wasn't that dotty?

Or, given the fan fic of a relationship between Jem and Jack, maybe the widowed, never married again Mr Flower is Jem's earlier relationship?

Ha! Maybe Jem and Mr. Flower have been having a relationship the whole time Jem is married to Madge?

All those overseas conferences - just ways for the two men to meet.

If Mr Flower lived in the area, I reckon they would know it each other... the English speaking community would be rather small. There's mention of the Russell entertaining visiting clergy and government officials.

I think it's the piano teacher or the art teacher who says that about Jews in Exile. "I have no great love for the Jew but I cannot agree with Herr Hitler's ideas" or some such.

I quite like the Welsh books - Three Go with Clem and Mary-Lou before she became unbearable, Katharine's aunt who goes to pubs in Wrong!!

I'm not sure if it ever mentions Mr Flowers living in the area? Although I might have missed it. I think I always assumed he and Mr Lannis lived in America and flew in and out for the holidays

It also seems odd that Mr Flowers is roaming through Europe when he finds Jockel and Joeys dog. isn't that still during the war?

America didn’t enter the war until December 1941 - maybe it was it before that?

Maybe but that's rather like me taking a stroll through the Ukraine surely? Possible but not sensible? Or was it normal if you were American at the time? I know Germany didn't necessarily want to piss off the US so I suppose that bought some protection but you could still be involved in a bombing etc entirely by mischance.

Unless of course you are part of the American government agencies that actively needed people wandering through Europe gathering intelligence?

Also it's interesting that Cordelias middle names are Russian. I think it's just because EBD wanted some fancy names, but a man with Russian ties who wasn't overtly Russian wandering through Europe in the middle of the war is interesting

(I am totally aware I am reading too much into this!)

In the spin off books we get told the Cornelia's mother was Austrian. So while she identifies strongly with her father and America, she is actually local to the original CS location.

That is also mentioned in Exploits (which is deadly dull IMO).

I thought it was Evadne whose mother is Austrian?

Exploits is so dull! Literally nothing happens, at all.

Well, except Cornelia falling down somewhere on a mountain and being rescued by a handy peasant.

Oh, and the explosion in the "Chemmy" lab GRRR why do they have these awful abbreviations?

We are supposed to laugh at the explosion but I read it, stony-faced.

You might be right about Evadne's mother being Austrian. I have flipped carefully through the book and I am none the wiser.
I am cooking roast pork which is more important than finding out some pointless fact in a CS book

Unless of course you are part of the American government agencies that actively needed people wandering through Europe gathering intelligence?

Mr. Flower as the John. S. Blenkiron of the Chalet School series (for anyone who's read the Richard Hannay books). I love it!

You might like this, @110APiccadilly - I came across a fanfic somewhere where Eustacia Benson and Jerry Wimsey fell in love.

@EmpressaurusOfWitchesBackFromTheDead I'm pretty sure I too have come across that. I remember it as being good. (I am a sucker for a niche crossover fanfic if I like both fandoms. There's a brilliant Swallows and Amazons series with crossovers from Peter Wimsey and the Marlows that is probably the best fanfic I've ever read.)

I know that one!

Making her Lady Saint-George?

Ooh, I bet Bunter would enjoy arranging that wedding.

So. Miss Bubb gets her come-uppance.

It takes time, and several books, but the Chalet School has the last laugh after all.

She has to humble herself to ask for work from Miss Annersley (and admits she isn't staying anywhere posh because she cannot afford it), then she finally collapses at the Sale, in Joey's garden, due (according to Jem) to starvation.

Hmm. Nothing further is mentioned but we assume she dies.

It just shows that the CS will GET you, if you diss their obsession with games and invalids and Joey Maynard.

There’s a theory that Jem was actually an undercover member of MI6, which would explain a lot of things.

Clearly Mr Flower & Mr Lannis were both members of the CIA. Mr Hope must have been part of the Australian Secret Services - why else would the School allow a child who was an arsonist to come and live in a mostly wooden Chalet School?

That would also explain why a foreign princess was sent to the school without protection, and a child of a police officer who was being threatened

😂

They'd even get you on holiday - what was that odd holiday place that was kind of the Rivendell resupply/interrogation/spy centre of the CS world? Where Joey was shipped off to at intervals to hide in alcoves and eavesdrop on conversations?

Penny Rest? I think in Cornwall/Devon somewhere? Sounds pretty nice to me, apart from the risk of getting pounced on by Joey.