AIBU To Think That The Plots Of The Chalet School Books Were Really Improbable

[TheShellBeach]

.................................such as Prince Cosimo, the endless kidnappings, all the train crashes/bus crashes/car crashes/plane crashes/boat sinkings hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings

Okay, I've just remembered that there were a couple of near misses with boats when the CS was on the island. Joey was nearly flung overboard once (a missed opportunity for EBD to get rid of her IMO) and there were probably others.

Anyway - all aboard and ahoy there.

Joey had enough kids after the triplets that she could have lost them and brought on a new generation. Felicity particularly.

No not Felicity! She was a spineless jellyfish if ever there was one! Howling cos a door knob fell off and she was stuck in a room….. I would’ve liked to have more about Tessa de Bersac for instance.

Onto a different subject, I’ve just finished Highland twins and it says Juliet had a daughter…. I thought she only had sons? And why didn’t the girl go to the CS? It seems a demonic contract that alll female descendants must go to the CS school. Also how come Biddy O’Ryan got renamed throughout to Biddy O’Ryan?

I think Juliet had one of each, Donal and Meg who doesn't get mentioned as going to the CS, her niece does though Tessa.

Also how come Biddy O’Ryan got renamed throughout to Biddy O’Ryan?

Eh?

Wasn't she always Biddy O'Ryan....well until she married.

I think in some of the books she mysteriously gets called Biddy O'Hara or similar. It might be a mistake in the re-editions though, like some of the spelling.
(e.g. one book called Thekla Thelka all the way through; they keep calling Herr Mensch Onkel Reise, which is my 9-year-old non-German-speaking pronunciation, but not the actual spelling of Riese; etc.)

I think she might have been misnamed Biddy O’Hara in one book.

I've been wondering what happens to Mollie Maynard, Jack's sister who used to be a mistress at the Chalet School. They're all so family-oriented that it feels weird they don't talk about her when all the other aunts on the Bettany side are busy raising each other's children etc. Or maybe she does reappear but I've confused her with Mollie Bettany?

She comes back in CS Reunion, having put on weight, and Jack recommends an operation.
Typically.

Frankly, Margot’s hair-trigger temper, violence, chummy discussion of her own personal devil, and psychopathic tendencies make her an excellent match for the order that educated me.

(Some of them were retired missionaries, come to think of it.)

Frankly, Margot’s hair-trigger temper, violence, chummy discussion of her own personal devil, and psychopathic tendencies make her an excellent match for the order that educated me

Sounds like Margot ended up as the head of my mum's Catholic primary school.

Ooh, found the new thread.

I’m sure someone will have already said it, but Redheads has to be a top contender for the most unrealistic plot.

Actually, re. recent accusations that we are being a bit petty pulling the plots to pieces as the books are designed for schoolgirls, I do actually remember as a child thinking 'that wouldn't happen' in the one where the German airman manages to drop a message to the Chalet School into their garden during the war.

I've got a second hand Collins paperback that's full of errors like that, which its previous owner kindly corrected in pen.

Ha!

I remember lots of books that I read when I was a child, where I was quite sure that the likelihood of the events written about was remote.

Yep sorry I meant she became Biddy o’hara in highland twins

Does anyone else think Miss Annersley's Scripture lesson in 'Bride Leads...' sounds the dullest lesson ever?
Setting 'prep' to read and learn a chapter of the Bible, then being questioned on it during the lesson is the sort of education they'd have experienced at Lowood in 'Jane Eyre'.

It’s fair to say Elinor B.D seemed to have a “thing” about weight. Any character who carried a few extra pounds had to have it pointed out to them loud and clear!

Doesn't she get shipped off to a 'health farm'!

I think she does at some point.

Professor Richardson getting lost in space has to be up there with ridiculous plots.

Oh, I don't know - it was only a few years prior to David Bowie's Space Oddity.

I wonder if DB ever read the Chalet School?

It wasn't just EBD, Faith Addis's book lovely 'year of the cornflake' set in the early 80's had her being shocked that a women could weigh 10 stone and my grandmother would certainly tut about any perceived extra weight.

(Year of the cornflake told how Faith and her husband quit their jobs as florists in London and move to Cornwall where they ran children's holidays for fairly young unaccompanied children.)

I suppose his space mission being a fatal failure adds a touch of realism.

Just imagine if Professor Richardson’s space rocket had been successful and he’d returned in a blaze of glory. Now that would have been mega implausible.

His first mission returned after he got lost. It was the second one where he got lost in space forever. The return barely gets a mention other than how irresponsible it was to go off the second time after he got lost the first time.