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.

Really? My school didn’t do this, but then we didn’t really have full school assemblies either.

In primary I think we mostly came in and out to some music on a cassette/CD player. In secondary we had chapel each morning and would have organ music before/after!

We walked out to piano at primary and secondary. I assume it’s a way to keep kids moving and reduce talking.

I think the CS girls had to March out didn’t they, not just walk quietly.

That’s for speed!

Seems a bit army-like though

I think EBD had some odd ideas about gaits — there’s all that stuff about CS girls (and mistresses, I think the bit I’m thinking of is at the beginning of Head Girl, so Joey, Grizel and Miss Maynard) walking gracefully because of all the English folk dance they do.

Folk dancing was hugely popular at the time, so that was probably a common thing when she was writing.

Marching is more Guides than military! I think it’s only meant to mean that they should walk out briskly rather than linger, although no good Chaletian would shuffle, surely?

In the 1940s when my mother was at school it was common to have your gait assessed and exercises given. I am flat flooted and she was surprised that I wasn’t whisked off and sorted out at secondary as she had fully expected me to be. Not quite the finishing school books-on-head thing but definitely attention paid to how you walked.

in quite a few C.S. books girls have to go for “remedial exercises” with the games teacher, usually Miss Burnett. usually put down to “growing very quickly “.

Try the Abbey books for folk dancing worship-or at any rate the few I've read.

Going back to the music, at primary, each week there would be a specific record playing on the way in and out, normally of classical music.
There was a board with the music and composer up at the front, and normally one of the assemblies would include the head talking about the music and/or composer. You were supposed to sit still and listen to the music, and for the most part people did.

I suspect at least part was about stopping the chatter in and out of assembly, but it was also teaching about the music.

Remedial exercises was exactly the thing my mother expected I would be given! I could NOT remember the term.

@borntobequiet Try Antonia Forest - not only the plots, but also the characters are believable.

I finally got up to Redheads and it didn't disappoint. How thrilling. I also quite enjoy the inevitable moment when Joey swans in and says she's nicking the plot for a book. In this case everyone thought it would be too scary for a school story - it made me imagine a real-life redhead kidnapping plot and the school's honorary Auntie Elinor thinking 'okay, well I'll put that in a school story, but it's a bit too extreme, so I'll tone it down by making the dastardly plot "get the girl addicted to drugs and then send her back" instead of "sell her to a brothel", and I'll have the villain assure Miss Annersley that he's got special non-lethal bullets in his gun...'

Anyway, now I'm on Adrienne and I want to know why she couldn't just stay at the convent for her education since we were told it was a teaching order.

I've just been standing at the front door for several minutes, and it was really, really cold. How worried should I be?

Has the cold struck up through your slippers? If so, very worried.

I have not RTFT, but wanted to check if anyone's mentioned Ruey Richardson's father and his adventures in outer space?

I am currently processing the fact that Margot has just been appointed deputy form prefect the term after getting caught in a really nasty bullying and blackmailing attempt!!

Please go to bed immediately. Best if you stay there for at least a month.

Yes that one stunned me somewhat too!

Yes it's worth reading back

Cough <blatant favouritism> cough

Although the space plot seems bonkers, wasn't the space race a thing then? The book was published in 1960 and I'm sure the Russians got a man into space quite soon after that??? I always felt it was much more far fetched that their dad should turn out to be a cousin or something of Daisy's husband Laurie.

Although the space plot seems bonkers, wasn't the space race a thing then?

At a National/Governmental level, yes. Not at a random 'gentleman astronaut' level though.

FFS just finished Adrienne. SPOILER ALERT turning out to be a long-lost cousin of the Robin who looks exactly like her even though Robin looks the exact same as her mother and Adrienne is related on Robin's father's side is even more far-fetched than kidnapping the wrong redhead. Especially as, in true Chalet School style, Mary-Lou spots the resemblance after Adrienne's hair has gone curly following a period of illness in the San...

(Actually I do know someone whose hair went curly after she was in hospital)

Adrienne is a dumpster fire of a book. I'm presuming EBD scrawled it on the back of a fag packet and never bothered to read it back. It makes no sense whatsoever.