New Home for the Chalet School

[Vintagejazz]

Welome everyone. Dormy lists on the board as usual and I know you are all hoping like mad that you are all not in the same dormitory as Mary Lou. But only some of you can be the un lucky ones and the rest of us will have to make do with each other.

Oh, and the good news is that Joey has sabotaged discovered something wrong with the roof on her house and believe it or not, the only property available to rent is right next door to the school.

Shit Hurrah, lucky us.

Got to go. Matey wants me for unpacking.

Shall we come and sing outside your bedroom window Nell, at dawn? .

I have a shelf of children's books by Noel Streatfeild and Lorna Hill, plus a couple of old pony books and annuals and I have a couple of Chalet books nonchalantly in the middle of them. But I also have a stash in a locker where no one can see them. Funny how I don't mind people knowing I re-read Ballet Shoes or A Dream of Saddler's Wells or Jill has Two Ponies but feel embarrassed about letting them know I still enjoy Chalet School books.

Could you ask for vouchers for Amazon Nell and buy them yourself?

Hmm, that's a thought.

I wonder why the distinction? That is interesting. I've not read any Lorna Hill (and only Ballet Shoes by Streatfield).

I shall be horribly offended if I don't get morning singing! I should start teaching my toddler the golden notes of a blackbird and the words to Sweet William...

I put it as "I collect children's books" sounds better.

Dd2 was a little embarrassed last week when we went to London and we went into the Waterstones at Trafalgar Square and they had lots of GGBP. I think I had a pile of about 12 before reality hit me and I had to slim the pile down. Mind you, I had to pare her pile down too.

Most of my collectables are upstairs simply to be out of the way of little sticky fingers. however my Malcolm Saville's are downstairs and i have occasionally had someone exclaiming over them as old friends, and lent them out.

Vintagejazz I think Antonia Forest's books are brilliant. there are not so many of them as the CS (for which my bank account is thankful)...Falconer's Lure is my favourite. Only 4 are school stories (plus one sequel written by someone else) the others are family books about the same people. (Apart from Thursday kidnapping which is not a A Marlow book and the two historical Marlow books ..) I would be interested to know what you think!!Certainly best to try and read them in order.

I love Lorna Hill and Noel Streatfield and must try Antonia Forest again. I buy the books for my granddaughters and then read them when I am staying with them, which is a perfect arrangement. I am not sure they read them though. They seem to spend all their time going on about obsidian knives, bedrock and TNT these days.

Bloody hell thumping the top of the TV to make it work takes me back as does dad holding the Ariel at different locations and then is making him stand there. Happy days.

Still I have been known to tip my iPhone to send a slow message. Kids find this hilarious but it works I tell you.

I can't see ML getting married. She's too bumptious. She will always be there to organise Verity and the poor hapless Alan. I think living with ML would make me retreat into a dreamy world too.

I too like Grizel. She's far more real than the others and yes I agree why couldn't Madge have lent her the money to train? Or Joey? She was quick enough to sponsor Reg Entwhistle but I suppose that was with the end game of one of her dds marrying a doctor.

In reunion Grizel makes up for setting Len in fire. Great believer in redemption EDB. Quite sweet storyline.

Ha my dsis was clever. She did her MA in girls lit between the wars and I swear she only did it to legitimately read them all.

Ooh, Madge should have put Grizel through college with the end game of Sybil marrying her. (Is that a really awful suggestion? I can't think that the age gap must be...)

Does your dsis feel embarrassed to tell people she did her MA in Girls Own lit, thebody, or does the legitimacy of an MA dispel any embarrassment? I don't think she ought to feel embarrassed, at all, but I can imagine it's def possible.

ML might want a husband to organise, as well as organising everybody else all the time. Joey certainly seems to manage.

Oooh, oooh, please sing under my window too! It's my birthday too soon! And my mum asked me for a list of the CS books I wanted because she's awesome like that

Oh and another by the way - am I the only poster who feels embarrassed to let people know they still enjoy reading school stories? I've only really got back into them in the last few months but feel exactly the way I did when I was about 10. Dying to get my hands on the next one and the next and kind of wishing the world was a bit like that, really

Ditto. I'm thoroughly enjoying re-reading - and in some cases, reading for the first time - the transcripts and am sad when I hit the occasional gap. But if anyone asks what I'm reading at the minute, I tend to say "I'm between books".

Just trying out my name change btw

Well I can bring the party food. Lidl in France have got a special on stuffed roasting veal! Now all we need are buttery potato balls and Karen's lemonade....

I say that I collect children's books too, to avoid the shame! As indeed I do... mainly CS, Enid Blyton and Noel Streatfeild but also classics e.g. 'I Am David', 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, 'The Silver Sword' etc.

I also read all the Angela Brazil books on Gutenberg and have really enjoyed them ... I've often thought I'd love to do a PhD in 20C children's lit just to have a legitimate excuse to read them But my academic pursuits led me down other avenues!

Ah, yes. "I collect children's books", that sounds far more respectable!

On the subject of collecting children's books, I'm currently eyeing up New House. For a similar price, I could get either a hardback reprint (much less lovely cover), or a new GGB copy. On the one hand, the GGB will be nice and new and with all the publishing history and additional info and with the nice NKB cover, but on the other, hardback. There is something I like very much about the hardbacks. What to do?

Hardback.

Definitely!

Even with the inferior cover?

... Bought it! I must be stopped.

I 'collect' children's books too and have a big bookcase in my bedroom which I share with DD. I also love Noel Streatfeild and Lorna Hill. I quite like Dimsie books too. I also have some Worrals books, although they aren't at all very politically correct. Malcolm Saville is pretty good too and I got one of my famous five books back from the kids when they went through their books and didn't want it any more. It's an old copy so it hasn't been 'brought up to date'!

I have shelves of them too...EBD, Antonia Forest, Noel Streatfield, the Dimsie books, the Nancy Books, Books by Clare Mallory and Gwendoline Courtney..Mostly bought pre DD...now on my birthday lists.....GGB are fab (but bad for my bank balance...) I actually rarely even mention them to other people.....but I collect sounds good...might use that

I also have all the Jill and pony books (Ruby Ferguson)

Good work Nell. Hardbacks are so nice to own and read!

All my CS books used to be hidden in a wardrobe (though oddly I felt my Noel Streatfeilds were fine to be on show), but now I display them with pride. It helps that an aunt and a couple of friends are also school story readers so I feel more normal than I did as a late teen/young adult.

Btw, did anyone else ever read the 'Blue Door' series, starting with Swish of the Curtain? They've been republished in the last couple of years if anyone wants to renew their acquaintance. And a friend informs me that all the Trebizon books are available on kindle for any aficionados of those!

Yes, my dd's loved "The Swish of the curtain" I also have an old Library copy of somgthing like "Blue door Venture" and I bought one of the GGBP when in London. It may have been that one that made me dance round holding it above my head

I started with Malcolm Saville and Monica Edwards... I won't say where I continued to...
Dd2 generally likes them too, and ds I'm reading various carefully picked ones. He does make me chuckle though. He often initially says "not another boring book!" when I fetch one. But then very quickly he's begging me not to stop and asking what happens next.
I told him yesterday I wanted to call him "Meryon" but daddy didn't agree. He thought about this and said it would ave been a more interesting name than the one we chose. But he'd still rather be called Sam. This has been his complaint since he arrived at school. Sam is the shortest and easiest to write in his class and he thinks having to write 4 letters rather than 3 a vast injustice.