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.

I also couldn't understand why Gay from China was named that. It should surely have been Jacynth at the Chalet School or somesuch. It was a bit distracting at the beginning because I assumed Gay was going to be the main protagonist but at the same time I knew Jacynth was an important character who was often referred to in later books.

Oh I just have one generic matron in my head - apart from nasty Matron who shouts when she speaks and Matron Venables who I imagine as vair wafty but comforting. All others have merged into one Matey - crisply snapping with a secret pash for Jo. and therefore terrible judges of character

I often found myself wishing for her skills though, particularly when wrangling small children into gloves and outdoor clothes. How wonderful it would be, I used to sigh, if I could accomplish all this dressing through the medium of one hard stare...

I think "wild horses wouldn't have dragged it from her..." might be my absolute favourite repeated line. Even better than Miss Annersley's eyes never needing glasses.

I think EBD seems to mix Matrons Lloyd and Gould into one at times. But also they are two different people - there is a point in one of the Swiss books where someone asks her "were you the Matey who...?" and she says no, that was Matron Gould. Also don't forget there are two Bad Matrons, both with unappealing voices (like everyone EBD hates) - the one who they all copy the bad voice of and put snails on her window in Princess, and the one who gets epsom salts in her tea in New House. Plus also Matron Rider at St Scholastica/St Mildred's. Though I can't recall if she's a matron at the CS for the many books between New and Oberland...

I think there is some cross over with the Chudleigh Hold books and Gay.

Of course, I forgot BadMatron#2 (essentially the same as BadMatron#1 but without cruelty to the Robin).

And while we're on the subject of bad staff, is it just me or did Miss Bubb have some OK ideas?

I didn't think Bad Matron #2 was so bad - she wasn't given any helpful direction, and was just repeatedly told how thoroughly beloved Jo was, and how she ought to guess Jo had toothache.

Ah yes, I remember now reading that before - that Gay's story is in CH.

I didn't think Miss Bubb was so bad - but I'm still not sure she should have been proposing to make any big changes, good or bad. It was only a short-term cover...

She kind of went in with a sledge hammer. No participating in matches for exam students; no making herself available to students who wished to speak with her; no allowing pupils the freedom to walk around the grounds or laze on the lawn on Sunday afternoons.

"Why Gay from China" as well. I mean it sounds like she spent time living in China, but she wasn't there at the time of coming to the Chalet School, and I never got the impression we were meant to picture her as Chinese.
Makes sense if her story is in a cross over book though, it always read like it was written somewhere.

The real strange naming (to me) is the Armada "Lavender Leigh at the Chalet School" when I first read it, I remember saying that the title should so obviously be "Lavender Laughs in the Chalet School" ("Lavender Laughs at the Chalet School" would have quite a different meaning ) It was only later I found out that was the original title, so why did Armada change it.

I agree about Miss Bubb. She could have been written as a wonderful person coming in and taking up the slack discipline and getting wonderful results, with only slight tweaking. In fact what she says to Madge when Madge dismisses her does show her in a totally different light.
I felt the OTT punishment to Gay was more to do with her getting frustrated because her authority was being undermined by everyone else.

I'm sure I've come across other school stories (New House Mistress, I think is one by EBD) where you have a beloved head (or in this case House Mistress) leaving and the school being up in arms. New Mistress comes in and realises that the school is used to much less discipline, and tightens up causing the school to hate them until they realise (in EBD's case by her saving the life of the main person) how much better the new way is. That's really the Miss Bubb in a positive light.
Come to think of it, that's basically similar to when they join up with the other Chalet School. There's also a Gwendoline Courtney ("At School with the Stanthorpes"?) along those lines.

But the difference with Miss Bubb is firstly she's only engaged for a term or two, so she shouldn't be making huge changes. She comes pretty much straight in and does them, and I don't think some of the changes were her choice to make on her own. She's also got that the staff and children are still in a state of shock at the situation, so she should have been treading fairly lightly at first anyway. She goes in as though she is totally in charge, which, with Madge so close by, she needed to know that Madge was actually in authority over her.

When we got a new head after about 15-20 years at secondary. The old head, whereas wasn't a pushover, was much loved especially by the boarders. The new head was viewed very much with suspicion by us as pupils, and I suspect he did find us rather unwelcoming at times. However I don't recall any changes made in his first term (he arrived at Easter) other than he introduced a short talk after the reading in assembly. And actually we rather liked it because, with a really good long talk, we could miss half the first lesson.
He made one or two (small, but we moaned about them at the beginning, although we grew to like them!) organisational changes at the start of the new academic year, but it was another year after that that he made changes that were bigger.
So it was 4 terms in before he really did any decrees that really effected things.

I think it said in the book that Miss Bubb was assuming that Miss Annersley would never make a full recovery and that in time her temporary position would be made permanent. Therefore she immediately started trying to change things around and make the Chalet School the type of place she would be happy to be in charge of.

Just been reading up on the lives of EBD and Enid Blyton plus some bits on EJ Oxenham and Angela Brazil. Contrary to the cosy warm secure feeling that old children's books give me, reading about the lives of their authors is always a bit of a downer and makes me feel as if someone has thrown a bucket of water over me (and no, I'm not talking about the ice bucket challenge).

"I agree about Miss Bubb. She could have been written as a wonderful person coming in and taking up the slack discipline and getting wonderful results, with only slight tweaking."

But what would that say about Hilda and Nell, not to mention Madame??

On rereading Gay from China recently I found Miss Bubb much more nuanced and convincing than I remembered. It's made pretty clear that it's the wrong school for her and she's a bit too dogmatic and inflexible, but by no means a callous incompetent.

Gay annoys me though. EBD is totally obsessed with her beauty and then at the end of the book she randomly wins the 'almost as super as Joey' prize. Sure, she's been kind to Jacynth and generously taught her the cello in her spare time, but otherwise she comes across as rather heedless and immature.

I'm never quite sure what EBD is saying about Miss Bubb, or why she reappears ages later dying in a sort of poverty.

Might she have reasonably misunderstood Madge saying it was definitely only temporary?

By the way, which Chudleigh Hold novel does Gay's story appear in? I've only read the first one (the story of which is referenced in Gay from China in regards to one of the other characters, with oddly different names from those in CH) and can't remember Ruth et al making an appearance.

There was a question mark over how much a recovery Miss Annersley would make and I think Miss Bubb latched onto that possibility and convinced herself she would be made permanent.
I didn't realise she reappeared in a later book. Which one was that?

Erm, I'll have to look it up I think. It's one of the Swiss ones and she's ill, in the mountains for the good of her health (obv) but not really able to afford food on top of her pension. I remember Nancy and co taking her for croissants in a cafe. Might be Coming of Age ? I think she might actually die. Istr that she's left it too late to get better, by being too proud or prioritising her money wrongly, or something. This is all quite sketchy though!

What I don't get, though, is whether Nell would've gotten the job automatically (whether temp or perm) if she hadn't also been injured. The expectation is that she'll only be away for 6-8 wks. I don't know how Madge might have prepared Miss Bubb for what the power structure would be in that situation (and it seems totally reasonable Madge might not have fully thought it through!) - and Miss Bubb does acknowledge at some point that she'll have to push through certain changes as fast as possible, so they're bedded in before this point.

Thanks.

By the way there's a thread on baby names canvassing opinions on the name Joey for a girl. A couple of posters have mentioned the Chalet School

Has anyone said that people may assume the girl isn't beautiful enough to be called Josephine?

Chudleighh Hold is sort of about Gill Culver (who is Arminel Chudleigh in the book) not Gay. In one of the books, might be Gay she talks about her mad aunt....

My, but I have a lot to learn. I've never even heard of the Chudleigh Hold books. Do transcripts exist anywhere?

I've only just started with Gay From China and already I feel sorry for Miss Bubb. I think she was put into the most impossible of impossible positions. Clearly Madge's views on what it took to lead a school were way out of date, and based on her own experiences of leading a school a fraction of the size when she'd built it up from day 1.

I really didn't like Miss Bubb's reappearance in Coming of Age. She's really treated very harshly, when all her crime is that she came into a school with more experience than the rest of the staff (including the owner) and tried to address issues she saw.

She is almost begging the school to give her a job, implication being this is her last resort.
Her money was put into a joint school venture that fails-implication is in the books that it's her fault because her views are wrong.
She is starving, with two of the mistresses (Bill and ?) taking her to a cafe to feed her because she clearly needed it.
She is/has been severely ill-I have half an idea she does die fairly shortly after, not really mourned by anyone-no friends or family.

Her reappearance in Coming of Age had almost a "show how greatful she can be to the school to prove they were right" ending.

She comes back to coach senior Latin, thus showing the school's noblesse oblige even to shit pro-tem head teachers. It's actually very sad, as De says, she loses all her money, then gets TB, so is sent to Switzerland but can't really afford it, and ends up starving herself so she can stay on in the life-giving mountain air

After I read on here that EBD had a failing school, I wondered if there were some parallels between her and Miss B.

I'm skimming Coming of Age now - it's also the one in which the staff sneer a bit at Mrs Pertwee, who has worked herself into the ground for her "girlies", so it seems EBD had a bit of a bee in her bonnet about people being ill through their own material mismanagement at the time. Or was telling all these stories rather more sympathetically than I'm giving her credit for - I get the sense there's a confused and horribly unfair moral message being pushed, but perhaps I'm being unfair.

It also has this gem, because of course this is also the era in which she was big on fat-shaming: "You did know that Frau Hamel died during the war? Sophie is keeping house for her father and the two boys. She sent her photo, and, oh, Madge, she’s got enormous! She’s bigger than Winnie Embury, and goodness knows she’s no sylph!”

Ah. The finer details are actually in Excitements, which is where Miss Bubb first turns up, looking very old and ill and pitiful and being very clear that she really needs money.

Miss Annersley is largely sympathetic, but a bit noncommittal because of course this is actually the first time she's met her, and the others had deliberately shielded her from the 'worst' (was she so awful?) details of her reign.

Joey's main contribution (why is Joey at this meeting?) is "was I mentioned, by any chance? And did you tell her about my lengthy family?"

Rosalie, rather disappointingly, says no bloody way should you give her a job. But I suppose Rosalie did catch the worst of Miss Bubb's zeal for work, and I don't suspect Rosalie's workload is the lightest at the best of times. (I'd like to imagine Rosalie delegates some of her work to Gill Culver, who seems to have to deal with approx 3 mistresses and, what, maybe 50 girls at most?)

Frau Mieders sounds the most charitable. Bill, Mlle Berné and Mlle de Lachennais seem to agree she should get the work on the condition that she doesn't have to live in the school with them.

Before the truth of her changed circumstances is known, Joey comments that she "knows it's unchristian" but still loathes her. I wonder if there's any strong meaning to this? - if EBD is commenting primarily on the unchristian nature of Jo's loathing, rather than condoning it because it's Jo who says it?

I do think the story is rather more confused and nuanced than it might be - though I'm not arguing EBD isn't knee-deep in unchristian sentiment here.

I quite like Rosalie's reaction. We only really ever see her as an "efficient secretary" type person. Gives her a little backbone and sidestory of her own. The only other time I can think that she has more than that is the Emerence stair incident.

Yes, Joey does come across as self-centred totally. She's desperate to hear that Miss Bubb is impressed by the size of her family isn't she?

Personally though, it seems to me that for Miss Bubb coming to beg for a job from a school she was basically dismissed from, is totally uncharacteristic. Because from everything we've learnt about her is that she's proud and independent. So proud and independent she'd rather starve than admit it to the San people.
More realistic would be if she had come to ask not realising it was the school she had briefly been head. They'd changed the uniform and everything, the only thing she had to go on was a glance at Miss Wilson and the name. And there were other schools by that name, and teachers change schools. Perfectly realistic for her not to have realised they were the same.