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 sometimes wonder what would have happened had Jack really been killed in the war. I like to think Joey would have got over her spineless jellyfish moment, and grown into someone genuinely strong and capable, not having to be drugged to save her from her own sensitivity and high-strung-ness whenever anything goes wrong. I think she could have been depicted as a much more rounded character that way, with some real depth. Maybe she could have moved in with Madge, and we could have had some more of the lovely sisterly closeness which is so much a part of the early books.

All that remains is to find a way to get rid of Jem... bwah-ha-ha...

Kiling Jack off could have been quite controversial in a children's book. I wonder if EBD considered it, then chickened out. But I think it would have made a more rounded Joey, and stopped her competitive large family.

Yes, I think Joey as a sad but brave widow, getting on with life would have been nicer than the smug, 'oh gosh I'm pregnant again' Joey of the books; and bringing up children on her own would have knocked all that 'eternal schoolgirl' nonsense out of her.

Can you imagine how completely differently the rest of the series would have panned out? The triplets would probably have had proper personalities, Jo could have had a v legitimate role as some kind of teacher/pastoral staff at the school...

It does seem like something that would have been v brave of EBD to write, but perhaps I'm being unfair. I rather suspect she'd be the last person to want to advocate the happy life of a young widow, sadly.

Flapping my lamb are you sorted now? PM me if not. Peggy is on the onedrive but I'm happy to email it if easier...

I agree that EBD would need to be brave to write Jack's death, but then she was exceptionally brave in some ways, wasn't she? The 'religious tolerance' thing in the early days re Catholic and Protestant which seems like nothing to us now would presumably have been quite a big deal back then. And of course writing sympathetically about Germans, and emphasising the difference between Nazism and German-ness, was extraordinary in a children's author of the time.

I have just finished Exile and was struck again by its bravery and foresight for 1940. When I hear that lots of ordinary Germans had no idea about what was going on with attacks on Jews and concentration camps I think well, EBD did. The bits about Giovanna Rincini having to join a young Nazi group and of course poor Onkel Florian are quite incredible in a children's book IMO.

Any advice on which fill-ins are worth getting? I've got birthday money to spend, and whilst I'm on the GGB site getting Mary-Lou, I thought I'd take a look at the fill-ins on offer. They have:

Guides of the Chalet School (Jane Berry)
Deira Joins the Chalet School (Caroline German)
The Muller Twins at the Chalet School (Katherine Bruce)
The Chalet School and Robin (Caroline German)
A Difficult Time for The Chalet School (Lisa Townsend)

All for £13 each. Anyone read them and have an opinion?

Also, whilst I'm at it, any recommendations on where to find Jo to the Rescue or Excitements for under £15? I've found a 1st Edition Hardback (minus original dust jacket) on Ebay, starting bids at £12.99, with no current bids, but I've never bidded on Ebay before, and I'm not sure I'm brave enough but I wish I was because how awesome would it be to own a hardback?

I think Exile is an amazing book. And the end always makes me cry.

On a different note, does anyone know if there is a list anywhere of the books in order with all the fill ins in the right place???

Obligatory, I bid recently for a HB copy of The New Chalet School on ebay and got it for less than £4!! And I hadn't bid on ebay before, so I would say, "Go for it!"

I got "A Joey to the rescue" on ebay last week for about £15 (a little less, and that includes postage), it was paperback but a GGB edition, there were a couple of hardbacks around too.

CGGU just seemed to me like unnecessary dirty fingers poking into a nice fluffy chocolate and cream pudding.

Why? For whose benefit?

The CS for all us taking the piss is loved by us all.

All of us with dds would secretly love them to have bunches to 16 and rave over progressive games.

All of us would love an Anna to Cook/clean/childcare.

All of us would love to lie in bed post childbirth for 2 weeks being pampered by a qualified nurse.

Everyone is soothed Cared for a protected and that's why it's a great escape. That's why we love it.

And she couldn't kill off the solid lump of comfort my lambs.

Who would she have married then?

She's far too old for Kester Bellever.

Oh maybe professor Fry or Mr Flower?

Ernest Howell? She could have been chatelaine of Plas Howell, giving her the perfect reason to be hanging around all the time, and then the School wouldn't have had to move to the Platz. She could just have invented a handy nearby cliff for pupils to fall off every now and then.

Sorry, mixing my personal pronouns! First she= Joey, second she = EBD.

Obligatory I've got Difficult Term and Guides. Difficult Term I'd recommend. Guides I've struggled to get into, but I'm planning to give it a proper go soon - when I tried it before I was reading canon out of sequence but mostly Armishire ones, whereas now I'm reading from School At so I'm going to try it in sequence and see if it grabs me more this time. I've read good things about Deira (and I love the cover!) and can't decide whether it would be more foolish to spend money I don't really have spare now while it's in print, or to not buy it while it's in print...

I've never looked for Rescue or Excitements particularly, but on the whole I've found the hardbacks are cheaper away from Ebay, presumably to allow for listing fees etc. I've bought from Gill Bilski before who is lovely and very quick, and Topsy Turvy books seem to have a good range of well-priced books, but no personal experience there. That said, nothing lost in bidding on eBay! I mostly look at the fixed-price sites to have an idea of how high I'm willing to bid.

Cheddar I snorted at the idea of a murderous second-marriage Jo inventing a cliff for throwing errant Middles off.

Perhaps CGGU filled a gap when there was little other fill-in/fanfic available? I can totally imagine I'd have read it for that purpose. It's an interesting question, 'what would happen if the CS was like the real world?', but inevitably the answer is v v disappointing!

I do rather love the idea of Jo marrying Mr Flower.

Joes clipped English accent with Mr Flowers American drawl does sound good.

I always assumed Ernest Howell was gay!

To add to the CGGU what I found most annoying was her not ceboping the characters but in lost cases destroying them and changing them into totally different people.

Reg was a kind and gentle rather wet bloke. Hardly a rapist and abuser.

Joey was a good mother and it was stupid to portray her as putting the school first and neglecting her kids as she didn't.

Len wasn't weak. Margot had a sense of humour, MaryLou would definatly not gone off with a married man let alone one married to her friend and the triplets didn't hate or resent the young ML they liked her.

What really made me sad was the nasty puds taking of Jo and jacks relationship as palpably they were In love and supported each other.

It was just crap really.

I enjoyed Difficult term as well. But I have liked all of them really. Deira and Robin also feature on my "read quite frequntly " list. Topsy Turvy books are very friendly....when I had cash I bought from them quite a lot.

I'm definitely not going to read CGGU. Yes, we all poke fun on here at the books and Joey and Mary Lou and the Saturday evening games and shock at Joan Baker's 'modern ways'.

But behind it all there's a real affection for the books and, in my case, a definite hankering for a world of strong and understood values, people willing to look after others beyond their immediate family, and marriages that survive and grow stronger threw difficult times and tragedies.

Gosh, we're getting very serious on this thread. Someone should write a bit of daft fanfic to cheer us up.

Sorry I'm writing my own story- selkie pirate so my head's in that rather than schools!

This is a fun thread from CBB though www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13083 Maybe we could have a chalet conspiracy theory?

at "The name's Russell. James Russell."

Yes, I think that was my feeling when I read CGGU: That whereas we are teasing the stories, we're doing it because we loved them. However whoever it was wrote CGGU seemed more like someone doing a character assassination on their boss after they'd been sacked (probably for good reason).

A bit like we're saying we'd like to have seen if Jack had died because we think it would have made Joey a better character. We won't go into how it changes Jacks though-probably about the same as Lot's wives and children I suppose.
But CGGU writes the things more like someone who'd really hated Joey wanting Jack to die because they wanted to see Joey upset and angry and broken.

I bought several CS hardbacks from a massive book sale that happened in Telford town centre in the early 1990s - max price would have been £5 each, as I was a skint teenager at the time :o

I'm in the middle of transcribing my hardback copy of Genius (now I've found where the baby hid it ) - 10 more chapters to go! I also have Lintons, Peggy, and a non-CS New House Mistress.

WTAF? Anna has just spilt a pan of boiling jam over her hand & arm. Rosli has treated it by wiping the jam off and dunking the arm in some flour. That's a jam roly poly she's trying to make, surely?

Joey was a good mother and it was stupid to portray her as putting the school first and neglecting her kids as she didn't.

I beg to differ. Joey often put other pupils ahead of Margot.

Len wasn't weak.

No. It is normal to turn into a spineless jellyfish when you are accused of shoplifting.