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.

Ooooops. No idea how that happened.

In Chudleigh Hold the Chudleighs ARE the Culvers of the CS. Arminel is Gillian Culver. In (I think it's Gay) she describes her mad Aunt who is the Aunt in this story. She also mentions being known as crumpet at home when Gay is trying to wake her.

Randomly recycled names: two Mollie Averys (one is Mollie Bettany's maiden name in Jo of, one is one of OOAOML's contemporaries in Three Go - am really not familiar enough with later books to know if she continues to appear), and two Elma Conroys (new arrival in Exploits, misguided 'fast' girl in Oberland )

Noticing this definitely means I have been reading too much CS lately.

Nell, you appear to have gone all a-quiver at the idea of six foot of manhood. Time for another cold plunge, I think.

Yes, I wondered whether the Chudleighs and the Culvers were one and the same. I remembered someone telling someone else (probably Gay telling Jacynth) about Gillian's attachment to her brother Hawk. Can't think why EBD changed their names. What was wrong with Chudleigh?

I'm enjoying Chudleigh Hold, but the rest of the series cost silly prices which I'm not about to pay. Anyone know if GGBP are planning to publish the rest any time soon?

I have some of the others............I think CH is the best!!! Hope GGBP will do them...maybe if enough people ask???

I love Chudleigh Hold! One of the best non-CS/La Rochelle books, IMO. The Nazi spy, the gloriously loopy names - Godfrey, Merle, Arminel. The bossy aunt domineering over her paid companion and making her wear bloomers and have all her teeth out. The secret passages that bear a v close resemblance to those in Heather Leaves School. I've got a number of GGBP stand alone EBDs, such as They Both Loved Dogs, the two Janeways books, Lorna at Wynyards etc, and Chudleigh Hold is one of the few that stands up there with the good CS books. Oh, and I have The Lost Staircase, or the story of Jesanne Gellibrand, which is not that great either. Her guardian actually breaks his leg by... slipping on a banana peel. And it is treated with deadly earnestness with no laughing. The rest of it reads like EBD's fantasy of what being rich would be like in about 1850 despite it being set shortly before the war.

When I had to go and have my tonsils out I took Chudleigh Hold to read...I agree it is up there with the Cs and la Rochelles! I quite liked the Susannah Adventure too, but have not read that as much. Have you read Monica Turns up Trumps??

mornington I duly tried to have a remedial cold bath but it bubbled up - I think the devil has been in my bathroom.

The title of They Both Loved Dogs always makes me snortle, though I've not read it (nor any other non-CS EBD). I also raised my eyebrows at 'Arminel', but then didn't EBD insist for a time on being addressed as Patricia Maraquita? Makes perfect sense...

Grr, my MN has gone weird! It's thrown me a bit. Lost the mobile site and I think I'm now in the app.

I haven't read Monica Turns Up Trumps, Hels, and I'd love to! Has it been released by GGBP?

Nell, They Both Loved Dogs is truly terrible, despite the amusing nature of the title. EBD wrote a few books heavily featuring dogs - this, Kennelmaid Nan, which is on the transcripts page, and The Lost Staircase. Her dog-training advice is a bit suspect in places!

I didn't know she called herself Patricia Maraquita! When? Details, please!

Weirdest EBD names you've never come across anywhere else:

Ruhannah
Eustacia
Arminel
Bernhilda
Delicia
Malvina
Evadne
Gipsy

Was Polly Heriot's real middle name Maraquita? Hildegard Maraquita?

Anyone fancy an EBD lending library? Totally understand if people's copies are too precious to risk posting out to strangers, though.

Nell, most of the La Rochelle titles are on the transcript page - haven't you read them? They're pretty good - think were all written in the 20s and 30s in EBD's prime. If you haven't, then get going and we can discuss them too - although I don't know them half so well as the only one I read as a child was Heather Leaves School.

That happened to me a few weeks ago Cheddar - I have learnt to grit my teeth and get on with it, but it's a decidedly inferior experience.

I didn't realise any of those were in the transcripts! I must have a look, for the lols. I've heard Judy the Guide is unintentionally v funny too, but I've no desire to pay to find this out.

I believe 'Patricia Maraquita' was when she was at (teacher training?) college. I can't place where I read this but I'm fairly sure it must have been quoted from the McClelland biog. It stuck in my mind as a particularly interesting detail.

I actually don't think of Bernhilda or Evadne as being EBD oddity names: I even knew how to pronounce Evadne so I must have come across one elsewhere...
Would add Laurenz/Lorenz, Grizel (though I see Grizel's name is nicked in full from some historical person)...

I keep meaning to read the La Rochelle transcripts, then I just plump for the comforting CS familiarity again instead. Am currently reading in order at long last - up to Lintons and will inevitably give up circa Island because the decline in quality and the increase in manic Joey will become too depressing and anti-comfort, and at that point I shall definitely look at the LRs, and come asking stupid questions galore!

Was Rosalie a 'normal'ish name at the time? I really like it but I've definitely not seen it anywhere else.

Isn't Rosalie a normal name? I'm sure I've met RL Rosalies!

Judy the Guide is in the transcripts too, isn't it?

I've got 30 pages left to go of Genius to type up, then the small matter of turning it into a epub doc...it'll be with you in a few days weeks months :o

I've met an Evadne, she wasn't even American. And DS1 was at preschool with a Cornelia last year - her mum was impressed I'd heard of the name before, although I shamefully forgot to check whether she'd got the name from CS books. Most random name I can think of right now - Gillie Garstin, who it turns out is called Gilbertine in real life. Did no one point her mother at the Baby Names topic?!

I'm ploughing through reading the CS books in order, have got as far as Feud to date, although there are a couple of gaps in the transcripts that I've just glossed over for now.

I haven't been paying enough attention to the onedrive account, have I? How exciting!

Someone is going to pop up soon and tell us they know several Ruhannahs and Arminels, aren't they...

There was a Rosalie in thé Magic Roundabout (I always pronounced it rozz-a-ly but I'm told it should be rosa-ly).

Merle and Godfrey weren't too unusual in the 1920s - Angela Brazil had a few including a book called Monitress Merle. Now there's a dated author - loads of social commentary, escaping smoky cities for countryside full of now-rare flowers, some really poignant ones set at the start of WWI, and a moment where one girl explains she's drawing swastikas all over her book because it's an eastern symbol of good luck.
All available free on Project Gutenberg, too.

I love the free Angela Brazils on Gutenberg! Every now and then I go back and there's a new one uploaded. And while I'm thinking of it, doesn't she have a girl named Raymonde in one of her books?

I have come across a Ruhannah, I think she was from South Africa, but I can't remember for sure.
I know a Merle, she must be in her 60s/70s; a lovely lady.
I knew a girl who was Stacie growing up, I don't know if that was her full name or whether she was Eustacia for full.
Godfrey was the really old chap in dad's army.

Richenda is the strangest name I always think. It comes across to me as a name that someone wanted to call their boy Richard but had a girl... I don't mind it as a name, but that's how it comes across to me.

The one that makes me laugh is Joey's comments when Cecilie is born. "I'm so glad I've given her a name that doesn't date her. I always feel sorry for Marys and Annes as everyone will be able to tell how old they are by their name." Well Mary isn't common now, but I don't think versions of Anne (Ann/Anne/Anna) is ever really totally out of fashion. But I'd think of Cecilie as being terribly dated.

In Lintons Madge comments that Gillian is quite an unusual name - was it really? This kind of surprises me, though I suppose the Gillians I can think of are mostly ten or twenty years younger than the one in question.

I know a couple of Merles, too. It is pretty but I do definitely think of it as a dated name (lol at un-dating Cecilie) - wonder if that one's due a resurgence, like so many other 'grandma names'?

Yes I remember Madge and Joey raving over Gillian's name and talking about how unusual it was which surprised me as it was, to my more modern ears, one of the more normal names in the books.

TheBody please don't get the wrong idea about all that stuff you found in my bottom drawer. That vodka is purely for medicinal purposes and I have no idea how Lady Chatterley's Lover got in there. . Joan Baker must have hidden it there to try and get me into trouble again.

Well I like Malvinas Mary.

Josette is fairly out there really but As Joey called the trips all Mary as a first name what is she on about.

vintage my lamb this must go to madam. You have done an unjustifiable thing and only madam can deal with you.

Then it gets worse it's a prefects meeting.

An old friend of mine has had a baby called Rosalie just this week!

I love the name Rosalie and Rosamund. Very pretty.