International Incident at the Chalet School

[RueDeWakening]

Hear ye, hear ye! Gather ye hence, all angels (be-costumed with slightly tacky silver halos and suchlike) with your lark-like notes and prepare to dazzle us all with your charm.

No, not you Joan. Shop bought cake and cheap looks for you, my dear. See Matron for some milk on your way out.

Not sure that I should aid and abet you in frowsting inside over a book, Emily, but just to show off my knowledge, the adult book on which Ballet Shoes is based is The Wicharts recently republished by Margin Notes Books - along with The Two Linties which I also bought from them and which has become one of my favourite ever comfort reads.

My longstanding favourite Chalet is New House but on a recent-ish re-read of the Tyrolean books I found myself particularly enjoying Princess - I think I might have skipped over a lot of the mountain rescue parts before, but having spent time in the Tyrol (I even managed to read Princess while staying in Mayrhofen) I loved reading about Joey and Elizaveta cavorting about on the mountainside.

Well I went for a bracing walk as far as the woodstore!
Currently frowsting over three books, so one or two more won't make a difference. On French days I am reading Valerie Trierweiler's "Merci pour ce moment" about her affair with Hollande, but I have to keep hiding it from Matey.
Will have a look out for The Wicharts when I am in England. I am stuck with Kindle at the moment, especially as all the usual parcel delivery drivers can't seem to find us anymore. They have no trouble in summer, but can't seem to cope in winter, poor things.
My neighbour is out plucking dead chickens in a bucket of hot water, but she is much hardier than I am.

Is she throwing the feathers around to demonstrate the virtue of discretion?

Well the feathers are blowing around. Virtue of discretion? I could ask I suppose....

Mais tiens, je suis bête.
She must be going to stuff a plumeau!
A new dance to learn, girls.
Stuffing the plumeau.

I have visions of your neighbour running from window to window chortling like a maniac as you tear around her garden trying to catch the feathers, EmilyAlice.
That really had to be the moment when Joey should have been carted away by some nice doctors.

There are some very noisy ducks over the road who might be more useful in a plumeau too.....

All together now,

Hump the kapok, stuff the plumeau, tra-la-la-la etc.
Strew the feathers round the room-oh, tra-la-la-la etc.
Drink your special milk at leisure, tra-la-la etc.
Eat the shop-bought cake with pleasure, tra-la-la etc.

Don we now our flame apparel
Tra la la la la la la la la
Sing (the) Chaletian Christmas Carol
Tra la la la la la la la la
In a minute Reg, just wait until Mamma has trilled her golden notes, will you?

Hang on confused here.

Was Bruno a bank cashier or was he a doctor? Or a dog?

Nell agree on your books and I would add new house as the descriptions of the prefects rooms and Matron Besley annoying Joey are excellent.

Eustacia is a match for Edna in the welsen book. Both are know alls and pedantic but in fairness the boring Peggy is quite kind to Edna unlike Joey was to Eustacia. Joey also blamed her for Robins illness.

And That didn't ring true. Madge would never have worried Joey over Robin on just a feeling! She would have waited for a concrete diagnosis.

Mind you how about in Gay when Nell is telling Joey about a new girl aged 6. Joey wonders who would park an infant at boarding school and it transpires that her parents were killed in an air rash 6 weeks sgo but not to pity her as she's quite happy good grief!!

Or as Too would say FFS!

'Hump the kaypok

My name is mollie and I have a goitre, if you faint for three hours you didn't oughta!
If you fall in a box you need special milk and if you see a house end think Winnie silk'

Oops, true Chaletians never swear, do they?

Humping the Kapok, stuffing the plumeau, who'll come a hunting and stuffing with me?

Emily, yes, the Eliot trilogy. I am halfway through book 1 and really liking it. The Whicharts is lovely, and I also have Grass in Piccadilly, another of Noel Streatfeild's novels, which is set just after the war and is really cheerfully sweet. I didn't like Saplings, though, mainly because the 14yo heroine has a crush on her uncle and it's all a bit incestuous. Noel Streatfeild also wrote light romances under the name of Susan Scarlett. I've only got one of them but it's great comfort reading too.

Emerence swears at our Oaoml. Would love to know what she's supposed to have said.

Hunting and stuffing! Love it.

Bruno becomes a banker after they leave Austria - I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that he's not qualified to practise in the UK, or if some aspect of his experience escaping leaves him unable/unwilling to stay in medicine? Or, of course, EBD just forgot - I think at that point in the series marrying a banker was equally normal and permissible - don't Mollie Maynard and Con Stewart both marry bankers? Possibly also May Carthew?

V intrigued by all the Noel Streatfeild talk. I didn't realise she'd written for adults too. Which do I need to start with?

Joey blaming Eustacia for Robin's health is an interesting moment because presumably Joey is actually supposed to be wrong - Jem says categorically that it's not possibly Eustacia's fault (and even if it is, because even if Nell's broken foot is Eustacia's fault which is kind of ambiguous, that only adds another few hours onto their absence - Robin would have had to worry all night anyway cos of the weather!) - but i don't think it's ever made explicit in the narration. Agree Edna Purdon is treated much more compassionately, though I suppose Boring Peggy is older at the time than Joey or Mary were with Eustacia.

Loving all the humping and stuffing - most festive. I love it when Emerence swears at OOAO! Emerence is possibly the best character in the later books.

I have just discovered that Miss Durrant's married name is Mrs Cowley in Eustacia, not Mrs Redmond as it is in Gay From China!

Nell, the Noel Streatfeild books aren't a series so you can start with any you can get your hands on. I do love The Whicharts, though.

Greyladies Publishers have published some Susan Scarlett books. My favourite is Poppies for England but it doesn't seem to be available any more. I also liked Babbacombes - here, from the publisher's website, is an opening to whet your appetite - shades of Rosamund and Joan!

Into the heart of the Carson family, close, hard-working and happy, comes their disruptive and selfish cousin Dulcie, with her decidedly cheap values.

And just as an extra enticement, Nell, there's an alternative slashy reading of the romantic interest which I think you might enjoy!

Yes Nell I think EDB got confused over Bruno with all the intermarriage between older girls/brothers/doctors.

Mollie married. New Zealand farmer I think? But Con definatly did.

Now LuLu Redmond? Her child and dh are killed in the war?? is it her that later marries and becomes Van Burren? Now hear it's Miss Durrant? Confused.

I too had no idea about Noel Stretfield writing for adults either and feel a Christmas present to self coming on.

No! Louise Redfield (sometimes Redmond) becomes Louise van Buren. Marjorie Durrant (the folk-dancing teacher in early Tyrol) marries Mr Cowley/Redmond (no relation), who dies in the war, as does her young daughter.

Thanks for all the Streatfeild advice! I am predictably hugely enthused by the prospect of awkward class depictions, and even more so by slashy subtexts. I suppose it's only reasonable to try an adult Streatfeild and a 'Susan Scarlett', right?

Doesn't Mollie's husband get a new surname every time he's mentioned?

Oh the kapok and the plumeau
The mattresses are stuffed
The golden notes are ringing
And Joey is upduffed...

I remember enjoying Noel Streatfeild's autobiography, "A Vicarage Childhood", but it is quite a few years ago, so not sure how it stands up now.

Hark! the baby Angles sing,
Stuffing plumeaux is the thing,
Shop-bought cakes are mean and vile,
Special milk is better style.
Joyful all Chaletians rise,
Hump those kapoks to the skies,
Hark! the baby Angles sing,
Stuffing plumeaux is the thing.

Once in Royal Kapok City
Stood a lowly chalet shed
Where a mother laid her baby
On a plumeaux for its bed
Joey was that Mother mild
Len, Con, Margot, Stephen etc etc

Have we written the Carol Service yet?