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Original poster

International Incident at the Chalet School

999 replies

RueDeWakening · 23/11/2014 22:05

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.

OP posts:
Behindthepaintedgarden · 10/02/2015 11:15

Morning I think in the 60s and 70s women were expected to get their hair cut shortish after a certain age. Long hair was considered 'girlish' and mutton dressed as lamb on middle aged women!

Just been reading Peggy of the Chalet School. It's the Armada version and the first half seems to be a load of meandering and Peggy whining about having to be Head Girl while the second half is a bit daft. Jo throwing handfuls of feathers around the lawn and cackling like a maniac as Eilunedd runs around trying to catch them; pupils being made to go on prim and proper walks carrying umbrellas and so on. It's so far away from the quality of the Tyrol and Armishire books, it really is. Sad

Behindthepaintedgarden · 12/02/2015 11:09

Oh dear, have I just killed one of the longest running threads ever on MN? Sad

UniS · 12/02/2015 13:59

Nope, not yet. The chalet school goes on for ever n ever doesn't it?
Just read the guide camp one.... In think the author got bored after the first three days of camping as it all gets very tame suddenly after the breathless dash from disaster to calamity of the first couple of days. And why on earth would you pull a teenager out of a pit by her armpits when she is quite capable of climbing a knotted rope.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 12/02/2015 16:29

To showcase Nell at her heroic best, of course! Grin I love Camp. Otoh, Peggy is indeed bloody boring with added surreal although the feathers are madly wonderful.

morningtoncrescent62 · 12/02/2015 16:57

My theory about Peggy is that Elinor's vicar (or priest? was she a Catholic? I should probably know this but I don't) had used the feathers story in a sermon and she was very taken by it so worked it into her current book. I agree it's a bonkers book - but it was one of the ones I read over and over again as a child when not many CS books were available, so I have a very soft spot for it. I swear there are passages I know by heart. Chalet School recital, anyone?

I love the scenery in Camp if that makes sense. Sad to say, I once made a diagram of whose tent was where!

Champion has finally arrived. It took ages on account of the fact that I thought I'd ordered it, but when I went onto the website to check the date of my order so that I could complain, I found I hadn't ordered it after all. Blush I'm now engrossed in the new(ish) Malory Towers books so I'll finish them first. Anyone read them? They're pure Blyton - well, to be accurate there's a bit less bullying, and ten shilling notes have become five pound notes - but other than that, very authentic.

DeeWe · 12/02/2015 16:57

The best bit in the Guide camp is the laundry. You can imagine the stuff so stiff they could hardly stand up can't you?

UniS · 12/02/2015 17:50

So the newish Malory towers books are worth borrowing from the library then?
I listened to an m.t audio book last year and it was very funny, in an unintentional kind of way.

Original poster
RueDeWakening · 12/02/2015 18:23

Ooh I'm helping run a Brownie camp this weekend, I must remember to put Camp on my phone before I go...bit of a re-read in the small hours I think :o I'm hoping for significantly less excitement if I'm honest

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hels71 · 12/02/2015 20:05

I always loved camp!!

EatingMyWords · 12/02/2015 20:48

Must reread some of the illness books so I know what to burn and isolate- I think DS has got the pox! I've never had it, so if someone could send me a nurse or coadjutor to help look after the boy while I swan about shouting at him from the west wing outhouse that would be great.

Original poster
RueDeWakening · 12/02/2015 23:12

Eating, are you me? DS1 came home from school this afternoon with millions of pox spots carefully hidden under his top. They've now spread over his face, legs, arms, etc, and half term starts tomorrow... Hmm

DH is being the coadjutor this weekend, I shall be swanning around on Brownie holiday, as previously mentioned :o

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EatingMyWords · 13/02/2015 09:55

Must be sickness term Rue!
My boy's only got a few spots and is fine apart from a small headache so I suspect he'll be driving me mad bouncing off the walls while we can't go anywhere except for the odd sneaky dog walk- don't tell Matey Wink

Have fun with the Brownies- watch out for pits and hornets.

morningtoncrescent62 · 13/02/2015 11:05

Sorry to hear about the poorly DCs. I hope you've duly quarantined your households. Jem will be round soon with special milk I'm sure.

Unis, I'm rather enjoying the newish MT books. They're completely and utterly undemanding which is true to the original! Plots are standard and derivative, girls are 'types' (the madcap, the responsible, the vain, the selfish, the musical genius, the horse-mad etc.) and adults are wise and benevolent, able to step in at the last minute and unravel all the twists and tangles created by Our Heroines. If that's what you like, go ahead and borrow them. They've been written as period pieces in an EB version of the 1950s with no attempt at updating which I think is good, because there's no way the characters could translate convincingly into a modern story (though it might be fun to try). The only thing that grates is the money. Girls receive their pocket money in pounds instead of shillings which is simply wrong, wrong, wrong.

DeeWe · 13/02/2015 13:18

Surely the best approach is to pack your small boys off to the nearest boarding schoool who will naturally isolate and take in all ill children from the surrounding areas?

Behindthepaintedgarden · 13/02/2015 13:44

The new MT books are quite enjoyable, although Felicity is a rather dull protagonist compared to Darrell. And there's a daft bit in the last one where Gwendoline Mary comes back as a teacher, and all the girls from the original books come to have an overnight reunion. But it's daft in an enjoyable way. I wouldn't pay full price for them, but I've bought some in charity shops and then given them back when I've finished reading them.

I read one of the new St Clare's books recently and it was crap. The girls were heading into the village for milk shakes and toasted sandwiches. So, so wrong!

hels71 · 13/02/2015 18:33

The st clares ones are definitely wrong!!!

clockingoff · 14/02/2015 18:39

What about Angela driving back to school in a car 'her folks bought her'? The St Clare's books were set in the 1930s. Most grown ups didn't even have a car, let alone a schoolgirl. And no one called their parents their 'folks'.

precibus · 14/02/2015 21:10

Have to agree with you Behindthepaintedgarden, Gwendoline's return and the overnight reunion really overegged the cake... then again, I was always more of a CS fan than MT so I may be biased. Wondering whether checking out the new St Clare's books would make me weep (I'm a stickler for accuracy).

Also, could someone message me a link to the transcripts site please? Majorly envious as I'm missing about half the CS collection at the moment

hels71 · 14/02/2015 21:58

I am pleased that the cs fill.ins/ continuations ( with the exception of the one I won't mention!!!) don't stray too far from the originals....

kiwi5 · 15/02/2015 18:04

Oh my... My wonderful husband bought me my last chalet school book for Valentine's day! Althea -shame its a bit of a rubbish read but I now have a complete set! Simply smashing!! Paperbacks only and mostly abridged armadas but hey ho!!

UniS · 15/02/2015 20:23

I'm undecided about when I will read the last couple in the CS series. Thanks to the transcripts I have now read most of the stories, but do I want it to end ....

DeeWe · 16/02/2015 13:19

I think at least some of the additional MT were written by the person who wrote the Trebizon series Anne Digby?
I thought they were okay, in a "we're rehashing lots of ideas used before" type of way. But the Gwendoline returning was just wrong; it would have been so wrong for her because everyone knew her as this spoilt brat, there's no way she would have got respect from the younger forms.

The only St C one I read, hinges on the issue that only identical twins notice differences between identical twins "because we're used to the small differences..." which is a load of rubbish because the only person never to get identical twins mixed is almost certainly the identical twins themselves because (I imagine) they feel themselves and don't notice that they look the same. It would have made more sense if they'd had a sister and argued that.

I think what I'd say is that some of the CS I can almost imagine I'm reading EBD. I can't for any of the EB add ons. I think the Naughtiest girl are the best ones I've read of those, and don't get me started on the renaming for no apparent reason...

hels71 · 16/02/2015 13:45

Anne Digby wrote the extra naughtiest girl books.

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 16/02/2015 17:33

There are new MT books? These threads just keep giving. I need to go to the library tomorrow, I will see if they have got any in - taking DD as cover, obviously.

precibus · 16/02/2015 17:46

I use "buying presents" as my cover... who's to know?! I need to catch up on the new St. Clare's titles now