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.

Congratulations, kiwi5! Must be a wonderful moment. I've got a cocktail of armada and GGBP paperbacks with a few missing. I keep meaning to do a proper list of what I've got and what I still need, but I never quite get around to it. Anyway, Happy Complete Collection Day to you.

I'm on the last of the new MT books, Elisaveta, and I'm enjoying them. Though (whisper it softly) I'm getting just a teensy bit bored of Miss Grayling's new girl speech which appears in every single book. Our heroine Felicity in true Blyton style is duly impressed by it on each hearing, yawn. Gwendoline's only just reappeared so I'm reserving judgement, but so far I'm prepared to be convinced and it's not jarring for me. I'm not sure whether I'll read the extra SC ones as I never liked SC as much in the first place - though I'm a tad curious to find out what she does about the girls' ages. SC always puzzled me as a child because the first form 'babies' were aged 14-15, hence second form must have been 15-16. The original conveniently misses out third form and jumps from (first term of?) second form to (last term of?) fourth. How do you fill that lot in without making the girls do a collective Amy Stevens and stay at school till they're in their 20s?

I have plenty of time to decide whether or not to read them because Champion is waiting for me, calloo callay.

I was always very confused by St Clare ages too! Glad it's not just me. I wouldn't pay full.price for the st Clare fill.ins...I got them for 20p each from a charity shop....

Not sure how my plan of using boy and his friend ( also boy) as cover at the library will go.....

Woo-hoo just got back from a long weekend in the Welsh borders! Didn't mention to OH why I was so keen to go, and also why I ignored the sat- nav to drive through St. Briavels village, I know it isn't an island off the Pembrokshire Coast, but I still had to at least see it! Spent all my spare time re-reading the Armshire books. Now to convince OH that Austria would be a good holiday destination........

Is there a real St Briavels village? I thought it was an EBD-made name. Ah well, I hope the diversion was worth it.

I'm going to Austria next autumn. I made it as far as Innsbruck last year for work, and the one day that I'd earmarked to go to Pertisau Briesau it tipped it down with rain. I couldn't bear my only experience of the Achensee Tiernsee to be a day of traipsing around miserably getting drenched so I decided not to go. However I've booked nice and early for next September. And whatever the weather does, this time I'm definitely going!

One thing that's annoying me about the MT sequels is the use of the word 'scold' as a noun. As in 'Matron gave the girl a scold'. Surely 'to scold' is a verb, and the noun is 'scolding' - 'Matron gave the girl a scolding'. AIBU?

You are absolutely right, Mornington. It does exist as a noun in its use to describe a woman who nags and grumbles (and got to wear a scold's bridle ), but we always got a scolding.
Has it fallen out of use as a word do you think?

Wow, after several thousand posts this thread series has worked its way back to Malory Towers again

I have made three attempts to get Eustacia on line. The first time, it just never arrived and I got a refund. The second time, they sent the wrong book and I got a refund. This time I am still waiting and hope I won't need another refund.
As a result, I haven't read any CS since before Christmas and am out of the head space a bit, although dying to dive back in.

In the meantime, in my version of the new MT books old currency was used, whereas the old versions have replaced all reference to shillings etc with decimal currency. Interesting. I have to say, I really hate when they update terms used in the original books, replacing gramophones with record players etc.

That's interesting that the original new MT books (is that a contradiction in terms?) had pounds, shillings and pence. In the editions I read, I think shillings were all changed to pounds.

I've finished them now, and I don't have the problems with either Gwen's return or the reunion that others seem to have. I agree that outside of the MT universe both would be a bit daft, but I thought they worked OK in the context. In the continuations, even more than in the originals (and that's saying something) there's an emphasis on the redemptive power of good old Malory Towers. So it actually felt right to me that we see the school finally work its magic on Gwen, and watch her discover the delights of true friendship. Call me sentimental, but I brushed away a tear when the old girls rallied round her and came to her rescue. I just wished it hadn't ended with Daisy being sent away. I wanted her to have her second chance too!

Whilst we are on the subject of Mallory Towers, how come at the start of the first year the new girls were Sally, Darrell and Gwen? How come Alicia, Mary-Lou, Irene etc weren't new? Felicity when she started was one of a few new girls because she had been ill or something so was starting a term late but no such explanation was given for Darrell. I never understood why there wasn't a massive influx of first years.

With the CS I could understand it more as they had the junior school which fed into the senior school so there would have fewer new girls who didn't know the school traditions

Darrel et al arrive at start of summer term I believe, can't remember why tho.... Its been a VERY long time since I read the original MT books. I only found out there were 6 recently, I read 4 and thought that was all there were, I didn't ever read the 6th form one and can;t work out which other one I missed.

But then Darrell and the others spend a further year in the first form because in the second d book it mentions she has Bern in the first form for four terms. So how does that work? Mind you, with EBD s often bizzare form systems you would think I could work it out!!!

Upper and lower 1st? But school too small for two classes?
They have to be 12 to start at mt. So 1st form is to get them up to speed and fitted for 2nd form at age 13+ ?

Hands up who put Anna up for "sewing bee"? It must have been anna who made that lime green monstrosity of a 1950s blouse for her beloved joey babba .....

Re MT... can't work out how folk like Alicia (MT) and Hilary (SC) have already been in the form for at least 1 or 2 terms but then all are moved up to the second form en masse (no one left behind to be Head of the form). Possibly a case of "arrive at any age from 11-13, move up to second form when you turn 13?

UniS I said the same to DH. Mind you I think her sewing might have been better than that. It was hideous.

Is it MT that has the titles "First term" "Second year" "Third form" then inexplicably "Upper fourth"? Always worried me as a child for some strange reason. I really wanted to know why fourth was upper and what happened to lower.

I love the term 'upper fourth'. It just sounds so quintissentially 'old school'.

I didn't realise what an absolutely brilliant creation Gwendoline Mary was until I read the new MT books. You really felt her gap far more than the more popular girls from the original series. I know she was brought back as a teacher in the last book, but it wasn't the same.

Her parents should really have sent her to the CS. Joey would have had her over for tea and a chat and a bit of feather chasing, and her spite would miraculously disappear. Her lack of sporting prowess wouldn't have mattered as dainty, ladylike girls were valued just as much as the stars of the hockey pitch.

Gwendoline is very interesting because her character definitely evolves, but not in the "getting better way".
When she arrives she expects to wow them all and be immensely popular. When she finds she isn't, she wants to cheat her way to having friends and doesn't care how. Yes, she is nasty and malicious in the first book, but you can see it comes from a desperate attempt to make friends.

After that she seems to realise that she has no chance except with the new people, and so is desperately trying to impress the new people she thinks will be impressed by her. But as each term goes on almost all the new people that initially are friendly with her go over to the popular side as it were, except Maureen, who is really only friends because of circumstance rather than genuinely wanting to be.

And in the background we have her mum and Miss Winter who think Gwen should be popular and successful, so she's desperately trying to live up to that too.

It's a much better characterisation than the standard new girl improves. If we compare her to Joan Baker, although I think EBD generally got characterisation better, there is so much more for Gwen. Joan has her first term not terribly dissimilar, but at the end swears alliance to the noble cult of Joey.
For the rest of the series she stays an outsider, never really making good, but never doing anything bad enough to be noted. Just there to make up the numbers in a slightly better than non-descript way.

Yes, poor Gwendoline really is a product of her upbringing, isn't she? She only wants to be friends with girls who are beautiful and wealthy because she's been brought up to believe that appearances are important and that she only deserves 'the best'. As a result she ends up friendless and unpopular and never sees the error of her ways.

She's quite a realistic portrayal really. Today she'd probably be a queen bee type, part of a clique of similar bitchy girls making the lives of others miserable. However, in good old Malory Towers that sort of thing just isn't on.

I wonder who she would have tried to make friends with at the cs?

I think she'd have ended up one of the fairly non-descript "feather-heads" like the ones who link up with Betty after she's fallen out with Elizabeth.

The ones who only get mentioned when they didn't go up a form because they've been lazy, and are now regretting it, or who are mentioned as having linked up with a naughty one and the staff aren't too pleased as they know they will be led "by the nose".

Well I didn't quite manage to read a "new" St Clares story... I was fooled by the modern cover on a classic "Claudine at St Clares" , which was actually quite a good read. With a great midnight feast scene and a locking matron in a cupboard incident that was worthy of Jo.

I think Gwendoline would have been enthralled by Joyce Linton, and the pair of them would have become friends with Joyce very much the leader. However, I suspect Madge who was kind of in loco parentis, would have done her best to put a stop to it.

I'm sure somewhere out there in the webverse someone's written a crossover where Gwen gets to go to finishing school - St Mildred's! It does seem odd to me that the matter-of-fact, down to earth Miss Wilson gets to lead a finishing school of all things. Really?

Speaking of Gwen, are there any CS girls who are the product of Mrs Winters-type overindulgent parents? I know there's Emerence, but I always felt that was a different kind of overindulgence, more of a belief in children's rights and autonomy than the fussy kind of spoiling. Most of EBD's rebellious new girls are the product of parents who park them with an inappropriate relative for years on end rather than the kind who won't let go.

Now to Champion, which I've just finished. It's probably not the best filler I've read, but entertaining enough. I missed Bill, though, and I felt kind of cheated that she was absent. There's a 'sinners sent to Miss Annersley' scene where the author decides not to cut out from the action at the vital moment, so we see exactly what it is Hilda does and says to reduce the young sinners to floods of tears. I wasn't sure about that. I felt a bit like I was intruding, and to be honest I quite like the mystique of never knowing quite what happens in there. I was also outraged when she laughed about it afterwards. I'm sure Hilda would never do a thing like that!

Lavender Leigh was a bit precious when she started at the school, with her numerous party frocks etc. However, she wasn't shallow and ingratiating the way Gwen was.

Yeah , but Lavender was also the product of upbringing by aunt, rather than by mother.