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.

I have a vague memory of that one too.....

Does anyone have the one drive login details, please?

I read that one quite recently Morning. I think it was on the Trennels website.

I have been re-reading my CS books, and have all of them up to Highland Twins (which I have just finished) and I wondered if anyone has transcripts of any others? Someone kindly sent me some before, but I am still missing an awful lot, and it would be wonderful to read more. Would also be wonderful to read a transcript of Exile uncut if such a thing exists.

There were transcripts on one drive Purple but I can't log on there now. Does anyone have the current password?

Does anyone find that other books remind them of the CS?

I don't find MT or St C's make me think of CS but I do find the Dimsie books are very much a similar style. I also can't help feeling that the character of Dimsie is what EBD was aiming at for Mary-Lou but missed. Somehow Dimsie is much more a sympathetic interferer-and all her friends keep her firmly on the ground rather than just saying "Well it's just M-L".

Kester B-whatever, the bird man always makes me think of Jack Trench from the EB Adventure series. I even picture him with red curls!

And there's one of the Aelx Rider stories where he improvises I think it's a snow board (out of an ironing board or something) which I alwasy imagine Miss A shaking her head and saying "those naughty middles. Must tell Joey, I'm sure she'll want to use it in one of her stories"

Also failing to log in to the one drive here. Is there a new password?

I find dimsie a bit annoying..though not as much as Mary Lou. I prefer Nancy to dimsie.

Dimsie, Susan (Jane Shaw's books)and M-L are all really similar characters.

All desperately keen to help in an interfering and bossy way. I find them irritating in that order from least to most.

I think the thing with M-L is it's written so much as "isn't she wonderful, we all adore her" that it jars.
I wonder how I would feel about M-L if she was written doing the same things without the worship of her? I certainly think she'd come across more sympathetic if she only interfered off her own bat, and found things out for herself rather than Joey having to tell her things she shouldn't know.
Susan and Dimsie are told frequently enough that they're interfering by their friends.
I think it helps in Dimsie's crowd that she doesn't lead them by the nose too. She's always in there with the action but the others are given talents above hers (eg sporty). I've only got some of the early books though so maybe she goes the way of Joey as she gets older.

I don't think she is quite as annoying as Joey when she grows up....

Agreed hels, Joey is a bit TOO much

EmilyAlice, still trying to get the login details myself... I own the full series up till Highland Twins, then just a couple here and there :(

I've never read the Susan books, and I haven't read Dimsie for literally decades (yikes) and can't remember much about them apart from there was stuff about herbalism. Do you recommend them, those who know them?

Sara Crewe in A Little Princess always seems to me to have something in common with Our One and Only, and even more so with schoolgirl Jo. She's kind and caring, butts in to save the under-dog, she's very literary with a good memory, a flair for languages, and endlessly makes up stories to entertain the little ones (and later for herself, Becky and Ermengarde). She's very much adored by everyone in the early part of the book, and although the snobby, worthless characters only adore her for her money, everyone else carries on adoring her even when she's a servant. Now that I think of it, the adoration theme is very much there in lots of Ruritanian children's literature, with A Little Princess kind-of belonging to that genre. I wonder whether it's the Ruritanian influence we're seeing in Jo and Mary-Lou?

I agree that the adult Joey is unbearable (though I can remember not thinking that as a child - I was quite attracted by the idea of auntie next door being able to solve all life's problems). But now I wish EBD had simply let her go. It was never going to work keeping her next door to wherever the school happened to be and still involved in some mysterious way. How on earth could she have written this convincingly? She should either have let her make occasional cameo appearances as a mother/lady opener of fetes/writer of Nativities, or kept her unmarried and given her a career. I think someone said on one of these threads that she married her off when she thought the series was ending, and might have done things differently had she known it was going on for another generation.

I enjoy the fondue books, but prefer the Nancy ones. They are ..worth a read I think.....
Meanwhile, are we nearing the end of another thread ( or have I had too much special milk?)

Fondue?? Pesky kindle auto correct....dimsie......

Fondue how on earth does autocorrect get that from Dimsie Mind you dd2 used to autocorrect on my old phone to "Bomb" which amused me for various reasons.

I didn't find adult Joey unbearable as a child. However I did cringe for her behaviour in front of her girls as they got older. I couldn't imagine finding some of the things she said and did getting any reaction other than total embarrassment from all the girls around. Not "Mamma's a poppet" ever.
Very few women can actually carry off the "one of the girls" with teenagers, a few men can ime; however for either nothing like as many as think they can.

Any suggestions for another thread?

Bearing in mind the time of year, how about something fete-related for our new thread? Tilting at hoops and clock golf at the Chalet School? Or maybe something in honour of Madame's birthday?

Something fete related sounds good! I like the tilting at hoops etc idea.

The Chalet School tilts their hoops

Sounds fairly suggestive.

Having got illness in the house this week: Dd1 is ill which she very rarely is, but would have had an inset day anyway today, much to my thankfulness or she'd push herself to go in-she hasn't had a day off school in 6 years now!

Got me thinking. All the illnesses they have I don't think they ever had D&V go round the school like it used to charge round the boarders at our school. Faint, high temperatures, spots, colds, pneumonia etc. but unless you'd take billious attack as a term for it, I can't think of any mention. I suspect it wasn't romanic enough for EBD's heroines!

What about "D&Vat the CS"?

Hmmmm.........I don't think it has,quite the same ring! Maybe as its the summer we should go camping...so something like. Dead bodies, hornets and pits at the chalet school.....
Hope your dd is better soon.

How about "A fête worse than the Chalet School"?

That's the one!!!!

Done!