A fête worse than the Chalet School

[EmilyAlice]

Roll up, roll up!
Bid for a mortgage on the doll's house! Pin the tail on the St Bernard! Guess the weight of the handsome doctor! (Or pin the tail on the doctor and guess the weight of the St Bernard). Knit a lime green liberty bodice against the clock!
The Chalet School fête is open.....

Yes - that was exactly what I thought. The setting was a lovely read, but the story was weak. I was amused by a fairly gratuitous reference in it to Tey's Richard of Bordeaux, though - I presume that's a smiling acknowledgement of how much the murder is borrowed from her, and not just a really unlikely coincidence?!

I can't now decide whether to read any more Mitchells. The only other I've read was Convent on Styx (again, for the school theme) and I enjoyed that much more, but I don't know which is more representative (if either of them are), or where to begin with choosing another.

IS Richard of Bordeaux the same as Daughter of time by Tey or is it another story?

Actually the Barrasses are pretty awful too - neglect and physical violence. And the Carricks.

I'm fairly certain it's a completely different story - it was published under her other pseudonym - but I've not yet read either (DoT waiting on bookshelf!) so might be mistaken!

Mm, EBD is a bit funny about violent parents though, isn't she? (Probably totally in line with the times, but.) Thinking of both Jack Maynard and Julian Lucy - there are occasions where the sensible womenfolk have to intervene somehow to protecf their own children from fatherly anger, but I'm fairly certain these are among EBD's 'good' parents!

I was thinking about something related to this with Regiment of Women, incidentally - that actually many of the traits I find less attractive in Clare Hartill (vampire type lesbian character) are meant to be attractive in some of the leading men of the time...

I think the Carricks are the worst. They abandoned their daughter. I know Prof Richardson did, but he had the excuse of being a bonkers scientist, the Carricks just did not care.

There's an awful lot of suspect parents in the whole school isn't there?

We have various parents that send their child away to school because they can't cope with them-and write to tell the school that their child is terrible. I think it's with Emmerance that Bill says something along the lines of "most parents think their dc are brilliant so for one to write like that they must be terrible", but actually they do frequently. Usually to Joey to give Bill some credit.

But even those that are held up to be brilliant parents they aren't that good.
We have Madge, who doesn't notice that there is an issue with Sybil and even when pointed out doesn't really do anything. Plus the dragging Sybil off later which seems totally wrong.
Joey who is only really interested in them as things to show off about.
And even the Lucy/Chester families, who are clearly meant to be a good family, muck up with both Beth and Barbara.
OOAOML's mum is too weak (health and mentally) to cope with her daughter.

I have just come out of the air raid shelter after the latest attack with a new name. I make cakes from special milk if asked.

I'd never thought about just how bad EBD parents are. Do you think that's partly because she was a teacher in an era when parents were regarded as a bit of a nuisance, creating problems to be dealt with by the school?

I've just tried to think of some good parents, but it's not easy! I think the Lucys are shown in a fairly positive light - from what I remember they're depicted as a happy, caring household. Or am I forgetting some major parental sin? Jacynth's auntie is also shown positively, until she inconsiderately goes and dies. Oh, and in the early days there's the Maranis and the Mensches.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but given that EBD very firmly tells us that Mary-Lou and Verity-Anne are sisters-by-marriage and not stepsisters, what did she think a step relationship was? Prompted by watching Cinderella - loved it!

I think Madge is basically a good parent, up to the point when she drags Sybil and Bride off to Australia to keep her company in spite of the fact that they have other major plans. I feel fairly happy to forgive her the earlier Sybil stuff (even though I think Sybil gets a bloody raw deal from EBD in the narration) because it's quite incomplete really - we hear/see Jo and Jem being unfair to Sybil, but I don't think Madge is generally part of that and her responses go largely undocumented. (Thinking as I type, I wonder whether that's part of why the Sybil moral storyline falls quite flat - because EBD sort of wants a 'ruined by beauty' story, but can't quite bring herself to make Madge a properly bad parent, and so it all becomes quite contradictory.)

I think there's definitely something to that, about it being very much EBD's teacherly view of parents - especially her kind-teacherly view of children as naturally decent, and therefore any spoiling of character is the fault of parenting. (Does Hilda say exactly this at some point? I think she might.) Also I think 'bad' parents are probably safer for her, in some ways, than 'bad' children (upsets the CS ethos) or 'bad' teachers (unthinkable!). 'Bad Matron' probably wouldn't have stood a third effort... And 'bad doctor' seems not to have impressed the editors, from what I understand of the Two Chalet Girls in India notes...

What I don't like about the earlier Sybil bit is when Madge has been told (by Joey) that "Sybil is giving herself airs" she apparently looks at Sybil decides she doesn't like what she sees and tries to knock her down. I'm thinking of that bit in Highland Twins where she snubs Sybil when she says that Robin isn't a blood relation.

I think that Madge had much more depth in her to leave it like that, and would have realised that Sybil was actually very insecure in her position in the family. Yes, she would have pulled her up on remarks like the one above, but she would have also seen that she needed a bit of attention.
Think of it from Sybil's point of view who she is rivals with for attnetion.
David-the first born, very much in charge of "the babies"
Rix-also quite dominant and has Peggy looking up to him.
Peggy-delicate and needing attention
Primula-also delicate and needing attention
Then she gets a new baby sister, who jilts her out of her place as her family baby, plus the position of being her family's little girl.

She's very much the forgotten middle there. I can see David and Rix getting taken out for "manly activities", Peggy and Primula being fussed over at the mere hint of illness, the babies who naturally need more attention and Sybil there who is always well and doesn't need the help the younger ones need nor the extra energy to be run off that the older ones need.

But I never bought the idea that Daisy moved to Joey's to avoid Sybil, can't remember which book that's said in. Because at the stage she moved Sybil was very much a nursery child, and Daisy was a school chilc. I also couldn't see Daisy moving out to avoid her, but leaving Primula, who she's very protective until EBD forgets about her, stuck much more with Sybil than Daisy ever was.
Daisy might prefer to be with Robin, which is fair enough as they would be closer in age, but I suspect she would have wanted to stay with Primula however unhappy she was in a place.

Thinking as I type, I wonder whether that's part of why the Sybil moral storyline falls quite flat - because EBD sort of wants a 'ruined by beauty' story, but can't quite bring herself to make Madge a properly bad parent, and so it all becomes quite contradictory.

As a child, I never picked up on the 'ruined by beauty' theme. I thought that Sybil was a 'naturally' bad child (because the wonderful Madge could not possibly have spoilt her or done anything to make her bad) and the moral was that big families are the best because one way or another they rub the corners off you no matter how wayward and wilfull you may be. Even if it takes the near death of a sibling to make the transformation! I've always felt a bit sorry for poor Sybil, and Witchend's post makes me even more so.

Has the fete finished yet? How many schillings did we make? Enough to support another free bed at the San? And perhaps employ another couple of dishy doctors for the delectation of those mistresses in search of a husband? We should really count the takings before it's time to pack our trunks for the new term. Or perhaps we had to flee Austria before we had time to do our sums.

It's a shame the Two Chalet Girls in India never got published - it was clearly supposed to show Jo growing up and learning that self-sufficiency and independence that she should really have got from reading history at university, and would have made the later Jo a more plausible character.

Was the other girl supposed to be Robin? How would that work with the "terrible climate"?

I always felt sorry for Sybil too - a kettle accident must surely have been quite common? Though the shouty violent parents always seemed quite plausible, and certainly boarding schools in my day still attracted lots of bonkers parents - one who refused to have her daughter home for half term because her coat had been stolen comes to mind, and tried to refuse to then have her for Easter. Housemistress used to make a lot of phone calls to try to get certain girls invited to stay elsewhere in long holidays, to avoid violent or rapist relatives.

One inconsistency that always gets on my wick is in the war where a class are asked what part of the plant a potato is (and not convinced a tuber is a grossly overgrown stem...) and they don't know because botany isn't a subject much taught at the Chalet School where they had gone in for chemistry and physics. Yet Carola and Katherine are shoved to botany which the school specialises in, despite no change of staff in the interim!

'Scuse my ignorance, but I'm vague on what happened re Two Chalet Girls in India. Do we know that EBD wrote it but it didn't get published? Or was it just something she talked about but never got round to?

I always think that Joey at 12 was (relative to the times and what would have been expected of an upper-middle-class girl) open-minded, cosmopolitan and independent. Only she never really moves on, so as the world around her changes and the expectations of girls/young women change, she looks increasingly stuck in her ways until eventually she ends up throwing English tea parties and insisting on having open fires to remind her of home. I do wish EBD had sent her to India and then on to University - who knows what she might have become!

Hello Girls!
I'm so excited to find that there are other adults that still read the Chalet School books. I am of course only reading them to find out the secret of making children obedient from birth. My four month old is most definitely not a Bettany/ Russell/ Maynard baby! Maybe because I didn't marry a doctor?

I'd love to know where to find the transcripts- unabridged books are very difficult to find in NZ!

I'm off to catch up on as much of the older chalet threads while DS naps

Hello and welcome BILL - and I do hope your username doesn't mean you've been indulging in raw bacon at midnight or Matey will be after you! People on these threads have talked about transcripts but I haven't paid much attention so hopefully someone else will be along to explain shortly.

I shall fetch some caster oil for BILLious Attack. And then try frying donuts in them for her. Just in case.

It was smoked bacon and therefore not raw! I had brought a bottle of gin milk with me but I fear I may have to drink it by myself if that story keeps getting brought up...
Thank you for the doughnuts Witchend. I will through them over the fence for Bruno eat them daintily but with gusto. Good mountain air gives one such an appetite! May I offer you a slice of apple pie with garlic cloves in return?

Phew! I'm back after failing to work out how to re-register following hacking gate lying for days in the San still, grey and to all appearances dead being kidnapped by a crazed cousin to force a coup d'état. Miss Annersley has issued a ukase on saying anything to my compeers so (after googling 'ukase' and 'compeers') I am being instantly obedient. What has been happening, my lambs?

Good to see you again, EElisaveta. I thought Cosimo had got you for certain my lamb.

Well, here I am in Pertisau Briesau, confined to the house because it's pouring with rain. I arrived on the final day of four weeks of unbroken sunshine (the hotel people tell me) across the whole of Austria. I made my way up from Innsbruck in the heat and blazing sunshine, as I arrived at the hotel it clouded over, by evening it was raining, and it's hardly stopped since! And most annoyingly, the weather forecast for Tuesday (when I leave) onwards is another week of sunshine. I'm trying to be like Robin and not fret over what can't be helped, but it's very frustrating. I've been for boat rides on the lake and even trudged around the lake path in the rain - I'm sure it would have been so much nicer in the sunshine.

Just think, if the weather had done this on Elinor's trip, would the Chalet School series never have been written? What a terrible thought.

You are at the Tiern See mornington

I hope after walking round the lake in the rain, you scrubbed with a rough towel, took a tisane of syrup of figs and retired to your bed with special milk to sleep the clock round?

Did you see the dripping rock? Was the water shooting down?

Yes, I've seen the dripping rock. In fact I've seen lots of dripping rocks - it's rained so much they're all at it . Luckily the Dripping Rock has a little roof of corrugated iron over it so I was able to recognise it. I wouldn't say the water was shooting down, but it was very drippy and the roof has lots of holes so everyone gets the full Dripping Rock Experience.

Today the weather cleared up a bit so I nipped up to the Barenbad Alm by the cable car in the morning and walked some of the way to the Barenkopf but it was clouding over and authentic as it would have been to be stuck up there with the mists swirling round, I decided I don't need that much authenticity. So I came back down and re-walked the bit of the lake path from Pertisau Briesau to Scholastika - the path is quite steep in places, especially after you leave Gaisalm, so it's an achievement for someone as unfit as I am. And I even went for a dip in the lake in one of the little beachy bits underneath that part of the path. It was very cold and I only stayed in for a minute or two, but I knew I didn't want to leave here without have done it! Oh, and there was a bit of added authenticity and adventure when I had to run/jog the last quarter of a mile or so to Scholastika to catch the last boat!! Thank you to the large party of elderly French tourists who took ages getting on so that the boat left a couple of minutes late otherwise I'd have been left behind.

I haven't done the full 'oh look isn't that where such-and-such happened' thing, but I do keep getting random thoughts. Like when the little train was chugging its way up from Jenbach Spartz and I found myself feeling sorry for poor Herr Anserl having to walk up there every week when the train wasn't running to give ungrateful girls their piano lessons.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I'd highly recommend it. Despite the weather I've had a great time. It's a very easy, undemanding kind of place, and it's given me much more of a feel for the locations. I've been reading Visitors while I've been here (not read it before) and I think I feel an entire Tyrolean re-read coming on.

Must go now, that tisane of syrup of figs and jorum of special milk are waiting.

Oh lucky you! Is the lake cold because it's spring-fed like EBD says? At least you saw the rock dripping properly

I hope you had a suitably lime green swim suit...