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.....

I think it's Con's ulster. Whatever an ulster is. I picture it as a sort of Sherlock Holmes cape, complete with deerstalker.

Did the parcel arrive yet, Nell?

I like the bit in New with Hilda telling Prince Balbini about her mother's death when she was 13 or so. Why for the love of Mike this does not make Hilda the perfect candidate for comforting bereaved girls (Jacynth et al) I do not know. I do think between Bill's losses and Hilda's they make the perfect couple.

Just starting A Chalet Girl From Kenya. Maisie Gomme, that well-fleshed out Saint! In all of the books she might have been in - Rivals, Eustacia, And Jo, Exploits, New House etc - I don't believe she has as much as one line to say.

It did! Sorry, I meant to message you and say thanks. Such excitement!

Yeah, I also have no idea what an ulster is, but you have slightly ruined it for me with the deerstalker addition.

And yes! I'd forgotten that bit. Aw. Obviously none of these things qualify anyone who is not Joey to comfort various bereaved girls over the years. A bit like decades-long experience as a good headteacher don't qualify Hilda to know what to do about minor 'problem' girls without consulting Joey...

Haha! Is it Maisie Gomme who Jo expects Jack to guess has written her a letter after all these years? They're at the breakfast table, I think he's just back from a night shift, and she's all "guess! guess! you'll never guess!"
And even the reader, who was there all along and is actually somewhat invested in the CS through the ages etc, cannot possibly be expected to guess it is Maisie bloody Gomme!

Yup. Just like Winnie Embury. As opposed to Saints one actually remembers, such as Gipsy Carson, Ida Reaveley, or, um, the bad Elaine girl from Rivals.

Doesn't the bad Elaine girl actually die young because of her badness? :(

Gipsy was another of the names I was much charmed by in my youth, incidentally!

I can't remember anything ever being mentioned about Elaine again. Maureen the wild Irisher dies just before the war because the rheumatic fever weakened her heart, mind you.

I adored the name Gipsy too! I wanted to grow up and change my name to Gipsy. That may be one of the best EBD names. Along with Flavia, Gay and Delicia. Oh, and Ghiselaine and Lesceline.

I think Maisie, who as others pointed out never addresses a word to Joey, adored her so much she named her child after her (and let's be frank, how many of our close school mates did we know the middle names of?) and refers to her as unofficial Godmother to a point Jo calls her "Godmother" is at the bounds of totally ridiculous.
I think it's worse than the point Erica recognises Joey from across the road and rushes over to her, and that's pretty bad.

Of course obviously when I'm deciding who my children would be best to live with if I died I'm going to choose someone I vaguely knew at school and have had no contact since...

Thank you Cheddar!

And do (reread the Spellcoats! Cos it is awesome!!)

I haven't read Kenya very often and I have just been somewhat shocked by the following sentence, apropos of the blindfold race:

"They were blindfolded by Matron who was an adept at this..."

I now have visions of Matey indulging in a bit of light bondage in her spare time! The mind boggles.

Are there problems with the onedrive or is it me? It is asking for extra security?

Is fine for me

They were blindfolded by Matron who was an adept at this...

I could totally see Matey having a wild life on the side. In Gay from China she makes some comment or other that "I never talk, as well you know", which could conceivably suggest all manner of debauchery. She needs something more exciting than supervising wicked middles turning sheets sides to middle and issuing inflexible rules about the only acceptable way to unpack a trunk etc.

I think I muddled up bad Elaine and wild Maureen. I'll be muddling up Nancy "isn't she fat?" Wilmot with Winnie "isn't she REALLY fat?" Embury next... All these indistinguishable Saints!t

I think I haven't read the one with Erica in it (or didn't pay any attention...), but to be totally fair I suppose it's conceivable that Joey, with her bloody enormous headphones well into the 1960s, was perhaps a bit easy to recognise from her author pic on her gaily dustjacketed books.

I had never thought about her being recognised because she was an author! now that does make sense..
Now it is the summer holidays I might have to start a whole chalet re-read (once i have finished my Antonia Forest re-read..)

I have gone back to Rivals now in honour of all this Saints chat. I shall be the expert in wild Irishers, quiet Scots (like me, ahem), dishonourable Smitherses, the KKK and the proper way to speak of a Ruritanian Crown princess.

Isn't the KKK bit somewhat uncomfortable reading? Particularly because Corney and Evvy (and EBD) appear to be on the side of the plantation owners. I wonder whether EBD had read Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Gone With The Wind, for that matter? Isn't there a later book where Jen Somebody gets into trouble for reading GWTW?

Yes! It's Shocks, or possibly another book shortly before Shocks. Is that the occasion where it's initially GWTW, but in later editions the reference is changed to a different book? This definitely happens at some point, but I've never heard of the other book so can't comment on whether it is more racy/poorly written/whatever it is to deserve the punishment for reading it. I think she also does something wrong by reading GWTW when she is supposed to be gardening, but I could be muddling all sorts of things together by now.

I must revisit Rivals sometime soon as its among my favourites, although agreed that the KKK stuff is now v uncomfortable reading. It's not actually clear to me that EBD knows much at all about the KKK... Not sure what the typical understanding was, in this country at that time. Interested if anyone has any info on this! - and meanwhile shall focus on less contentious matters like the proper way to address HRH Princess Elisaveta, and Gottfried running to the rescue on his ice skates. And, of course, the Red Sarafan...

Isn't it in Wrong. Jennifer Penrose reading Forever Amber and then locking Blossom in the art room?

Had a short few minutes so read Joey and Patricia. Did anyone else really dislike this?

I seem to remember finding it extremely boring Alachia - is it the one with all the homeopathy?

I think I did read it but it was ages ago and I can't remember much about it. Sorry, not helpful! I find a lot of the fill-ins a bit dull. I am still holding out hope for someone discovering the lost manuscript of Joey and Robin's trip to India - I have read Two Chalet Girls in India and it was quite good, but I bet EBD's version would be streets ahead with mad elephants nearly trampling Robin and being held off by a round of The Red Sarafan, sung by a white and shaking Jo.

Yes it's the one with the homeopathy

Oooh, chalet school.

I still have quite a few dotted over the bookcases at my mum's house - this has inspired me to go dig out The School at the Chalet and read as many as I can.

Could anyone PM me the OneDrive details too please?

Thank you!

Only trouble with mad elephants nearly trampling the Robin and being held off by a round of The Red Sarafan sung by a white and shaking Jo is that a doctor needs to show up to catch Joey as she falls to the ground, still, grey and to all appearances dead. And then marry her. Which is a bit of a problem unless you can find a way to get Jack out to India too.

What is Joey and Patricia? I just had a quick squiz in the Sally Denny Library but I couldn't find it and I'm intrigued now.

It never occurred to me that Forever Amber was real. I've just googled it and found out that not only was it real, but it was banned by 14 US states as pornography. Wikipedia says that it 'was condemned by the Catholic Church for indecency, which helped to make it popular' - so EBD no doubt intended to join in the condemnation but might instead have sent hundreds of young girls to their nearest bookshop to find out what the fuss was about.

It's meant to be a catch up for the visitors fill in, but it's one long boring treatise on the brilliance of homeopathy