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.....

Gosh, MN is turning into the CS before my very eyes. There's a thread in Baby Names requesting girls' names beginning with C. By the seventh post, people had already suggested Claire, Constance and Cecilia.

Just got to the bit in New CS where the Middles are up to no good on the roof. The prefects want to catch them, and Bill has been "unexpectedly accommodating" by volunteering to sleep with Miss Stewart . In fact, Louise (current HG) says there is no need to turn her out, and she is quite insistent that it's necessary!

" 'Gute Nacht!' And she ran off laughing".

I bet she did.

I've got new beginnings. The author does apologise for the cover art, apparently it was done before the book was finished.
It's not bad, although it very much has the air of trying to tie up the triplets in particular. Len's wedding, Con gets engaged and Margot arranges her order.
Joey has (another) near death experience, which feels shoved to make it EBD but generally it's as well written as prefects

It does feel very much an end of series book, which I wonder whether the author regrets now fill in books have become popular as it's existence really means another after that would be a little bit strange.

but generally it's as well written as prefects

Hmmmm, you're not exactly selling it, DeeWe! What I'd really like to read is something grown-up and reasonably realistic given the starting point, but not quite as unmitigatedly miserable as CCGU. I'm sure plenty exists in fanfic-land but I'm never sure where to start - the Sandy Denny Library which someone linked to a few threads ago is so huge it's a bit intimidating.

I hope you're not suggesting Bill and Miss Stewart (whose first name I've forgotten) would stay up all night talking and drinking milky coffee, are you Elisaveta? I'm sure they've both got more common sense than that, and in any case after their healthy and hardworking days, I'm sure they would soon be fast asleep. No, she was laughing with pure delight at having been of help in solving a problem.

I've just read for the first time ever the episode of The Stuffer and Maria! I splashed out on the GGBP edition of Head Girl because I know it's one of the most badly cut in the Armada editions. Not only have I read about The Stuffer, but there's all sorts of other little period asides that Armada removed.

I was quite excited to read of the stuffer and Maria for the first time and to find out who they were!

I remember reading that Head Girl was cut to ribbons by Armada! How exciting to have the whole one after years. I think it's one I didn't ever read as a child, so I've only ever known the full version. It's not an absolute favourite of mine, but I do like it very much - it's a gratifyingly chunky one, isn't it? Also I am really rather fond of Grizel, as a child and an adult, so I like the focus being on her.

New Beginnings goes up in my estimation simply through knowing that the author agrees on the cover art. I shall keep an eye out for it, if I can pick it up v cheaply I will give it a go. I'm afraid I can't think of anything that quite fits the bill on the SDL... that may be because I almost exclusively read the slash

I love New for how slashy it is. Especially the bit where Nell is all "no no no, we'll stick to my plan please ". But it's also the one with the lovely bit where they go running through the school hand in hand after the first staff meeting of the term, and there's also something pleasingly slashy about the night on the coach (rather ruined by the presence of Joey, but nonetheless there is something about it. There's also a super-short piece on the SDL inspired by that, so it's clearly not only twisted old me who loves it!)

Actually, related, I am always interested in recommendations of similar books with slashiness in them. I picked up Gladys Mitchell's Convent on Styx initially because of a brief moment where a minor character references her own lesbian appearance. And also Lady of Letters (Josephine Elder, much recommended) because the main relationship in it (between the female protagonist and a spinster colleague) is so compelling. I am eagerly awaiting delivery of one of the Upson books on Josephine Tey, which is apparently suitably queered.

I think one of the things I like about Head Girl (always one of my favourites) is that Grizel doesn't suddenly become all adult and responsible and looking down condescendingly on the younger girls as happens in the later books the moment anyone gets into the Upper Fifth. I like that she has her scraps and pillow fights with Joey at the start rather than seeing her as a tiresome middle who has to be kept in her place.

Do you read the Abbey books, Nell? They're hugely slashy, especially if you get unct versions of the earlier ones where the girls are always tumbling into bed with one another. Even in the later ones there's plenty of late-night bedroom coffee-drinking which can easily be reinterpreted. And if I may be permitted a slight aside into adult school-story land, where do you stand on Regiment of Women? I love it, and the ending doesn't bother me - the engagement scene trumps even Len and Reg in unconvincingness which I think reinforces the message that it's the women's relationships that count.

Ooh, that's a good point. I've not yet read any Abbey books. I remember someone very kindly uploaded some to the onedrive - I must investigate v soon.

Interested to hear that perspective on Regiment of Women! I've actually not read it, though I mean to at some point. I have to say that every other mention of it I've come across has been most indignant. i should now read it all the sooner - I'd been feeling pretty mixed about it because on the one hand it must shed fascinating light onto lesbianism etc pre-WW2, which is a favourite topic of mine, but on the other it appears to have huge (off-putting)health warnings attached. That it might actually be defensible hadn't really crossed my mind.

Oh, also on Head Girl - I find Grizel's response to being made HG one of the most convincing in the series: she sort of wants it, sort of doesn't because of all the responsibility it implies, but really really doesn't want to disappoint Madge (which is especially poignant given her odd relationship to the Bettanys as compared to, say, Juliet and Robin who are fully absorbed into the family. I know we've gone back and forth about how apt this comparison is or isn't, but I'm quite certain it's a comparison Grizel herself would have made).

She's not the only one - Gisela's reaction is also perfectly reasonable iirc, and in fairness Joey's - but so much ridiculousness later where Mary-Lou and MBR girls gasp with surprise, and worry that they won't do a good job...

I've just got to the night on the coach Nell - yes, Joey is definitely surplus to requirements, especially when it comes to snuggling down with Charlie under a rug. WTF is Joey doing on a school trip anyway?

I agree about Grizel's reaction to being HG. I thought her ambivalence up until the time she thought she was going to be 'degraded' at which point she wants it more badly than anything was very convincing. I had a gurgle at Madge's conversation with Mademoiselle when she visits the School. She observes that everything has gone well most of the time they've been at the Tiernsee, apart from the flood, the fire, Joey and Grizel's near-death experience on the Tiernjoch, and Elisaveta's kidnap - but all has been very plain sailing on the whole. If that's plain sailing I couldn't help but wonder what her idea of difficulties migh be.

Regiment of Women is one of my favourite books of all time and I'll defend it against all comers. I have fond memories of going to Hay-on-Wye specially to scour second-hand bookshops for it in the days when that was the only way you could have any chance of finding out of print books. I'd read a library copy and badly wanted my own! Oh the happy day when Virago reprinted it. Best book ever written IMHO.

Hello my lambs, here I am! Matey will be livid with me, I accidentally got on the wrong train and, you'll never guess, ended up in RL for simply months!

Any news, near death experiences, babies, doctor marriages etc been happening in my absence?

DD (8) has worked her way through as far as Exile and is very much enjoying the series although she keeps explaining it all to DH who is mostly just looking bemused.

of Ruey, I can't wait until my DDs are old enough to brainwash induct into Chaletian values. The older one does refer to her pigtails as Kenwigses, and I'm working on making the bathroom into a Splashery.

WTF is Joey doing on a school trip anyway?
She's the spirit of the school, EElisaveta! Gosh, little could EBD have known when she had 18yo Joey tagging along that twenty years later, she would still be butting in all over the place...

It is payday and I'm going to seek out an affordable copy of Regiment of Women! It really is intriguing to read such a spirited defence of it after a number of sources have basically held it up as a byword for Bad Shit.

Also v envious of Ruey. I can't see 3yo DS going for the CS any time soon although he is rather taken with the covers of my CS encyclopaedias. I might console myself by training him to instant obedience to call the bathroom a splashery, but I'd only be called upon to explain it at nursery and that could be a tad embarrassing.

Sorry Nell, of course she is. Her golden toned voice will always be in demand.
I see your point about explaining the Splashery. Though so far references to Kenwigses have mainly got a response, except from DH who takes it for granted that this must be what they are called, and one school mum who I suspect of being a secret Chaletian.

I have just had a Joey moment!
Sat on one of our garden director's chairs to test it and went straight through
I sat on the ground for a bit waiting for special milk / handsome doctor / faithful Anna / triplets, but nobody came.
So I got up and carried on. Oh dear said OH, I thought it was broken.....

Poor you, Emily, I hope you're OK. Next time you're going to fall through a chair please would you give us all advance notice so that we can come round and laugh so hard that the tears pour down our cheeks and we have to hold our sides? Oh, and make sure there's a tub of lime green dye nearby so that you can clutch it as you fall and turn green for the next three weeks.

I'm impressed with your DD, Rue. Neither of mine took any serious interest in the Chalet School - they just read enough to make fun of me and use it against me whenever they could!

I think New has to be next on my list for a re-read. It's been years since I last read it and I feel the need to find out just what happened on that school trip besides the mandatory near-death experience and doctor meeting.

Love it or loathe it, I think you'll find Regiment worth splashing out on, Nell, even if you come down on the side of it being a nasty reactionary piece of nonsense. Do you know Lillian Faderman's work, and her view of romantic relationships between upper-middle class women in the nineteenth century? I'm very convinced by what she says, and I think Regiment helps fill in the gap between romance between women being an everyday, accepted thing, and the attitudes we see by the time of the Well of Loneliness trial.

Fully recovered thank you. Will give advance warning next time so you can all come and laugh and drink restorative Calvados with me.
Funny thing was when I was struggling to get out I instantly thought of Joey in the box.

This is all making me desperate to read the unabridged Head Girl but the one drive password isn't working for me. Could anyone take pity on me and pm me the password?

I was wondering where you were Emily! Btw, what is a garden director? Does he lay out the clock golf?

I am camping at the moment. Rather disappointingly I have yet to fall in a pit, fish up a body that is not one or disturb a hornets nest....and we go home tomorrow. (the campsite shop does do tasty crusty rolls though which I have enjoyed for breakfast with my coffee! )
I am debating when to try dd with the cs. She is enjoying the naughtiest girl books, also Harry potter.....do I try het now or wait? Do I allow her me at my hardbacks or make her read my motley collection of paperbacks???????

Quick, special milk needed immediately for Emily! Or maybe you'd prefer brandy and aspirin, and a day sat by the fire with Michael Christie removing your stockings, Miss Annersley style.

EElisaveta I fear that both DS and I are too afflicted by a need to explain bloody everything in too much depth to carry off kenwigses and splasheries. :( I suppose I could find a way of snootily brushing it off as "a literary reference", but that wouldn't be very polite...

mornington, I hope you are sitting down (on a sturdy chair) for this will shock you, but I think there is no doctor on the school trip in New. obviously they were all forewarned that the teachers were not that way inclined, and Joey had been unwittingly betrothed to Jack since approx age 15
I have ordered Regiment and await it! Re: Faderman, I've read Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers (which ISTR is very very American) and Scotch Verdict (incidentally, about were-they-or-weren't-they lesbian schoolmistresses, although rather earlier than even the earliest CS; it's the 'real life' story behind The Children's Hour ) and I suspect(?) you're talking about Surpassing the Love of Men which I keep meaning to get hold of but don't really know the gist of. I really enjoyed Scotch Verdict but didn't really agree with Faderman's own conclusion on it (she credits the women with rather more innocence than I would, although I think these were both quite tentative conclusions on both sides!) - I don't know how that tallies with her argument wrt romantic friendships in the C19th. It's all really really interesting stuff, I think. Even post Well, there's so much grey area and lack of interest/documentation re: women's sexualities and romantic/social lives - but before it, it's almost impossible to trace. So Regiment seems really important in that context.

NoParking, I've PMed you!

Ooh, tricky (and exciting), hels! You could always try her with a paperback so that she too falls victim to the asterisks of 'you must read this other CS book to understand this reference - oh wait it's actually a complete non-event like Con Maynard saying Daniel bit the lions'. ;)

Maybe you should go sliding down a grassy hill in the morning and do a bit of laundry with whatever random ingredients you have to hand, just to experience the authentic CS camping experience.

DD's going at my paperbacks for now, but a few of them I've put on her Kindle so she's read some unabridged ones too. I've also told her (and reinforced before she started Exile) that the books are old fashioned and use words that we don't use now and should never be used - and if she finds words she doesn't know, she's either to look them up on her Kindle, or ask me and I'll explain.

hels DD has just finished year 3 and has read all the original Naughtiest Girl and Malory Towers series and was bemoaning the fact that she didn't have any more school stories handy to read, so I suggested she give School At a try - not expecting her to think much of it tbh. She's quite the fan of Ballet Shoes, White Boots, etc etc too, I'm very much enjoying reading stuff before I let her at it :o

In fact, any suggestions for classic girls (school for preference) fiction suitable for an 8 year old strong reader are most welcome, there must be stuff I've not come across?