Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Chalet School

[EmilyAlice]

Now girls, line up and listen because this term is a busy one. Firstly we are combining our hobbies club and the Christmas play, so we will need our fretworkers to get busy on the scenery, some beautiful découpage for decorations, our nimble-fingered needlewomen on costume duty and some scrapbooks for - er...
Now one other thing girls. As you know the Chalet School has moved from the Tyrol, to Guernsey, to Armishire, to some island or other and thence to Switzerland.
This term we have moved again and the first thing I want you to do is to find out where the bloody hell we are....

I'm pretty sure there's references to Joey gluing pictures to some kind of backing in one of the early Hobbies Club scenes. I think it's a given she didn't paint them herself :o

Yes, Guides has the Pretty Maids bit at the start, with the original snails on the window episode. It's apparently near Foxlease, which is a Guiding activity centre that is still used today website

Buon giorno, miei agnelli! I'm very pleased we've moved to Italia, it borders Belsornia (I think?) so very convenient for me.

So, what have I missed?

Just across the water from Belsornia, Princess.
Not much happened really; some silly girls smoking reindeer turds, a difficult moment with Matey's special yak's milk, a few fires, midnight feasts in the yurts and a bit of unpleasantness with Genghis Khan. I think your cousin turned up, but wandered off and froze to death on the steppes.
Oh and some lovely folk dancing.
Just a normal term really.

Gosh, this coach journey is long, isn't it? Good job my new copy of Difficult Term has arrived so that I have something to read each time we stop for a flood, avalanche etc.

New term starting soon - is it the term of the Millie's panto and will we all get parts? And have we picked a theme for the fete yet? I'm sure we all want to be really original this year.

Oh my, another move, so confusing. Are we changing uniform or keeping the old one? What one were we on anyway??

Emily, you forgot to mention Joey's haircut. But it's all turned out OK, because she's given permish for us to use one of her ex-headphones for raffia and the other as a raffle prize. So that's got our Sale off to a topping start, nicht wahr? We could even have a hairdressing theme, hairstyles across the world or in history, something like that. Not sure where the Juniors' lucky dip or the clock golf would quite fit in, but we can work on it.

I'm afraid I was a bit underwhelmed with Juniors - not my favourite filler. Anyone else read it?

I think Joey's enforced haircut can just be referred to as "the late unpleasantness" MC.
Haircuts a topping (sic) idea for a theme. Earphones, fringes, French rolls, bobs, plaits - the possibilities are endless.
Hels I think summer uniform is de rigeur. Gentian blue for the Sicilian seas is perfect.
I must say the local police are very helpful. The kind Commissario just can't do enough for us. He has invited us all for a swim across the bay....

And we can all wear an appropriate hairstyle according to the stall we are on. Excellent idea - and I bet it's never been done before. The juniors could have some sort of lucky dip where you have to pull a ribbon to reveal the prize? massively overthinking this

The juniors lucky dip could have plaits with ribbons on the end to pull, they could be attached to the prizes! What fun, it's bound to go down well with the locals for no particular reason.

Oh, dear lord, I don't think I can bear to buy any tickets for the raffle this year, if the prizes include Joey's discarded earphone as well as the obligatory lime twinset. I shall have to start passing myself off as a scholarship girl - it may earn me a tired lecture from Joey about how Our Lady was the wife of a carpenter, but that's a price worth paying to avoid having to feign delight with winning a rogue coil of plaits.

Is it possible to expand on the underwhelm of Juniors without getting too spoilerish? I haven't bought it yet, but I've been intending to.

Latest just in from Joey's cave, the hairphones turned quite white during the catastrophe the late unpleasantness, and what's remained on Joey's bonce has gone curly. Meanwhile there's no sight of the lady herself - maybe she and her solid lump of comfort have got lost in the underground passages. We'd better send in the Mafia Bruno/Rufus with a flask of special milk.

Hmmm, Juniors, what to say without spoilers. Well, it's set parallel to the events in Princess but seen from the Juniors' perspective. A lot of the plot revolves round a device the author's come up with to resolve an EBD inconsistency, and it didn't work for me. I preferred the inconsistency - it was something I'd never even noticed, much less been bothered by! She has the juniors behaving in a way that I simply don't think would have crossed EBD's mind, and then they go from that to seeing the errors of their ways with very little explanation, and what explanation there was didn't convince me. I think what the author might have been trying to do was fill in some of the gaps in Princess but without actually writing anything that would have been significant enough for EBD to include in the original - which is a big ask and perhaps didn't leave her much scope.

Fill in my gaps? Gosh, that sounds wizard!

I have read Juniors and I agree. It was a pleasant read, but not really anything more. It might have been better of it was set in a term EBD did not cover...

Do you think Dr Jack did a sideline in Botox and fillers, Princess? He seemed to do everything else.

Dd2 got Juniors for Christmas and I agree with the comments above.
Enjoyed it but not one I'd read again.
They seemed to resolve from gilt only, which made me suspect if the person had agreed as they wanted that they'd have had similar groans the next term about it.

Hmm. Very tempted to save my money, then.

Trying to picture Dr Jack moving into cosmetic surgery following the advent of (?? antibiotics? is that what would have put TB hospitals like the Swiss San out of business?). Not sure how that would sit with the family ethics of good looks being gifts from God etc, but I suppose he would be able to offer such delights as "eyes like pansies" and a chin that communicates character.

Anyway girls, I have found the perfect spot for the school and the new Botox Sanitorium. They are the buildings that featured in every episode of the dear Dottore Montelbano's show (he isn't very happy about the hair theme by the way) and I believe they were the former tuna / sardine / anchovy factories. They may smell a little and have seen some rather unsavoury goings-on more recently, but I am sure that faithful Anna can get them ready for us in a day or so.
Where shall we put the bella villa Maynardi?

Can I be in Olive dorm this time please?

I have a wizard ideas for a competition. We can all do our hair in the same style then have our picture taken from behind and everyone will have to guess who's who. We'll all be falling about and clutching our sides with mirth .

Bella villa Maynardi had better be close by I'm afraid. Remember what happens in Island - she gets herself shipwrecked and has to stay at the actual school.

Glad I didn't buy Juniors on the basis of the reviews so far. Difficult Term is OK so far though I've not read much yet. Any other really good fill-ins that I should buy with Xmas money? I've got Champion, Librarian, Visitors.

How are the baby angels? All recovered?

Do you think these people need to be spoken to by Matey to clear up the bed airing arrangements?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2817714--to-let-the-bed-air?trending=1

May I be the first to say that something about these new School/San buildings smells a bit fishy?

Any news from the cave? I keep having visions of Jo emerging followed by a line of sweetly pretty quins, all with different coloured curls and eyes, pearly teeth and trained to absolute obedience despite being 3 days old.

Yes, they need to hump their mattress and throw their plumeaux over the balcony to air!

Anyone remember Humping the Kapok from an earlier thread?

Primrose...My favourite fill ins are The Bettany's on the Home Front and the Bettany's of Taverton High, both by Helen Barber. Not sure if they are still available...they are prequels to School.

Ah, yes, Humping the Kapok fair brings a tear to the eye. As I'm sure you've noticed. Is everyone from Mushy Pea going to be in Olive dormy this term by the way? Only I need to find my trunk, I hope it's got here safely...

Guides was good, actually, I found the history of Guiding in it interesting (and accurate) - although the only other fill-in I've read is Grow Up, which I thought deserved burning as it totally didn't fit the ethos of the CS - although reading it with a slightly more adult, cynical eye, it's pretty spot on.

Deira is up next, but I've been sidetracked by The Ballet Family which I also got for Christmas and am enjoying immensely :o

As far as dormies are concerned I am trying to decide between Nero d'Avola and Marsala.

I really really liked both the prequels too (and noticed that Home Front is still available from GGBP, when I went on their website last night to, um, order the new fill-in anyway).

I also loved A Chalet School Headmistress which is set in the term that Nell Wilson is head while Miss Annersley is injured. That's definitely out of print and tends to go for ridiculously high prices - I had to sadly sell my own copy a while back and I wish I still had it. Really hoping they'll publish it again.
Likewise I really enjoyed Peace Comes to the Chalet School but it's also out of print and expensive.

I was pleasantly surprised by CGGU if I remember correctly - was prepared for it to be dreadful, but it didn't ruin 'my' CS view at all, it's got a lot of similar ideas to those we've discussed on these threads before or which come up in fanfics etc and some of those really resonate. I won't read it again I don't think, because it's more unrelenting misery than I'd personally choose in any book, and I can see how rubbish it would be to pick it up expecting an EBD-style gentle continuation of the series, but if you know what you're getting yourself in for I don't think it's necessarily One To Avoid At All Costs.