The Chalet School

[ShellacB]

There seem to be plenty of old Chalet School Threads, but I can't find a current one.

In the middle of a re read. I have just finished the Tyrolean and Herefordshire ones. I loved them!

I do remember the Swiss books not being quite of the same quality, so not sure whether to read them all.

Could anyone recommend the best Swiss books if I was to skim through?

I've got a mixed collection of hardback Fairlie Bruce. The Springdale hardbacks issued by Spring Books are ok, but there was also an awful hardback collection of Dimsie short stories which I reluctantly ditched, because they'd been "updated" so jarringly. I think it was Goodchild publishers responsible for that, really annoying.

Spring Books! - those were the ones. Publisher's updates are always a mistake.

I have a soft spot for Spring Books editions - the linen-y covers, and the greyish paper, and distinctive print, Happy childhood memories!

My favourite is Joanna Lloyd, whose Catherine books are an utter joy. Not easy to get hold of though, and there’s one I’ve never found at a reasonable price.

They're an example of quirky individual characterisation of a sort Brent-Dyer never tried to achieve.

I picked up Audrey - A New Girl from a charity shop about 40 years ago & it’s one of the few books that’s survived all my moves. My mum banned me from reading it at night because I’d wake everyone up laughing when I got to the parsnips.

It never occurred to me to look for the others. Are they just as funny?

They’re fabulous although IIRC Audrey is the funniest.

I do feel I’m reading a very accurate description of a teenage girl with ADHD.

She does calm down later on though, once she’s got her head round what school’s actually like.

I’m going to have a look for the others as my Christmas present to myself. Which one couldn’t you find?

No, Catherine is the character I’m talking about!

Catherine Goes To School is the one I can’t get. The first one.

Oh, sorry!

If I manage to come across that one I’ll let you know.

Oh I do think that there is something particularly special and unique about the Chalet School Books, even with the flaws.

The Tyrolean books are brilliant, as are the books set in the war.

Princess and Exile would have made excellent standalone novels, never mind being part of a series.

I don’ t think there is one bad Tyrolean book. The quality does decline afterwards, beginning in island and then declining further after the first few Swiss books, but there is still a very unique appeal about them.

We have to remember too that a lot of the more negative aspects are mainly due to the time they were set in.

Apparently it's the 100th anniversary of the School at the Chalet being published this month!

Yes it is! I got the Girls Gone By centenary edition and they referred to October 1925.

I have just finished The Wrong Chalet school and am at the start of Shocks.

I know we all say that it is strange and far fetched that Joey is always in and out of the school, but I have to say I don't find these books as enjoyable without either Joey or any of the Russells or Maynards involved! They just don't feel like Chalet School books to me.

Was this period a trial by EBD at writing Joey out of the series as she had already done with Madge ? If so, maybe it just really didn't work....

I know it was far fetched that she was always turning up at school. I think she could have been more realistically included in the books as a part time guidance counsellor or something (if they even had such a thing in that period.) Or even a part time teacher who did two mornings per week, as she does do sub teaching quite a lot.

The popping up out of for no real reason is far fetched and annoying, but then I don't think the series really works without her either....

Mary Lou or the triplets just weren't strong enough characters....

Wrong and Carola are two of my favourites so I don’t think I can miss Joey and gang too much!

My personal sadness is how she chucks Miss Wilson away in Switzerland. I wonder if she intended to do more books based at the finishing branch but didn’t get a great reception from Oberland? I think she then ends up having to recreate Miss A/Miss W with Kathie and Nancy, much to the fan fic writers joy.

Yes I remember as a child being very upset by the lack of Bill. I thought she was the best teacher character in the series. Madge herself was a close second for me and she never really got the chance to reach her full headmistress potential as she was married off so early.

I thought EBD realised this hence making her joint head in the Herfordshire and Island books.

Yes I enjoyed Carola okay, but Jo featured quite heavily in Carola. I think she actually taught in the school in that book. It was in the period between then and The Wrong Chalet School that she goes to Canada.

Oddly despite her being 'off screen' for most of it Jo's pregnancy with Felix and Felicity is the most 'talked about' one she has. Although Madge's twin birth the year before is an absolute shock to everyone including her own sister and daughter who didn't even know she was pregnant!!

My personal sadness is how she chucks Miss Wilson away in Switzerland.

Miss Wilson is wasted at St Mildred's. It would have been a far better use of her abilities, for her to stay to run the Carnbach branch.

But I think Nell had to be shoved into the background to some extent. She was a far more fully rounded character than Hilda, EBD's favourite, and was in danger of overshadowing her.

Miss Annersley is a pair of eyes and a twin set.

Miss Annersley is a pair of eyes and a twin set.

Eyes which had never yet needed glasses and a beautiful voice.

I loved Bill. Genuinely couldn't understand why she was sidelined in the series.

What gets me is that there’s never a mention of most of the staff wearing glasses! It’s a bit like saying she had two legs, neither of which had fallen off.

Good point, glasses are rarely mentioned. Compare Harry Potter, where spectacles worn by various characters are mentioned frequently. (JK wore glasses herself.)

Yes! Or two lungs, neither of which was tubercular.😀

EBD does seem to have regarded wearing glasses as some kind of terrible misfortune — is it Cornelia who has to wear glasses after she tries to put out the downed plane? And is it Richenda who gets acid thrown in her eyes and will have to wear glasses?

Just read ‘The Chalet School Goes To It’ and I’m rather disappointed. There are certainly some good/exciting parts, but the pacing is very odd. On the one hand, there’s a lot of padding eg who is living where with their 500 children, how to plant late-crop potatoes. But on the other hand, various plot lines are either quickly resolved - Gwensi’s resentment of the school taking over her home, Beth’s jealousy of her baby sister - or left open - Elizabeth and Betty’s falling out, the plan to entertain the refugees. And then Simone has to get married in the last half dozen pages. Definitely needed Matey’s critical attention.

Elizabeth and Betty’s falling out....

That's an ongoing storyline which is continued in subsequent books.