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?

Sorry, I meant evacuees, not refugees.
I’m a bit worried about Miss Stewart, sailing off to Singapore. Is she going to end up in ‘Tenko’??

I think it's mentioned in a later book - possibly Lavender - that they got away. After the war they end up in Australia.

I have to say I loved Goes To It.

I remember as a child getting a trilogy of Exile, Goes to it (or The Chalet School at War as it was with armada) and Highland Twins and being hooked.

Exile is a phenomenal book and I think Goes To It (while not just as good also deals with the war exceptionally and was years ahead of it's time on that front.

I do agree with you that there is a long time spent describing the intricate details of everyone's living arrangements, but that is symptomatic of the series as a whole. I liked Gwensi and was disappointed that we didn't see more of her after Goes To It.

I guess I’m probably going to prefer the books I read as a child. Anyway, looking forward to the Highland twins, after the stereotyping of the Welsh.

Time for stereotyping of the Scots instead. 😀

I agree, Exile in particular is amazing but the war year books are just an incredible piece of work. There's real wisdom and humanity in them

Did Highland people really wear full "uniform" all the time?

I always liked the original cover of Goes To It, which was the edition my local library had. Gwensi, Daisy and Beth look very attractive in their summer frocks and the picture of Evan Evans is so detailed if might have been a portrait done from life, or at least from a photo.

I've not read the original/GGBP version of Goes To It, only the Armada version (at War). I like it too! I think it's quite incredible now to think that it was published mid-war, so they genuinely didn't know how things were going to end, but she kept the spirit of the school going.

I always think the Elizabeth/Betty storyline was one where EBD changed her mind about who the real baddy was half way through.

It was repeated over and over again in earlier books and earlier in Goes To It that Elizabeth came up with the terrible ideas and then Betty carried them out. Then suddenly the night that they are in shelter from the air raids Elizabeth changes character completely, decides that Gillian Linton is great and then dumps Betty like hot cakes.

Betty was terrible, but suddenly being dropped by her very best friend and completely cast aside would be upsetting for a young teenager in fairness. Particularly when you had spent at least the last five years doing her dirty work for her......
Slightly odd that none of the staff or students even showed any concern about this young girl who had been a bit of scapegoat for her friend and was suddenly left on her own.

IIRC Betty at least gets retrospective redemption and understanding.

Betty and Elizabeth seemed to age oddly as well. They were 12 when Joey was 18?18?, but still seemed to be 12 in Jersey, then suddenly aged fast during the war.

I know!

There is a lot of strange aging around the island years. Tom Gay seems to be around the same age for years, whereas the triplets go from being three to eight or nine in the same time period.

Don't Evadne Lannis and Cornelia Flower's ages change a lot in the Tyrolean books too? In the first book Evadne seems to be around Joey's age. Then she is still at school in Exile! At one stage it seems as if Evadne and Cornelia are the same age also and then suddenly Evvy seems years older....

Robin goes from being nine to eleven and then back again over the course of a series of books too.....

There's always going to be a bit of age trouble, as it started in the 20s, then suddenly the events of 1938-1945 became fixed in time (but 1925-1938 was less than 10 years in the time line).
But EBD really should have kept notes!

I’m a bit worried about Miss Stewart, sailing off to Singapore. Is she going to end up in ‘Tenko’??

A Tenko/Chalet School crossover would be ace! Hopefully Ed Reardon will be commissioned to write that 😉

Betty and Elizabeth seemed to age oddly as well. They were 12 when Joey was 18?18?, but still seemed to be 12 in Jersey, then suddenly aged fast during the war.

i think they were about 14 in Guernsey weren't they? They were in the 4th and Robin who was 15 was in the 5th. Daisy was 12 and in the 3rd, I think.

there were quite a few girls in Guernsey who should have been too old to still be at school, but I suppose EBD wanted to have a good lot of characters we already knew.

though how realistic was it that the Burnetts, for example, who presumably had spent the last year back at Taverton High, would be taken away and sent across the Channel with war imminent.....

I was always struck by how the evacuees are kind of ‘othered’— I mean, they’re kind of comic relief, in a way that the picturesque Tiernsee peasants never were, and they’re kids who’ve experienced air bombardment and been sent away from home for their safety. EBD was so attuned to the Tiernsee population’s sufferings during bad winters, and has been so eloquent on the evils of Nazism, and so sympathetic about other children sent away from their parents like the Robin, I’m always a bit taken aback she doesn’t give Joey some evacuees to befriend.

In fact it’s completely the opposite — Jean Mackenzie when she writes to her to ask her to have the Highland Twins to stay, specifically says she knows Joey doesn’t want evacuees ‘because of your precious three’, and that she’ll be forced to have them as soon as it’s known she has several spare rooms. So she should take in the twins because they’re not going to be able to cope with boarding yet, and then she won’t have space to have evacuees.

I mean, I absolutely get that UMC people in safe areas wouldn’t necessarily have wanted to house poor London children, but they did in RL during the war, and the CS world is usually full of sympathy for the unfortunate, displaced, poor etc, and half the main characters escaped the Nazis themselves. It always feels like an odd moment where Joey’s reputed generosity and kindness doesn’t seem to extend to evacuees, and other people are well aware of it.

Interestingly, despite the excruciating way EBD renders non-RP accents, I thought she was making a conscious effort in Highland Twins to represent ordinary Britons, even when they’re not faithful retainers, in a very positive, we’re-all-in-this-together light eg the WAAFS on the train.

I enjoyed this one a lot more: much less tartan than I feared, and a satisfying interweaving of the subplots. I’m pleased that Betty was ultimately redeemable (poor child, at boarding school from five) and I like the way EBD ensures that the Nazi spy isn’t too scary for her young readers. Rather aghast, though, at Miss Annersley enabling Fiona to use her Second Sight.

I just need to banish my naughty thoughts about Jem’s reaction to Jack’s apparent death…

I like the WAAFs on the train too. But wait until you read Gay!

Rather aghast, though, at Miss Annersley enabling Fiona to use her Second Sight.

I thought the conversation between Hilda and Nell on that subject was very well done. Because they're both characters we're supposed to admire and look up to, it wasn't obvious which side the reader was supposed to take.

Some remarkable fan fiction on that subject. More groaning involved.

So Jack and Jem are secretly in love and making babies like crazy with their respective wives to distract attention from their 'Brokeback Mountain without the rodeos or cowboys' love?

It would also explain them being a bit heavy-handed with the drugs. 'Fell into a packing case? Here, have something to knock you out while I go and stare longingly at my BIL...'

I'm definitely not going to go and look it up. I'm still reeling from accidentally discovering the existence of House of Commons slash.

Trouble is I see your name and remember the early 70s glory days of the Gay Bachelor contest.

Did they pick periwinkles, as well as parade in their pants, or am I hallucinating that part? 😀