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?

Oh why did they take away the laugh emoji?

Because stupid people were being mean with it. Not remotely Chaletian. Very fourth form.

I loved them because EMBD created a whole community. In the very first book, we met Madge, Dick and Joey and we got to follow them into adulthood and parenthood and meet their many children. In the early books, we met many of the parents of the first students. And a lot of the earlier pupils had younger sisters who subsequently joined the school, so it created a sense of continuity. In addition to the pupils and their families, EBD wrote a lot of scenes featuring the teachers (conversations in the staff room etc.). I found those scenes really interesting, as it gave me a very different perspective. Up until then, I'd mostly thought of school from my own perspective as a pupil. The presence of the San (and all of the doctors who worked there) gave it an added dimension.

I also loved the exotic locations, especially Austria and Switzerland. My first trip on a plane was at the age of 21 and that was a flight to London . I just loved the idea of a school in the Alps where you could go hiking and ice skating and swimming in a lake etc. And you could go on day trips or half-term trips to Swiss cities. I was green with envy! Although I'd forgotten about the cold baths. And having to darn socks.

The other school books I read (Malory Towers and St. Clare's ) mostly tied in with the school term. So the books started at the beginning of term and ended with the pupils saying their farewells at the end of term and heading home for the holidays. But the Chalet School books occasionally showed events or scenes taking place during the holidays. And 'The Chalet Girls in Camp' didn't take place in the school at all.

The exotic locations allowed for very dramatic events or accidents, like Mary Lou's accident or the teachers and pupils getting lost in the mountains. These dramatic scenes simply couldn't have taken place in an English boarding school. I know we joke about it all now and refer to Health & Safety, but they made the books very colourful.

Then of course, there are the many pupils over the years who had very dramatic back stories. As discussed already, some were orphans and some had been abandoned by their families.

Yes, I think this is what I love about them too.

One thing she was very good at was creating these characters and geographical locations making them feel very real and very vivid. You almost feel as if you know the characters.

The locations are exotic as school stories go. Obviously most children now will have travelled more than those reading them in the twenties and thirties, but it is still extremely rare for children and teens to be able to travel abroad to such beautiful destinations for their education.

Is the Sally Denny Library still
floating somewhere round t’interwebs? I miss the fill-ins etc.

Not sure about the Sally Denny but if you search for Lime Green Musings that should fill the gap!

I found an Armada copy of Joey & Co in Tirol in a charity shop at the weekend.

I’d forgotten that once Joey finally recovered from her swoon she was furious about the treatment that had been meted out to Mike, & also that - as with Margot going to Canada - it was Madge, Jem & Jack who came up with the idea of sending him off.

The ‘why didn’t he get a whipping’ and the part about Jack not trusting himself near Mike really hasn’t aged well though.

It’s hilarious the lengths EBD goes to in order to get the boys out of the way in holiday books so she can concentrate on the triplets and Joey, possibly with a few of ‘the babies’ in the distant background as set dressing.

I came on here to say EXACTLY that!

Also, the plot line for Biddy is downright weird. Isn't she adopted by the Guide group (wtf), then sent to village school and then "promoted " to CS?

I loathe and detest EBD's "Oirish" dialogue. Just downright silly.

Oh yes, and why does Joey have the absolute cheek to change people's names? The triplets, right, yes, kind of (though the shortened names are truly awful). But Theodora and Richenda? I'd have told her to sod right off.

I have a long name and woe betide the person who tries to shorten it. They don't try again.

So bloody ARROGANT!!!

Don't forget turning Fiona into Fauna

YES! that was just rude

Worst was poor Eustacia. Bereaved teenager seen as a bad sport because she wanted to keep the name her dead parents had given her. Stacie? Really?

Eustacia never struck me as any odder or more unattractive as a name than lots of the names of girls at the CS around the same period, with no one appearing to find their names at all worthy of remark — like Ilonka, Cornelia, Grizel, Gertrud, Bernhilda, Primula, Evadne etc. I can appreciate it might have caused a stir in an English school full of Joans and Bettys, but with an international school like that, there’s no particular reason for most of the girls to find it at all strange.

But I was at school with a Eucharia (in the eighties, in a school full of Lisas, Gemmas, Lindas etc) and no one lost their life.

I never figured out how to pronounce Evadne.

Apparently its E-Vad-nee. I always thought it was eva-dene

Me neither! I've certainly looked it up and seen that my vague guess seems to be right -- the emphasis is on the second syllable. But child me just autocorrected her to 'Evvy'. 'Von Eschenau' also baffled child me.

Yep, my Mum has a cousin E-Vad-nee. I never thought it was that much of an unusual name because of that. But she did live in London and was therefore impossibly glamourous :)

I learned how to pronounce Evadne from the comedy duo - Evadne Hinge and Hilda Bracket.

But until I started learning German, I thought Abendessen was pronounced A Bendussun rather than Arbent Essen.

Also, the plot line for Biddy is downright weird. Isn't she adopted by the Guide group (wtf), then sent to village school and then "promoted " to CS?

E J Oxenham also had an (apparent) orphan adopted by a Guide company, who turns out to be a talented musician. I think EJO did it first.

Biddy would never have dared to speak to Miss Wilson as she spoke to Miss Slater.

There's some good Chalet School fan fiction on archiveofourown, some serious, some funny. Limegreenmusings slates EBD's characters.

I've read all the CS school books and some of the fill ins - I still hope that EBD's missing manuscript for Two Chalet School Girls in India will turn up one day

Is Lime Green Musings what used to be the Chalet Bulletin Board?

No it isn't, LGM is just for fan fic and not very flattering towards EBD and her characters. Some pages from the CBB and SD library are available on Internet archive sites.

Happy New Year Chalet School fans.
I got held up on my re read and have only gotten as far as the end if the island. Rather than going through the remainder chronologically, can anyone recommend a good starter book on the Swiss series. I was thinking of one of the reunion type ones which harks back to the Tyrol years. Which is the best of these?

Coming of Age is a good one for this. Joey & Co in Tirol is a nice reunion one, but not actually in Switzerland!