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 didn’t know either! I was exploring, stopped at the pub for a drink & saw this.

I tried re-reading some Malcolm Saville a while ago but couldn't get into them, which was disappointing, because I loved them as a child.

I loved "Two Fair Plaits" when I was a child. I dug out my copy and gave it to a granddaughter who also has two fair plaits and is a real bookworm. She was very polite but when I asked if she'd like any more, she said she still had two Percy Jackson books to read. I can take a hint!

There's a good episode set in Rye in The Unknown Ajax.

I haven’t read that one for ages, I’ll have to find it & have a look. I can make a few good guesses.

Oh, I don’t know. One is tempted to suggest a new girl who hasn’t heard of Joey’s books, a new girl who has read the prospectus and thus isn’t surprised by the trilingualism, an instance where the staff say ‘We’re having an actual staff meeting, Joey, which means you’re not invited’!

Or, more seriously, lots of Enid Blyton-type plots would work perfectly well — someone from a very different school that’s temporarily had to close for some reason and is initially unimpressed with the CS, a brilliant sports star unimpressed with the sports provision at the CS? A feud between two sisters? The tension caused by a new staff member who comes with a daughter/niece as part of the deal? Thekla Von Swift’s identical twin daughters back for revenge?

I read a great fan fiction once where Antonia Forest's Marlows are sent to The Chalet School and Nicola is brilliantly lukewarm about Joey's books - "There's one about the Civil War that wasn't too bad ..." 😆

In the past few weeks, I've re-read all of the Austrian books, with the exception of 'Exile'. I reckon it's about 25 - 30 years since I last read the books and this is probably the first time I read them in the proper sequence.

I'm happy to report that I really enjoyed the books. There were enough near deaths adventures, activities and pranks to keep me engaged. New pupils and mistresses were introduced gradually, at a decent pace. I enjoyed meeting the characters (especially the pupils) and watching them mature from children to young adults.

When I last read the books, I read them purely as boarding school stories. This time around, I found myself really interested in everyday life as described in the books and I've been thinking about how much life has changed since then. For example, travelling by train facilitated Madge's encounter with Jem. It also set up the scene between Joe/Grizel and Frau Berliner. There are, of course, lots of references to letter writing. The pupils and teachers write letters home, as you'd expect. But I was amused to come across a scene featuring Madame writing to Madge (who is now married and living with Jem in the Sonnalpe) to fill her in on the school news. The hobbies club amused me - I don't think modern day pupils would occupy themselves embroidering collars and cuffs.

There are lots of charming scenes:-

• Singsongs around the campfire in the 'Camp' book
• Picking flowers and berries on the mountains in summer
• Sleigh rides in winter
• Being served coffee and cakes by servants dressed in traditional Tyrolean costume
• Musical performances by bands of Tzigane gypsies

I was quite startled by references to the KKK. Anyone know anything about the Elsie books? They're supposed to be children's books! There are some racist terms which we wouldn't use today (or at least, no decent person would use them). In one of the books, the prefects discuss Simone Lecoutier and speculate as to whether she would have confessed to some misdemeanour if Joey hadn't pushed her to do so. It's insinuated that she's not honest because she's not English.

I'd forgotten how much Joey Bettany/Maynard irritated me. On the one hand, she's portrayed as a wise head on young shoulders and Madge confides in her about everything (has nobody heard of GDPR ). But then she goes off and does all kinds of impulsive, crazy things and never gets into trouble because she's so delicate that she ends up at death's door every time.

Do you reckon Madge and Jo got free school fees for their kids? The Board of Management must have been in despair at the amount of kids Jack and Joe produced. And who paid for all of the assorted kids that were hanging around Madge's house? So far there's The Robin, Juliet, the Venables sisters and I seem to remember that Jo and Jack end up in loco parentis for various pupils in the Switzerland books.

Someone commented earlier in the thread about Jo not asking Grizel to be bridesmaid. I was more surprised that Juliet didn't ask Grizel to be her bridesmaid. I mean, they were classmates and they both ran the Annexe together. And Donal's people own a castle in Ireland - surely they could have managed another bridesmaid's dress. Poor Grizel - not only does she not get to be a bride, but she doesn't even get to be a bridesmaid.

I've already commented on the pupils getting married so quickly after leaving school. I found myself wondering if the women got bored, especially the wealthier ones, who had servants to tend to their children and do their housework. Perhaps they involved themselves in charitable causes, a bit like today. My own parents got married at 23 and were parents at the age of 24. This would have been in the '60s. Alas, my Mam had no servants to help her out and was unable to engage a live in childminder.

Inevitably, my thoughts have turned to the war. I wonder how the pupils and their families will manage in the years to come - some live in countries which will be invaded during the war and those who are German will encounter considerable difficulties when the war ends. And I find myself wondering if the merry Tzigane gypsies end up in concentration camps.

Right, I'm moving onto Exile.

Do you reckon Madge and Jo got free school fees for their kids?

Jo says at some point, in the Swiss era I think, that the girls don't cost them anything. It was Bettany family money which was used to set up the school, so I suppose the free schooling - for Dick's daughters too - was in lieu of dividends when the school became a limited company with shareholders.

It was expected that well to do women and girls would get involved in Good Works. In the 1920s and 1930s it was considered wrong for a girl to take a job if she didn't need one, when there were girls who really did need jobs. Instead they were supposed to do things like visiting the sick and housebound, organising charity bazaars and concerts, running Guide companies, teaching Sunday School classes or folk dancing. The Abbey books go into this.

@Taytocrisps I agree. Alongside the rather lovely stories, the books are also such an interesting snapshot of an era that is so close to us in some ways (my grandparents were children then) but also so different

Re women getting bored - my great grandmother was a doctor but was expected to stop work when she got married. She would have had youngish children in the late 1920s/30s. I read her diaries and it was clear how frustrated by this she was but also how she was pouring her energies and intelligence into anything it was considered acceptable for her to do (lots of charity work, campaigning, and mountaineering). Her sons loved her but were very much raised by a succession of nannies who found them a fairly boisterous bunch!

Also @Taytocrisps for a good fiction book that is considered largely autobiographical - Diary of a Provincial Lady is set around this time and is very funny but very much covers some of the themes around intelligent women being stuck largely in the domestic sphere

I seem to remember that Jo and Jack end up in loco parentis for various pupils in the Switzerland books.

I did a full re -read the other year when I was ill. The later books definitely touch on funding for the fees for some of the various waifs and strays joey scoops up in Switzerland - often they have money just absent/dead parents

Oh, I knew there were some crossovers, though I've never read any. I imagine Ann is the only one who fits in to the CS seamlessly, as a devout and helpful type? Imagine Joey inviting Nick and Lawrie for tea, and expecting them to be thrilled to bath 'the babies'. or Rowan as games prefect: 'So we're up a mountain in the middle of nowhere, we're snowed up for a good chunk of the winter so can't play hockey etc, there are no other schools for miles, so there's no one to play matches with even when we can get outdoors, and the nearest place we can swim is a lengthy train ride away?'

Absolutely all the Bettany/Maynard/Russell clan got free schooling, and all the various wards like the Robin, the Venables girls etc! Positive squads of them! (Who is the child Joey picks up from somewhere in one of the Swiss books, and who is promptly forgotten about by EBD and never mentioned again?)

Baby Marie-Claire , whose mother dies in a train crash that Joey and another soon-to-be ward, Erica Standish, are involved in.

Spot on, Ann thrives there! It's a long time since I read it (and I'm not sure it's around any more) but Nicola ends up punching Len Maynard I think! Miranda West also persuades her father to let her go to the Chalet School. There's a bit where Rowan visits Nicola and gives her some advice, and describes Joey as a 'two bit penny novelist' or words to that effect.

@Antimimisti - you don't happen to remember the name of the crossover Chalet School/Marlows book do you? I'd be fascinated to read it!

I think I'm in love with this! Is it on AAOOO or somewhere? The last time I had the remotest involvement with fan fiction it was still all on LiveJournal and dinosaurs walked the earth!

I did definitely read one where Giles Marlow gets engaged to ghastly Mary-Lou, which ended with 'It was no good, They didn't take to her at all.' (Which, for non-Forest fans, echoes the Marlows' ill-fated first meeting with Karen Marlow's Edwin.)

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius @BallybunionTao I'm fairly sure it or the link to it was on LiveJournal, I got pointed to it on 'Trennels' about 15 years ago at least. I've had a google but I can't find it now - it might have been in 'the Sally Denny library' but none of the links I can find are working.

Thank you, @Antimimisti.

Lucky you, moving on to Exile. The best book of all, in my opinion! I find it equally as gripping as an adult as I did as a child.

I think Grizel actually was Joey's bridesmaid. The issue that arose was that Joey made a point of saying that she could not possibly by her chief bridesmaid as she preferred Robyn. It came across as quite harsh and pointed. I think that discussion actually happens in Exile, shortly after Joey and Jack become engaged. Although, due to the escape from Austria we don't actually see Joey's wedding at all, so it is quite possible that given that it had to be organised quite quickly in another country that she didn't end up having the bridesmaids she originally chose anyway...

In hindsight it is unusual that EBD did not describe Joey's wedding, given that she was the central character in the series. Perhaps she thought it was too extravagant to demonstrate the celebrations of a wedding in great details during war time.

Re Juliet I don't recall that we ever saw her actual wedding either. Was it just another conversation where we heard about the bridesmaid situation for her wedding?

I do remember as a child being totally confused by the fact that everyone in Chalet School world gave up their jobs when they got married!

it is quite possible that given that it had to be organised quite quickly in another country that she didn't end up having the bridesmaids she originally chose anyway...

She wouldn't have had Frieda, who was probably her closest friend.

It was probably a very quiet wedding. Herr Marani, Friedel von Gluck and Bruno von Ahlen were missing. Margot Venables was dying, or had recently died. Madge was about to give birth to Josette, or had recently given birth. Jo probably just had a quick ceremony with just Robin as bridesmaid, and no reception.

I went out to dinner last night and the friend who was hosting us owns the whole series of the original Chalet School books in hard back. AIBU to feel jealous?

Also, I don't think Joey can have had time to convert to Catholicism yet by the time of her wedding, so as a 'mixed marriage', it would have been an extremely low-key affair, no nuptial Mass (as she couldn't take communion), probably at a side-altar (if in the actual church at all -- sometimes it would have been in the presbytery), in plain clothes.

I assume that this is part of the reason EBD chose not to depict Joey and Jack's wedding, not just the war setting. (She enjoyed Simone's wedding and everyone cooperating to get a dress and cake together at the last minute.) For all her series-long commitment to characters of both faiths happily co-existing, attending one another's services etc, the fact is that a marriage between a Protestant and a Catholic in the 40s would have been a frowned-on act, scrutinised by the Church, requiring special concessions and not regarded with any enthusiasm, even if the bride said she was planning to convert. And of course Joey would have signed a written commitment to bring up all children as Catholic.

I don't think that would sit easily with EBD's generally ecumenical outlook, and it certainly wouldn't have hit the celebratory note she would have wanted for her favourite heroine, so she chose to skip ahead.

I assume your jacket was suspiciously bulgy as you left???😍