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 liked Camp, all the stuff about how they pitched the tents and starched their washing etc fascinated me!

Loved the Joan discussion. Bless EBD, she may not have known anyone who’d ever given birth but she clearly met ONE working class woman in the 1960s!

I believe Rosamund was a pleb too, viz lardy cake, but she was named after “my lady Rosamund as what I used to be a maid for” and is humble enough to try and better herself, whereas Joan has a common name and just doesn’t try hard enough to be middle class!

The first one I ever read was Carola which bemused me, I hadn’t a clue what was going on. Then I went back to The Lintons and was absolutely hooked! The early ones are my favourites, Eustacia (no health and safety in those days) and Rivals. It’s lucky EBD tells us what a great person Joey is because otherwise she’d just seem like a normal, big headed, loud mouthed teacher’s pet! I say that like I don’t love Joey, I do, but she’s very favoured by them all. I love how Eustacia feels it and gets annoyed with her and it’s explained by Joey’s “charm”.

Exile is wonderful, quite emotional to read even now. And the Gertrude Becker storyline is fantastic. Others have expressed it so well - she clearly did know what was going on at the time.

I’d say the Vienna Museum is superb. Vienna has an amazing collection of museums but the historical one is so enlightening.

The first one I ever read was Carola which bemused me, I hadn’t a clue what was going on.

Carola was my first one too. I was confused by all the stuff at the beginning about Biddy coming back from Australia. I thought the story of her going to Australia must have been in a previous book. And it did take me several books to work out who everyone was and how they all fitted in. I read them in whatever order I could get them from the library, so was jumping around from one part of the series to another and not twigging that Dr Jem and Sir James were one and the same.

Agree wholeheartedly on Exile. I was a bit too young when I read them as a child and had remembered it just as a great adventure story. Returning to it decades later, I was amazed and moved.

I want my kids to read them, but they have no interest at all. Starting with Exile as a study aid may be a good idea!

I remember jumping all over the series when I was younger too, as I'd just pick up whatever was in the library, which was a rather random selection! I remember getting upset when I'd requested "and Jo," and they got me "Jo of," which I'd already read! Though that is one of my favourites thanks to the gorgeous description of Tirolean Christmas.

Then I got given a whole bunch of the 60s/70s Armada versions, got even more confused for a while, before I was able to get a proper timeline going. Her occasional continuity errors/age flexibility didn't help either!

I’d recommend against that from experience. You/we remember all the war stuff, but the book opens with pages and pages of various Bettany/Russell children being talked to. It’s bewildering for a newcomer!

I remember getting upset when I'd requested "and Jo," and they got me "Jo of," which I'd already read!

Jo of and Princess were two that my local library didn't seem to have, and I really wanted to read Princess because it's so often referred to in later books. I didn't manage to read them until Armada published them.

I lost my entire collection when I split up with my ex husband. I had been collecting from age 9 to 42. Now at 50 have re started collecting! Glad to find this thread lol

I’d recommend against that from experience. You/we remember all the war stuff, but the book opens with pages and pages of various Bettany/Russell children being talked to. It’s bewildering for a newcomer!

And Exile has more impact if you already know the characters. People who had read the books as they were published had known Herr Marani from the beginning, when he took the girls shopping for Madge's birthday present. It was very brave of EBD tto kill off an established character in that way.

I lost my entire collection when I split up with my ex husband. I had been collecting from age 9 to 42. Now at 50 have re started collecting! Glad to find this thread lol

I've found my people!
I just did a read through of the whole series over the last year and a bit. I was unwell and it was a lovely way to pass the time

Chalet school in Exile is the standout book for me. There's some amazingly perceptive writing

They do drop a lot in quality towards the end of the series but I am glad I have done a full read through.

It's brilliant how many people still read them despite them only being sporadically in print.

There is definitely something completely escapist about them. If you want a relaxing read there is nothing better.

I was struck by just how good the characterisation was in the Tyrolean books. You really feel as if you know the characters and they are so well drawn.

The continuity errors (sometimes even within the same book) make me giggle. You would never get those to that degree today as they would usually be picked up by editors.

I wish! There's less editing now than there was back then - a lot of the books I read are riddled with errors.

This thread inspired me to reread Exile. And I laughed out loud at the "second rate private schools" which the Chalet School is stealing girls from. That almost a phrase straight off the education threads here!

So given the enthusiasm on this thread I probably shouldn’t mention that GBBP republish all the chalet school books as well as fill-in stories in EBD style.

For those who love Exile, there is now a fill in for the middle section which covers the gap from them being in Switzerland to Jo being married and settled. It’s got all the random detail you’d expect about Guernsey plus the wedding.

Well, they’re pretty much all available online on Faded Page and other locations, and there used to be a set of transcripts doing the rounds, plus cheap paperbacks are easy to come by for. So I suppose the GGP reprints are only important to a minority for the rarer ones.

Agree on the hilarious continuity errors. Doesn’t Con Stewart have two different married surnames, without appearing to change husband? And Biddy O’Ryan morphs into Buddy O’Hara in one book. And Onkel Riese (Uncle Giant) becomes Onkel Reise (Uncle Travel).

Plus stuff like Adrienne turning out to be recognised as a relative of the Robin’s because they look alike, but they’re related via the Robin’s father, when she apparently looks exactly like her mother?

And not exactly an error, but in A Future Chalet School Girl they jump from ‘It’s ridiculous to think that Melanie could be related to Jeanne Le Cadoulec, that would be far too big a coincidence’ to ‘Oh yes, Jeanne Le Cadoulec was my great aunt’ (or some similar relation).

The fill ins range from pretty good to 'why??' in my experience. That one is decent, although still a bit holiday book for me, with lengthy domestic passages I skim read. But others would probably love that.

I have spotted some errors in recent reads, but I don't think I have ever seen a character with as many different names as Mademoiselle Lepattre (?!!) ;0

Could anyone tell me the name of the fill in for Exile?

Yes, and her French is riddled with errors for a native speaker. There’s some moment where she’s correcting prep or telling a pupil ‘est-ce que’ requires a subjunctive to follow it!

But that’s part of the unlikely charm, along with no pupils ever reading the prospectus so that the trilingualism always comes as a huge shock, the ‘dainty’ cubicles, the endless Kaffee und Kuchen, golden potato balls, curtsying, the Abbess’s cello-like tones, Joey as the Spirit of the School and Super-Breeder, and everyone being completely fine with a bunch of unusually delicate girls, many with close relatives being treated for TB at the San, being kept all in close proximity together in a chalet.

And having cold baths.

I can never make my mind up about ‘chill-off’, which appears to be your only other option. Barely tepid? Lukewarm? Is Matey or your dormitory prefect going to show up and check the temperature?

Given what a rush they seem to be in, there would never be time to get the water hot or even warm.

I was always a little bemused at the special way they taught new girls to climb mountains. Apparently you have to bend your knees.

Clearly in EBD's mind, you naturally strode up mountains completely straight-legged, like a pair of scissors. 😀

The walking thing that most cracks me up in the Chalet School books is when she depicts (I think) Grizel, Joey and Miss Maynard walking down a road somewhere in England 'with a graceful swing that drew the eyes of passersby to them' and which apparently comes from continually practicing folk dances.

I mean, if your walk is so unusual that people are staring at you on the street, isn't it possible your movement is a bit weird?

Mind you, she also points out approvingly that part of the reason people look at them is that they're obviously English but use their hands when they talk, which most Englishwomen don't. Which gives the impression of three young women sort of dancing down a road waving their hands like a comedy Frenchman on 'Allo 'Allo.