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?

But acknowledging that would be saying that Freudesheim and the CS are providing an inadequate diet!

Wasn't her husband part of the set-up too?

Yes, Sydney M. was EBD's agent.

I read a couple of Phyllis's school stories, years ago, when I came across them in charity shops. They were never as easily obtainable as the big name authors - Brazil, Oxenham etc.

But acknowledging that would be saying that Freudesheim and the CS are providing an inadequate diet!

The CS would be providing as good a diet as anyone else in the UK had at the time. But post-war rationing was really tough - bread and flour products were rationed for a time, for example, which they weren't during the war.

(This is probably why Enid Blyton describes the Famous Five's farmhouse teas so lavishly - most of her readers would never have seen so much food all at once.)

No rationing in Switzerland, of course.

Yes, I’m aware. But EBD is no realist! The only time I remember her making any kind of deal about food restrictions, other than some mentions of rationing, is with ‘the famine’ in Switzerland, where the school goes temporarily vegetarian.

Yes - she disappeared after Camp. So she had left at some point to get married and returned to Oberland still with her maiden name.

Anyone else confused by the two Joan Bakers? The one in Oberland and the one in Problems seem very similar.

Yes - she disappeared after Camp. So she had left at some point to get married and returned to Oberland still with her maiden name.

Wasn't Miss Nalder going to be godmother to Margot in Exile?

I don't remember another Joan Baker in Oberland.

Yes, she was, but wasn’t on Guernsey (though not clear where she was?) because Joey said the Robin was going to stand in for her at the baptism ceremony. Referred to as both Grave Nalder and ‘Nally’ in the same conversation between Jo and Madge.

I don’t remember another Joan Baker either.

I found Joey’s choice of Godparents for the triplets to be quite odd!

Essentially her three teachers!

Bill I could just about understand as they had the shared trauma of the flight in Exile.

I get that they had to be Catholics but surely Robin, Frieda, Simone or Marie were more obvious choices. Particularly if she was having stand ins anyway!

Did we ever get an explanation as to where Miss Nalder went between Camp and Oberland and why she was suddenly back?!

Also have no memory of another Joan Baker….

Pretty sure there's only one Joan Baker.

Yes, choice of godmothers very odd. That said, plenty more vacancies came up later!

The godfathers are even odder, though — Gottfried Mensch, Eugen von Wertheimer and ‘Vater Bär’!

Like, if you’re having Eugen, the husband of one of your best friends, as godfather, why wouldn’t you have Marie as godmother, rather than three of your former teachers? Same with Gottfried? It’s not as if they don’t know oodles of Catholics!

Maybe Miss Nalder had a Dark Story?😃

Like whichever former CS mistress who appeared to have two different married names without being widowed. Clearly no one divorces in the CS world…

I could understand not having Frieda, because she didn't know when or if she would ever see her again. And maybe she thought she wouldn't have the other two without Frieda.

Godparents in this era I think would often be older, not the parents’ generation- especially as Joey is so young and orphaned it’s a way of recruiting in an older generation (who also have resources to spare and aren’t just starting out in life)

But we don’t know where Grace Nalder is either, other than not on Guernsey, and Marie and Eugen are still in the US at this point! OK, they say they’re coming to Guernsey, but transatlantic travel in wartime wasn’t going to be easy, safe or straightforward.

But Gottfried, Eugen and the mistresses are very much Joey and Jack’s generation…?

I mean, I do know what you mean — I’m in my 50s, and my grandparents were my godparents, but that doesn’t seem to be the logic here.

Oh yes, even odder to have Eugen but not Marie!

I am not sure we saw any indication that Joey was particularly close to Miss Stewart or Miss Nalder either! I could almost have understood Matron better.

It was the improved , ‘Chaletfied’ version of Joan Baker.

I genuinely had no idea that there is a consensus that someone other than EBD finished "Prefects." It all makes so much sense to me now. When I first read it, I remember being astonished when Joey asked Len (a propos of Reg) if she was sure it was "the real thing." It seemed out of character, somehow, more like the kind of thing I used to read in "Jackie" (teen magazine.) I also found it disappointing that the last reported words of a character I had followed for decades was a cliched moan about children growing up. I know she was always bleating about that since her own school days but I think we deserved to have something more profound (dare I say "moving"?) as the last we hear of this iconic character.

That part re Joey’s last line, I could understand okay because EBD may have not known definitively when she was writing it that it was going to be the last book.

Obviously, the last few lines of the final chapter do have an end of an era type feel about them. Also, Len’s marriage didn’t need to be finalised and confirmed three years in advance which again might indicate that either EBD or whoever helped her writing it (if anyone did) might have been deliberately tying up loose ends. Again, it could be complete coincidence that the triplets last term ended up coinciding with the last book.

On one hand I can’t help but think that if EBD had known or planned on it being the last book that Joey would have had her final baby in that book. Especially after she had specifically confirmed that she intended to have a 12th child a few books earlier….

On one hand I can’t help but think that if EBD had known or planned on it being the last book that Joey would have had her final baby in that book.

OTOH, doesn't Jo say at some point that Jack thinks their family is big enough, with five boys' school fees, plus further education costs for all of them. Isn't he in his late forties at the end of the series? He'll be well into his sixties by the time the children he's got have finished their education, never mind any more.

Oh yes I do recall this.

However, we are clearly told in Reunion that they intend to round up the dozen when Geoff and Phil are up a bit, and that Joey wants a girl. She makes it clear to Grizel there that they intend to have at least one more.

I can’t see EBD specifying that if it wasn’t her intention….

I am not sure if Jack’s age is ever clarified? I presume he must be at least ten years older than Joey. He arrived in Tyrol when she was around 13 and was already a Doctor by then who seemed to have medical experience so at the very least he had to be 23 if not 25 or 26.

If the triplets are 18 at the end then we know that Joey is 39 or 40. Ebd seems to change her age of having them from 22 to 21 and back again but it is one of the two.

Yes there was a Joan Baker in the first Oberland book - she was in trouble for writing to a boy and playing cards on Sundays.

Then in Problems for the Chalet School there was a Joan Baker who bullied Rosamund Lilley - had permed hair and wore make up and hung around with boys before her father came into money (possibly football pools?) and sent her to the Chalet School.

@Fransgran if you are on FB there's an excellent page called New Chalet School. It's great and there's quite a lot of info re Phyllis Matthewman's involvement.

Thanks @ByLimeAnt Unfortunately I'm not on Facebook but I'll ask around and see if I can find someone who'll let me have a look.

It never occurred to me that rationing might be why they sent Margot away with Madge et al. People reading at the time wouldn’t have needed the food situation spelling out. But for a sickly kid, fresher non-polluted air, colder winters so fewer dust mites/allergens, as close to being alpine as they could get, plus unlimited milk which EBD seems to see as a panacea- it does make more sense that Jack would see this as a wise plan. And that Jo could be persuaded.

Yes and from what I'm reading a different first name and teaching different subjects 🙈mm didn't pick up on the Joan Baker one...?