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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

Chalet school Books

60 replies

deaddei · 22/10/2009 21:33

Just been browsing Amazon (like you do) and seeing these took me back 40 years. I loved the series so much - I seem to remember there were dozens of them and I owned every one. Why didn't I keep them? I must get some for dd (and me!)

OP posts:

dearprudence · 22/10/2009 22:30

I just read Last Term at Malory Towers (picked up on a charity stall this summer). After 30 odd years, I was amazed how incredibly familiar it was!

thedollyridesout · 22/10/2009 22:42

DD 8 has read and reread Malory Towers. Is Antonia Forest just as tame then?

cleanandclothed · 23/10/2009 09:03

No Antonia Forest is much 'richer'. The 'good' characters are flawed, the 'bad' characters have redeeming features and don't always get their come uppance, and there is quite a bit of cross referencing other books because the main characters are wide readers, but it is subtle so if you don't pick up on it it doesn't matter. 8 is maybe slightly young for them - 10 or 11 would be perfect.

ADifferentMe · 23/10/2009 09:12

My ungrateful DDs refused point blank to read the ones I've bought in charity shops having given away my huge collection once I thought I was too old.

My happiest memories are of being left alone when my parents were working in the school holidays with just a biscuit tin and a new Chalet School book.

hackneybird · 23/10/2009 18:07

I loved The Chalet School too - I was inspired to buy some older titles from ebay after a trip to Innsbruck but I never got round to reading them.

I might go and fish them out now.

PrincessFiorimonde · 23/10/2009 21:05

Yes, loved the Chalet School books too. Don't think I read them all - weren't there a lot of them?

I seem to remember thinking it was a bit unrealistic when Joe(?) had dozens of children, including twins and triplets - or have I misremembered? (Apart from the triplets, mentioned earlier.)

What was her sister called, and didn't she have lots of kids too?

Wasn't there one when they all escaped from the Nazis through a tunnel, and by the time they reached the end of the tunnel the headmistress's hair had turned completely white from the trauma of it all?

tvaerialmagpiebin · 23/10/2009 21:14

Ratherbeonthepiste if you are ever thinking of getting rid of your Antonia Forest books, I would love to take them off your hands (for spondoolicks, of course ) as I am currently ADDICTED.

Am going to have to re-read Chalet School and Malory Towers too soon.

Yorky · 23/10/2009 21:23

Think there were over 50 chalet school books, my mum has them all, and lots of EJ Oxenham/Abbey girl books. I enjoyed Malory towers - what is it about girls school books?
All the nice/main chalet characters had swarms of kids IIRC

seeker · 23/10/2009 22:14

58!

mrsmike · 23/10/2009 22:23

oh and they always had coffee and cakes in the afternoon, how civilised that seemed, how envious I was, remeber that?!

dwardle · 24/10/2009 08:06

Can anyone remember who wrote the Sue Barton series? I loved them and had forgotten about them until I saw this thread. My school library had all the chalet school books - I loved them. I also remember a series by someone called mazo della roche??? But cannot remember what they were about! I think they had red and white covers!

Pogleswood · 24/10/2009 12:17

Helen Dore Boylston wrote Sue Barton,dwardle.Loved those - and the Chalet School,but Antonia Forest the most! I think Eleanor M Brent Dyer got a little carried away when it came to Old Girls having families though,a little "two or three children are lovely, so how much better if they have 10 or 12".

LauraIngallsWilder · 24/10/2009 12:19

This thread is fab!

Sue Barton district nurse - I had forgotton all about those
I loved the malory towers series
and the Naughty Elizabeth series

Purchases may be required

Idontknowhowtohelpher · 24/10/2009 12:29

dwardle - I remember Mazo de la Roche! I just looked on Amazon here and found Jalna - I haven't thought of that for years! All the unusual names etc.

neversaydie · 24/10/2009 13:09

Did you know that Helen Dore Boylston was a friend of Rose Wilder Lane, who was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder who wrote all the Little House books? In 1926, Lane, Helen Dore Boylston and their French maid traveled from France to Albania in a car they had named "Zenobia".

lemonpuff · 24/10/2009 14:01

Does anyone remember a book titled Marsha? believe there were two books, set in Russia. Ballet theme, would love to get hold of them again.

Have most of the Chalet books, later ones are more expensive - smaller print run. Even have a copy of the cookbook!!!

Pogleswood · 24/10/2009 14:36

lemonpuff,do you mean Masha,and The Youngest Lady in Waiting? They were set in Russia, but I don't remember a ballet theme.In the first one I think she was in an orphanage,and the second she was at court,and there was sub plot about the decembrist uprising.I loved these too - they are available on the second hand market,but sadly way above my price range!
And if it wasn't these,I hope someone else can help!

lemonpuff · 24/10/2009 14:50

Pogleswood, thimk you may be right. I will have too look again have tried various sites with no results, I still love sitting down with a thick book thinking this is me for the day, please supply tea and wine at apporiate times

MummyDoIt · 24/10/2009 14:56

I have the full set of Chalet School books. I only owned about a dozen when I was a child but have built up the set over the years. I actually reread the lot last year from start to finish and it was a bit of an eyeopener. Quite funny to see what was acceptable at the time - women were definitely second-class citizens as were foreigners. I am still very fond of them, though.

Did anyone read the sequel called 'The Chalet Girls Grow Up'? Not written by EBD and not at all in the keeping with the original series. The main characters all had affairs, went mad, committed suicide or suffered other dire fates.

maggotts · 04/11/2009 22:36

lemonpuff

I am pretty sure you do mean Masha! I remember reading the Youngest Lady in Waiting when I was about 10 and finally finding Masha at the library. Oh the joy of getting home, lying on the bed and reading the whole book in a day!! Searched for it for dd1 some time ago and it costs hundreds now.

Loving this thread as also read entire Malory Towers, St Clares, Chalet School, Sue Barton ect.

Was also a big fan of Jill books (Jill gets a pony etc.) DD1 has read these recently and they stand up very well. Jill is quite a determined feisty sort!

breastsofjordan · 04/11/2009 22:42

I loved the quaint sounding German names for meals. Didn't they have kaffee und kuchen or something mid morning?

gio71 · 05/11/2009 07:51

love this thread, can I join? They had coffee in cakes in the afternoon as well didnt they? Wasn't it coffee with "delicious bread twists" or some such thing mid morning? How were they always so slim?? Seem to remember chubby or plump was not an admired chaletian quality

YorkshireTeaDrinker · 05/12/2009 15:55

Kaffee und Kuchen was mid afternoon - instead of tea. I started with The Chalet School and Eustacia which I found in teh school library when I was 10. Carried on reading collecting until Imy mid teens and then picked up again in my early 20s when I discovered FOCS (Friends of the Chalet School).

There were 58 books in the origional hardback series, 62 in the abridged Armada reprints.

I love the early Tyrolean books and these are the ones I tend to read most frequently. Joey does get a bit wearisome in the later books, as she acquires hoardes of immpecably behaved babies, and EBD's attempts to be 'modern' towards the end of the series are a bit cringeworthy.

But my Chalet School books are like a comfort blanket, to be taken out and re-read in times of stress. I loved reading boarding school stories when I was young (they seems so exotic in comparison with my local comprehansive!) but the CS is the only series I still go back to. I suppose that, dispite the irritations, its a world populated by characters that I care about.

RosieMBanks · 06/12/2009 12:52

Oh I loved Sue Barton - this thread brings back some memories! I found a complete set in a charity shop and bought them for DD to read when she is older. I had the seventies set with cover photos of a red-headed girl in different uniforms...I wanted to marry a doctor like Bill Barry. I think she had a daughter Tabitha, and maybe twins?? - and friends called Kit and Connie...will have to rummage in the loft for the box they are in!

gallery · 18/12/2009 21:07

this is brill thread. I loved chalet school and managed as a child to hunt some weird titles down (the highland twins at the chalet school). They were fun and I read loads and agree about re reading them. Sue Barton- I had totally forgotten. She was rather more grown up though. Thanks for bringing fond memories back.
I recalled Antonia Forrest recently and went on a hunt to find her books- there are more than I read at the time- and they are rathre too expensive to buy for nostalgic read.
All fun memories - though I am now trying to remember the tennis based series I read which was also a boarding school

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