REVIEW: A Thrilling Term at Janeways'
Jun. 26th, 2016 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllA Thrilling Term at Janeways': Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Nelson
I found this 'School Story for Girls' a slightly lesser EBD book, lacking the automatic charm of the books in the Chalet School series, which can cover a certain laxness and repetition in the writing. Although this is set at a different school with a new cast of characters, they follow EBD types and experience similar things to Chalet girls. Janeways is a school with a long history, established for the daughters of those working in the arts, located on the Yorkshire moors. I can see from here that there was another book set at this school.
At the start of the new term, senior prefect Phoebe has been complaining to Charmian, her second, pal and the games captain, that the new girls have been boringly named of late. I did warm to that discussion! Almost on the next page, Phoebe meets seven new girls who will change all that. Melody and Harmony Tresillian are twins whose parents thought it wisest to take them out of a small private school where Melody, original and forceful, was ‘Lord High Everything’. There are also the five Valentines, the beautiful daughters of a renowned decorative artist – the story touches a little on what it’s like to have a genius martinet as a father, without delving too deeply into it. They are called Philippa, Phyllida, Philomena and Philomela (twins) and Philadelphia.
Oh, yes. (Their father dislikes their abbreviating their names, but their fellow schoolgirls do it anyway.)
Philomela makes a near instant impression on the school, putting on genuinely tragic airs if she does anything wrong, which her protective twin rather exacerbates, until she gradually realises that their peers think Philomela is babyish.
The school, but most particularly the Middles, who gets the two sets of new twins, are discombobulated by these newcomers, and some of their number decide to set up a secret society, which isn’t very secret, to ‘reform’ uppity Melody and over-emotional Philomela. As their methods for doing so include invoking Coventry and their motives are questionable – they soon start wanting to ‘reform’ prefects who tick them off - they stray into bullying, especially when Melody, who has repeatedly shown a lack of self-control and tendency to physically lash out, becomes suspected of a prank that affected the whole school, even though she says she didn’t do it.
Meanwhile, sensitive Philomela turns out to have a musical gift, enough tenacity to save a cat and find a long-lost historical treasure - the school adjoins land that Black Miles Nethercote stole off a monastery in Henry the eighth’s day. The Valentines’ father rents the Nethercote’s mansion, which is rumoured to be cursed as far as the Nethercotes are concerned, and the Valentine twins learn of Black Miles’s diary – excerpts of which left me feeling rather cynical, given that his wife is depicted as a witch, for real, while he offers comments on his king. The twins are more interested in what happened to the monastery’s treasure.
The term is full of escapades (or thrills) for Phoebe and co to deal with – lively Middles at prep and so forth, but the story is mainly about the new girls assimilating to become true ‘Janewegians’.
I found the five sisters with similar names, inspired by their parents’ names, a bit much. Phyllida, at least, is a non-entity, although the others are drawn more vividly, but it was a bit convenient that artistic sixteen year old Pippa got so chummy with the top prefects. Although EBD has clashes between Melody and Philomela, most writers would have settled on either the Tresillians or the Valentines coming to rock a school.
There were similarities with EBD’s most famous series – the artistic new girls reminded me of Yseult Pertwee and her sisters at the Chalet School, while Harmony’s inability to see why the rules about the senior library should apply to her is close enough to the experiences of many new girls whom the Chalet School civilised. The Valentines’ family life made me think of Clem Barras’s, more in generalities than particulars. There’s a Mary Burnett and a Miss Stewart, a Mademoiselle with such very French English in terms of syntax that she had a bit of cheek criticising her students for butchering her language.
There’s also a staff entertainment and an end of term spot supper (which I think was introduced to the Chalet School in 'Excitements at the Chalet School').
The type of dances they go for are different and the hidden cache of treasure is more generic girls own than EBD, but the turns of phrases and the interest in how the girls become socialised and a part of the school’s communal life and yield to its authorities is very much hers. It was really interesting to read it after Challenge to Caroline which shares some of the same concerns as this book.
I found this 'School Story for Girls' a slightly lesser EBD book, lacking the automatic charm of the books in the Chalet School series, which can cover a certain laxness and repetition in the writing. Although this is set at a different school with a new cast of characters, they follow EBD types and experience similar things to Chalet girls. Janeways is a school with a long history, established for the daughters of those working in the arts, located on the Yorkshire moors. I can see from here that there was another book set at this school.
At the start of the new term, senior prefect Phoebe has been complaining to Charmian, her second, pal and the games captain, that the new girls have been boringly named of late. I did warm to that discussion! Almost on the next page, Phoebe meets seven new girls who will change all that. Melody and Harmony Tresillian are twins whose parents thought it wisest to take them out of a small private school where Melody, original and forceful, was ‘Lord High Everything’. There are also the five Valentines, the beautiful daughters of a renowned decorative artist – the story touches a little on what it’s like to have a genius martinet as a father, without delving too deeply into it. They are called Philippa, Phyllida, Philomena and Philomela (twins) and Philadelphia.
Oh, yes. (Their father dislikes their abbreviating their names, but their fellow schoolgirls do it anyway.)
Philomela makes a near instant impression on the school, putting on genuinely tragic airs if she does anything wrong, which her protective twin rather exacerbates, until she gradually realises that their peers think Philomela is babyish.
The school, but most particularly the Middles, who gets the two sets of new twins, are discombobulated by these newcomers, and some of their number decide to set up a secret society, which isn’t very secret, to ‘reform’ uppity Melody and over-emotional Philomela. As their methods for doing so include invoking Coventry and their motives are questionable – they soon start wanting to ‘reform’ prefects who tick them off - they stray into bullying, especially when Melody, who has repeatedly shown a lack of self-control and tendency to physically lash out, becomes suspected of a prank that affected the whole school, even though she says she didn’t do it.
Meanwhile, sensitive Philomela turns out to have a musical gift, enough tenacity to save a cat and find a long-lost historical treasure - the school adjoins land that Black Miles Nethercote stole off a monastery in Henry the eighth’s day. The Valentines’ father rents the Nethercote’s mansion, which is rumoured to be cursed as far as the Nethercotes are concerned, and the Valentine twins learn of Black Miles’s diary – excerpts of which left me feeling rather cynical, given that his wife is depicted as a witch, for real, while he offers comments on his king. The twins are more interested in what happened to the monastery’s treasure.
The term is full of escapades (or thrills) for Phoebe and co to deal with – lively Middles at prep and so forth, but the story is mainly about the new girls assimilating to become true ‘Janewegians’.
I found the five sisters with similar names, inspired by their parents’ names, a bit much. Phyllida, at least, is a non-entity, although the others are drawn more vividly, but it was a bit convenient that artistic sixteen year old Pippa got so chummy with the top prefects. Although EBD has clashes between Melody and Philomela, most writers would have settled on either the Tresillians or the Valentines coming to rock a school.
There were similarities with EBD’s most famous series – the artistic new girls reminded me of Yseult Pertwee and her sisters at the Chalet School, while Harmony’s inability to see why the rules about the senior library should apply to her is close enough to the experiences of many new girls whom the Chalet School civilised. The Valentines’ family life made me think of Clem Barras’s, more in generalities than particulars. There’s a Mary Burnett and a Miss Stewart, a Mademoiselle with such very French English in terms of syntax that she had a bit of cheek criticising her students for butchering her language.
There’s also a staff entertainment and an end of term spot supper (which I think was introduced to the Chalet School in 'Excitements at the Chalet School').
The type of dances they go for are different and the hidden cache of treasure is more generic girls own than EBD, but the turns of phrases and the interest in how the girls become socialised and a part of the school’s communal life and yield to its authorities is very much hers. It was really interesting to read it after Challenge to Caroline which shares some of the same concerns as this book.
