REVIEW: Shocks for the Chalet School
Aug. 14th, 2025 08:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllShocks for the Chalet School: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. Armada, 1981.
I think I may have read this once upon a time, but never owned a copy until now. (As I always say, I am trying to get a complete set of Chalet School books.) This is set during the St Briavel era, and covers the same period as ‘The Chalet School in Switzerland’, the first term of the new finishing school at Welsen, and the first step of the Chalet School’s return to the Alps.
Brent-Dyer is very committed to justifying the book’s title, by describing every event of a typically eventful term as a shock or a surprise. But is an exceptionally naughty new girl who needs to be reformed really a surprise? Is Jo having twins a surprise when she started her family with triplets? I found the ‘surprising’ developments on the grounds of the Big House a bit dull, and then, instead of the discovery of a pirate’s treasure hoard, we have said naughty new girl doing something that ruins the netball court. For me, that was a shock.
What’s typical of the Chalet School, but part of its charm and maybe a result of its monumental stature as a series, is that we start with the school secretary and Head Mistress getting the first shock, and that’s before the winter term has even started. Of course, Rosalie Dene is an old girl, and Hilda Annersley has been with the school since its Tirol days, now sole Head Mistress, as Miss ‘Bill’ Wilson is away in charge of the Switzerland branch. And, all right, it’s not unknown for boarding school stories to start with headmistresses welcoming or learning they’re going to welcome an unexpected new girl.
For that is the shocking news! Emerence Hope has been packed off from Australia by her father after starting a fire. Former mistress Con Stewart, now a married mother and the Hopes’ neighbour, had been singing the praises of the Chalet School as the very rich father (shades of Evadne and Cornelia) decided something had to be done about his only child. Emerence’s mother believed in letting children develop naturally, i.e. never saying ‘no, you can’t’, let alone punishing Emerence. As a result, Emerence started what could have been a very dangerous fire because she was bored. The school cannot really refuse to accept the thirteen year old girl – she’s already on her way – but will it be able to reform her? (Yes, says this book, although I remember her as still being in trouble often after this term.)
As they make their way to school, the former Fifth Formers are gradually realising that as the Sixth has left for Welsen en masse, they’re going to be the top form and some of them will become prefects, even though they feel too young and none of them have even had the apprenticeship of being a junior prefect. They are well trained enough to take responsibility for making sure the younger girls behave themselves and take all their belongings with them on the way from Cardiff to the fictional Carnbach and across the ferry to the equally fictional island of St Briavel’s.
One of their number is Bride Bettany (niece of the school’s founder), who is hit by a few blows this term, even as she becomes Games Prefect. Her best friend, Elfie Henderson, joins her briefly at the train station to announce that she won’t be returning to school to finish her education. Her stepmother has recently died, and there is no-one else to look after her under-10 stepbrothers. The narrative’s main focus is on Elfie having to give up school, Bride missing her and having to replace her – as the best senior all-rounder, Elfie would have been a natural Games Prefect. But it struck me as odd that Elfie wouldn’t have let her long-standing best friend know that her stepmother had passed away – even by letter, for it might not have been the case that sixteen year olds were phoning each other in the 1950s. Elfie’s grief for a stepmother she thought of as her mother is somewhat underplayed, although Bride gains a new perspective on this as her own mother faces a dangerous operation around half-term. Admittedly, this probably reflects the author thinking of the younger end of the readership.
But a lot of time is given over to the new prefects, with Loveday Perowne being made head girl – Miss Annesley lets it be known that three other natural leaders were considered, but Loveday’s seniority swung it. Despite being a quieter personality than, say, Nancy Chester, Loveday is shown to be a positive force in the role. Over the term, we see that, despite their doubts, they are able to prove the truth of the maxim that the younger girls would rather get in trouble with the mistresses than the prefects.
One of those younger girls is Emerence, who is put under the charge of Mary-Lou, Vi and Doris, even if they aren’t in her dorm or form. Their influence – they have their own balance of honour and mischief – as much as how prefects and staff handle Emerence’s disobedience and rebellion are part of the process of making Emerence a real Chalet School girl. It was striking that, although the Abbess makes a strong case for how corporeal punishment wouldn’t do much good with Emerence, the older girls and staff are willing to carry, shake and frogmarch Emerence to get her where she should be.
Weaving in and out of the book are the Maynards and Russells, with updates and visits (the last two families are mainly based in Canada at this point.) The spelling of one of the girls’ names varies in the book, but the action moves from junior middles to prefects to mistresses throughout.
A couple of things that jumped out at me: Brent-Dyer really went for naming twins with names starting with the same letters at this juncture of the series. Yes, you have the two sets of Richards and Margarets (Dick and Madge are twins, as we are reminded in this book, and Rix and Peggy Bettany were named for them), but Kevin and Kester now have Felix and Felicity (literally the masculine and feminine versions of the same name) for cousins. There are a couple of stepmothers mentioned in this book too, Mrs Henderson and Mrs Christie are both second wives. I also noticed that some of the mistresses referred to each other by their surname, which seemed unusual (a big deal is made of an old girl, Peggy Burnett, becoming the new games mistress, and the older girls having to be careful not to use her Christian name, which is more usual for the Chalet School books.) The book ends with one more ‘shock’ after the lovingly rendered Christmas play, which deeply moves even Emerence.
I think I may have read this once upon a time, but never owned a copy until now. (As I always say, I am trying to get a complete set of Chalet School books.) This is set during the St Briavel era, and covers the same period as ‘The Chalet School in Switzerland’, the first term of the new finishing school at Welsen, and the first step of the Chalet School’s return to the Alps.
Brent-Dyer is very committed to justifying the book’s title, by describing every event of a typically eventful term as a shock or a surprise. But is an exceptionally naughty new girl who needs to be reformed really a surprise? Is Jo having twins a surprise when she started her family with triplets? I found the ‘surprising’ developments on the grounds of the Big House a bit dull, and then, instead of the discovery of a pirate’s treasure hoard, we have said naughty new girl doing something that ruins the netball court. For me, that was a shock.
What’s typical of the Chalet School, but part of its charm and maybe a result of its monumental stature as a series, is that we start with the school secretary and Head Mistress getting the first shock, and that’s before the winter term has even started. Of course, Rosalie Dene is an old girl, and Hilda Annersley has been with the school since its Tirol days, now sole Head Mistress, as Miss ‘Bill’ Wilson is away in charge of the Switzerland branch. And, all right, it’s not unknown for boarding school stories to start with headmistresses welcoming or learning they’re going to welcome an unexpected new girl.
For that is the shocking news! Emerence Hope has been packed off from Australia by her father after starting a fire. Former mistress Con Stewart, now a married mother and the Hopes’ neighbour, had been singing the praises of the Chalet School as the very rich father (shades of Evadne and Cornelia) decided something had to be done about his only child. Emerence’s mother believed in letting children develop naturally, i.e. never saying ‘no, you can’t’, let alone punishing Emerence. As a result, Emerence started what could have been a very dangerous fire because she was bored. The school cannot really refuse to accept the thirteen year old girl – she’s already on her way – but will it be able to reform her? (Yes, says this book, although I remember her as still being in trouble often after this term.)
As they make their way to school, the former Fifth Formers are gradually realising that as the Sixth has left for Welsen en masse, they’re going to be the top form and some of them will become prefects, even though they feel too young and none of them have even had the apprenticeship of being a junior prefect. They are well trained enough to take responsibility for making sure the younger girls behave themselves and take all their belongings with them on the way from Cardiff to the fictional Carnbach and across the ferry to the equally fictional island of St Briavel’s.
One of their number is Bride Bettany (niece of the school’s founder), who is hit by a few blows this term, even as she becomes Games Prefect. Her best friend, Elfie Henderson, joins her briefly at the train station to announce that she won’t be returning to school to finish her education. Her stepmother has recently died, and there is no-one else to look after her under-10 stepbrothers. The narrative’s main focus is on Elfie having to give up school, Bride missing her and having to replace her – as the best senior all-rounder, Elfie would have been a natural Games Prefect. But it struck me as odd that Elfie wouldn’t have let her long-standing best friend know that her stepmother had passed away – even by letter, for it might not have been the case that sixteen year olds were phoning each other in the 1950s. Elfie’s grief for a stepmother she thought of as her mother is somewhat underplayed, although Bride gains a new perspective on this as her own mother faces a dangerous operation around half-term. Admittedly, this probably reflects the author thinking of the younger end of the readership.
But a lot of time is given over to the new prefects, with Loveday Perowne being made head girl – Miss Annesley lets it be known that three other natural leaders were considered, but Loveday’s seniority swung it. Despite being a quieter personality than, say, Nancy Chester, Loveday is shown to be a positive force in the role. Over the term, we see that, despite their doubts, they are able to prove the truth of the maxim that the younger girls would rather get in trouble with the mistresses than the prefects.
One of those younger girls is Emerence, who is put under the charge of Mary-Lou, Vi and Doris, even if they aren’t in her dorm or form. Their influence – they have their own balance of honour and mischief – as much as how prefects and staff handle Emerence’s disobedience and rebellion are part of the process of making Emerence a real Chalet School girl. It was striking that, although the Abbess makes a strong case for how corporeal punishment wouldn’t do much good with Emerence, the older girls and staff are willing to carry, shake and frogmarch Emerence to get her where she should be.
Weaving in and out of the book are the Maynards and Russells, with updates and visits (the last two families are mainly based in Canada at this point.) The spelling of one of the girls’ names varies in the book, but the action moves from junior middles to prefects to mistresses throughout.
A couple of things that jumped out at me: Brent-Dyer really went for naming twins with names starting with the same letters at this juncture of the series. Yes, you have the two sets of Richards and Margarets (Dick and Madge are twins, as we are reminded in this book, and Rix and Peggy Bettany were named for them), but Kevin and Kester now have Felix and Felicity (literally the masculine and feminine versions of the same name) for cousins. There are a couple of stepmothers mentioned in this book too, Mrs Henderson and Mrs Christie are both second wives. I also noticed that some of the mistresses referred to each other by their surname, which seemed unusual (a big deal is made of an old girl, Peggy Burnett, becoming the new games mistress, and the older girls having to be careful not to use her Christian name, which is more usual for the Chalet School books.) The book ends with one more ‘shock’ after the lovingly rendered Christmas play, which deeply moves even Emerence.
