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feather_ghyllOne thing that I learned from reading A. M. W.’s ‘The Kettle of Fortune’ in Blackie’s Girls’ Annual is that trespassing is all right if you are posh and English, but not if you are poor and Scottish. Yes, I'm still working through that annual.
The Coming of Age of the Chalet School: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Reading ‘Excitements at the Chalet School’ inspired me to read ‘Coming of Age’, the next in the series. I have an Armada paperback copy that I bought back in the day when Chalet School books cost £1.95, and I had a habit of underlining all the Chalet girls’ names that appeared in my copy. Fortunately, I only kept up that bad habit for the first chapter, perhaps because I realised that in this book, of all Chalet School books, where so many Old Girls come back for a visit to join in the school’s celebrations, that it would be a bit much.
So, what did I think, now that I am closer in age to those Old Girls? Well, I enjoyed it a little less than 'Excitements' – it devolves into characters just recounting former adventures at some points.
Although it relates the happenings for the school at large, the focus is on Mary-Lou (future head girl, although only she doesn’t suspect it) and Joey’s doings with the school. Inter V, which lionised ‘Excitements’ also gets a look in. It has dramatically lost Yseult, who was bothering it in the last term/book, but gained Prudence Dawbarn, one of four girls who have come from Glendower House, the stay-at-home portion of the Chalet School, for girls whose parents didn’t want their daughters gadding about on the Continent. Prudence was misnamed and is struggling against growing up and following rules. Another of the four is Doris Hill, who joins the prefects. (I had a vague memory/impression that The Gang and the Dawbarns etc were all Middles together and not that far apart in age).
This fits in with the theme of the old girls who come to visit. St Mildred’s building is given over to them, and the girls of the finishing branch return to the school, which might have caused tension, but mainly means that the legendary Katherine Gordon can play tennis for the school again and Bill is even more on the spot.
Among the girls, on the spot describes Mary-Lou. I liked the moment where she was trying to kick up to her own height while bored before the term started.
I got a extremely miffed that the Margot Venables prize for being the most Chalet Girl Chalet Girl had transformed into the Joey Maynard prize. Even if it was Joey’s idea, the idea was to commemorate a good woman who had died early and it was partly for her two grieving daughters, which seems more Chalet School than hogging the attention to me.
Towards the end of the book, Mary-Lou and the prees get to go on their visit to the Tiernsee, the school’s original home, with Joey and her three best friends. There, Frieda in particular flourishes from a holiday that’s a chance to reconnect with her youth, while Joey gets the chance to buy St Scholastika as a holiday home.
The Coming of Age of the Chalet School: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Reading ‘Excitements at the Chalet School’ inspired me to read ‘Coming of Age’, the next in the series. I have an Armada paperback copy that I bought back in the day when Chalet School books cost £1.95, and I had a habit of underlining all the Chalet girls’ names that appeared in my copy. Fortunately, I only kept up that bad habit for the first chapter, perhaps because I realised that in this book, of all Chalet School books, where so many Old Girls come back for a visit to join in the school’s celebrations, that it would be a bit much.
So, what did I think, now that I am closer in age to those Old Girls? Well, I enjoyed it a little less than 'Excitements' – it devolves into characters just recounting former adventures at some points.
Although it relates the happenings for the school at large, the focus is on Mary-Lou (future head girl, although only she doesn’t suspect it) and Joey’s doings with the school. Inter V, which lionised ‘Excitements’ also gets a look in. It has dramatically lost Yseult, who was bothering it in the last term/book, but gained Prudence Dawbarn, one of four girls who have come from Glendower House, the stay-at-home portion of the Chalet School, for girls whose parents didn’t want their daughters gadding about on the Continent. Prudence was misnamed and is struggling against growing up and following rules. Another of the four is Doris Hill, who joins the prefects. (I had a vague memory/impression that The Gang and the Dawbarns etc were all Middles together and not that far apart in age).
This fits in with the theme of the old girls who come to visit. St Mildred’s building is given over to them, and the girls of the finishing branch return to the school, which might have caused tension, but mainly means that the legendary Katherine Gordon can play tennis for the school again and Bill is even more on the spot.
Among the girls, on the spot describes Mary-Lou. I liked the moment where she was trying to kick up to her own height while bored before the term started.
I got a extremely miffed that the Margot Venables prize for being the most Chalet Girl Chalet Girl had transformed into the Joey Maynard prize. Even if it was Joey’s idea, the idea was to commemorate a good woman who had died early and it was partly for her two grieving daughters, which seems more Chalet School than hogging the attention to me.
Towards the end of the book, Mary-Lou and the prees get to go on their visit to the Tiernsee, the school’s original home, with Joey and her three best friends. There, Frieda in particular flourishes from a holiday that’s a chance to reconnect with her youth, while Joey gets the chance to buy St Scholastika as a holiday home.
