Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - Chalet School, etc.

[Laura]

Does anyone know what Len and Con are short for?

'Len' is short for Helena, after Miss Wilson, and 'Con' is short for Constance, after Miss Stewart - read The Chalet School in Exile to find out more!

And I'm not sure why I didn't post on this thread before, but I also enjoy the Chalet School books, and along with Blyton and a few others, they are among the books that I collect, as opposed to the books that I simply read. but then, I really like most school stories - boys' as well as girls' - somperhaps this is not surprising.

[dolly]

Chalet school series - are the books still in print? Are they similar to Enid Blyton´s "Malory Towers" or "St. Clares"? Unfortunately there is/was no German translation of the Chalet school stories, I could imagine that I would have really enjoyed them when I had the opportunity to read them.

[dadamson]

'Len' is short for Helena, after Miss Wilson, and 'Con' is short for Constance, after Miss Stewart - read The Chalet School in Exile to find out more!

Thanx Laura!!! It was driving me crazy not knowing!!!!!!

[minim]

I like the Chalet school too - They're good books, if they do get a bit - you know - nearer to the end.

[mynameisdumbnuts]

*blows dust off the old thread*

I love the Chalet School series. Both Blyton and Brent-Dyer hold special places in my heart. Chalet School books never made me want to go to boarding school unlike Blyton's school stories, but they did inspire me to try to become trilingual. (I failed. This is what happens when you move to America and not Switzerland, I suppose.)

I think Chalet School books are for a more mature audience because the girls grow up, fall in love, have babies, and because of the way Brent-Dyer incorporates World War II into the plot. Actually, what I do like about these books is that you get to follow the girls beyond their school days. I like that the series begins with 12-year-old Jo Bettany just starting school and ends with her daughters just leaving it.

[delightfullyvintage]

Chalet school books were great! Very much along the lines of Mallory Towers etc! This thread really is bring back some memories

[dsr]

For anyone who's collecting them, or has Armada versions and wants the full versions - and some of the abridgements were severe, because while a couple of full-length books were split in two for Armada, more of them were hacked down to size - Girls Gone By have republished quite a few. Especially the scarcer wartime and late Swiss ones.

And, they've issued quite a few fill-ins for the missing terms that EBD didn't get round to.

Costs £12 per book, including postage. (And no, I'm still not on commission. ) http://www.ggbp.co.uk

[7upromana01]

Does anyone like the chalet school? I have never read them but I have 4 or 5 at home. If anyone has read them, are they similiar to Malory Towers/St.Clares?

I've merged your thread with an earlier thread on the same topic. - Anita

[Daisy]

I've read them all Abi. They are about a boarding school but in most ways rather different from Malory Towers and St Clare's. I read some at your age, but came to appreciate them more when I was a bit older. If you want to pm me with the titles you have I'll tell you the order it would be best to read them in.

[Sally]

Apart from EB, Elinor M Brent Dyer's Chalet School series was one of my favourites, although I never read the whole series, a majority of the earlier titles not being available in our local library. All my reading as a child came from library books, but I recall buying a copy of The Chalet School Reunion years ago when I saw it in a bookshop as I couldn't resist reading about Jo and her friends meeting up. I loved the characterisation and the way it proceeded through the generations. It seemed more grown up than EB and had a lot of attention to detail. I envy Daisay owning the whole series - it must be worth a lot of money!

[Daisy]

Since Girls Gone By have reprinted a good number, the value of some of the old originals has dropped a bit, but I am lucky in that I collected mine before the rush for them bumped up the prices. I saw one at the EB Day which I had bought about 20 years ago for less than £5. for £160. Asking the stall holder if she was likely to sell it at that price, she assured me that she was quite willing to hang on to it as someone would eventually be willing to pay that for it. I have my doubts!

[Spitfire]

I've read most of them. My favourites are the early ones that are set in Austria; I particularly loved Jo of the Chalet School (the second in the series) with its introduction of Robin and the magical, wintry description of Christmas that the Bettany sisters spend there.

For me, the earlier books (up to about War are the 'real' Chalet School. I could never enjoy the later books so much - I find that they become repetitive, both in the plots and in the reappearances of ex-pupils, who seem to continually turn up as teachers or happily married women with strings of kids!

My introduction to The Chalet School was two books given as Christmas presents (Armada editions, as all of mine were) - I think they were Tom Tackles and Lavender Leigh. I remember feeling disappointed when I opened them (was probably hoping for a couple of Blytons or Willard Price! ) and it was several months before I read them. However, once I did I was hooked; they were so fresh and different compared to the other school books (MT, SC, Trebizon, Dimsie) that I had read.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, Abi, once you've tried them out.

[Lawrie]

Another Chalet fan here! After many years of collecting I now have the full set of hardbacks, and have been a member of Friends of the Chalet School for a long time. The early ones, up to and including the war, are definitely my favourites, the later ones - especially the last ten or so - not so great, but by then you're so caught up in wanting to know What Happened Next to all the characters that you just keep going. I always wanted to go to the Chalet School rather than Malory Towers or St Clare's (though I LOVED reading them) as, at least in the early ones, they weren't nearly as sporty - I would have been huddling round the fire with Gwendoline when it came to PE. Though I'd have liked to swim in the pool...

[Spitfire]

Chalet School books had an important place on my childhood bookshelves. I read and re-read them avidly, and have a sizeable collection of 90s Armada editions. However, I decided recently to start collecting the unabridged Chambers editions. I've got the first four so far, and having read two of them, I am amazed - and delighted - at the amount of text which was removed for the Armada editions.

I read The School at the Chalet a few months ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's one of those books (and indeed, series) that just soaks the reader with everything that is its reality - the atmosphere, setting and period in history. I just finished reading Jo of the Chalet School, which was always a great favourite of mine, and I must have read dozens of times over the years - but I don't think I've ever revelled in it quite so much before. I kept re-reading paragraphs over simply to enjoy them. My favourite part is the account of the Bettany girls' and The Robin's Christmas, spent in a wonderful flat in Innsbruck.

I wish I had been a Chalet School girl in the 1920s/30s!

I love how some books/films cast their spell so thoroughly that it lingers on for days afterwards.

*Sigh*

[Fiona1986]

I picked up The School at the Chalet a reprinted hardback for £7 earlier in the year. I can't remember the year, probably from the forties or fifties though. Must get around to reading it at some point!