Peggy Bettany
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#1: Peggy Bettany Author: JosieLocation: London PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2005 10:12 am


Please discuss Peggy here...

 


#2:  Author: Emma ALocation: The Soke of Peterborough PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2005 6:12 pm


I'll kick this off then by my thoughts on Peggy. I only remember her as a small child when she and Rix had been sent home to live with Madge, and then much later, during Peggy, when she is unexpectedly made Head Girl. Peggy as a small child is very much like EBD's other small girls - she has a lisp, is affectionate and loving, and very "girly" compared to her twin brother.

The older Peggy isn't one of my favourite characters - I always preferred Bride. EBD's description of her as a tiny, dainty person with a silvery voice always sounded a bit much, mainly because I don't relate to very feminine characters. I also wasn't too impressed by her comments to Polly and Lala Winterton when she first met them - rather like the Triplets' comments to Ruey on her general lack of tidiness. Seemed rather rude to me.

Generally she's seen as a competent HG, ably backed up by her friends, and she deals with Eiluned's malice very gracefully (though the appearance of Nell Randolph to sort things out is just a bit too coincidental!). She isn't one of the most memorable of EBD's characters, but I think she was less interested in the Bettanys and Russells than in the Maynards even when the Triplets were too young to attend school. Once Peggy marries she disappears and very little is heard of her afterwards.

 


#3:  Author: GabrielleLocation: Near Paris, France PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2005 10:25 pm


I quite like Peggy. Peggy of the Chalet School was one of my favourite books. I think its a shame she sort of disappears. She's not a particularly exciting character though, she never really gets into trouble. But she is nice.

 


#4:  Author: PadoLocation: Connecticut, USA PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 3:20 am


For a completely one dimensional character, I quite like her. I've always been rather surprised at how well Peggy and Bride take being left by their parents for years and years. Even with supportive extended family, that's got to be a difficult thing.

 


#5:  Author: SusanLocation: Carlisle PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 3:41 pm


I quite like Peggy. As a child she is a typical EBD child but as she is one of the first it is still quite fresh.

I think we should have seen more of her at school but she seems to zoom from child to Head Girl with just passing mentions.


No one commented much on children being left relatives whilst their parents where working away long term in those days as it was considered quite normal.

 


#6:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 11:05 pm


Susan wrote:
I think we should have seen more of her at school but she seems to zoom from child to Head Girl with just passing mentions.


Largely, I think, because of the gap between Rescue and Three Go, which would cover a lot of her Middle years.

 


#7:  Author: MiaLocation: London PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 11:45 pm


I quite like Peggy, despite her being a bit one-dimensional as you have said. I think EBD wanted her to be one of the 'favourites' - witness her semi-butting in with Mary-Lou re Miss Bubb in the HB Coming of Age. I quite like the way she teaches Edna about make-up in Oberland as well. Felt a bit sorry for her the way Mollie Bettany demands she is needed at home - but suppose logical seeing as they were separated for 14 years or whatever!

PS Isn't Mollie a complete drip the way she can't survive at home on her own - obviously Dick isn't company enough!?

Sorry, probably not the best of posts! (have imbibed a quantity of "light country wine that had become an old friend") Very Happy Very Happy

 


#8:  Author: KirstieLocation: Ayrshire PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 5:17 am


Isn't it strange how in the later books she can't do without her yet left her with someone else till she was 14. The Bettany children are very susceptible to EBDisms.

 


#9:  Author: LizBLocation: Oxon, England PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 8:02 am


To be fair to Mollie, part of the needing Peggy at home was because she was seriously ill and then recovering from her operation and needed someone to help run the house.

Plus, maybe Peggy got on better with her mother for not having lived with her all those years - they are often portrayed as being good friends, not just mother and daughter, which may have been helped by not having had her as a disciplinary figure etc. while going through her formative years.

Liz

 


#10:  Author: MiaLocation: London PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 10:29 am


Yes, Liz you are right, I had completely forgotten that Mollie had been seriously ill Embarassed

I really like the interaction between Mollie, Peggy and Bride at the beginning of Bride Leads.

 


#11:  Author: Caroline OSullivanLocation: Reading, Berkshire, UK PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 10:52 am


I've a very soft spot for Peggy as it was the first CS book I read although I did find the whole first chapter very confusing (I was only 8 1/2 when I first read it!)

I do like Peggy & Bride and their sets of friends, somehow it works and I feel I know them.

It was odd reading it again and meeting Nell Randolph having just read about her in Hilda.

 


#12:  Author: KirstieLocation: Ayrshire PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 3:45 am


I had also forgotten that after being so seriously ill she has another baby. I also love the bit at the begining of Bride Leads where they are all together it is so family.

 


#13:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 12:05 pm


The "daughter at home" idea seems to crop up with several people. I felt particularly sorry for Amy Dunne, whose dad made her miss all the coming of age celebrations ( I think it's in Excitements or New Mistress) because her selfish mother couldn't cope on her own for one term after Amy's sister was due to get married!

 


#14:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 12:37 pm


Well, Amy did get a world cruise out of it!

 


#15:  Author: Karry PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 1:21 pm


I have always found it strange that Joey exclaims at the rate Peggy has grown after the measles(?) episode in Joey returns, but then peggy is very petite!
Confused

 


#16:  Author: ChangnoiLocation: New Mexico, USA PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:17 pm


I agree that Peggy, although a typical EBD small girl, and especially a typical EBD one-of-fraternal-twins small girl, is likeable as a child because before then, we haven't seen any other small girls. The speech used for Peggy seems like something unique to Peggy, not something that every small girl between the ages of two and six has.

I like Peggy a lot in Lavender and Tom. In Lavender, she's still very young. It strikes me most there that Peggy is not that much older than Bride, whereas in the later books, Peggy seems like a miniature woman and Bride seems like an actual girl. But in Lavender, both Peggy and Bride are there, trying to figure out what to do about Joy Bird and Lavender. Peggy decides how they can react without its being bullying, but she seems to struggle with it and not do the "silent prayer for help" followed by saying the exact right thing. In Tom, Peggy and Bride have just learned their mother is coming home. They withdraw from everyone else and go around in a rapture and spend time with each other building castles in the air as to what their mother will be like and what they will do when she gets home. I was always touched by this.

I don't much care for later Peggy. She seems like a miniature woman or a miniature saint. She's stunningly pretty and petite and has a "silvery voice", which I have a mental track of, but I'm not sure if it's right. She seems to be presented as an ideal woman of the 50s. She always wears a big hat to make sure she doesn't get sunburnt or freckled and keeps her clothes tidy. As Head Girl, she doesn't seem to do that much. (The thing with Eilunedd never seemed like a big deal to me and especially, it was never a problem that Peggy solved, or even noticed until it was almost too late.) When she goes to the Oberland, it seems to be assumed that she will be the leader of things. She is instantly popular for reasons that don't seem to be evident. I find her lecturing Edna on her personality to be repugnant. I interpret her remarks as her saying, "Well, you know, people don't like you because you're you. If you can change your entire personality, people might like you a bit more [subtext: and you might land a man]". Then she gets married to Giles. Because of the description in Peggy of Giles, I picture him as a very controlling man who likes his women pretty, tidy, and obedient. (This is based on his dislike of early Polly and Lala, who 'ran wild'). I suppose their marriage is an ideal 50s match.

Chang

 


#17:  Author: AnnLocation: Newcastle upon Tyne, England PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:43 pm


Changnoi wrote:
It strikes me most there that Peggy is not that much older than Bride, whereas in the later books, Peggy seems like a miniature woman and Bride seems like an actual girl.


I wonder if that's down to 'eldest of a long family' syndrome - I know she and Rix are twins but Rix seems to become a fairly quiet young man as he gets older, leaving Peggy to be the responsible elder sibling.

I didn't read the St. Briavel's books until I was an adult and Peggy has never really made much of an impression on me. I think it might partly be down to the fact that she seems quite insubstantial in comparison to Bride. As people have said in the thread discussing Bride, she is one of the more well-drawn characters in the series and next to her, Peggy is too much of a plaster saint.

 


#18:  Author: joelleLocation: lancashire, england PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:06 pm


what happens to rix? ive forgotten. does he get doctor syndrome?

 


#19:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:49 pm


joelle wrote:
what happens to rix? ive forgotten. does he get doctor syndrome?


We don't really see enough of him to know. Here are mentions of him in later books (once he would have begun his training):

The two men, assisted by Dick’s boys and Madge’s eldest son, set to work to load up, and Rix Bettany was moved to remark detachedly that it was as well that both cars were big and powerful. Otherwise, they would lie down on the job at the first hill! (Joey Goes to the Oberland)

"I know that; but Daphne's an old story now!" Len retorted "Who's she like?"
"The living image of Auntie Madge—Mummy says just like Rix was at her age. Who's Cecil like?" (Problem)

“Who’s Peggy?” Ruey asked.
Con enlightened her. “She’s another cousin—one of Uncle Dick’s eldest. At least, she and Rix are. They’re twins, you see." (Joey and Co in Tirol)

“Then you suppose wrong!” Bride retorted. “We aren’t going to get married for at least four or five years to come. How do you imagine we could live? We’re both at the beginning of things. There’s plenty of time for Sybs or even Rix or David to give us the second wedding before then.”
“Not me!” said dark, silent Rix, Peggy’s twin brother, who was at St. Thomas Hospital in training for a doctor. “Not David, either. I can hear Uncle Jem on the subject if David produced a blushing bride at his stage. Doctors don’t marry early as a rule—can’t!” (Ruey)

“Talk sense! Neither is old enough and, so far as I’ve heard, even Rix isn’t bothering over much with girls yet. It may come any day now, of course. He’s twenty-four. But I haven’t heard even a rumour of it." (Future)

 


#20:  Author: joelleLocation: lancashire, england PostPosted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:20 pm


thanks looks like hes being left over for some lucky cs girl!

 


#21:  Author: Catherine_BLocation: Oxford, UK PostPosted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 6:48 pm


Isn't it charming how the girls can get married off at 18, but the boys are still far too young at 24?! (I know that it's partly to do with being able to earn a living for the family, but still...!)

Peggy... I agree with everything Chang says. She just doesn't fit with any kind of young woman I know, compared to Bride, who is much easier to imagine in today's world. Very much a product of her times. For that reason, while I think well of her when looking through EBD's eyes, I never warm to her in the same way that I do to Bride & her chums.

 




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