The CBB :: View topic

#1: Gay's son? Author: macyrose, Location: Great White North (Canada)

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 1:43 am

I was rereading my hardback copy of Excitements when I came across the following sentences that I don't remember reading before. It's in the chapter An Old Acquaintance Turns Up and the seniors are discussing a sighting of Miss Bubb:

Quote:

Not many of them had been at the school during that momentous period but everyone had heard the story of Miss Bubb and Gay Lambert's escapade. Gay had been a cello mistress and was now married and the mother of a small son, but in those days she had been a scamp and yet the first winner of the Margot Venables prize.

Gay married with a son?! In Leader no son is mentioned, only twin girls Ruth and Jill, which is why these sentences took me so by surprise. And also in Leader it seems to come as a surprise that Gay is married since Len exclaims "But tell me, Jack, when was Gay married? This, my child, is news!" and Jack tells her that Gay was married two years ago. But in Excitements it seems like the fact of Gay's marriage was common knowledge. Has anyone else noticed this mention of Gay's son? I'm assuming EBD forgot about him by the time she wrote Leader. And could a marriage in Excitements have been in the two year time frame from Leader?

#2: Author: catherine, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:52 am

I hadn't noticed that! I'd put the part about her having a son down to another EBDism, although it's possible that the school may not have known about Gay's marriage. And I'm assuming that EBD didn't mean that Gay had been a cello mistress at the CS!

There are two years between Excitements and Leader but Jack may not have meant that Gay got married exactly two years ago - could have been two years and a few months, for instance.

#3: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:15 am

What a scandal - Gay having a child so close to her wedding! Laughing

Actually, unless the hardback is different, the paperback doesn't completely exclude the possibility that Gay does have a son:

Quote:

"Of course I am," Jack replied steadily. "She isn't Gay Lambert any more, of course. She's married and has twins - Ruth, after Mother, and Hill, whose real name is Gillian, after another pal of hers - a Miss Culver..."

It's possible that Jack is only mentioning the girls because she would know that only girls would be of interest to the CS. I'm sure she would have heard conversations between her mother and Gay about the school and would have known that girls would have been more likely to interest the CS than boys.

Of course, it's more likely that EBD simply forgot she had mentioned Gay in Excitements... *fishing for other possibilities*

#4: Author: keren, Location: Israel

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:05 am

EBD was a very forgetful lady.
We seem to know the books better than she did Smile

We have probably read them more times than she did Smile

#5: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:38 am

The same sort of thing seems to happen in a lot of books. For example, in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget's mum's best friends are called Una Alconbury and Mavis Enderby. In the sequel, written only a few years later, Mavis's surname has changed to Enderbury Rolling Eyes

. Bridget's friend Magda's children's ages also change - I think in the first book the boy is older than the girl and in the second book it's the other way round.

Both books are great though!

Same seems to happen in a lot of other sequels, even when there are only 2 or 3 books in the series. Oh well! As Keren said, we probably read the books more often than the authors do Very Happy

#6: Author: claire, Location: South Wales

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:13 pm

Maybe the son and husband died at the end of Excitements, she remarried almost immediately (so roughly 2 years before Leader) and had twins with the new husband

#7: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:44 pm

claire wrote:

Maybe the son and husband died at the end of Excitements, she remarried almost immediately (so roughly 2 years before Leader) and had twins with the new husband

Maybe she murdered them to marry the new husband - motive being that she needed girls to continue the Chalet School legacy. Rather like Henry the 8th.

#8: Author: Tiffany, Location: madthesispanicargh

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:04 pm

Kate wrote:

claire wrote:

Maybe the son and husband died at the end of Excitements, she remarried almost immediately (so roughly 2 years before Leader) and had twins with the new husband

Maybe she murdered them to marry the new husband - motive being that she needed girls to continue the Chalet School legacy. Rather like Henry the 8th.

*applause* i think someone should write that up into a drabble.

The CBB -> The Chalet School World

output generated using printer-friendly topic mod, All times are GMT + 1 Hour

Page 1 of 1