The Bettanys
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#1: The Bettanys Author: eamlunt PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:39 am
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I was wondering in which book the Bettany parents return from India. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Is there a discription given of the childrens reaction etc?

Have been reading some stuff in the Drabble-orum and have got intrigued by what she actually wrote about it.

Beth

#2:  Author: LottieLocation: Humphrey's Corner PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:41 am
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I think it's in Tom.

#3:  Author: aliLocation: medway, kent PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:44 am
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Isn't it one of those EBDisms? I thought it happened in two books, or maybe I'm just confused. Possibly Lavender, I'll have to go and check now.

#4:  Author: Fiona McLocation: Bendigo, Australia PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:39 pm
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It's in Tom but then in Three Go the Bettany parents are said to be returning soon. Tom has the full reunion scene between them all

#5:  Author: CarolineLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:45 pm
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It's Tom - Bride and Peggy talk about their parents coming home at various points in the book, but don't expect them to arrive until the holidays. They actually arrive just before the end of term, and come to the school to see the girls - it's all in the last couple of chapters, I think.

I think it's Three Go that contradicts this, by suggesting Dick and Mollie are in Australia and are coming home in the spring. And then goes on to imply that Dick might be going back to India, and Mollie would go with him.

I've always ignored the Three Go bit - EBD was obviously having a bad day when she wrote it, and it isn't at all born out by what actually happens...

#6:  Author: LesleyLocation: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:54 pm
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Caroline wrote:
've always ignored the Three Go bit - EBD was obviously having a bad day when she wrote it, and it isn't at all born out by what actually happens...


She had a number of bad days, didn't she? Wink

#7:  Author: eamlunt PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:54 pm
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Thanks!

Unfortionately Tom is one I do not have and is not on the transcripts site.

Will have to see if I can get a copy.

#8:  Author: CarolineLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:21 pm
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Lesley wrote:
Caroline wrote:
've always ignored the Three Go bit - EBD was obviously having a bad day when she wrote it, and it isn't at all born out by what actually happens...


She had a number of bad days, didn't she? Wink


You are not wrong...

Although, as frustrating as the EBDisms are, I can empathise these days - it's hard to be consistent within one book, let alone 58 books written across the space of 40 odd years, and she doesn't seem to have anything so useful as an editor to help her.

#9:  Author: RayLocation: Bristol, England PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:05 pm
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Caroline wrote:
Lesley wrote:
Caroline wrote:
've always ignored the Three Go bit - EBD was obviously having a bad day when she wrote it, and it isn't at all born out by what actually happens...


She had a number of bad days, didn't she? Wink


You are not wrong...

Although, as frustrating as the EBDisms are, I can empathise these days - it's hard to be consistent within one book, let alone 58 books written across the space of 40 odd years, and she doesn't seem to have anything so useful as an editor to help her.


When you put it that way, it's actually amazing there aren't *MORE* EBDisms and errors of that sort!

Though, to be fair, I think part of the problem with this little section of the series (which, I have to admit, is comfortably my least favourite precisely because it IS so inconsistant) is that it certainly wasn't published in reading order and Tom and Rosalie always feel as if they were written out of order, too (I'm not sure when the Second Chalet Book for Girls was written, whether that was before or after Three Go).

Ray *also sympathises with EBD greatly, having managed to rename a coffee shop halfway down the same page in one story!*

#10:  Author: LesleyLocation: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:12 pm
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I agree - having only written nine parts - the number of times I find myself trawling through previous episodes of RCS to find the right name for someone, or find I've used the same surname for three totally different people! Rolling Eyes And she would have had only handwritten notes - not a computer - very difficult! Laughing

#11:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:21 pm
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Three Go was written in 1949, Mystery and Rosalie in 1951 and Tom in 1955, after Rescue was written in 1945. I think!

I think part of the reason it's all so confusing is that we're never sure what year it's meant to be - trying to work things out by the triplets' age doesn't always work!

Dick and Mollie presumably came home as soon after victory over Japan as it was safe to travel/possible for civilians to get a passage back to Britain, so it was probably early 1946 when they came home, but although I appreciate that EBD didn't want to tie things to specific dates it seems so weird that something as important as the war having ended isn't actually mentioned. Given the Bettanys' links with India, it also seems very weird that Indian independence isn't mentioned.

I tend to ignore the Three Go bit, as the war was obviously well over by then and surely the Bettanys would've been home already.

#12:  Author: JayBLocation: SE England PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:06 pm
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I suppose when she was writing Rescue the war wasn't over and by the time she wrote Three Go it had been over for years and her publishers might have said they didn't want books about the war. After all by 1949 some of her younger readers wouldn't remember much about it.

Which book is it where Nell, I think, says it's beginning to look as if it might one day be possible for them to return to Austria? I think that's as near as EBD gets to mentioning the end of the war.

#13:  Author: Hannah-LouLocation: Glasgow PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:17 pm
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Alison H wrote:
I think part of the reason it's all so confusing is that we're never sure what year it's meant to be - trying to work things out by the triplets' age doesn't always work!


I think that part of the problem is that apart from the really warish war books (Exile, Goes to it, Gay, Lavender and Highland Twins), EBD didn't have a particular year in mind for any of the books, so trying to date the other books is sort of forcing a timeframe onto them that was never intended.

#14:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:22 am
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JayB wrote:
Which book is it where Nell, I think, says it's beginning to look as if it might one day be possible for them to return to Austria? I think that's as near as EBD gets to mentioning the end of the war.


I'm not sure EBD ever has any of her characters make a comment like this, at least not in the war-time books. Are you sure you're not thinking of a fill-in?

#15:  Author: lizarfauLocation: Melbourne PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:40 am
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KB wrote:
JayB wrote:
Which book is it where Nell, I think, says it's beginning to look as if it might one day be possible for them to return to Austria? I think that's as near as EBD gets to mentioning the end of the war.


I'm not sure EBD ever has any of her characters make a comment like this, at least not in the war-time books. Are you sure you're not thinking of a fill-in?


I've read something like this too, and I'm pretty sure I've not read it in a fill-in, as I've only read yours, KB, plus Juliet and Visitors, and it's obviously not in them (and I haven't read it in a drabble either as I've only followed a couple of drabbles and it wasn't/isn't in either of them). I'm sure it's much later in the series than the wartime novels, though. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I've definitely read it.

#16:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:04 am
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I've read the comment too. I can't remember which book it's in, but I think it's well after the war ended and that Nell's talking about the situation in Austria regarding its post-war partition by the Allies rather than the end of the war itself. It's definitely in one of the "original" books though.

#17:  Author: JayBLocation: SE England PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:09 pm
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KB wrote:
Are you sure you're not thinking of a fill-in?

I haven't read any of the fill-ins, so it must be something EBD wrote. It might not have been Nell who said it. I think it must have been in one of the later English/Welsh books, because once she'd got them settled in Switzerland, there'd be no need to talk about going back to Austria.

#18:  Author: lizarfauLocation: Melbourne PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:44 pm
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This is the one I was thinking of at any rate. It's in Changes and Miss Annersley is talking to Commander Christy:

"It really isn't as sudden as it may seem, Michael - our going, I mean. We've always meant to return to the Alps as soon as we could. The situation in Austria being what it is, Tirol is out of the question, of course. Even San won't re-open there until the Peace Treaty has been signed, sealed and delivered. There doesn't seem much hope of that as long as Russia remains in her present state of mind. That being so, and since there is a very great demand for it, we have decided to open at the Gornetz Platz in the Oberland."

#19:  Author: catherineLocation: Newcastle upon Tyne PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:57 pm
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Could it have been in Island, when they're talking about where to move the School to?


I've definitely read that comment too.

#20:  Author: CazxLocation: London PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:32 pm
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In Jo to the Rescue, the quartet talk about the possibility of the school moving back to Austria.

#21:  Author: CarolineLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:14 pm
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Alison H wrote:
Three Go was written in 1949, Mystery and Rosalie in 1951 and Tom in 1955, after Rescue was written in 1945. I think!


I think (we're all thinking a lot today!) that Tom and Mystery were written earlier than these dates (which are the book publication dates, right?) - weren't the annuals in which they feature published in the late 40s? Yep - checking my publication database, the three Chalet Books for Girls were published in '47, '48 and '49. So, Tom and Mystery (at the very least) were written at about the same time as Three Go (published 1949). So, they are actually not that retrospective in the great scheme of things.

KB, didn't you discuss when Tom et al were written in your afterword to Peace? Or am I making that up?

I think that after the war-focus of Exile-Gay, EBD (and publishers, presumably) made a definite decision to move the story on. For one thing, the war was almost over anyway, and for another there are only so many stories you can write about a boarding school in war time when they can't go anywhere and are constrained by rationing and blackout.

It seems EBD hadn't much time to write in the late 40s anyway, and she was never interested in writing retrospectively (whatever people think about the books she wrote in the 60s being quite 50s in feel), so I can quite believe she made a conscious decision to leave a big gap and pick up again in 1949 with Three Go - some new characters, the triplets old enough to go to school and a new location on the horizen. It's like a whole new beginning (as someone once said....)

#22:  Author: KBLocation: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:36 pm
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Caroline wrote:
KB, didn't you discuss when Tom et al were written in your afterword to Peace? Or am I making that up?


If you mean when EBD sat down and actually wrote the stories, no. I looked at the place where they are 'logically' set within the series and how that did or did not fit in with the other books that 'happen' at the same times.

*hopes that makes sense*



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