The CBB :: View topic - Trivia Question

#1: Trivia Question Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:40 am

Here's one for y'all:

How many twins were there in the Bettany/Russell/Mayanrd connections?

How many twins were at the Chalet school where both twins attended the school?

How many students or staff had twins - including male fraternal twins?

How many twins are there in the series as a whole - including relatives of the students and staff?

I'll post the answers later Twisted Evil

#2: Author: Róisín, Location: Gaillimh, Eire

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:39 am

*meeps*

OK guesses from the top of my head cos I don't have time to think about it...

1. six?
2. one set?
3. gosh, through the whole series?! Maybe twelve?
4. *flummoxed* twenty?

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:50 am

1. I think 7 sets ... not including the Bettanys' father whom I vaguely
think was a twin although I may have imagined that! Do we include
people who were sometimes twins and sometimes weren't depending
on which book you were reading Wink

?

2. I can think of 3 sets, but I'm sure there must have been more.

3. In addition to the people in 1) and 2), I can think of one person who
had a fraternal twin, but again I'm sure there must have been more.

4. Er ... no idea ... but can think of an awful lot without even trying
properly!!

Ah, but only Joey managed triplets! Of course Rolling Eyes

#4: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:56 am

I've just made a list of the B/M/R twins and realised for the first time that more than half of them have 'matching initial' names - Felix & Felicity, Maeve & Maurice, Kester & Kevin How cutsie.

I make it 7 too for 1) if you count Jack...

#5: Author: jtcw78,

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:02 pm

Guessing without the books to hand...

1) Seven
2) Two
3) Five (there probably are more, I just can't think of them)
4) A wild guess - thirteen sets

#6: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:13 pm

Question 2, I can think of at least six, but do we include the kindergarten - didn't both Felix and Felicity go to St Nicholas? 'cos that would make seven.

#7: Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:42 pm

I'm guessing
1) 10 (including Mr. Bettany, Jack/Mollie & Mollie M's kids)
2) 8 pairs (inc. f&f, p&g and k&k at St. Nick's)
3) 4
4) 15?

#8: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:59 pm

Actual values (I may have missed one or two)

1) 9
2) 13
3) 23 [includes the pairs from (2) plus the fraternal twins]
4) 40

#9: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 6:53 pm

I know EBD goes over the top with twins, but it is possible for two sets of twins to be born in one family - my maternal great-grandfather was one of twins, and there was another set of twins (and two "singletons") among his brothers and sisters. I always think of Anne of Green Gables rather than of the Chalet School, though....

#10: Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:18 pm

I read somewhere that writers love twins and editors hate them! EBD must have had very patient editors!

Having said that, they can run in families - I can't remember the details of which type of twins it is!

#11: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:21 pm

I think it's the non-identical twins that can run in families - and they are more common than the identical anyway. Not sure quite how it works - you'd assume it must be the female line, but I don't think it works like that.

#12: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:54 pm

Lesley wrote:

When I had the BOGOF offer with the boys (non identical), we were told that the more easily a woman conceives the more likely she is to have fraternal (non identical) twins. Also the older you are the more likely and the more kids you have the more likely. Certainly we were told that having had one set of twins already and conceiving very easily it was a very high possibility that we'd have twins again (or more) Shocked

Apparently a lot of people do have twins in their family history but aren't aware of it as very often 1 or both died at or soon after birth (and sometimes the mother too) and there was no oral tradition of them passed down through the generations.

Identical twins do occasionally seem to run in families, but not as much as non identical

#13: Author: KathrynW, Location: London

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:27 pm

According to my grandmother, twins skip a generation on the mother's side (ie if your grandmother had twins, you would be like to have them) but I'm pretty sure that's just an old wives tale!

Kathryn

#14: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:46 pm

patmac wrote:

Perhaps EBD explained her philosophy of twinhood to her editors--namely, Good Characters Get to Have Multiple Births. I have always wondered what Hilary Burn did to annoy EBD so much that she wasn't allowed to have twins, even though Biddy O'Ryan got twins right away...

Also, Marie, Simone, and Frieda never get twins, even though they are Good Characters. But I guess they can't compete with Joey.

As for guessing:

In Maynard/Bettany/Russell: 8 sets. I don't know if Madge-Dick's dad was a twin, nor do I know whether Mollie Bettany's sister Bridget had twins. If she had, would this be included? I suppose not, as their names weren't Bettany. I did include Mollie Maynard's twins, though, even though I suppose their name was McKenzie.

In school at the same time: six sets? Assuming that the Chester twins went to kindergarten, which I'm not sure they did, and counting F&F at St. Nicholas. Also counting the St. Georges twins at St. Mildred's.

The other two questions: too many to count!

Chang

#15: Author: MissPrint, Location: Edinburgh

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 12:27 am

KathrynW wrote:

I heard that one too, and as my mum is a twin, you have no idea how glad I was to see only one baby on the 12 week scan!

#16: Author: Michelle, Location: Near London

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:10 am

EBD did write about crowds of twins, but I can't think of any sets of twins who featured a lot. The triplets, obviously, were stars, but although Madge was a major character in the first books, Dick disappeared very early on, and not even Felix and Felicity were ever given a starring role. Twins who attended the CS seem only to make occasional appearances too, like Vanna and Nella. Bess and Madge Herbert weren't even in the same form. Flora and Fiona are the only ones I can think of who got a whole book to themselves - and then they were hardly heard of again, despite apparently staying at the School for 6 years.

Who were the first twins to attend the CS? Vanna and Nella?

#17: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:26 am

A tendency to fraternal twins can be an inherited trait, but only through the mother's side - it's related to a predisposition to multiple ovulation, while identical twins don't show any evidence for a genetic condition - they're distributed randomly by family and by ethnicity.

For the 'family' twins

Grandfather Bettany
Jack and Mollie
Dick and Madge
Peggy and Rix
Maeve and Maurice
Felix and Felicity
Geoff and Phyl
Kevin and Kester
I think Mollie Mayanrd had a set

For the school twins

Robin and Dickon Chester (Kindergarten)
Vanna and Nella Ozanne
Flora and Fiona McDonald
Mary and Margaret Anstey (Short stories)
Madge and Bess Herbert
Angela and Anne Carter
Priscilla and Prudence Dawbarn
The Wylie Twins
Allison and Anthea Rutherford
The Andries Twins
F&F from above (Kindergarten)
Natalie and Nicola Tredgold (St Mildred's)
Ghiselaine and Lesceline St Georges (St Mildred's)

Had a Fraternal twin

Mollie and Geordie McNab
Gay and Mike Lambert
Maria and Mario Balbini
Mollie Maynard
Madge Bettany

Old Girls/Mistresses who had twins

Miss Stewart: Peter and Patrick
Miss Leslie: Twin boys
Mary Burnett: twins
Elma Conroy: Twin daughters
Biddy O'Ryan: Marie and Pat
Gay Lambert: Ruth and Jill
Joey: Felix and Felicity, Geoff and Phil

Other twins

Karl and Katchen Meltarni (Klara's siblings)
Richard and Ruhanna Jenning (Lois Bennet's cousins)
Kay Hillis and Donal O'Hara
Melanie Lucas's father and Aunt
Jane Carew's older, deceased twin siblings
Solange de Chaumontel's aunts
Samantha and Samaris's great grandmothers
Ted Grantley's brothers
Jacynth Hardy's aunt and mother
Rebecca Learoyd's twins sisters, Naomi and Ruth
Michael Christy's ancestor's twin girls

Any I've missed?

#18: Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 4:25 am

I thought there was a mention somewhere of Madge sending Kevin & Kester to the kindergarten & what about Phil & Geoff?

#19: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 4:55 am

Yes, I heard about the twins skipping a generation on the mother's side; my mother was relieved not to get them, as it's her mother that was a twin. And so I got the twins instead!

#20: Author: Catrin, Location: Wirral (holidays), Oxford (term)

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:28 am

Aren't there twins in Feud as well? I can't remember their names but one of them is the one who climbs out the window to rescue the "cold pussy" . Maybe she's called Gilly. Smile

#21: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:57 am

Nope - there weren't any twins in the Garstin family.

#22: Author: Tiffany, Location: madthesispanicargh

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:19 pm

there are a very non-starring pair of twins in Challenge - along the lines of "there were 365824528 French and German girls in Lower IV, and Dutch twins as well".

Are there any more-than-two multiples apart from Joey's triplets?

#23: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 6:14 pm

Didn't Kevin and Kester go to the Kindergarten? They were supposed to.

#24: Author: Sarah_L, Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 7:15 pm

I remember reading something along the lines of 'Madge is talking of sending Kevin and Kester next term' but I don't think they ever turned up. Surely they'd have been too young to go to school in a foreign country.

#25: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:52 pm

jennifer wrote:

Karl and Katchen Meltarni (Klara's siblings)
Richard and Ruhanna Jenning (Lois Bennet's cousins)

Where on earth are the Melnarti twins mentioned? I vaguely remember Klara, but never have heard of her sibs.

Similarly, where are Lois Bennet's cousins mentioned?

Chang

#26: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:34 am

Changnoi wrote:

Where on earth are the Melnarti twins mentioned? I vaguely remember Klara, but never have heard of her sibs.

Similarly, where are Lois Bennet's cousins mentioned?

Chang

Hardback of Princess and hardback of Lavender, respectively - the first when Juliet and Joey meet Her Meltarni and the second when Lois is discussing her family.

Kevin and Kester are supposed to go to the Chalet school, but they never seem to actually arrive.

#27: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:43 pm

jennifer wrote:

Changnoi wrote:

Where on earth are the Melnarti twins mentioned? I vaguely remember Klara, but never have heard of her sibs.

Similarly, where are Lois Bennet's cousins mentioned?

Chang

THe Melnarti twins are mentioned in the PB of Princess as well as the hardback.

#28: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:05 pm

Chelsea wrote:

jennifer wrote:

Changnoi wrote:

Where on earth are the Melnarti twins mentioned? I vaguely remember Klara, but never have heard of her sibs.

Similarly, where are Lois Bennet's cousins mentioned?

Chang

THe Melnarti twins are mentioned in the PB of Princess as well as the hardback.

Ah, thanks. I hate Princess and have only read it once, back in the Dark Ages.

Chang

#29: Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:02 pm

I always thought there was an EBDism surrounding Bess and Madge Herbert - I know that Rosalie Way refers to them being twins in Rosalie but once they arrive at school it never seems to be mentioned again and Bess leaves a year or so before Madge does.

Am I now finding EBDisms that aren't really there?

#30: Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:18 am

I hadn't realised that Madge & Bess Herbert were twins either.

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