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Characters' backgrounds
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5406

Author:  Alison H [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Characters' backgrounds

Reading The Bettanys of Taverton High is making me wonder a lot about the backgrounds of some of the other character whose histories we are told very little about. I've always wondered about the great mystery of Rolf Maynard's death. And I'd like to know how Marya Humphries, who was Polish, came to be speaking fluent French, singing in Russian and living in Germany! (I think the general consensus is that the family spoke French at home because she didn't speak English and Ted didn't speak Polish, and there was some movement of Polish people to industrial parts of Germany during the 19th century, but she still sounds intriguing!)

In particular, I wish we knew more about Jem: we know nothing about his parents (apart from his mother's first name) and don't even know which part of the country he came from, and I'd love to see how both they and he reacted to the split in the family and all the gossip that must have surrounded them after Margot's elopement.

The "past lives" of many of the staff are shrouded in mystery as well! And I'd like to read about the lives of the elder von Eschenaus in the days before the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And the dodgy dealings of the Carricks in India :lol: .

Er ... that was a lot of waffle! Wondered who else people would like to know more about.

Author:  JayB [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Quote:
And I'd like to know how Marya Humphries, who was Polish, came to be speaking fluent French, singing in Russian and living in Germany!


A Level European History! Partitions of Poland! :D :D :D
Poland wasn't an independent nation when Marya would have been born, being divded between Germany, Russia and the Empire. She was presumably born in the part that was under German rule and she (or her parents) were either left on the German side of the border after the redrawing of boundaries in 1918, or opted to keep their German citizenship and move to Germany.

Nancy Wilmot's background is a bit obscure, for an Old Girl and leading member of staff. Didn't she have a sister called Ida or Iris or something, in the Tyrol? Or is that an EBDism for Nancy herself? And she served in the WRNS in the War. I don't think we know anything else about her at all, do we? Thinking about it, I'm not sure what kind of background I would envisage for her.

Author:  Miriam [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Quote:
Nancy Wilmot's background is a bit obscure, for an Old Girl and leading member of staff. Didn't she have a sister called Ida or Iris or something, in the Tyrol?


In Tyrol she had a sister, who I believe was called Ida, but by Kenya she had 'grown up among a horde of brothers' (and thus learnt how to throw a lasso). :dontknow:

Author:  Lesley [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Nancy's friend was Ida Reaveley, I think she had an older sister who had been a Saint but not sure.

Author:  Pat [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

I thought she was another Hilda?

Author:  Nightwing [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

I'd love to know how Mr Lannis and Mr Flower made their millions - the timing is probably wrong for them to have been smuggling liquor during the American Prohibition :lol: but I wonder what kind of business it was that the two of them were involved in?

Author:  Alison H [ Wed Dec 10, 2008 11:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

JayB wrote:
Quote:
And I'd like to know how Marya Humphries, who was Polish, came to be speaking fluent French, singing in Russian and living in Germany!


A Level European History! Partitions of Poland! :D :D :D
Poland wasn't an independent nation when Marya would have been born, being divded between Germany, Russia and the Empire. She was presumably born in the part that was under German rule and she (or her parents) were either left on the German side of the border after the redrawing of boundaries in 1918, or opted to keep their German citizenship and move to Germany.


I could have coped with the idea of Marya having come from Prussian Poland, but we were told that Ted met her in Cologne. IIRC a lot of people from Prussian Poland moved to the Ruhr area etc after the Franco-Prussian War because there was a shortage of industrial workers, but I couldn't fit the Russian folk songs in with that. And I once came up with the alternative idea that her family had fled Russian Poland after the 1863 Uprising and gone to Paris as a lot of the emigrés did, but although that sorted out the Russian and the French it didn't explain how she ended up in Cologne. I gave up at that point :lol: .

Mind you, seeing as the very small country of Belsornia manages to border both Italy and Turkey at the same time, and Taverton moves at random between Devon and Cornwall, maybe Marya came from a similarly portable part of Poland :roll: .

Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Didn't Polish aristocrats, at least in the 19thc, often speak French among themselves? (I think Joseph Conrad grew up speaking it as well as he did Polish.) Not that I've ever really succeeded in envisaging Robin's mother as a ruined aristocrat, I must say. And it doesn't fit with the other knowns about her. Though given EBD's ideas about how easy it is to pick up a language, it's possible she may have once met a Russian in a railway carriage or something, and picked up 'The Red Sarafan' instantaneously.

I'd love to know more about Jem, too - and whether Stephen Venables was an aristocratic cad, or a low-born wide boy, or precisely why he was so unsuitable. And I'd very much like more background on the Maynards, even though we know more about them - some of the details don't seem to add up. Jack and Mollie don't come across as landed gentry at all (even non-inheriting relatively impoverished landed gentry), even though we know about Pretty Maids from the start of Head Girl, if not earlier - they both seem pure middle-class to me, Pretty Maids aside. And when Jack inherits after his brother's (apparently not much lamented, even though we're told he's nice, despite an unpleasant wife) death, there's no suggestion Jack seriously considers taking over the estate himself. I know that inheriting was unexpected, his professional interests lay elsewhere, and the estate may have been in the red, but I'm surprised there's no indication he felt a wrench at letting it go out of the family after so long. The 'too-relaxing air' excuse feels a bit flimsy, even in a series obsessed with health, when you often had people moving heaven and earth to hang on to their land for their children, and when it might have been possible to put in a manager and hang on to it.

And absolutely, I'd like to know more of Rolf's death. Oh, and what is The Bettanys of Taverton High?

Author:  Catherine [ Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

The Bettanys of Taverton High is a prequel, written by Helen Barber and just published by GGBP, telling the story of the run up to Madge's decision to set up a school. It's excellent.

Author:  Mel [ Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

I'd like to know more about Jem too. In the laws of Chalet Land he must be grander than the Maynards because he married Madge and was knighted.

Author:  jennifer [ Sat Dec 13, 2008 6:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Nancy's older sister was Hilda, and they both started out at St Scholastica's.

Author:  MJKB [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

What was the age gap between Hilda Wilmot and Nancy? And, am I right in thinking that Nancy is about two years younger than Joey according to the Tyrol books? The age gap widens considerably in the later books when she becomes about the same age as BIddy. That always annoyed me.
Even after reading the Bettany's of Taverton, I'm still unsure of the orign of Mademoiselle's relationship with Madge. Had she been Madge's governess at any stage, does anyone know?

Author:  Elle [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

I'd like to know Getrude Becker's background! What made her the perfect Nazi girl to be sent to spy on the school. I have a vague drabble idea floating around about it, but I am not too good at serious drabbles, so if anyone wants to take it on... :lol:

Author:  Meg14 [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Why did Jem speak Afrikaans? And for that matter Mr Flower? I can understand that Jem might have come from a colonial family or worked and spent time out in South Africa but it seems a very odd language skill for an American even one as widely travelled as Mr Flower!!

Author:  Nightwing [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Meg14 wrote:
Why did Jem speak Afrikaans? And for that matter Mr Flower? I can understand that Jem might have come from a colonial family or worked and spent time out in South Africa but it seems a very odd language skill for an American even one as widely travelled as Mr Flower!!


I was trying to work it out once - I had an idea that perhaps Jem's father fought in one of the Boer Wars as a young man and married an Afrikaans woman? I think the timing would more or less work out. Of course, it needn't have been even that complicated - in EBD-land languages are so easy to pick up, perhaps he learned it off a friend at school :lol:

Author:  Lesley [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

My private theory about Mr Flowers is that he was an arms merchant - that's the reason he was able to stay in Austria and buy the San from Jem when all other nationalities were being forced to leave. :evil:

Author:  MJKB [ Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

I've forgotten lots about the lead up to WW2, but I think Mr. Flowers, being an American, would not have incurred the same suspicion as the British party.

Author:  Alison H [ Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Mlle worked as a governess in Taverton but I don't think there's any suggestion that she was Madge's governess. I'm not quite sure how they met, or how Madge came to be an old friend of Mr and Mrs Cochrane who were presumably a good bit older than she was and by the sounds of it not the sort of people you'd want to be friendly with!

I once had a theory that the Russells and the Flowers were all involved in smuggling diamonds from South Africa. And it is definitely odd that Mr Flower bought up the school buildings: even if Americans weren't facing the same hostility as Britons, what on earth would he have wanted buildings in a rural part of Austria for? Plus we're told that he's able to pull strings in half a dozen government departments -sounds very fishy if you ask me :lol: .

Author:  Meg14 [ Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

Oh I can so see Mr Flower being a diamond smuggler! I agree that it is very bizarre that he wants the Chalet buildings unless he is just being philanthropic and trying to help them out of a sticky situation.

Author:  MJKB [ Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Characters' backgrounds

I'm sure EBD meant it as a philantropic gesture on his part but I love the arms smuggling theory. It's much more probable in the real world.

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