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#1: Chudleigh Hold Query Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:14 pm
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So, I'm reading Chudleigh Hold at the moment and blimey, all of the characters have really bonkers names! Funny how EBD comments in Jo Returns that giving your characters OTT names is the mark of a young and inexperienced writer, and then creates the strangest set of family names in the world Rolling Eyes

Anyway, EBD tells us a couple of times that there is a really important reason why Merle is called Merle, and not by her proper name, which is Merrill. But then, unless I'm missing something, she never actually tells us what that reason is.

*Am* I missing something? Or can anyone come up with a theory for the name change? Please?

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

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:18 pm
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I think there's a previous book that explains it. I seem to remember a footnote referring to something else, but can't remember which one - Fardingdales, perhaps?

#3: Author: Liss, Location: Richmond

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:27 pm
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I thought Chudleigh Hold was the first book in that series? Or is Fardingales just a loosely-related?

#4: Author: Karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:58 pm
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I think CH was the first published! I thought Merle was french for Blackbird - is she not described as having black hair?

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

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:30 pm
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I know there were definite footnotes to various things, but I returned Kitty's books to her (silly me) so I can't check!

#6: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:51 pm
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According to the intro (I'm reading the GGB version, so there are no footnotes) the reading order is Chudleigh Hold, Fardingales, Susannah Adventure, Condor Crags and Top Secret, although Fardingales was actually published first.

The Chudleighs don't feature in that one, though (I think)...

#7: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:21 pm
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Wasn't it to differentiate between her and Auntie M, also called Merrill?

#8: Author: Kat, Location: Kingston-upon-Thames/Swansea

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:13 pm
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The Chudleighs don't appear in Fardingales or Susannah, but Humphrey Anthony and Anstace Roseveare do appear in Condor Crags. I don't think they're pop up anywhere else, but need to do a re-read to check.

#9: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:10 am
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Fatima wrote:

Wasn't it to differentiate between her and Auntie M, also called Merrill?

Well, that's the obvious answer, but EBD seems to make it more mysterious than that. Quite early in the book she comments that there was a "particular" reason for Merle's name, and there's a similar statement later on, but she never says why.

I've finished the book now, and I'm not sure what I think of it. The set up is good, the Chudleighs all seem nicely distictive and relatively well-characterised (not like the Trevennors in Gerry Goes to School, where I always have to write a list becuase I keep getting them mixed up!), but I don't feel EBD ever quite pays off the emotional side of things. Cherry, for instance, never really has to confront her antipathy to Crumpet or her blind adoration of Cousin Merrill. We never learn whether Charles will overcome his injuries or Crumpet her nerves and nightmares, and we don't even meet the man Merle has "an understanding" with.

I think it's a shame we don't really meet the Chudleighs again - only Hawk and Godfrey feature in future books, right? I wonder if we even hear what happens to the girls? I haven't read Top Secret or Condor Crags - has anyone else?

#10: Author: Alex, Location: Cambs, UK

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:05 pm
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Anstace Roseveare????!!!!

What sort of a name is that?!

#11: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:20 pm
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It sounds like a type of china pattern.

#12: Author: macyrose, Location: Great White North (Canada)

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:08 pm
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Caroline wrote:

Quote:

I think it's a shame we don't really meet the Chudleighs again - only Hawk and Godfrey feature in future books, right? I wonder if we even hear what happens to the girls?

I too have always wondered what happened to the girls (and the boys) in the future. The only mention I could find was in The Chalet School in the Oberland where it says about Gillian:

Quote:

After leaving school, she had gone to stay with a married sister whose home was in Kenya and had rather lost touch with the school. On returning home, she had taken a secretarial course, since there was a long family of the Culvers, and Godfrey, the eldest brother, had a wife and two small children to provide for already.

But it doesn't say which sister it is. Is there anyone who's read all the books in this series who can tell us more (assuming there is any more)?

#13: Author: Karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:20 pm
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Watching University Challenge, anything rather than finishing off my End of Course Assessment due in tomorrow - one off the questions was Which british bird has the archaic title of Merle? I was jumping up and down at this - no one knew it!

#14: Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:14 am
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There was a mention in Chudleigh hold about not calling Merle Merril, because of Auntie M, but also because of the little Aunt Merril (as opposed to Great Aunt), who died. It was a reference to Nanny calling her Merle, I think, whereas she didn't call any of the others by nicknames. And the Aunt Merril would have been one of Nanny's charges. So maybe that's the explanation.

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