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#1: Excitements at the Chalet School Author: Katie, Location: Richmond

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:43 pm
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Right, I can't remember exactly where we'd got up to on the BDs but I think we were about here. I also have no clue if there was a synopsis written for this one, and have just realised I'll have to recreate all the stickes etc. Bah. Anyhoo, the NCC has a synopsis here.

Personally, I rather like this one. Et vous? Have a chat on't. Very Happy

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

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:49 pm
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I really like this one, mostly because Nina gets to take centre stage, quite literally.

There's a lot that happens in it too, so you're never stuck on one storyline for too long. And as for Inter V, bless their little cotton socks, and their great idea - personally I think it's one of the best things EBD ever came up with. Can't think why they didn't do it before. The only thing that just niggles slightly is the Spot Supper - it's introduced here and never heard of again. What's the point in that?!

Umm that's all I can remember, cos I don't have my book here with me, which is a shame as I like it a lot

#3: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:06 pm
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I like this one as well, and have a soft spot for it as it's one of the few I read as a child. It's nice seeing a side of Matey other than school tyrant, with her grief over her sister's death.

I like this Inter V. They have a good mix of girls, and there are a lot of girls who we see over a large number of books, making them much more solid than some of the later classes.

Actually, they're the last year of students who I feel really live in my mind as an ensemble. Previously we have Mary-Lou and her Gang,
Bride and Tom and Co, the Triumvirates, the Quartette, the Quintette,
Elizabeth and Betty and their cohort - we see all of these groups over a number of years, and they have distinct personalities and ways of interacting and their own flavour.

Here we have the triplets, Rosamund and Joan, Alicia, Betty and Heather, Francie, Jo Scott, Emerence, Yseult - a varied group of interesting girls. After this, there isn't really a year that stands out in my mind. The closest is Jack and her Gang, and that's mainly Jack with a bunch of yes-men following her around.

As an aside, I feel a bit sorry for Yseult when it comes to the play idea. She comes up with it (a nice gesture as she's been sort of on the outskirts of the group) and it's promptly co-opted by the other girls, with Con, three years younger, elected to write it, and Yseult's admittedly overambitious ideas scoffed at by the mistress consulted.

#4: Author: KathrynW, Location: London

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:29 pm
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I rather like this one as well - it's one that I've had for ages too as I must have got the pb when Armada published it in the early 90's but until recently, I'd always read it our of context because I had none of the surrounding ones. I think I always enjoyed it because of the links it had with the past what with the coming of age discussions. Like Jennifer, I agree that it is good to see another side of Matey and I think that her reaction to her sister's death is handled very well by EBD and shows Joey at her butting-in best.

#5: Author: serendipity, Location: Leeds, UK

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 3:22 pm
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Have just started rereading this and am particularly impressed by the pentagonal splashery

Quote:

It was a long, narrow....room with pegs round three walls.....At one end were the lockers....Opposite was the wide window with three toilet basins...

#6: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:14 pm
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serendipity wrote:

Have just started rereading this and am particularly impressed by the pentagonal splashery

Quote:

It was a long, narrow....room with pegs round three walls.....At one end were the lockers....Opposite was the wide window with three toilet basins...

On one of the walls, could half of the wall have been lockers and the other half have been pegs?

#7: Author: Ray, Location: Bristol, England

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:17 pm
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serendipity wrote:

Have just started rereading this and am particularly impressed by the pentagonal splashery

Quote:

It was a long, narrow....room with pegs round three walls.....At one end were the lockers....Opposite was the wide window with three toilet basins...

My primary school actually DID have a pentagonal (or was it hexagonal?) cloakroom - so this bit didn't actually strike me as odd when I read the book recently! That said, I suspect what she means is that the lockers only took up half the wall and above them were the pegs.

Ray *went to a very odd primary school*

#8: Author: Róisín, Location: Gaillimh

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:58 pm
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Haven't read this one in simply ages.

I too felt sorry for Yseult after her idea was taken over by the class. But let's face it, she would have made a mess of it. She didn't have much sense did she -> wanting entirely new 'artistic' uniforms for the school. I'm glad that she turned out ok in the end though - under Cornelia's influence.

The death of Matey's sister, and her subsequent reaction, is done very well. It's a pity they don't keep up with the idea of calling her Gwyneth past the first few hours though Confused

I like this episode - it feels like a realer insight into the life of a boardingschool teacher - relatively lonely except for colleagues.

The Spot Supper is mentioned again - AFAIK - when something serious is going on and they can't have the usual speeches or gaiety (can't remember what the other event was though...).

Very Happy

#9: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:36 am
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Róisín wrote:

The Spot Supper is mentioned again - AFAIK - when something serious is going on and they can't have the usual speeches or gaiety (can't remember what the other event was though...).

Very Happy

I've been meaning to do a full response here, but--

It's mentioned in Trials...they're going to have Spot Supper when Naomi's in her accident. The prefects don't want to do it, but they have to do it, but they're going to cut out the happy songs.

And I think: what did those brain cells hold before they held that CS trivia? Because I bet that, whatever it was, it was really useful. Or, if not useful, intellectual. Damnit.

Chang

#10: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 2:57 am
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Can anyone tell me in what way Joey's answer about her eligibility for the Spot Supper is supposed to be "very Irish?"

Quote:

Am I not? I'll thank you to remember, young woman, that I'm the oldest Old Girl there is. I was a pupil of the Chalet School before ever it came into existence! So put that on your needles and knit it." With which valediction, she wheeled off the baby, leaving them all laughing at her very Irish speech.

To me, the first sentence sounds like someone who's been drilled not to say "Aren't I?", the second a typical scolding pattern that's sometimes used humorously, the third possibly a tad poetic with the placement of "ever," and the last -- well, pure Joey. I'd thought of it as an adaptation of "Put that in your pipe and smoke it." But particularly Irish? Unless of course she was putting on an accent....

#11: Author: Caroline58, Location: St Albans

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:23 am
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I think it's this bit:

Kathy_S wrote:

I was a pupil of the Chalet School before ever it came into existence! So put that on your needles and knit it."

I've a feeling that elsewhere EBD describes a logically impossible statement as Irish.

#12: Author: Caroline58, Location: St Albans

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:38 pm
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What Joey said was an Irish bull! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_bull

#13: Author: Caroline58, Location: St Albans

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:39 pm
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Sorry for cluttering up this thread, but in my quote two messages back I didn't mean to include the part about knitting!

C

#14: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:40 pm
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Caroline58 wrote:

I think it's this bit:

Kathy_S wrote:

I was a pupil of the Chalet School before ever it came into existence!

I think so too. It's the type of hyperbole - or Irish bull as Caroline said.

#15: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 2:58 am
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I think another statement that she calls Irish is "and we never saw you 'till we did".

Chang

#16: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 6:31 am
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Kate wrote:

Caroline58 wrote:

I think it's this bit:

Kathy_S wrote:

I was a pupil of the Chalet School before ever it came into existence!

I think so too. It's the type of hyperbole - or Irish bull as Caroline said.

What's amusing is that I associate this formula almost entirely with sermons along the lines of "The whole created world, before ever it came to be, was in the mind of God...." (That particular one is a rather recent JPII, but the formula goes back at least to Julian of Norwich if not earlier.) It's not really hyperbole, since Madge had declared Joey a pupil when the school was still in the planning phase, but I assumed EBD meant that particular phrasing as a parody -- and then wondered if she thought only the Irish would be so flippant. Confused

. My alternative hypothesis was that the knitting bit was "Irish" in the same way as some of EBD's "Canadian" and "American" sayings. Or perhaps that she'd spelled "ever," "ivver" or some such in the hardback.

#17: Author: Joan the Dwarf, Location: Er, where am I?

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 1:40 pm
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Definitely an "Irish bull" - an example of acceptable racism like the various "nigger" references!

Also in the tradition of the "Irish" joke as told by the English - eg. did you hear about the Irish sundial? It was luminous for use at night...

My sister-in-law still describes contradictory statements as "Irish". I blame the parents.

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

Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 5:09 pm
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My husband, who is from Northern Ireland, says it's all right for him to tell Irish jokes, but it's not all right for anybody else to!

#19: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 12:12 am
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Mrs Redboots wrote:

My husband, who is from Northern Ireland, says it's all right for him to tell Irish jokes, but it's not all right for anybody else to!

I feel the exact same way! Very Happy

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