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#1: Ruey Richardson, Chaletian Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:24 am
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(aka Ruey Richardson at the Chalet School)

Opinions and musings on this one? Do you think Ruey's settling into school is realistic given her previous lack of supervision? Are you as excited about the return of lacrosse as all the staff and students are? What do you think of the new uniform (and can anyone explain to me what it actually looked like)?

Is Francie a believable or sympathetic character, and is her jealousy over Ruey and it's resolution realistic?

What do you think of Peggy's marriage to Giles Winterton - the first of the Maynard/Russell/Bettanys to go.

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

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:18 am
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Where to start...

Do I like Ruey? Yes. I think, given her father, she's a surprisingly normal and well-balanced character and I think that the way she settles in does come across quite well. As much as it was a complete change for her, she was probably kept busy enough to avoid fretting.

The lacross thing: I liked it. For one thing, it made a nice change from Tennis, rowing (just how many boat races are there described in the series?), swimming, skiing and very occasionally hockey. I can also understand the mania for something new - I can certainly remember the mania I (and sundry friends) went through for rounders when it was announced the school was forming a rounders team! Lastly, it's not often that EBD makes sport an important and reoccuring part of the plot (I think Wrong's probably about the only other time it happens, in fact), so it does make a nice change, compared to some of the surrounding books.

The uniform: I'm probably alone in thinking it actually doesn't sound all that bad - and it would certainly beat the gastly bottle-green wrap around skirt I had to wear for five years!

Francie: I'll try to be brief (!) seeing as you probably know where I'm likely to go with this *grin* Simply put though, yes, Francie's believable to me. Who hasn't made plans that they've pinned their hopes on and then had those plans come crashing down because something's changed? As for the resolution...*refreshes memory of exactly how it happens*...the start of it's a little contrived (very Hollywood, though!), but the final talk works well, and (for my money, at least) it's probably one of EBD's best reformations because it does come with no input from the Staff/Joey/Mary-Lou/passing goat/mis-adventure, it's simply someone growing up.

Peggy's marriage...sorry - I have no opinion on this one. 'Fraid I'd even forgotten it was in this book!

Overall, this is probably one of my favourite books in the series, even allowing for the completely silly sub-plot with Professor Richardson. It's certainly one of the ones that comes off as the most natural.

Ray * Smile

*

edited for clarity

#3: Author: catherine, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:19 pm
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Like Ray, I thought the portrayal of Francie was believable - I'm sure most of us can think of someone we always secretly wanted to be a friend. I can imagine that she was probably quite lonely over the summer holidays and wishes and daydreams about the term to come could have occupied a great deal of her time. It was also a good way of letting us see and learn more about a character we'd met on several occasions but never had the opportunity to form an opinion on - IMO anyway!

I also liked the fact that we got to see Margot in a pleasanter light than hitherto - she was genuinely doing her best to look after Ruey - and we also saw her realistic struggle with her temper and to try to keep the rules.

#4: Author: Michelle, Location: Near London

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:21 pm
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I've never read Joey & Co, and neither have I read the hardback, so I'll just have to go on what I've heard.

It is quite surprising in some ways that a girl who is used to living on her own without supervision could adapt to school life. But perhaps it's a relief for her to let other people take control. Ruey does seem to have a very strong independent streak in Ruey.

I like Francie a lot. Her feelings for Margot are very realistic, and not in the least sentimental or disturbing. I also like the way that EBD makes it very clear (at least I think she does) that Margot has genuinely no idea that she is leaving Francie out, and that she does seem to see her as a friend, if not s very close friend. Yet Francie's desire for more doesn't seem unreasonable.

I liked the lacrosse storyline because I enjoy reading about sports, but there is quite a lot of detail. Possibly too much for people who aren't interested in sports, but I like it.

I can't remember the new uniform, but I'm not that bothered about what they wear. Peggy's marriage to Giles Winterton was a disappointment - it was good to see a wedding from that generation, but why did she have to marry a friend's brother?

#5: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:45 am
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The storyline about being jealous over someone's friendship with another girl was quite realistic - except that we'd never heard anything about Francie liking Margot previously. The spaceship storyline was just silly though!

I don't know why they had to change the uniform - my parents would've gone mad if they'd suddenly had to replace my uniform, and hadn't been able to pass my old one down to my younger sister, but maybe the parents of the CS girls were well off enough not to've had to worry about that!!

Peggy from a very early age - with her "motherly" ways towards her younger siblings and cousins, and later telling Miss Bubb that she had no ambition to go to uni/college - seemed like the sort of person who'd marry early, and probably marry a neighbour/family friend because she never seemed very into a social whirl kind of life! & I liked the description of the wedding.

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

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:01 am
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Alison H wrote:

I don't know why they had to change the uniform - my parents would've gone mad if they'd suddenly had to replace my uniform, and hadn't been able to pass my old one down to my younger sister, but maybe the parents of the CS girls were well off enough not to've had to worry about that!!

Thing is, though, independant schools DO periodically change/update their uniforms. Mine, for example, opted to change the style of skirt (said wrap-around as mentioned above) to a kilted thing when I was about half way through my first year there. In addition, they changed the entire PE kit from grey games skirt/green athletics knickers/white airtex to green games skirt/red athletics knickers/red airtex.

And regardless of the fact that most of the first years had all just bought brand new uniform, we were all (at least initially) expected to have the whole new uniform (particularly the games kit) by the start of the new year!*

And that was in the early 90s, so it's not just EBD. And actually, the CS is the sort of place that would have been reasonable about uniform changes - the implication is that this particular one would have been phased in, with help offered for those who needed it.

Ray *did actually think her second games kit was marginally more attractive than the first one* *marginally*

*It's worth noting that parents were NOT HAPPY about this, there were protests made and, eventually, the school relented, at least on the main skirt front and those of us who had brand new skirts in the old style were permitted to keep wearing them (and, in fact, I wore my wrap around skirt the whole time I was at the school - as much as I disliked it, it was a dern sight warmer than the kilt version because the kilt version was unlined!). The games kit, however, the school was utterly inflexible over.

#7: Author: Róisín, Location: Gaillimh

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:35 am
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I don't much like Peggy's wedding tbh. It's quite big, isn't it, and fussyish, which is a contrast to most of the simple and nice weddings in the books (Madge, Simone, presumably Joey). Plus we know next to nothing of Giles! Sad

#8: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:47 am
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The impression I have from reading about the Wintertons in Peggy is that Giles was a bit of a prig. Is it too unkind to say that perhaps he and Peggy deserved each other?

Jay B.

#9: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:35 am
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JayB wrote:

The impression I have from reading about the Wintertons in Peggy is that Giles was a bit of a prig. Is it too unkind to say that perhaps he and Peggy deserved each other?

Oh yes!! For every shoe God made a sock - they would have been a perfect couple Smile

#10: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:58 am
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I get that impression of Giles too. We're told that he rarely goes to see his stepmother and half-sisters because Polly and Lalla are a bit wild - you might expect that from an elderly great-aunt or someone like that, but not from a half-brother in his late teens/early 20s!

#11: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:33 pm
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I just got Ruey in an Amazon binge and I really enjoyed it.

Ruey seems to me a believable character and I like the way she is shown to fit in. I think the lacrosse helps with the settling down process actually. Francie too is believable and so is her longing for a really close friend in Margot. I like all the triplets in this book.

The lacrosse stoyline is quite cute. It seems to me to be fairly believable as a school craze.

I've only read the paperback and there wasn't much of the wedding in there as far as I can remember. In fact it took me ages to figure out that Giles was Polly's brother and that was why she was bridesmaiding. It seems to me quite realistic that Peggy would marry someone whose family lived nearby. In boks of the period most people seem to end up with their neighbours.

#12: Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:21 pm
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Loryat wrote:

I
It seems to me quite realistic that Peggy would marry someone whose family lived nearby. In boks of the period most people seem to end up with their neighbours.

THis is especially aplicable given that they seem to have lived in a small and rather isolated fishing village. The amount of young people around who would have been eligable was very low, especially since Pggy at least would not have left the village a great deal. They would naturall have een thrown together a lot, so mutual attraction grew.

When I first read this book (it was my first CS book) I wasn't taking much notice of historical context, exc ept that this wsa obviously before space travel. As such that storyline never bothered me, and I was really more focused on the way Jo looked after her, which left me with a feeling of comfort as well. (Without the backround of the other books though, I found both the space travel theme as Jo's presence rather confusing. Didn't stop me wanting more though.)

The lacrosse storyline as a whole I enjoyed, but when I read the transcript, I was not sorry that the chapter describing a lacroose match in it's entirety had been cut out. With no knowledge of the game other that what I had gleaned from the books, I felt it was too much detail and rather boring. That could just be the comments of a very non-sports oriented person though - I feel the same way a bout the extensive descriptions of tennis matches in 'Wrong'.

#13: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:59 pm
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I was disappointed when I read the transcript and realised that the wedding was still only a few paragraphs long - I quite like Peggy, though of course I can see why she annoys. Hurrah though, for the adult Rix has a line!

#14: Author: Michelle, Location: Near London

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:35 am
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Loryat wrote:

It seems to me quite realistic that Peggy would marry someone whose family lived nearby. In boks of the period most people seem to end up with their neighbours.

It's realistic. It's predictable. But was it too much to hope that Peggy might do something shocking? When I hear about old girls, I like to hear something interesting, not something I might have guessed on my own.

When I read Rix's line about not getting married, I thought his engagement would be announced by the next book. Do we ever hear anything more about Rix?

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

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:21 pm
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Michelle wrote:

Quote:

When I read Rix's line about not getting married, I thought his engagement would be announced by the next book. Do we ever hear anything more about Rix?

Neither Rix or David get engaged or married during the course of the series. I can't remember if anything was mentioned about them career wise in the later books.

#16: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:08 pm
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I have just finished this for the first time (I only have a few left unread and can't bear to finish) and I think the thing I most liked about it was the fact it seemed fill in a lot of gaps. Things that I knew but had never read like Miss Yolland being an old girl I found here.
Also Francie, a character I felt I should know but didn't; this is her book (or at least the book we get most or her in). It also filled some Triplet gaps for me as sometimes it feels to me like they are in so many of the books but I never really get a grip on them, in this book I did.

This must be the only book where they do some cooking and no one manages to put garlic/castor oil or some similarly unsuitable ingredient in the food. I was waiting for it but all we got was the flour incident which felt a little exaggerated but I forgave that seeing as everyone's food turned out okay.

I shed a small tear at the end when Ruey is talking to Joey about her father; even if it is a ludicrous storyline, you have to feel for the girl.

I felt the uniform story was a bit unecessary. And I'm not sure how excited I would have been to win a new school uniform in a competition! Did feel for the girl who was so poor that she thought she wouldn't get one and thought it was sweet the way she wanted to keep itin good nick for her sister. They did say, in the HB at least, that the girls' parents wouldn't have to waste money getting new uniforms straight away but I still felt it a was a bit soon after the change when they moved to Switzerland.

Couldn't really get too excited about the Lacrosse storyline and skimmed the bits describing the match and the rules.

Quite liked the Ruey/Francie storyline but the sorting out of it all seemed a bit unlikely. I'm not sure that's how it would have been in real life!

#17: Author: Tan, Location: London via Newcastle Australia

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:31 pm
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I didn't mind this book either. I was pleased that for a change there were a few girls covered in this book (Ruey, Francie and to an extent the triplets). I quite liked seeing how an older student assimilated into the school. I did find the story line about Ruey's father a little contrived, but I guess that this was quite a topical story at the time.

#18: Ruey Richardson, Chaletian Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:33 pm
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One thing I found a bit strange was the one sided adoration of Francie with Margot and her whole longing to be friends. Margot states in the book that Francie had never hung around her before but I remember distinctly in Genius or Fete that Francie, Connie Winter, Emmy and Margot made up a foursome and in Mistress, she, Margot, Emmy, Heather, Betty and Charmain are a group. So I always thought they may not have been close but they certainly were friendly and had the same group of friends

#19: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:09 pm
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I imagine there'd be a difference between Francie being one of a group of girls with whom Margot and Emmy sometimes did things and Francie specifically 'hanging round' Margot - by which I suppose Margot meant Francie always wanting to sit next to her, walk with her, to the exclusion of other giirls.

I can see how Margot would appeal to Francie - she was pretty, clever, one of the in crowd and had that bad girl reputation. With Francie's family history, the idea of being 'adopted' by the Maynards might also have appealed.

(What an influence Miss Annersley has - I changed 'Margot and Emmy sometimes did things with' to 'with whom Margot and Emmy...' because I could hear her remarks on my English.)

Jay B.

#20: Ruey Richardson, Chaletian Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:52 pm
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I agree. I tend to automatically write May not Can. If only Hilda knew the influence she has on our English

#21: Re: Ruey Richardson, Chaletian Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:33 pm
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Fiona Mc wrote:

I agree. I tend to automatically write May not Can. If only Hilda knew the influence she has on our English

Oh she knows, Fiona! She knows! Laughing

#22: Author: Laura75, Location: Cambridge, England

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:47 pm
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Ray wrote:

In addition, they changed the entire PE kit from grey games skirt/green athletics knickers/white airtex to green games skirt/red athletics knickers/red airtex.

I saw you were from Bristol so I was curious to see what school that was - had a look at your LJ profile! Wink

I didn't know anyone who went there, but we did go to the same College, although in different years. Smile

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