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Danger: Redheads
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Author:  Fiona Mc [ Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Danger: Redheads
Redheads of the Chalet School was published in 1964, the only book she had published for the year. It was published once by Chambers in both hardback and paperback and in paperback twice by Armada, in 1990 and 1991. It is also one of the harder books to find to buy.

The main theme in Redheads seems to be danger and could be argued is the first thriller she wrote in her Chalet School series. The book starts by introducing two new characters; Flavia Letton and her stepfather Police Inspector Letton. Flavia is to start at the Chalet School as Inspector Letton’s arch enemy, criminal Samuel Manley. Samuel Manley had threatened to harm Flavia and so Inspector Letton decided to hide Flavia at the Chalet School. Almost as soon as the term starts, it is obvious there is a leak and a strange woman, is asking about any redhead’s in the school answering to the name of Flavia. Len and Joey Maynard are two that are approached and tactfully try and steer the woman elsewhere to no avail. Val Gardener during her illegal breakout from the school is kidnapped as the Manley gang mistake her for Flavia and only after six long days is she found sound asleep on a train with a note asking for her to be returned to the Chalet School. It is during Half Term that Samuel Manley confronts Hilda Annersley directly with a gun and asks for Flavia, whom Hilda denies any knowledge of. Unfortunately Len and Flavia are walking past with Bruno and become entangled with the struggle that ensues. Fortunately all ends well and Samuel Manly is captured and sent to prison and we discover his plan was to kidnap Flavia and turn her into a drug addict.

So, what do people think of the book?
Did anyone find it a little (or a lot!) farfetched, or did you find it fairly realistic?
How fair did you think Hilda was accepting a pupil that attracted the danger Flavia did?
Did you think it was fair that none of the pupil’s or their parents were warned of the potential danger to their own children?
Did you think that the parents living on the Platz should have at least been warned of the dangers, especially with someone asking questions the way they were?
How well did you think Hilda handled Val’s kidnapping?
Please discuss these questions and any others you may think of.
Author:  Alison H [ Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
All credit to EBD for trying something different in this book, rather than yet another avalanche or near-drowning. Also, three cheers for Gaudenz, rather than a conveniently-passing unmarried doctor, getting to be the hero of the piece :D .

Having said which, I do find this book very silly. Admittedly, red hair isn't that common (although at the CS it seems to be more common than in the real world), but surely it's not so uncommon that the kidnappers would just have grabbed the nearest redhead to hand? Hilda, to be fair, wasn't to know that the kidnappers would take someone who wasn't Flavia. Also, it's very hard to take the kidnap seriously when EBD informs us that the kidnappers gave Val some rich, creamy milk (could she not just have said "milk") and then put her train ticket in her pocket! Kidnapping and drugging people was obviously no problem, but clearly their consciences just wouldn't let them put her on a train without paying her fare! Somehow, Elisaveta's kidnap, even though that's way more farfetched - Ruritanian royalty, dangerous men being outwitted by a teenage girl and her dog - just seems to work much better.

& I do feel sorry for Val over the way Hilda speaks to her. OK, she shouldn't have gone off like that, but surely she was entitled to a bit of sympathy after her ordeal. It's as if committing the heinous crime of breaking a school rule is so serious that it outweighs anything else.

This certainly isn't one of my favourite books, but at least EBD tried something different in it. I don't know what sort of reaction it got at the time, but it's interesting that we get kidnappings and shootings in this book, Adrienne practically being held prisoner in what sounds like a brothel in the next one, and then in the one after that it's back to the Maynards adopting random children, sudden severe weather, girls meeting with accidents and doctors coming to the rescue.
Author:  Amanda M [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I actually like Redheads. I like the charcter of Copper, and I like the fact that EBD tried something different. It is one of the few Swiss books that stands out for me instead of being one big blur. I do think it was a bit unfair to blame Val for being kidnapped, the CS and the Platz are generally portrayed as being a reasonably safe area so I'm sure Val didn't think she would be in any danger for leaving school grounds. On balance, I don't think Hilda should have told the pupils as (I think is mentioned in the book) they would, more than likely come up with some poor tourist acting suspiciously.

As a book it probably is farfetched, but as a younger reader that just made it all the more exciting. For better or worse it seemed more modern than any of the other books that EBD wrote. So, all in all, I enjoyed this book.
Author:  Tor [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Don't worry Amanda, I am with you! i really loved this book as a child. Yes I find it quite silly now, but that cannot take away from the fact that I thought it was the bees knees when I was 12! And I really liked Copper, and was most upset when she said that she probably wouldn't be able to stay as her step-father couldn't afford it (was that in this book, or a later one?)

But you are right Alison, even though we have much more far-fetched kidnapping plots in the Tirol years (and hence I dispute the idea that Redheads is really too far-fetched by CS standards), what with the Elisaveta plot-line, and the mad-man who kidnapped the Robin/Corney, it does seem much harder to swallow on an adult re-read. And the second sight aspect of Highland Twins has to trump it too, surely? I can only put it down to the encroachment of modernity, with the drugs and the guns, which helps to shift the story out of 'storybook land' and plump it into my own modern frame of reference.

[I have just re-read the Crown of Dalemark for the gazillionth time, and have stolen this idea, in reverse, from when Maewen realizes she finds Kankredin is more scary in the modern day than in the past, because things like that don't happen 'now'.]

That and probably a slight drop in quality.
Author:  LauraMcC [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I quite enjoy this one, too, mainly because it is not quite as monotonous as some of the other later ones, and I like Copper as a character. I thought that a lot of it was pretty far-fetched, especially the way in which Val was kidnapped, just because she happened to have red hair, and was then conveniently dropped into the train, but it was no more far-fetched than many happenings in other books, such as doctors appearing just when they are needed, and I always felt that it was easy to just suspend disbelief while reading.

I must admit that I liked the scene with Hilda, Gaudenz and the gun. Like Alison said, it's nice that Gaudenz gets his chance to be a hero, and I've always felt it quite exciting, myself.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I've only read this once, so please excuse any lapses in accuracy!

I don't think that Hilda should have told parents or other pupils; that would be putting Copper in more danger than was necessary, as she took - to me - all reasonable precautions. Even telling people on the Platz would have been, I think, risky, as most were surely holiday makers?

Personally, I quite liked this book, but I read it with a pinch of salt; I read it more as a spoof of the genre, than as a serious attempt at it. As we know from 'Princess', when she chooses EBD can write thrilling kidnaps (I remember as a young girl reading 'Princess' for the first time having to stay up until nearly midnight because I couldn't sleep until I knew if she was safe - it just came back to me then and made me smile!) but this just isn't. When read as something silly, I think that it works rather well.
Author:  Nightwing [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I actually think that the 'danger' aspect of Redheads makes more of an impact on an older reader than a younger one, far-fetchedness aside. The fact that Val is drugged at least twice, and that her captors were planning on making Copper a drug-addict, is pretty terrifying IMO. Reading it as a child I could just accept it as bad people doing bad things: as an adult I fully understand just what that would mean for a child. This is comparable to the beginning of Adrienne, where an adult reader can see the possible connotations that her landlady may be thinking of selling her into prostitution.

What does amuse me about this book (in a morbid sort of way) is that when Val is kidnapped, her captor gives her milk laced with drugs. In any other EBD situation that would have made him a doctor, not a criminal!
Author:  Mel [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Full marks to EBD for having a go at a CS thriller. The plot moves along, yes it is far-fetched, but no worse than many others. I query just why Len is so cautious; usually she is totally helpful and co-operative, so surely she would have helped anyone looking for a red-haired Flavia. Or did the woman look weaselly and unscrupulous - I can't remember! The book is too much plot-centred for me, as we don't see enough of the school or the usual term's affairs. Poor Rosamund has a poor deal in her one term as HG - no announcement, no first reading of the Parable of the Talents. She doesn't even have a Prefects' Meeting! I love the fact that Hilda thinks the expression 'I nearly had kittens' is 'not pretty'!
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I'm going to go off theme here and say one of the things that really diasppointed me here was the fact we didn't see Rosamund as Head Girl. She was never Form Prefect or an obvious leader in any of the earlier books, so it would have been interesting to see how Rosamund dealt with suddenly being in the fore and Head Girl. I really liked this group of girls in Inter V and was extremely disappointed when never saw them as Prefects, for the entire school year. I would loved to have seen Heather Clayton as Games Prefect and do we even find out who was Second Prefect? I know Len was Library Prefect, but I do wonder how the Second Prefect felt when Len was promoted ahead of her the following term after Rosamund left, or why no one voted Con as Magazine Prefect when to me she was the obvious choice.

Aside from all that and getting back on track, I do like Flavia and could see her a future Head Girl for her year, far more than Jack Lambert and why does EBD say anyone who meets Jack and co, thinks more of Wanda Von Eschenau and then have them turning to Jack for help. It would wonderful to see Wanda take charge as she was a much nicer girl than Jack
Author:  mohini [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 6:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I liked the book and liked Copper.
As a thriller it is not very exciting but to read it overall as a part of CS, it seems alright.
Something new other than getting lost in storm or snow and being rescued.
Val going off on her own seems OK as she is close to her brother.
Maybe Hilda scolded her because she was Val. Had it been anyone else say Len for instance or Mary Lou it would have been because of their sensitive nature, if you understand what I mean to say.
Author:  cestina [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Perhaps I should reread this in view of the above comments! I have only read it once, very fast, in transcript - it's the only book I do not own - and I hated it.

I found it very far-fetched and skimpily written and completely unlikely from the very beginning. However when one considers Elisaveta's, Robin's and Cornelia's adventures with madmen perhaps it is not so much a hop-out-of-kin as I had thought from my one rapid reading.
Author:  JB [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I quite like Redheads. I’d put it in the read occasionally pile, unlike the books from Summer Term onwards which I read rarely and those from earlier in the series that I’ll often pick up. I’d definitely say that Redheads is better than the straightforward “thrillers” EBD wrote – Condor Crags Adventure and Top Secret – which I thought were truly dire.

I didn’t read it until I was an adult when I came across hardback of the Reunion through to Althea, and read them one after the other. I like Flavia and it’s a shame, as with so many other new characters at this stage of the series, she fades away after the first book.

I thought it harsh that Val is given so much of the blame for her own kidnapping. She didn’t do anything so very bad and she wasn’t to know that a criminal gang was wandering the Platz, kidnapping random redheads.

I agree with the comment that the book focused too much on the Flavia plot line and neglected anything else that was going on in the school. In Princess, Elisaveta’s kidnapping was just one element of a busy term.

I don’t think Hilda could have warned the parents of other pupils about the situation because that would have blown Inspector Letton’s secret. I wonder, though, what parents thought when their daughters arrived home with lurid tales of what had happened at school that term.
Author:  Margaret [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
One thing I found totally unlikely in this book was that Copper's father escorted her to school. Surely the gang would have been watching him? And what would he be doing in a carrage with a red-haired schoolgirl other than escorting her to school?

Otherwise, although far-fetched, with the usual quibbles about the ticket-in-her-pocket incident, I felt that it was a brave attempt to be up to date, and I did like Flavia as a character.

Yes, Mohini, I'm sure you are right, OOAO or Len would have had different treatment. But sadly, isn't that very true to life? Give a dog a bad name ....
Author:  JB [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
The ticket in pocket thing is odd but I suppose it's just a plot device to get her back to the school - the good Samaritan sees the ticket so he knows where Val's going and takes her there (which is also a little odd if you think about it - man carrying unconscious girl). We don't see police involvement at this stage, do we?
Author:  Alison H [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
JB wrote:
I wonder, though, what parents thought when their daughters arrived home with lurid tales of what had happened at school that term.


I sometimes suspect that girls were made to swear an oath not to reveal school secrets to their parents. One of the reasons that St Scholastika's fails is that several parents - hardly surprisingly - take their daughters away after hearing that a group of girls had been able to sneak out and go skating on unsafe ice late at night and that one of them had nearly died as a result. Yet no-one takes their daughters away from the CS even though there's at least one near-fatal mishap every term!
Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Dec 03, 2009 6:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
What cracks me up about this one is always the combination of some genuinely unpleasant situations - a double murder, the kidnapping and drugging of Val, the threat to make Flavia a drug addict, the violent struggle in which a gun is fired, Len's collarbone is broken, and Flavia is kicked in the face by the bad guy - and the usual CS cosiness. Like one minute, Flavia is hearing that she and her stepfather are in serious danger, the next she is as usual getting to take her plate and choose her own cakes 'in the pleasant Continental fashion'. Or one minute Lou, the female gang member, is talking to herself in long-winded, hardbitten soliloquies that read like something from a gumshoe detective novel:

Quote:
"I guess maybe I'll make a little surer before I say anything to him. Dwight sure has a hair-trigger temper for all he's such a smoothy in public. I wouldn't want a fight with him and especially if I'm wrong – as I could be. Red pigtails – ¬phooey! Guess there's a million kids like that around here. ..You watch your step, Lou Manley. Dwight's no man's pet when he gets mad."


and the next minute she's doing embroidery while waiting for the kidnapped Val to be brought to the house! Embroidery! As if she was at a Hobbies evening! And I do always giggle at Val's ticket being put in her pocket by the evil gang, and - even more so - that the drugged milk she is given is still, in the best CS fashion 'rich with cream'! (No UHT crap for EBD's evil gangs.) :D

I think that crazy combination of genuine menace and the fact that it sits very uncomfortably with the usual CS preoccupations is what I like most about Redheads in a 'so bad it's good' way, because otherwise it's monumentally silly.

We can believe in the Famous Five and co and their continual brushes with smugglers and forgers because there are never any 'good' adults involved - EB makes a point of getting them entirely away from the adult world on isolated islands or having their parents kidnapped by sun-worshipping African tribes. But EBD writes most naturally from an adult perspective, and so you get the completely ludicrous-sounding situation of responsible adults rationalising why they aren't asking for police protection for a girl under serious threat, whether they need to keep guard on all CS redheads, why it would cause too much talk in the school to dye Copper's hair, and mad suggestions from Joey about reviving the Pets Club, so that some random pet dogs might conceivably hold off an entire criminal gang! After which she and Hilda start a detailed conversation which is entirely about Sybil and Josette's engagements!

I do wonder whether EBD was secretly giggling to herself when she wrote this...
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Dec 03, 2009 6:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Sunglass wrote:
I do wonder whether EBD was secretly giggling to herself when she wrote this...


Perhaps her publishers had suggested adding more action to the series? This was by way of being a "No, thanks, I think my series is just perfect; see what happens when you try and meddle!"
Author:  Rosie [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 12:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I only read this for the first time last month (thank you Helen P) and I will admit I spent most of the time laughing. A lot. It's just ridiculous. Glorious, but ridiculous. I think what got me was the bit with Val. The child was missing for six days and there's no major police search, nothing. And then she's in trouble. Ok, yes, she broke a very strict school rule, etc, and if she hadn't then no, she'd not have gone missing. But still.

Maybe if I'd read it during my Enid Blyton years I'd've accepted it much better, but not now!
Author:  KatS [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 4:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I've just started rereading the beginning, and realized how wildly unlikely the whole thing is... First of all, Copper isn't told anything about what's going on - her Dad just up and announces that she's going off to school in Switzerland under a false name, and has to go through the whole shenanigans in the train about pretending not to know him, and cut her hair off as soon as possible without any explanation at all, and instead of asking any questions, she just wonders if he wants her to cut her hair because it's unhealthy for growing girls!

And then, as soon as an American tourist asks the way to the railway station and if they are a school trip, Len, Mary Cavendish, and Miss Ferrars, none of whom know anything about Copper, all get tinglings of alarm and start lying about the school's location :roll:

And when Miss Annersley tells Copper that she's being pursued by a gang of dangerous criminals, she's all laughter, and comprehension, and "unlikely to dramatize the situation", but when in the same breath, Miss A. tells her off for slang:
Quote:
Miss Annersley laughed. "Exactly! And, by the way, I don't like that phrase you used just now. Find something else, please. It's not pretty."
Copper looked abnormally serious. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

Yes - because the knowledge that she's been spirited off to a mountain shelf in Switzerland in disguise to avoid being kidnapped isn't a big deal, but using the dreadful phrase "they nearly had kittens" will naturally dampen the mood...
Author:  Alison H [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 6:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
In Trials, Matey told Emerence off for saying "awful rot" when Emerence was trying to explain that Margot was so ill that she was almost delirious. Seriously ill pupil - minor issue. Saying "awful rot" - major issue.

The sad thing is that there are a lot of people like that, especially people who've worked at the same place for many years: they get so obsessed with their rules and "little ways" that they just can't see past them :roll: .
Author:  andi [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 7:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
KatS wrote:
Quote:
Miss Annersley laughed. "Exactly! And, by the way, I don't like that phrase you used just now. Find something else, please. It's not pretty."
Copper looked abnormally serious. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."



Maybe Copper's 'abnormally serious' expression was the result of her (as a poilceman's daughter) trying not to crack up at Miss Annersley's views on what is important and what isn't. :)
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 7:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Or EBD was stuck between the rock of writing true to life characters and the hard place of not wanting to corrupt but rather to purify her reader's language... :dontknow:
Author:  Sunglass [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
ChubbyMonkey wrote:
Or EBD was stuck between the rock of writing true to life characters and the hard place of not wanting to corrupt but rather to purify her reader's language... :dontknow:


I think you've put your finger on the spot - that's exactly EBD's dilemma! She clearly realises that in stressful or emotional situations, people's language isn't perfect, and feels she needs to write realistically, but equally, she's so mindful of her young, impressionable audience that she also feels the need to remind us that this isn't correct. It leads to some very odd situations, where someone communicating an important situation or confiding something major nonetheless has the person they're speaking to correcting their speech. And even in unimportant situations, the various adult characters are continually ticking one another off for grammar or slang - I'd have said that getting that day in day out would have led to a rather tetchy staffroom...?

Back on topic - it occurred to me rereading the start of Redheads that Copper's most dangerous moments are arguably when she's 'safely' in the hands of the CS authorities. Especially being driven to the Gornetz Platz without a seatbelt by Miss Wilmot, speeding on motorways and banging in and out of potholes on bad minor roads to save distance (though despite Miss W's pride at saving 3 km by taking the rutted road, surely the reduction in speed necessary to negotiate the bad surface would more than make up the 'saved' time...?) Also, having a very bumpy ride sandwiched in between a meal of cakes and coffee 'blanketed in rich whipped cream' and another, much heavier meal which includes fried potato balls, cream sauces, some creamy dessert and more coffee with whipped cream sounds like a recipe for extreme car sickness! In her place, I would have made my CS debut having thrown up every five miles on the way up the mountain, and Matey would have grumbled endlessly about the trouble of a carsick new girl in San etc etc...
Author:  Rosie [ Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Ah, the short-cut of 3km. Was this EBD not knowing how little that was, or journeys being so different/longer back then that 3km really was a massive difference?
Author:  GotNerd [ Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
I think EBD probably drove infrequently enough that she both didn't know how short 3km is, and also that your speed would be radically effected when driving through potholes. :lol:
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Sunglass wrote:
Especially being driven to the Gornetz Platz without a seatbelt by Miss Wilmot, speeding on motorways and banging in and out of potholes on bad minor roads to save distance...


Yes! I always find myself thinking of it in relation to the car crash in Two Sams, when Nina is presumably thrown out of the car against a rock and Dwight the other driver dies from internal injuries when he's thrown against his steering wheel - it's like an ad for wearing seat-belts.

Also, in another episode of non-gang-related danger in Redheads, the snake incident always seems a bit peculiar. Some Middles find a snake coiled up under a tree, and although they are scared of it to the point where they send someone off for Len, they nonetheless also seem to stand around close to it to the point where it's rearing up and hissing like a king cobra. (Do vipers even do this?) And then Len compounds matters by whacking an angry poisonous snake with a stick - as taught by her father and later approved of by Hilda - when everything I've ever been told about dealing with snakes says this is the very last thing you should do!

In fact, that whole ramble is weird - as well as Len needlessly getting involved with a snake, there's some odd responses to a completely innocuous conversation with the American woman. Len, even though she knows nothing about Copper's situation, is suspicious of someone who appears to be an ordinary lost tourist and conceals the school's location, while Kathie Ferrars, who does know, is alarmed enough to want to talk to Joey about it (apparently because Joey could then consult Jack, although he knows nothing whatsoever about the situation!), but doesn't want to mention it to Hilda, for fear of looking 'officious'! And after the woman reappears, looking for Flavia Ansell, and is caught sneaking around the grounds - so they know the gang is onto her presence at the CS - Hilda says it would cause 'too much talk' in the school for Flavia to be called Copper in class, and still won't consider calling for police protection or moving Copper somewhere else!

Plus it occured to me on rereading - wouldn't the gang be likely to have had a photo of the girl they were trying to kidnap, rather than some vague guidelines on hair-colour?
Author:  Alison H [ Sun Dec 06, 2009 9:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Sorry for repeating myself :oops: , but, as silly as some of the events in this and some of the other Swiss books are, the same can be said about the Tyrol books and yet the storylines there never seem silly. Cosimo had no idea even which continent Elisaveta had been sent to school on, and yet he just happened to turn up in Tyrol. Kay O'Hara, who'd once been Juliet's close friend, must have known very well that Juliet's guardian lived near the Tiernsee and that therefore that was where Juliet would probably be spending the summer, and yet she chose to go there on holiday. But somehow things never seem as daft in the Tyrol books as they do in the Swiss ones ... presumably because, as someone said, the Swiss books are supposed to be more grounded in the real world.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
Alison H wrote:
But somehow things never seem as daft in the Tyrol books as they do in the Swiss ones ... presumably because, as someone said, the Swiss books are supposed to be more grounded in the real world.


I think it's, as someone said up the thread, that in the early Tyrol books like Princess, we spend much less time inside the heads of responsible adults, and so the reader isn't as liable to dwell on the mad coincidences. Like with the Kay O'Hara incident, we're only looking at it from Joey's very young, external point of view - and all she cares about is Juliet's unhappiness - so we don't have a situation where we see Kay having to rationalise to another adult her decision to go on holidays in the exact spot where Juliet lives, or another adult wondering why Kay would appear to seek out someone she has every reason to avoid. We do get a bit of Madge's point of view on Cosimo's sidekick, but mostly again it's Joey, who's immature, impulsive, and mostly concerned with rescuing Elisaveta, rather than wondering how on earth a mad prince could have possibly found a girl who could have been anywhere in the world.

But in Redheads, we have rational adults like Hilda and her staff, Jack and Joey all apparently unsurprised by the coincidence of an American gang member somehow happening to be taking a walk on the Rosleinalp and putting two and two together about a random red-haired schoolgirl, and then refusing to do the obvious responsible thing and seek police protection for Copper. I think that's why the Swiss books' far-fetchedness strikes me as being far odder than the Austrian melodramas.Young Joey is supposed to be heedless and a bit mad, but we are more likely to expect Hilda and adult Joey to ask the obvious questions.
Author:  Mrs Redboots [ Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Danger: Redheads
And someone mentioned the cosiness of doing embroidery after all the murder and mayhem in the study - but that is what the episode of the gardening tools in EXILE is like, too. Which episode, I have to say, spoils that book for me, it's just too unnecessary to describe a Middles' prank in such detail after all the excitements of the first part of the book (also unrealistic when you stop and think about it, so you don't stop to think about it!).
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