That said I do really like the way in which neither school is considered innocent, and both are to blame. EBD could not and would not have done that in a later book, and I think that for that reason despite the increase in the number of characters and the fact that Madge is no longer head, Rivals still retains the feeling of the first four books which it might otherwise have lost.

(I'm really not sure that that last sentence makes sense!)

In fairness, she doesn't explicitly put down the CS, just disparages "foreign schools" in general, which is rude, but certainly not a hanging crime. But one more negative mark on general principles.

Miss Maynard, striding along, with Joey Bettany on one side and Simone Lecoutier on the other, looked what she was—a jolly, frank Englishwoman. Joey, with her high-bred face, was another; little Simone being typically French. In front of them went the others, most of them showing their various races in their faces and bearing, from Vanna of South Italy, to Lieschen Hoffman, who came from one of the North German seaside resorts, and looked it, even in her very English coat and hat of brown material.

how do you look as if you came from a north German seaside resort?)

Flaxon hair, an apple blossom complexion and easily shocked by the unconventional behaviour of English and American girls?
What does a 'Jolly English woman' look like, I wonder. Does she also have to have a 'high bred' face?

Flaxon hair, an apple blossom complexion and easily shocked by the unconventional behaviour of English and American girls?
What does a 'Jolly English woman' look like, I wonder. Does she also have to have a 'high bred' face?

But is there no one with a cart to whom we could send a message to meet us at the foot of the pass?’
‘If only Mr. Bettany had been still here!’ sighed Miss Wilson.
But Dick Bettany had moved to Innsbruck when Jem Russell had gone back finally to the Sonnalpe, so there was no possibility of getting to them.

It occurs to me that although I would struggle to describe someone who is 'typically French', we get a lot of French school parties in the city here - they send the kids off in small groups and pairs to explore - and I can spot 'em a mile off. Something about them is very distinctive.

It could be to do with voice, mannerisms, clothes, even dentistry etc.

Talking of 'high-bred face' Jilly Cooper in her book 'Class' claims that bodies and faces get progressively thinner and bonier as you go up the social scale so aristos have stoat-shaped heads. So perhaps EBD means good bone-structure?

Talking of 'high-bred face' Jilly Cooper in her book 'Class' claims that bodies and faces get progressively thinner and bonier as you go up the social scale so aristos have stoat-shaped heads.

Wallis Simpson was too thin and the Queen Mother was always on the plump side!

‘The school in question is run by a particularly efficient Head, and her staff are nearly all English.

The school in question is run by a particularly efficient Head, and her staff are nearly all English.

which sounds a bit as if he thinks most French-run schools might justify her criticism, but that Mademoiselle is unusual in being 'efficient' and that the almost entirely English staff mitigate 'foreign' inefficiency anyway!

which sounds a bit as if he thinks most French-run schools might justify her criticism, but that Mademoiselle is unusual in being 'efficient' and that the almost entirely English staff mitigate 'foreign' inefficiency anyway!

As MJKB says, in some (most?) GO books the French are shown as being devious and without honour (I'm thinking both EB and Lorna Hill) and completely unable to understand the right-thinking English girl who are their pupils or classmates. Perhaps EBD was writing against this stereotype?

It is a pity that as the series ran on some of the insularity of the other GO books creeps in, so that you get a very British colony abroad in Switzerland with no sense of the same respect or deference for the host country that she shows in Austria.

Although if you look at the second-string cast of the later Swiss books, there seems to be a larger number of non-English pupils than ever before - big proportions of the Crew and Jack Lambert's gang and so on are French/German/Swiss/Dutch girls. It's just that they're never really fleshed out, so they tend not to make an impact individually.

That doesn't really work for most of the British royal family, surely.

Was Herr Anserl supposed to associate himself with only one school? Presumably before the Chalet arrived he had other pupils, so was he free to take on the Saints, or was he exclusively a Chalet School teacher? He is described as dedicated to his art, so would he have missed the opportunity to find another Margia? And the same could be said for Plato - I can't imagine him not wanting to seek out new singing stars

Or what if the presence of two schools actually made the locals feel swamped by too many schoolgirls, and the addition of the Saints made them feel more negative towards the CS...?

Or what if the presence of two schools actually made the locals feel swamped by too many schoolgirls, and the addition of the Saints made them feel more negative towards the CS...?

Or they felt threatened by the number of British people invading their enviroment?

I lived in England for the first 45 years of my life, but I know how I feel about the tourists when they invade us every summer.

it might have been much more maddening for the locals, who were suddenly swamped with large numbers of visibly antagonistic schoolgirls in blue or brown!