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Books: Kennel Maid Nan
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6319
Author:  JB [ Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Books: Kennel Maid Nan
Nan had ambitions to be a vet but, after failing her General Certificate, she goes to work as a trainee kennel maid for Miss Frome at the Assisi Kennels. It’s her first time away from home and, Averil, the other resident kennel maid, takes a dislike to her from the start. Averil has run into debt with local shops and has been seeing too much of an unsuitable man, Ralph Johnson, the owner of neighbouring kennels.

Nan settles in well; she makes friends with Miss Frome’s cousin, Fleda, and Miss Frome gives her a puppy for her own. Some suspicious things happen – a gate is left open, allowing a dog to escape and another dog falls ill with food poisoning. Later, she overhears a conversation which makes her suspect Ralph is planning to poison one of the dogs before an important show. Luckily, she catches Averil in the act and saves the day. Averil tries to blame Nan but is caught out and made to leave the kennels.

A few questions to get us started but please do raise any other points which have occurred to you:

Do you think EBD intended this as a career novel?
We learn a lot about how to care for cocker spaniels. Is there too much detail or did you enjoy reading about it?
What did you think of the regime at Miss Frome’s? Was it as suitable for a 22 year old as it was for a 16 year old?
We you surprised at the outcome of the book in that marriage to Ralph is seen as the only solution for Averil (and also what she wants)?

There’s a transcript of this book on Raya’s site. PM me if you’re having problems getting hold of a copy and I’ll email one.

Next week – Nesta Steps Out.
Author:  JS [ Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
I think it was very much intended as a career novel and, boy, had EBD done her research, re cocker spaniels at any rate. I felt it was quite realistic to portray Nan as trying to get a job for a while etc because she didn't have her school certificate - and getting a job through a family friend was also quite realistic, unfortunately.

For me, I found most of the detail on the dogs quite interesting - and lots of it pretty accurate by today's standards (eg house training advice, not scolding the dog for bringing back a rabbit. Some of the things which I found a bit shocking (eg getting a foster mum for the 'pedigree' pups, whose own pups had been conveniently put down was enough to make me want to race off like Joey when she rescued Rufus, but EBD just says it in passing as if it's normal) but then I'm personally not a fan of the whole show dog thing. And if you're not keen on dogs (I have a rescue greyhound) then you'd find a lot of it very dull, I'd think. Also, I'm trying to recall, but I don't remember dog poo being directly mentioned, and that must have been a big part of the kennelmaid role.

I enjoyed the book, but I did have a problem with a few things. For example, surely the sensible thing would have been to go to Miss Frome with the suspicions (although I accept that would have curtailed the plot). The Averil marriage thing? Was it reasonable for the era? It reminded me of Pride and Prejudice, actually, in as much as Miss F saying that Averil would have gone off with him anyway, marriage or no, a la Lydia and Wickham - even down to the gambling debts, come to think of it.

And the language! Nan does pull Fleda up for slang, but some of it was a bit much. Someone (probably Fleda) even talks about being pussystruck at one point. Now I've tried to find the etymology of that (and you can imagine the websites to which I was directed...) and there is definitely a very rude modern meaning - not sure when that dates to - but even the old meaning was rude, I'd imagine, if it means the same as 'gobsmacked' (with 'puss' being sland for face). Be grateful if anyone can help with the actual origins of the phrase because I'm a bit stumped.

On the whole, thoug, as I said, I enjoyed the book. It was nice to read about a slightly older age-group and the things they were able to do, like drive to a nearby town and so on - and nice to read about the clothes (although Averil's outfit/Nan's red hair giving the game away - rather like the plots of the two Legally Blonde films - was a bit too deux ex machina and convenient!). It was nice that Nan and Fleda still read school stories and I think they'd have fitted in well at the CS.

Having said that, however, it did underline just how similar so many of EBD's plot lines are. Judy the Guide could be summed up as 'girl goes to school, makes an enemy and some friends then everything turns out okay' while you can substitute 'kennel' for 'school' for Nan and it still works. Mind you, that's probably one of the reasons we love EBD.
Author:  JB [ Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
JS wrote:

Quote:
The Averil marriage thing? Was it reasonable for the era?


The book was published in 1954. Until I read the reference to Nan having a plastic, rainproof hood, I thought it had been written earlier.

I agree that it would have been sensible to go to Miss Frome and I couldn't quite see why not, although I suppose Nan was very young and influenced by the schoolgirl rule of not telling tales.

She does get full marks for discretion on dog poo (there are a couple of very subtle references).
Author:  Sunglass [ Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
This does strike me as a period 'girls' career novel', like those articles on various careers considered 'suitable for girls' you used to get in annuals or girls' comics. Which does explain the massive amounts of detail about cocker spaniels, which do get a bit much fairly quickly. I suppose they take the place of all those instructions to new girls about the language days and bed-stripping at the CS... I quite liked lots of this book - the depictions of the countryside and the river, and the local town etc, and the dog shows, and Fleda is fun (though Nan herself is a bit wet), and at least for once there's a genuine plot-related reason for the villain's dislike of the heroine.

Some of it did make me giggle though - the fact that EBD depicts employers as pretty much exactly like headmistresses, and a working kennels being rather like a small boarding school with rising bells and lights-out etc. Bits of school-storyish stuff do sneak in, not surprisingly - Nan not being Able to Sneak on Averil, even though her Not Sneaking might have ended in a dog being made seriously ill or even killed. And it cracks me up that a key element of the resolution of the plot rides on it being a Hard and Fast Rule that a redhead could not conceivably have worn the crimson outfit the poison-buyer is described as wearing! And that we can tell the innocent 'pure-minded' young women (Fleda and Nan) from the sophisticated, illicitly in love and indebt Averil because they like school stories and she doesn't! And that EBD makes house-training puppies sound extactly like her CS and Jean of Storms-type strictures on making children obedient!

And yes, I was a bit taken aback that everyone decides that Averil being married to her Vic-Coles type bad guy was the best possible solution. I wondered whether this meant that the assumption was that she'd slept with him, and therefore it was the only possible solution - that her reputation as a young woman as well as her professional reputation was ruined...?

Also tickled that, despite endless talk of house-training and changing bedding, there is never a single explicit mention of crottes de chien...
Author:  Lexi [ Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
JS wrote:
And if you're not keen on dogs (I have a rescue greyhound) then you'd find a lot of it very dull, I'd think.


I don't like dogs and I enjoyed the book! But then I do rather like "career" books on the whole - Jill Kennedy, Telephonist is a secret favourite of mine :lol:

I read it on the transcript site ages ago so unfortunately I don't remember it well enough to comment properly but I think overall I liked it as a one off. I'm not desperate to reread it though.
Author:  JS [ Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
Lexi wrote:
Quote:
But then I do rather like "career" books on the whole - Jill Kennedy, Telephonist is a secret favourite of mine


I like career books too - Anne Thorne Reporter (and sequels) were great favourites with me, and I loved the Sara Gay Model Girl books as a girl. And Sue Barton was an absolute favourite. I think I remember the telephonist one, Lexi and there was a good librarian one too.
Author:  Cel [ Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
I've just finished this, and rather liked it. It's a bit more grown-up then most of EBD's non-CS books, even the 'adult' Jean of Storms - it's more real-world, with young women having to earn a living, even if it is in a fairly protected environment. And there are nice ordinary mentions of boys and dances and things with nobody fainting in horror at the thought of a 17-year-old even thinking about them.
But I have to agree with JS - why on earth wouldn't the girls have gone to Miss Frome earlier with their concerns? I can understand Nan not wanting to 'sneak' initially, but once they overheard Ralph practically plotting the whole thing, it was completely irresponsible not to alert somebody, and rely on their very vague plan of keeping Averil from doing the feed. If they hadn't been able to stop her, Mss Frome would have been - justifiably - pretty annoyed...
Author:  Cel [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
Sorry to spree (and to resurrect an old topic), but I had to share my absolute favourite line from this one:

Quote:
“NOW we’re off and we’re going to jolly well enjoy ourselves!”
Thus spoke Fleda as Nan clambered back into the car after seeing that the gates were securely fastened.
“That’s a split infinitive!” Nan said in shocked tones.


Seriously now - just how easily shocked must Nan be?! I know EBD is all for correct grammar, but this seems a bit much... :D
Author:  JB [ Sat Aug 01, 2009 11:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
Cel, perhaps you've found the answer to the question that was troubling us, namely why Nan didn't tell Miss Frome earlier about what was going between Averil and Ralph.

She was obviously so distressed by this grammar tragedy that her mind was on other, more important things. :D :D

I am someone who notices and tries very hard to avoid split infinitives, though.
Author:  Kathy_S [ Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books: Kennel Maid Nan
Cel wrote:
Sorry to spree (and to resurrect an old topic), but I had to share my absolute favourite line from this one:

Quote:
“NOW we’re off and we’re going to jolly well enjoy ourselves!”
Thus spoke Fleda as Nan clambered back into the car after seeing that the gates were securely fastened.
“That’s a split infinitive!” Nan said in shocked tones.


Seriously now - just how easily shocked must Nan be?! I know EBD is all for correct grammar, but this seems a bit much... :D

Just got this far (yay for a transcript!) and now understand all. It's that Inverness influence, "...where the purest English is supposed to be spoken or so they say." Is this well known? Would Hilda recommend a stay there for those of us brainwashed by reruns of "to boldly go"?
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