Nesta Steps Out was published in 1954 by Oliphants. It was the first of the three titles that EBD wrote for this publisher (the others are A Leader in Spite of Herself and Beechy of the Harbour School), although all are stand alone titles. They’re quite short books and were aimed partly at the Sunday School prize market.
In 1954, EBD also published Joey Goes to the Oberland, the Chalet School and Barbara. Kennelmaid Nan and The Condor Crags Adventure, so it was a pretty busy year.
This is the synopsis from the New Chalet Club site:
Nesta Davies and her friend, Sally Burnett, have been pupils at Hill House in Wales for six years. Recently, however, Nesta has come into conflict with Miss Walton, the English teacher who has taken the place of the girls' beloved Miss Enid and her hot temper tends to inflame the situation.
Nesta is given continual encouragement by Sally, and by a letter she receives from Miss Enid. There are other confrontations with Miss Walton but Nesta is proud when she keeps her temper.
The next Sunday the girls attend church as usual and Nesta is given food for thought when the sermon seems to be preached for her. She becomes convinced that she must learn to control herself and Sally offers to help her and reminds her that she can pray for help. She has a setback but Sally persuades her that she cannot conquer a fault so easily.
Shortly afterwards Nesta has a bad day and she is eventually baited by another girl into losing her temper. She is discouraged and it takes Sally some time to convince Nesta that she can't conquer her temper so quickly.
During a visit to Hereford Miss Walton falls in the river. Nesta jumps in to save her and is hailed a heroine by the school, until the Head reminds her that her actions were foolhardy. When Miss Walton is released from the San she finds it difficult to thank Nesta, due to her shyness and her awareness of Nesta's dislike, and the girls decide that she is ungrateful.
Miss Walton is constantly in a bad mood leading to trouble with the Upper Fourth. She and Nesta have another encounter in the rose garden but Sally smooths things over and Nesta is delighted that she has kept her temper.
Miss Enid pays a surprise visit to the school and tells Nesta and Sally of the reason for Miss Walton's temper, making the girls much more sympathetic towards her. Miss Enid also reminds Nesta to pray for help in keeping her temper. At Speech Day Nesta gets a surprise and Miss Walton receives some good news.
It’s a long time since I read this book so the questions on this are really basic. If anyone else has any suggestions, please do join in!
Have you read this book?
Did you enjoy it?
Did you find the plot and characters were strong or did you feel that the “message” of the book comes across as more important?
I haven’t been able to find a transcript (if anyone has one, I’d be really grateful if they could PM me).
