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#1: Books: Heather Leaves School Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 2:46 am
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A quick backtrack: Heather Leaves School is one of the La Rochelle books, taking place about 2 or three years before Janie of La Rochelle. A synopsis can be found here: http://www.newchaletclub.co.uk/ncc_library/synopses/synop_heather.htm

In it, we are introduced to Heather, Hazel and Honey Raphael. Heather has been removed from her boarding school because it has been a bad influence, leaving her slangy and disrespectful. She and her younger sisters are given a governess, sharing with the four Shakespeare girls, Cressie, Hero, Portia and Pat. Cressie, priggish and sure of her own superiority, clashes with Heather. In the meantime, the Raphaels meet the Temples, including Janie, while on vacation, and Janie helps Heather become more resigned to her lot. In the end, there is an encounter with a burglar and Heather saves the day.

What do you think of this book? How does it compare with Monica Turns Up Trumps, with its similar plot elements (girl removed from school, a clash with a priggish older girl). What do you think of the Shakespeares and the Raphaels? Is the ending, with Heather's inheritance, overly contrived? What do you think of the glimpses of Janie and Pauline, and the other La Rochelle Staples?

#2: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:07 pm
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I've only read part of this, but my impression is that Major Raphael is one of the worst of EBD's authoritarian fathers. In his letter to Heather he says that the school is at fault and that he and Mrs Raphael perhaps made a mistake in sending her there - but he begins and ends by telling her that it's all her fault! How did he expect her to react?

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 9:34 pm
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This one for me ranked more alongside the one-off EBD books - Carnation, Beechy, etc - than the CS/better La Rochelle/Lorna ones: it was OK, but I've never felt like I wanted to read it for a second time. That's just my humble opinion though: maybe everyone else loved it!

#4: Author: Rosalin, Location: Swansea

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 9:59 pm
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I agree with Alison. It was nice to get a glimpse of some of the La Rochelle people, but it didn't really feel like part of the series. I also read it once and don't remember too much about it, although it was an enjoyable enough read. Not outstanding but not dreadful.

#5: Author: Elbee, Location: Surrey

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:17 am
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Rosalin wrote:

It was nice to get a glimpse of some of the La Rochelle people, but it didn't really feel like part of the series. Not outstanding but not dreadful.

I agree with that too! I did rather enjoy reading about the lessons with Miss Christopher, and how their little school progressed, but that only occupied a few chapters. A lot of the book seemd quite rushed.

#6: Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:51 am
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I actually loved this book but thought Major Raphael was a bit too authoritarian and harsh on Heather. He was away quite a bit with his travels, so doesn't pay too much attention to Heather and then complains as a result he doesn't like how she's turned out. What did he expect. That said I loved Hazel and Honey and the Shakespeare girls
I love reading about the Temples and Miss Ozanne again and seeing Janie get engaged. I also noticed Cressie was very like Eustacia and that both books were published in the same year. I thought it very interesting having especially two very similiar characters go through changes and how they handle it and the way EBD handled their reformation very differently. Eustacia had an accident and had a complete change in personality while Cressie was more or less remanined the same but did realise she was partly to blame for her arguments with Heather

#7: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 3:41 pm
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I've finished this now. I think the characters of the girls are well drawn. Heather is a normal teenager. Cressie's reformation is less dramatic and therefore more believable than Eustacia's - and Heather shows a great deal more patience with Cressie than Jo did wth Eustacia. The younger girls are all very attractive. I wonder why EBD never worked them into the CS as she did virtually all her other characters.

The story, however, is a bit of a mishmash with several changes of direction. First EBD spends a disproportionate amount of time describing Ripley, given that we know from the start that Heather is to leave at the end of the term. Then we have the Guernsey holiday. Then the schoolroom stuff, which I thought somewhat tedious, although at twelve I expect I would have found it fascinating. Then Alured pops up out of nowhere and we have Christmas and the mummers' play (which I skipped, I must admit) and the burglary. It's as if EBD had bits of lots of different stories which she shoved together to make a book. I didn't think it was all that successful.

On the education the girls were getting with Miss Christopher - one governess is expected to teach maths, French, Latin, German, history, geography, literature and botany, to a standard appropriate for 14/15 year old girls. When their break and piano practice is taken out, actual teaching time lasts from 9.30 to 11.00 and 11.20 to 12.00. Heather spends more time on piano practice than she does on any other subject.

The Raphaels are wealthy, so their girls won't have to earn their own living - but there's no suggestion that any of them might want to train for a profession, as Julian is doing, even though he doesn't need to work. And the Shakespeares don't seem to be very well off, so presumably some or all of them will have to work. Yet they're not being educated with that in mind.

I hope Major Raphael wasn't proposing to go up the Amazon with the Murray-Cameron expedition. We know there were only two survivors, neither of which was him!

#8: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:56 am
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I rather liked this book myself.

I agree that Major Raphael was in the same parental category as people like Professor Fry or Mr Winterton - he heads off on his own plans for years on end, leaving Heather to a boarding school, returns for a year and disrupts everyone's life because his family is not turning out the way he wants.

I equate Cressie most closely to Vicky McNab - a prissy, rather rigid oldest daughter who has been allowed too much authority and has gotten above herself, although Eustacia is a good comparison too. I like the kids in general, though. Heather is very believable as a generally good kid who has picked up bad habits (much like Monica), although her outrage is perfectly believable.

I think the Raphaels and Shakespeares were being educated very much like upper class girls. They have academic classes, but they are being taught more as accomplishments (things a well bred woman should know) rather than with a career or university in mind. In that line, spending three or four hours a day on music practice was perfectly reasonable.

The whole Alured/burglar/inheritance thing was a bit out of the blue, though.

#9: Author: Miss Di, Location: Newcastle, NSW

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:13 am
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It mad me very mad that Heather is blamed for her jollyhockeysticks and slang. Well who chose the school and sent her there? How long does it take all those parents to realise what their daughters are behaving like?

I liked the Guernsey bits but not so much the rest of it, especially the Allured plotline - was it only introduced so Heather could inherit a fortune?

#10: Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:50 am
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The names in this book always blow me away. How did Honeysuckle get her name again - wasn't it some random man that got the 'naming' of her as a baby? Confused

#11: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:17 am
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Wasn't it a woman friend of Mrs Raphael's who had been asked to be godmother before the baby was born? And who was left with the responsibility of choosing a name quickly because Major R was away at the front and Mrs R was ill and the baby was delicate and had to be baptised immediately.

I think EBD herself later realised that the names in this book (and the names of the Atherton girls) were OTT because she has a little dig later when Joey is writing Malvina, saying that in common with many very young writers, Joey chose fancy names for her characters.

And in a later book there's a conversation about how Madge says she always chooses fancy names for her fictional girls, so she responded by giving a new set of characters the painest names she could find. I wonder if, in EBD's own career, that was how Elizabeth, Anne and Janie Temple came to be named.

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

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:54 pm
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Róisín wrote:

The names in this book always blow me away. How did Honeysuckle get her name again - wasn't it some random man that got the 'naming' of her as a baby? Confused

Honeysuckle Weeks played Kitty in the TV adaptation of Goggle Eyes by Anne Fine. And her sister’s Perdita. Not that either is top of my baby name list!

#13: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:46 pm
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Probably because it was the first La Rochelle I read, I have always had a big soft spot for Heather, despite the shortcomings in plot that others have pointed out.

I really like Heather herself, and I like seeing Janie in the older-sister-mentor role - she really shows some maturity here, bridging the gap between Heather and her parents. I think EBD does a really good job of writing Janie in this book - she's youthful enough to make friends with the girls and be respected by them as an ideal girl to look up to (if they saw her as one of the grown ups, she wouldn't be able to gain Heather's trust half as readily - she would be One of Them), yet old enough to be trusted and treated as an (almost) equal by the Raphael parents. It's a fine line to tread, and I think EBD does it wonderfully.

I think EBD also handles Heather's deterioration much better than usual. It's clear that she got on fine at Ripley to start with and her parents were happy with both her and the school, and that it is only recently - since she has joined the Middle School - that her behaviour has become unacceptable. It's also clear that it is mainly the fault of the school, with other parents taking their girls away too. And it's also clear that both parents are concerned about Heather - regardless of the fact that Papa Rapael has been abroad for a while, EBD makes it clear both parents are clued up about Heather's education / behaviour, and it is a joint decision to remove her.

Of course, Papa's letter to Heather is harsh, but it wouldn't be EBD (or make for a dramatic story!) if she didn't have him breaking the news in this heavy father way...

I love the Shakespeares - they make for lovely foils for the Raphaels, although Heather and Cressie naturally make much more of an impression than the younger girls do. I like Miss Christopher with her style of teaching - nice to see a governess not using archaic methods for once - normally EBD has them be old fashioned and vastly inferior in their teaching to the wonderful staff of the CS....

Does anybody know when Monica and Heather were originally published? I'd love to know which one comes first, as the themes covered are so similar and there are strong character parallels: Monica = Heather, Barney = Janie, Vicky = Cressie etc.

I quite like the robbery storyline, as it's fun (although it reminds me of the Mummers / Guiser Girl storyline in, is it Abbey Girls Go Back to School? for those who know their EJO). The Alured Saxon / inheritance thing is completely random - I'd much rather he was younger and was being set up to marry Heather, rather than die and leave her a fortune which she doesn't need as her folks are loaded anyway.

I'd've loved to see the Raphaels and Shakespeares again, but we hardly meet them, even in the other La Rochelles. EBD really should have brought Hazel, Honey, Hero, Portia and Pat to the Chalet School. Can't really understand why she didn't, when she brought in other families en masse.

As a Janie-as-matchmaker fan, I also wonder why Pollie and Heather got away with not being fixed up with e.g. a younger Willoughby or another of the Northern Saints....

#14: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:17 pm
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Caroline wrote:

Does anybody know when Monica and Heather were originally published? I'd love to know which one comes first, as the themes covered are so similar and there are strong character parallels: Monica = Heather, Barney = Janie, Vicky = Cressie etc.

Heather was published in 1929, the same year as Rivals, but Monica does not appear until 1936, the same year as Jo Returns.

#15: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:49 am
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Interesting.... Thanks, KB Very Happy

Not sure what that tells us, other than I guess it explains why none of the Raphael girls made it to the CS - the chronology doesn't fit. EBD would have had to bring in Heather's children to the school, rather than her younger sisters, as she does for the Athertons, Willoughbys and Temples.

Let me see, now: who at the CS had exceptionally rich parents - could Heather Raphael have been the mother of a later CS girl? Heather is described as black-haired, green-eyed and with pale olive skin. Does that remind anyone of a CS girl? Can't say it does for me....

Very Happy

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

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:02 am
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Not really but then plenty of CS offspring don’t look like their parents! Or they look like people they are related to but only my marriage or suchlike.

#17: Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:19 am
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Do you mean Joey, Caroline?! Shocked

Edit: oh, Joey didn't have green eyes... Embarassed

Edit2: still though, she could have got them from her father... Laughing

#18: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:28 am
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Deira Wink

#19: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:45 am
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Quote:

Let me see, now: who at the CS had exceptionally rich parents

I was thinking about this before. The Raphaels are financially a cut above most of EBD's families. I can't think of any other family that has the lavish lifestyle they have. Most of the CS people are comfortably off, but not hugely wealthy. Joey, for example, makes it clear that she and Jack do have to think about what they spend. Other than Evvy and Corney I can't think of any CS people who can just spend what they please without thinking about it. Simone and Andre have a nice inheritance, but they still don't seem to be in a position to throw money around.

#20: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:49 am
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Emerence - her dad even has a private jet! - but she's in the wrong time period.

#21: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:22 pm
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Alison H wrote:

Deira

Now, that would almost work...!

If only EBD had made Deira resemble an Italian great-grandmother rather than a Spanish grandmother....!

Very Happy

#22: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:53 pm
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Heather may not have remained so spectacularly rich after her marriage...

#23: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:14 pm
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One thing that always interests me is the contrast between Heather and Lorna - Heather (and Monica, now I come to think of it) did badly in the big school, as she obviously needed more individual attention than that sort of school could provide, whereas Lorna needed the stimulation of a larger school.

I'm glad that EBD could see that different kids have different needs, and not be the kind of one-size-fits-all sort of person that some of the later Chalet books might suggest!

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