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Books: Lavender Laughs in the Chalet School

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#1: Books: Lavender Laughs in the Chalet School Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:40 am
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Lavender Leigh is a nervous, spoiled fourteen year old, who has travelled the world with her over protective aunt, the author of the 'Lavender Laughs' series. Her aunt is called up, and Lavender is reluctantly sent to the Chalet school. Lavender ends up in form with Bride Bettany, who is upset at being put into a higher form, away from her friends.

Lavender adapts badly to school, as she is spoiled, undisciplined, accustomed to being the centre of attention, and inclined to run to the head to tattle at any difficulties. She fights with Bride and her friends, insults the Peace League and deliberately injures another girl at hockey, earning her the enimity of her peers, but is helped by a conversation with Joey at the New Girl's tea. Lavender fights with Joy Bird, a fight that is mainly Joy's fault. She gets injured in a snowball fight by a vengeful Joy, who is scared Lavender will tattle. Lavender, recuperating in the San, decides not to. Lavender's reformation is helped by the arrival of Lilamani, a friend of hers from India, whose mother is dying at the San.

Meanwhile, the school acquires two new seniors, the heiress Jesanne Gellibrand and her friend Lois Bennet, who have an exciting story to tell (aka The Lost Staircase). In other news, we have the explosion of a hot water heater, and the flooding of a bathroom. Lilamani and Lavender spend half-term at Joey's and the girls do some cooking, with mixed results. Joey has a baby boy, Stephen, but isn't seeing visitors. Daisy worries that Joey might care for her and Primula less, but it turns out that Joey accidently died herself green just before the baby was born. Lavender finishes off the term as a proper Chalet girl, although she does cut off her hated ringlets it a fit of frustration.

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There's a lot going on in this book. What do you think of Lavender, another badly brought up girl who has trouble adapting to the Chalet school, and Lilamani? Is Lavender's reformation realistic? What about Bride and her views, and the looks we get into the internal dynamics of the Clan, particularly re Daisy and Sybil? For those who have read the Lost Staircase, how do Lois and Jesanne fit into the school?

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

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:34 am
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I think this book (at least the hardback version) also shows a little of the dynamics between Bride and Sybil where Bride is asked by Matey to send Sybil to see her for unpacking and Sybil gets a bit huffy over it. There is a comment made about Bride that she knows Sybil likes her and the two get along well so long as Sybil can forget she resents the Bettany's living with the Russell's.

The War books were some of the last books I read and so never knew how spoilt Sybil had become because she wasn't that bad in Exile. Yes she and Rix clashed and she would say he was only a cousin and she an' David belonged but usually that was in retaliation to Rix's bossiness and attempts toexclude the younger ones.

Anyway I digress. I really liked this book and didn't think the reformation of Lavender was too OTT. She was young enough for what happened to her to make an impression and obviously she had a better person underneath the spoiltness on top. I also loved hearing more about Bride. I was only sorry she was seperated from her friends however Elfie is in this form so she and Elfie must have become close friends at this point because by Tom they're considered best friends

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:03 pm
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I quite like this book - I like Bride, and I don't think Lavender's reformation was unrealistic.

Jesanne and Lois seemed to fit in well, but I wish we'd seen more of them. I also wish we'd seen more of Lavender later on: she's one of several characters who "star" in one book and then more or less disappear. In particular, I wish we'd seen more of Lilamani: that was a wasted opportunity to show how someone from a different culture would've coped with the CS (maybe EBD thought it'd get too complicated?).

The bit with Joey spilling green dye over herself was ridiculously stupid: it just felt like EBD wanted A Storyline involving Joey, presumably to show how Jolly Funny she was ... why??

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

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:00 pm
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Alison H wrote:

The bit with Joey spilling green dye over herself was ridiculously stupid: it just felt like EBD wanted A Storyline involving Joey, presumably to show how Jolly Funny she was ... why??

The most obvious solution was to get her out of the way so that Lavender would be forced to stand on her own feet (without treading on anyone else's toes, of course) and deal with the Joy Bird situation. Perhaps EBD herself realised (or had it pointed out to her) that Joey was becoming a bit too interfering with all of the things she was doing with the school and this was EBD's way of putting Jo away for a while.

#5: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:24 pm
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Quote:

Perhaps EBD herself realised (or had it pointed out to her) that Joey was becoming a bit too interfering with all of the things she was doing with the school and this was EBD's way of putting Jo away for a while.

I wonder if EBD was beginning to find it difficult to come up with realistic ways to keep Joey as a central character. In Highland Twins she did it by having someone we'd never heard of asking her to have the twins to stay, which set up the Jack missing/second sight plotline. In Gay, Joey is helping out with teaching at the school. But it must have been getting harder as Robin and Daisy grew up, and in Lavender the focus moved firmly to the younger generation, with Bride taking centre stage. (Why Bride and not Peggy, I wonder?)

One of my favourite parts of this book is the brief glimpse we get of Bill, relaxing in front of the fire with her book and her chocolates. Top of most people's lists of Favourite Ways To Spend a Nasty Winter Day, I should think! I don't think we ever see Hilda so completely off duty.

I know it's a plot device, but I do wonder at Miss Leigh, a woman in her thirties who was Lavender's sole guardian, being called up, when all those young women mistresses in their twenties with no dependents were not called up. What would have happened to Lavender if boarding school hadn't been possible?

#6: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:47 pm
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I thnk that teaching, for women, was a reserved occupation during the war, as so many women had to come back into teaching to take the place of the men who had been called up. Retired male teachers aslo had pt come back into schools to take the place of men who were serving inthe forces. Remember 'Good Night, Mr. Chips'?

#7: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:07 pm
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Only a reserved occupation up to a point, I think. A lot of younger teachers were called up and, as you say, older ones had to come out of retirement, or married women, perhaps, come back to work. My mother has said she had no young teachers during the war.

I doubt whether Rosalie or Grizel, for example, could have claimed that their work at the CS was essential, or that it couldn't be done by someone who was exempt from call up.

#8: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:53 am
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I would think that for Grizel, at least, war time service would have been a way out of teaching. She never like teaching, and if she volunteered, even her father and stepmother couldn't refuse to let her go without looking unpatriotic (No, you can't go do war work, you have to teach piano to upper class girls. Because we said so.). In the meantime, she could learn another trade for after the war, so she can break from her parents.

I like this book. Lavender is an annoying little girl, but more than a lot of the problem girls it is a logical progression of the way she has been raised - cosseted and pampered, always the centre of attention, never staying in one place for very long, sporadic and indifferent education, not interacting with other girls or even other adults very much. A lot of her early problems are not done maliciously - her responses in her first class, or her outburst about the Peace League are just Lavender behaving the way she has been taught. And she's out of sorts and twitchy due to her previous life style. I do think her aunt is a twit, though, and her meeting with Miss Wilson is a riot.

Her reformation is slower than others too - no sudden change of heart after an accident, but a slow progression as she learns to adapt, and her health improves. Her protectiveness about Lilamani is sweet too, although I am highly amused that Lilamani, the Indian girl, is both white and Protestant Shocked

!

I have a fondness for the books in this era, partially because of the references to the war, and partially because Bride et al are my favourite group of friends.

#9: Author: claire, Location: South Wales

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:59 am
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KB wrote:

But she gave birth a few hours after this so she would have been out of action for a little bit (at least to the school main) anyway

#10: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:33 am
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Jennifer said:

Quote:

I would think that for Grizel, at least, war time service would have been a way out of teaching. She never like teaching, and if she volunteered, even her father and stepmother couldn't refuse to let her go without looking unpatriotic

They couldn't have stopped her - she was over age, and once you were in, you were in - the only way out was pregnancy or health reasons. I agree it would have been a good thing for Grizel to do - she'd have been a very efficient officer in the women's services (although perhaps not very popular, with her sharp tongue.) She could then have taken advantage of the teacher training scheme available after the war to those who had done war work, and re-trained as a games mistress.

I believe all women over a certain age - sixteen, I think - had to register for war work, and women became eligible for call up at nineteen. Some would be exempted due to poor health or personal circumstances, some would be called up for factory work or nursing or other civilian jobs, others would go into the women's services.

So I don't see why Miss Leigh wouldn't have been sent to work in a factory or office where she could have found lodgings and kept Lavender with her. Except, of course, that the plot required Lavender to go to school!

#11: Author: Hannah-Lou, Location: Glasgow

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:18 pm
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jennifer wrote:

I am highly amused that Lilamani, the Indian girl, is both white and Protestant Shocked

Why do you think she was white? I always thought she was native Indian, and that's why there was such a fuss about her settling in. Though it didn't occur to me as a child that she would be the only non-white person in the school, so I wasn't quite sure why they made more fuss over Lilamani settling in than anyone else.

#12: Author: Mona, Location: Hertfordshire

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:25 pm
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I always thought she was native Indian as well. I'm sure there's some reference to her being dark-skinned - maybe when they're choosing some of Lavender's extra frocks for her? I don't have the book to hand.
I don't remember any reference to her faith, but I always assumed she just went to the same prayers as Lavender because they were friends.
Overall I like the book. It's good to have one that focuses on the juniors for a change, and I found Lavender's gradual moulding into a 'real Chalet School girl' one of the more believable reformations.

#13: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:50 pm
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From Chapter 14

Quote:

little Lilamani, with her silky dark hair, and big, dark eyes set in a little face as fair-skinned as her own.

#14: Author: Hannah-Lou, Location: Glasgow

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:04 pm
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Hmm, yes, I see what you mean. I'd take it from that that she's a very light-skinned Indian. The dark hair and eyes suggest that to me anyway. After all, there had been white children from India at the school before, but EBD never made the same comments about them settling in as were made about Lilamani. Also her first name and unpronouncable second name suggest she's native Indian.

#15: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:41 pm
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When Madge is seeing all the girls off to school, there's a little scene when Madge says she wants to see Robin. Sybil complains about her 'always making a fuss of Robin' and is told off. EBD goes on to say that Madge has become aware of Sybil's faults and is trying to correct them.

But before that, Madge has said something loving to all the girls - except Sybil, who gets 'work harder and get a better report'. Is it any wonder that Sybil might feel her cousins are more important than she is, or at least get more of her mother's attention than she does? And that, being only a little girl, she doesn't know any other way of dealing with it than insisting on her position in the household and being unwilling to share?

#16: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:09 pm
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Isn't Lilamani Kashmiri?

#17: Author: Mona, Location: Hertfordshire

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:26 pm
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Yes, she's definitely described as Kashmiri.

#18: Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:14 pm
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I always felt like there was an awful lot squashed into this book, and it frustrated me that it focusses so much on the younger girls – I always wanted to hear more about Jesanne and Lois, than about Bride and Lavender. Plus, in the war books, there seems to be more of an adult focus – more scenes where Jo discusses things with Simone for example – whereas here, EBD seems to be trying to recapture a 9-11 age audience.

Lilamani is a lost opportunity. She feels like such a vague, almost invisible character. She’s given very little to say, which is a pity.

I love how Bride comes across in this book, and it’s nice to see Primula present and alive too. Especially in the case of Bride though, because she’s one girl whose character actually develops a lot between this book and the one where she is headgirl.

#19: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:39 pm
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Yes, I tend to prefer school stories that focus on slightly older girls - around 13/14/15. Ten-eleven year olds generally inhabit a very small world, and don't have much impact on what happens beyond it. They can't drive a story in the way that a fifteen year old can.

I do feel that Bride was justified in being grumpy about having Lavender dumped on her. She was new to the form herself, and there was a big age difference, Bride's ten to Lavender's nearly fourteen. It would have been better for both of them if Lavender could have had a sheepdog nearer her own age.

#20: Author: andi, Location: London

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:38 pm
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JayB wrote:

Ten-eleven year olds generally inhabit a very small world, and don't have much impact on what happens beyond it. They can't drive a story in the way that a fifteen year old can.

Unless of course they're OOAO! (Three Go)

Sorry, completely OT but couldn't resist. Wink

#21: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:02 am
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Hannah-Lou wrote:

Also her first name and unpronouncable second name suggest she's native Indian.

What is her surname? I've never seen any reference to it, unless it was one of the cuts made for paperback (I've only got one uncut book in my whole collection).

#22: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:12 am
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It's not given. EBD just says everyone finds it unpronounceable and nobody uses it.

I suppose she didn't know and couldn't find out what would be an appropriate surname.

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