Families: The Chesters
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#1: Families: The Chesters Author: RóisínLocation: Ireland PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:28 pm
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The Chester family consists of Peter Chester and Anne Temple, and their children Beth (the eldest), Paul, Piers (died in infancy), Nancy, twins Robin and Dickon, Barbara and Janice. They lived first in England, then on Guernsey until the outbreak of the war, then they relocated to England, eventually returning to Guernsey to live.

The main issue that comes up for discussion with this family is how Anne and Peter acted when they lost their money when Beth was around twelve. Anne's treatment of Beth and Barbara is controversial at different times. We never really hear much about the boys of the family, and Nancy never seems to play as leading a role as her sisters. Barbara plays the New Girl in a book of her own.

So, how do you like how this family works? Do you think that Beth does a good job of looking out for Barbara? Do you get worked up over Anne Chester's pride, or do you think she had enough tragedy in her life? Does she lose anything of her character as a married woman and mother?

Please post below to join in the discussion Very Happy

#2:  Author: roversgirlLocation: France PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:56 am
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Well, I didn't even know that the Chesters had twin boys! I'm not quite sure how I missed that either! I have to say I feel sorry for Anne Chester - she doesn't even know the pain her actions are causing Beth. That being said, she is too proud but how many people aren't too proud even when they should ask for help? She suffers a lot in her life.

Regards Beth herself , I think she is lovely with Barbara - she tries to look out for her and give her some helpful advice and generally watching out for her. I really like the Chesters - Beth, Nancy and Barbara all seem like genuinely, friendly girls. Smile

#3:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:04 pm
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I like all the Chester girls, but I do have reservations about the parents. It's understandable that if Barbara was very frail then Anne concentrated her attention on her and Beth then felt left out: it's not ideal but it's a difficult situation and I've known real life situations where one child's felt left out because the parents have been - completely understandably - concentrating on a sibling with medical problems.

However, what I really don't understand is the issue of Beth's schooling. The Chesters refuse to accept the Lucys' offer to pay school fees for Beth out of pride, which would be completely understandable were it not for the fact that they were quite happy to let the Ozannes pay for the boys' school fees. They then send Beth to a school which they feel is beneath them and discourage her from making friends there because they think that the other girls are unsuitable. It's a wonder that Beth turned out as well as she did!

#4:  Author: KatherineLocation: London, UK PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:02 pm
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Alison H wrote:

However, what I really don't understand is the issue of Beth's schooling. The Chesters refuse to accept the Lucys' offer to pay school fees for Beth out of pride, which would be completely understandable were it not for the fact that they were quite happy to let the Ozannes pay for the boys' school fees.

I think the Ozannes were godparents to the boys and so that made it 'okay'. But I agree it was pretty hard on Beth and I dislike the attitude of the girls at school not being suitable. But that’s of its time. We see it too in Maids when Anne and Elizabeth are anxious to find Janie friends of their own class.

Alison H wrote:

It's a wonder that Beth turned out as well as she did!

Yes, by the time she arrives at the CS she seems pretty well-adjusted, nothing like the girl in Janie Steps In. I find the whole resolution a bit odd. Okay so the Chesters now have money but I don’t really see how that fixes the whole Beth vs. Barbara. Yes, I know that it would mean Anne could afford help and thus give more attention to Beth and not have Beth do so much but I still think it’s resolved a bit too neatly for my liking.

#5:  Author: SunglassLocation: Usually London PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:24 pm
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Could someone tell me which non-CS books the Chesters appear in? I feel I'm lacking an entire back story.

#6:  Author: RóisínLocation: Ireland PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:54 pm
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Sunglass wrote:
Could someone tell me which non-CS books the Chesters appear in? I feel I'm lacking an entire back story.


There are the excellent biographies by Jennifer which you can browse through for basic personal histories - find them here (I've linked to Beth to start you off but you can link from her to anyone she is related to). You can also go here and get a spreadsheet which will tell you which character appears in which book.

Anne Temple is one of the Temple girls who debut in The Maids of La Rochelle. By the end of that book she is married to the local doctor (of course! Laughing) - Peter Chester. They also feature in Janie of La Rochelle and Janie Steps In. By the end of Steps In, the Chalet School has settled on Guernsey, so they appear sporadically in the Chalet Series from Exile on. After Exile, the focus is on the Chester children rather than the parents. HTH.

#7:  Author: ArielLocation: Hither Green, London PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:37 pm
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I read Janie of La Rochelle and Janie Steps in one (dull) day at work, on the transcripts site. I enjoyed them and recommend them for the back story.

#8:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:48 am
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I wonder if Anne was suffering from depression?

The change in finances and Barbara's illness were unfortunate but not preventable - it would suck for Beth, but for the others as well. What was more upsetting from the family dynamics perspective was the fact that the family accepted schooling for everyone *except* Beth - it was not a case of only having help for one child, or rejecting all. She was singled out, and then not allowed to have friends at school. The second problem was that Anne seemed totally unsympathetic to Beth, not even acknowledging that she had as much reason as anyone, including Anne to be upset and angry and off balance. She goes from being the pampered daughter of well to do parents to being ignored and pushed away. She goes from a good school to a poor school, and is denied the opportunity to make friends. She goes from a governess and private lessons to minding her younger siblings. She goes from being a cherished child with lots of attention to being ignored in favour of a sibling.

#9:  Author: CBWLocation: Kent PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:10 am
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I never totally understood how the Beth question was resolved. It just seemed to go away. Did I miss something?

#10:  Author: KatherineLocation: London, UK PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:15 am
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I’m with CBW. Yes, the Chesters inherit some money so they can a) send Beth to a decent school and b) hire help so that Beth won’t have to help so much with the little ones. But this still leaves a delicate Barbara for Beth to be ignored in favour of and all the resentment that has already built up from Beth’s side. I just don’t see that it would be that simple.

#11:  Author: SunglassLocation: Usually London PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:33 am
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Róisín wrote:

Sunglass wrote:
Could someone tell me which non-CS books the Chesters appear in? I feel I'm lacking an entire back story.


There are the excellent biographies by Jennifer which you can browse through for basic personal histories - find them here (I've linked to Beth to start you off but you can link from her to anyone she is related to).



Roisin, I only just now followed that link to the Beth Chester biog (thanks, incidentally!), and thus only just found out that she'd read for a degree at Oxford before going to Switzerland as Joey's mother's help at Freudesheim! Now, I realise that mother's helps as constructed in the Swiss CS books are very much 'genteel jobs with a trusted family friend close to the CS for young women to do for a year or two before they marry' - but still, it makes me think even more that EBD had very little sense of how stringently academic the women's colleges were, and what an odd thing it would be for a graduate of Somerville or LMH to do after her degree!

#12:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:21 am
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Beth's career plans varied a lot! First of all she wanted to be a gardener and was going to go to a gardening college. Then she did a degree at Oxford ... and then she ended up as Joey's mother's help which, with all due respect to "mother's helps", doesn't really sound like a job that you'd expect someone with an Oxford degree to do, unless it was during a "year out" which doesn't really sound very 1950s. Unless maybe she already had an "understanding" with her future husband by then and was just looking for a way of earning money for a couple of years before getting married?

#13:  Author: LesleyLocation: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:11 pm
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Of course it's quite likely that the only reason Beth Chester was there was so that EBD could introduce Barbara. But she doesn't appear to have thought it through - hardly a good role model for the girls - yes you can study very hard, manage to obtain a degree from one of the most prestigious universities in the world and then...end up as a mother's help for Joey Maynard. Hmmm, well that was worth all the studying then. Laughing

#14:  Author: SunglassLocation: Usually London PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:15 pm
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Alison H wrote:
Unless maybe she already had an "understanding" with her future husband by then and was just looking for a way of earning money for a couple of years before getting married?


I think it is strongly implied in Barbara that this is the case, more or less, but it's still a very odd progression from an Oxford degree, even if it's as a genteel stopgap before marriage. I do see it as more evidence that EBD knew very little about how Oxford worked, and how academically demanding it would have been. Beth would have been at Somerville, LMH or St Hughes with some extraordinarily brilliant minds, as dons and fellow-students, and would be likely to have left with a strong sense of the importance of female leadership and careers etc.

EBD seems to have assumed on the one hand that boy's names could be 'put down' by their fathers for Oxford the way they could for Eton (which has an element of truth, in that a college with family connections would be more likely to accept a son- but wasn't by any means that straightforward by the 50s!), but also that there was little or no question that CS girls would get an Oxford place automatically. No one ever hopes they'll get an Oxford place but fears they won't, and no one ever appears to fail to get in, despite very much not being the kind of exam-centric, Miss Bubb-ish school that would have specifically coached girls for Oxbridge!

#15:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:29 am
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Timing wise, I wonder what Beth did between university and going to Switzerland? Daisy, who is the same age, has gone through doctor's training, worked for a few years, and then gotten married. There is a mention of her tutoring Barbara at home, so it sounds rather like she went to Oxford and then returned home to help, which might fit with her family's class, but strikes me as a bit of a let down for her.

#16:  Author: Alison HLocation: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:08 am
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When they're doing the albums of the Old Girls for the coming of age celebrations, Barbara says that Beth's done quite a few things. Unfortunately, she doesn't say what!!

#17:  Author: JoyceLocation: Hong Kong PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:42 pm
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And who the heck does Beth marry? This has bugged me for ages.

I know people have taken various educated guesses, but are we ever actually told?

The most that Barbara tells us is that Beth is having a baby. Maybe that's what she meant by "doing a few things." Smile

Cheers,
Joyce

#18:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:03 pm
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Probably Noel Atherton, the youngest of the Atherton family from the La Rochelle books.

He's about the right age, and fits with the mention that Beth will become an aunt to Blossom Willoughby.

#19:  Author: LizzieCLocation: Canterbury, UK PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:53 pm
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I believe it's mentioned somewhere that Beth gets engaged to the Embury's tutor. Can't remember where though.

#20:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:20 pm
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LizzieC wrote:
I believe it's mentioned somewhere that Beth gets engaged to the Embury's tutor. Can't remember where though.


That's Maria Marani, when she is working as Joey's mother's help.

#21:  Author: LizzieCLocation: Canterbury, UK PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:54 pm
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jennifer wrote:
LizzieC wrote:
I believe it's mentioned somewhere that Beth gets engaged to the Embury's tutor. Can't remember where though.


That's Maria Marani, when she is working as Joey's mother's help.


Oops Embarassed Ta. I'm getting my mother's helps confused!

#22:  Author: JoyceLocation: Hong Kong PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:19 am
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Wouldn't Noel have been miles older than her though? Though that has not stopped EBD before!

And wouldn't he have known Beth when she was only a baby? Imagine marrying someone who saw you being pushed in a stroller!

I find it bad enough that Reg knew what Len was like when she was 4.

Cheers,
Joyce

#23:  Author: jenniferLocation: Taiwan PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:39 am
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Joyce wrote:
Wouldn't Noel have been miles older than her though? Though that has not stopped EBD before!

And wouldn't he have known Beth when she was only a baby? Imagine marrying someone who saw you being pushed in a stroller!

I find it bad enough that Reg knew what Len was like when she was 4.

Cheers,
Joyce


I put that down as EBD's idea of an ideal age difference - given that Jack, Jem and Reg are significantly older than their partners, and even Dick is about 7 years older than Mollie (who marries him at about 18 ).



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