Another term for the Chalet School as classic finds new generation
by Judith Judd (Education Editor)
The London Independent, Mar 25, 2000

A SERIES of jolly school stories written more than 70 years ago has sparked a mini-tourism boom with "girls" aged from 7 to 70 flocking to the Austrian Tyrol in a bizarre pilgrimage to a lost age of innocence.

Elinor M Brent-Dyer's Chalet school books - "ripping yarns" in which popular girls are "good eggs", and "top hole" is the ultimate accolade - are enjoying such a renaissance societies have been established for aficionados, a specialist website has been set up, and publishers are hastily arranging reprints.

The 59 Chalet school books - the first of which was published in 1922 - relate the adventures of Joey Bettany, her brother and sister, Dick and Madge, and their St Bernard dog, Rufus, at a school in the Tyrol. Ann Mackie-Hunter, founder of the Friends of the Chalet, which has 1,150 members, said the secret of the books' lasting success lay in their realistic presentation of relationships between teachers and pupils. "Elinor Brent- Dyer was a teacher. The atmosphere of the school is true. The books portray a safe, secure world. Our members say they often re-read them in times of stress," she said.

Members of the society are divided into three houses: Le Petit Chalet for the youngest, St Clare's for 14 to 17-year-olds and St Theresa's for the "older girls". The pilgrimages to Austria are built around sites identified in the books.

Zoe Clarke, a desk editor in the children's division at HarperCollins, said: "There is a lot of interest around the Chalet school at the moment. Some of the popularity is to do with Princess Beatrice going to Aiglon College in Switzerland. We have given the core titles new covers to try and attract a new generation of readers. I suppose it is every girl's dream to go to boarding school, to be highly accomplished and to speak three languages."

HarperCollins has just reprinted Visitors for the Chalet School by a ghost-writer, Helen McClelland, based on notes made by Brent-Dyer, who was born in 1894. Recently, The School at the Chalet joined books such as Tolkien's The Hobbit and T H White's Sword in the Stone on the list of Collins Modern Classics.

The rarest Chalet school first edition is The Chalet School in Exile, published in 1940, which was illustrated with a picture of a Nazi stormtrooper, and was quickly withdrawn from sale. In it, the girls try to stop a crowd baiting a Jewish shopkeeper. Ms Mackie- Hunter said: "Second-hand books are very much sought after. A first edition in a dust-wrapper could cost up to pounds 400."

The Friends themselves are planning to reprint Gerry Goes to School - Brent-Dyer's first book, originally published in 1922 - and they have already taken orders for 600 copies.

Friends of the Chalet School website is www.rockterrace. demon.co.uk/FOCS/

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HarperCollins has just reprinted Visitors for the Chalet School by a ghost-writer, Helen McClelland, based on notes made by Brent-Dyer, who was born in 1894.

Recently, The School at the Chalet joined books such as Tolkien's The Hobbit and T H White's Sword in the Stone on the list of Collins Modern Classics.