#1: Transcript of the Simon Duvale
Show, broadcast 12/01/07 Author: Mrs
Redboots, Location: London, UKPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2007
10:21 pm — The plot bunnies have been
biting. This is possibly a bit silly - if the Mods think it ought to go into St
Claires, please feel free to move it. There will definitely be one more part,
but probably not much more.
Duvale: Good afternoon, listeners.
It's my great pleasure to introduce today's Fictional Guest, Matron Gwynneth
Lloyd from the Chalet School. Good afternon, Gwynneth; it's lovely to have you
with us.
Matey: Good
afternoon, Mr Duvale, and thank you for inviting me.
Duvale: Well, the lines are open, and
we are expecting your calls to speak to Matron Gwynneth Lloyd from the Chalet
School. And our first caller is Jackie, from Henley-on-Thames. Good afternoon,
Jackie.
Jackie: Good
afternoon, Simon, good afternoon, Matron.
Duvale: Jackie, do you have a question
for Matron?
Jackie: Yes,
I do. Please, Matron, why don't the girls at the Chalet School ever need to use
the loo?
Matey: (laughs)
Oh, they do! They're quite normal in that respect. But when our stories were
written down, people didn't tend to be quite as graphic about such things as
they are now. And even today, people will sometimes ask if you need to make
yourself comfortable, or to wash your hands - implying that you'll do something
else while you're in there! Our splasheries had lavatories in them, but Miss
Brent-Dyer, a child of her era, didn't care to mention this beyond small hints.
Besides which, would you really have been interested?
Jackie: Well, yes I see. So they had
periods, too?
Matey: Of
course they did. They were quite normal, healthy girls and grew into normal,
healthy young women. Don't forget that the stories were written down for younger
girls, who wouldn't have begun to develop women's bodies yet, and in those days,
they were really only told about such things when they needed to know.
Jackie: Did they know? One hears such awful
stories....
Matey: Most
of them knew what to expect by the time it happened to them. I did have one or
two girls, especially in the early years, come to me in tears thinking something
had gone badly wrong, so after that I made sure to have a word with each girl as
she approached 12 or 12 and a half. But don't forget, these things weren't
really discussed openly, and certainly never in mixed company.
Jackie: Thank you, Matron. Goodbye.
Duvale: Good bye,
Jackie. And our next caller is Charmaine, from East London. Charmaine, do you
have a question for Matron?
Charmaine: Yes, I want to know why
there weren't any non-White girls at the Chalet School?
Last edited by Mrs Redboots on Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:34 pm;
edited 1 time in total
#2:
Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, KentPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2007
11:34 pm — Oh I
like this - very interesting.
#3: Author: Alison
H, Location:
ManchesterPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007
12:01 am — Definitely interesting
!
#4:
Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, EnglandPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007
9:31 am — This
looks good! I hope there's more than one more part
Thanks, Mrs Redboots
#5:
Author: Squirrel, Location: St-Andrews or DunfermlinePosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007
10:08 am — Oooh!
More please Mrs Redboots!
#6:
Author: MaryR, Location: CheshirePosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007
2:04 pm — Very
original - and Matey is just the right person.
#7:
Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny QatarPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007
5:51 pm — Yes,
very interesting! What about Lilimani, she wasn't white was she?
Thanks
Mrs Redboots.
#8: Author: Mrs
Redboots, Location: London, UKPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007
8:33 pm — Thank you for your kind
words. This is the second and final part - but if anybody wants to take the idea
and run with it, perhaps with a different radio guest, I shall look forward to
reading it!
Matey: Basically because none applied
to join it. We had Lilamani for a few years during the War, but she was the only
one. Don't forget that before the War, there were few Black people in the UK,
and we left for Switzerland about the time the Empire Windrush arrived in Britain. Of course,
it's very different now - we are a truly multinational school
Charmaine: Oh, is it still going?
Matey: Very much so. The
Swiss branch is now an International School, catering primarily for the children
of diplomats, and the Welsh branch is one of the top girls' public schools in
the UK. It has been in the top 10 of both the GCSE and A level league tables for
the past five years.
Charmaine: Why only a girls' school?
Why not boys too?
Matey:
The Welsh branch doesn't feel the need; there are plenty of extremely good
schools both for boys only and co-educational, and it has close links, and in
fact shares a sixth form, with an excellent boys' school nearby. The Swiss
school is semi-co-educational. Both the preparatory department, St Nicholas, and
the Sixth Form, St Mildred's, are co-educational, but the 11 to 16 age group has
been proved to learn better if boys and girls are taught separately. So there is
now a separate Chalet School for Boys, on the site where the San used to be,
with two Houses, and the two schools are in close contact.
Charmaine: But during the time of the
books, contact with boys was frowned upon, surely?
Matey: Not at all! We wanted our girls
to grow up to be sensible, well-rounded young women, and part of that was having
lots of friends of all kinds. We did try to discourage more than friendship, if
only because the time for that sort of thing is really a few years down the
line, but girls will be girls, of course. And there were one or two cases -
notably Marie von Eschenau and Len Maynard... At least Len had her time at
university before she married, and was very sure that Reg was the right person
for her.
Charmaine: They
all seemed to have married the first man they met!
Matey: No, I don't think that was
necessarily true. Certainly some of them did, but the majority looked around a
bit first and perhaps tried on a relationship for size that may not have been
successful. Miss Brent-Dyer didn't tend to chronicle these, as she was a
romantic soul and liked people to fall in love and stay there, and also, she
wasn't all that interested in the girls once they'd left school. Don't forget,
there were a lot more girls who passed through the school than you ever read
about.
Duvale: Thank you
Charmaine, and our next caller is Susan, from Liverpool.
Susan: Good afternoon, Matron. Why did
you make the girls turn their mattresses every other day? Wouldn't it have been
enough to turn them when they changed their sheets?
Matey: Well, don't forget that the
mattresses were not the interior sprung mattresses we have today, but the old
horsehair type. And these really do benefit from being turned regularly. Many
sprung mattresses do, too, incidentally. As for turning them every other day -
well, it might well have been enough to have turned them when sheets were being
changed, but there are all too many people who would have "forgotten" to do
this. Whereas doing it on alternate days, if someone did forget, or tried to get
away without doing it because she was in a hurry, well, it wouldn't matter all
that much. Mind you, if I caught them, they were apt to regret not having done
it!
Susan: Laughs. I see. Thank you, Matron.
Duvale: Thank you Susan.
Our next caller is Jessica, from Stafford.
Jessica: Good afternoon, Matron. Could
you explain about sheets being "Sides to middled", please - it sounds horribly
uncomfortable!
Matron:
It wasn't as uncomfortable as you might think - the seam used was a flat or
felled seam, such as you might find on the outside of your jeans. During and
after the War, when linen was scarce, we had to make sheets last as long as
possible, so turning the sides to middle and then hemming the raw edges was an
economy measure. I used to do the centre seam on the sewing machine and, of
course, hemming the new outside edges made a good Saturday evening task for
evil-doers.
Jessica:
Didn't you mind having to sit with the evil-doers while they hemmed?
Matron: Not a bit! I was
often very busy, and it was a good chance to catch up. And it was good for the
evil-doers, too - they had to sit doing something excruciatingly boring, but at
the same time useful, not allowed to talk to each other, and no radio or
reading-aloud to take their minds off it. I would glare at them and make them
feel extremely sorry for themselves. It was rare that I had the same girl or
girls twice in any one term, I can tell you! Plus, it was good for their
needlework - plain hemming is a skill that everybody should have.
Duvale: Well, I'm afraid that's all
we've time for today; Matron Lloyd, thank you so much for being with us today.
And next week, our guest will be.... [fades
out]
#9:
Author: Elle, Location: PeterboroughPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007
10:04 pm — Well
that has cleared up a few questions for me! Thanks.
#10:
Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, EnglandPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007
10:40 am — That was
excellent! Thanks, Mrs Redboots
#11:
Author: MaryR, Location: CheshirePosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007
2:10 pm — And
after all, she did need time to catch her breath now and then. Watching others
toil away gave her exactly that - and a giggle as well, I should think.
Thanks, Mrs Redboots
#12:
Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West YorksPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007
5:09 pm — That was
brilliant - thankyou
Please may we have some more?????
sends
lots of bunny food
#13: Author: Elder in
Ontario, Location: Ontario, CanadaPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007
5:15 pm — Very
cleverly done - thank you, Mrs. Redboots!
Echoes the requests for more,
please.
#14:
Author: Chelsea, Location: Your ImaginationPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007
8:13 pm — That did
clear a number of issues up.
I wonder who it will be next week.
Thanks Mrs. Redboots.
#15:
Author: Cryst, Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007
11:52 pm —
Mrs Redboots wrote:
So there is now a separate Chalet School for Boys,
Whoa, there goes a bunny!
Thank you, Mrs Redboots, I enjoyed that.
#16:
Author: Jennie, Location: CambridgeshirePosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007
4:55 pm — Go on,
Cryst, you know you want to write it!
#17:
Author: Tamzin, Location: EdinburghPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007
8:16 pm — This was
really good. I'd love to see some more CS people subjected to interviews
though.....
#18:
Author: JustJen, Location: at a baseball gamePosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007
4:30 am — Oh
please post some more!
#19:
Author: Caty, Location: New ZealandPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007
4:54 am — I
enjoyed that. Thank you.
#20:
Author: wheelchairprincess, Location: Oxfordshire, UKPosted: Wed Feb 07, 2007
12:27 am — Just
found this and loved it. Would really, really like to see more!