The smoking ban came in in 2007 in England and slightly earlier in the other countries in the UK.

IIRC some of the early 20th century marketing for cigarettes described the 'health benefits' didn't it?

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http://www.livejournal.com/users/kathrynw/

2007 wasn't it? July I think, when it became law over here. Ireland and one of the American states had it first years before.

So it's pretty recent, isn't it? But before then, because the health risks were known, it was on the decline ... I do find the casual-ness of smiking in the CS books dating. That's not negative dating, just an indication of their time.

IDK - if I read a book today about a school, I'd expect to have some scene about stressed-out over-worked teachers having a quick fag to get them through next lesson by the school gates. Admittedly it would be less casual and there would be more justification of the above nature, but I still wouldn't be surprised to see it in there.

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"His distinguished air, his handsome dark face, his composed attitude - for he stood perfectly still with one hand at his side - gave singular effect to the circumstance of his being without a hat." - 'Tales of Angria'

Exile was published March 1940. That indicates a surprisingly speedy publication after it was written, as we know the triplets were born November 1939, she can't have finished it any earlier than Dec 1939, and she had to correct it and type a fair copy for the publishers. I wonder if they rushed it through because of the topicality?

New CS was April 1938. They don't all have month of publication, though several around this time do. Goes to it is Oct 1941.

Just because the triplets are born in November doesn't mean she had to be writing it after that. You can write about future events if you already have the timeline in place for them. She could realistically have begun writing Exile any time after 12 March 1938 when the Anschluss took place, so she might have been writing it and editing New at the same time.



Where did you get the information about the months?

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The writer's credo: 'Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like' (Delta Goodrem - Born To Try)

We'll never know how far ahead she was thinking: I wish we could! War was only declared in September 1939 so she can't have written most of the second part of Exile any earlier than that, but I'd think she'd probably had the idea of "wholesale" Jo having triplets, and decided on the names, well beforehand. She may well have had to change things as she went along.

She certainly must've had to do a lot of thinking on her feet, especially once Guernsey was occupied and her plans for having the school there were ruined, and as she was writing about the school's move to Armishire there was a very real fear of invasion and just no way of knowing how things might've changed again before Goes To It made it into publication. My brain focuses much better on the period before 1914 than it does on anything recent so I can't imagine what it must be like to write in real time during a time when it must have seemed that the whole world could be about to turn upside down, and I find it fascinating that EBD did that.

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

I've found novels from 1970s dated because of the attitude to alcohol, with a very casual attitude to drinking and driving, which dates them to me more than smoking. The smoking in the CS books doesn't jar with me at all, perhaps because I read a lot of fiction from the 1930s and 1940s, and it's so usual to find social smokers.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned on this thread is language. EBD didn't allow slang at the CS and a number of people have cited that (in articles, etc) as a reason why the series hasn't dated in the same way as other school stories where there's a lot of 1920s slang.

Thanks for those dates, Ivohenry.

So the Anschluss had already happened when New came out. I wonder if that's why EBD then wrote India, because of the uncertainty over what was going to happen in Europe - especially if she was planning and writing it in the summer and autumn of 1938, during and after Munich.

Or maybe she wrote the first half of Exile in real time too, in the summer of 1938, but didn't know how to finish it, or her publishers didn't want it at that point, so she put it aside until war had broken out and her publishers then asked for it.

I agree she must have been writing the second half of Exile in real time. She mentions RL events, such as the Germans claiming to have sunk HMS Ark Royal, which happened (the German claim, not the sinking) in late Sept/Oct 1939.

I don't know if publication of Exile was hurried forward because of its topicality - and the fact that there hadn't been a CS book for a while - but turnaround between acceptance of a ms and publication was much shorter in the past than it is today, when you're generally looking at a year between acceptance and publication for fiction.

The smoking thing doesn't jar with me because until recently it was so normal. I smoked very heavily for 25 years, loved it, and still miss it even though I gave it up over 15 years ago! But it would be impractical now - I feel sorry for those young people who are tempted to take it up simply because it is so addictive, and such a very awkward addiction to have in this day and age!

What does jar is the very unsafe travelling arrangements when they go anywhere by car - babies being held on people's laps, and so on. Yet I do remember being put to bed in the back of my father's estate car and being driven home like that - and similar travel arrangements. The first cars I remember didn't even have seat belts in them, and for many years they only had them in the front.
Strange that it should jar, but it does!

It's not mentioned, but many of the older CS characters had probably never taken a driving test. It didn't become compulsory in the UK until June 1935, when anyone who had started driving on or after 1 April 1934 was required to have passed the test.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kin ... st#History

(I'm not sure whether my father ever took a test. He was just 18 on 1 April 1934, and was certainly already riding motorbikes, although I don't know if he had learned to drive a car by then.

One of my uncles, who was a few years older, never took a test until he was required to do so to be a driver in the Army in WWII.)

Stalky and co. are regular smokers by this stage, but what makes them sick is that they are smoking a particularly strong Indian cheroot. They are punished primarily for being out of bounds when there is an outbreak of diptheria in the area. They seem to do all their smoking out of bounds, which implies that it is against the rules, but it's clearly not considered as heinous an offence as getting drunk, for which the punishment was public flogging followed by expulsion.



In The King's Speech you see his speech therapist (the one before Lionel) telling him to inhale deeply because the smoke will relax his larynx.

Info from the books, first editions, back of title page.

That reminded me of the incident where Louise drives Miss Annersley (I can't remember which book but its one of the Tyrol ones). I always found it amusing that Louise (the pupil) drives Miss Annersley (her teacher) rather than vice versa. I presume Louise (who I think was from a wealthy family?) would have had access to a car and lessons which Miss Annersley would not have done.

I'd vaguely assumed it wasn't that Hilda couldn't drive (doesn't she drive in one of the UK books, the one where Madge is visiting and wants to borrow the school runabout when H and Rosalie get back from somewhere - or is it Rosalie behind the wheel?), but for much the same reason that, if they'd been on foot and carrying something, Louise would have carried it, not Hilda - because driving would have been the chauffeur-ish, subservient role of the two, and the polite, responsible schoolgirl would naturally take it. The passenger would have had more status than whoever was at the wheel at a time when, if you had a car, you often also had a driver...? Now we assume that the person at the wheel is the one with the authority.

In which book is this, please? I don't think it was in Armada, and I'm not sure I have it at all.

It's interesting that you interpret Louise driving Hilda Annersely as a matter of courtesy, Cosimo. I see what you mean when it's translated to carrying things, but the carrying courtesy doesn't quite mirror an equivalent driving courtesy, if you see what I mean?

Whose car was it?

Isn't that in New? They're driving back form the old Saints/Jem and Madge's holiday home? I think I recall it being Jem's car.

New House or New Chalet School, please?

I think New Chalet School but I am hazarding a guess. I think it's after Sybil is kidnapped and is found again.

Thank you. I never thought to look there!

Now that I have, though, there are several hints that may suggest outside events had a distinct effect on the publication of Chalet School books. This is the list of the first fifteen books, after which point, as far as I could see, there were no more months listed in the publication information:

School at - Oct 1025
Jo of - Oct 1926
Princess - Sept 1927
Head Girl - No month 1928
Rivals - Aug 1929
Eustacia - Aug 1930
And Jo - Aug 1931
Camp - No month 1932
Exploits - July 1933
Lintons - Sep 1934
New House - No month 1935
Jo Returns - No month 1936
New - April 1938
Exile - March 1940
Goes To It - Oct 1941

The glitch of two books suddenly being published in the first half of the relevant year (after a book not having appeared in the previous year) suggest a likelihood of books being put on hold to wait for the outcome of significant events such as the declaration of war.

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The writer's credo: 'Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like' (Delta Goodrem - Born To Try)