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The Chalet School #20
Three Go to the Chalet School
Everyone is mystified by the strange Verity-Ann. She keeps herself to herself, and not even Mary-Lou, who's a new girl too, can understand her.
Luckily for everyone involved, the solution to the problem turns up in the end! Verity-Ann Carey does not want to go to school. She has always had her lessons at home and, besides, she doesn't like girls!
Verity-Ann, a child who has spent all her time with elderly grown-ups, doesn't approve of modern schoolgirls and is determined not to alter her prim old-maid ways. But Clem Barras can hardly wait to give up her wild travelling life and join in the boisterous fun of her classmates. When the three meet - there's trouble ahead!
Luckily for everyone involved, the solution to the problem turns up in the end! Verity-Ann Carey does not want to go to school. She has always had her lessons at home and, besides, she doesn't like girls!
Verity-Ann, a child who has spent all her time with elderly grown-ups, doesn't approve of modern schoolgirls and is determined not to alter her prim old-maid ways. But Clem Barras can hardly wait to give up her wild travelling life and join in the boisterous fun of her classmates. When the three meet - there's trouble ahead!
237 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
5 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
171 books113 followersElinor M. Brent-Dyer was born as Gladys Eleanor May Dyer on 6th April 1894, in South Shields in the industrial northeast of England, and grew up in a terraced house which had no garden or inside toilet. She was the only daughter of Eleanor Watson Rutherford and Charles Morris Brent Dyer. Her father, who had been married before, left home when she was three years old. In 1912, her brother Henzell died at age 17 of cerebro-spinal fever. After her father died, her mother remarried in 1913.
Elinor was educated at a small local private school in South Shields and returned there to teach when she was eighteen after spending two years at the City of Leeds Training College. Her teaching career spanned 36 years, during which she taught in a wide variety of state and private schools in the northeast, in Middlesex, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, and finally in Hereford.
In the early 1920s she adopted the name Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer. A holiday she spent in the Austrian Tyrol at Pertisau-am-Achensee gave her the inspiration for the first location in the Chalet School series. However, her first book, 'Gerry Goes to School', was published in 1922 and was written for the child actress Hazel Bainbridge. Her first 'Chalet' story, 'The School at the Chalet', was originally published in 1925.
In 1930, the same year that 'Jean of Storms' was serialised, she converted to Roman Catholicism.
In 1933 the Brent-Dyer household (she lived with her mother and stepfather until her mother's death in 1957) moved to Hereford. She travelled daily to Peterchurch as a governess.
When her stepfather died she started her own school in Hereford, The Margaret Roper School. It was non-denominational but with a strong religious tradition. Many Chalet School customs were followed, the girls even wore a similar uniform made in the Chalet School's colours of brown and flame. Elinor was rather untidy, erratic and flamboyant and not really suited to being a headmistress. After her school closed in 1948 she devoted most of her time to writing.
Elinor's mother died in 1957 and in 1964 she moved to Redhill, where she lived in a joint establishment with fellow school story author Phyllis Matthewman and her husband, until her death on 20th September 1969.
During her lifetime Elinor M. Brent-Dyer published 101 books but she is remembered mainly for her Chalet School series. The series numbers 58 books and is the longest-surviving series of girls' school-stories ever known, having been continuously in print for more than 70 years. One hundred thousand paperback copies are still being sold each year.
Among her published books are other school stories; family, historical, adventure and animal stories; a cookery book, and four educational geography-readers. She also wrote plays and numerous unpublished poems and was a keen musician.
In 1994, the year of the centenary of her Elinor Brent-Dyer's birth, Friends of the Chalet School put up plaques in Pertisau, South Shields and Hereford, and a headstone was erected on her grave in Redstone Cemetery, since there was not one previously. They also put flowers on her grave on the anniversaries of her birth and death and on other special occasions.
Elinor was educated at a small local private school in South Shields and returned there to teach when she was eighteen after spending two years at the City of Leeds Training College. Her teaching career spanned 36 years, during which she taught in a wide variety of state and private schools in the northeast, in Middlesex, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, and finally in Hereford.
In the early 1920s she adopted the name Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer. A holiday she spent in the Austrian Tyrol at Pertisau-am-Achensee gave her the inspiration for the first location in the Chalet School series. However, her first book, 'Gerry Goes to School', was published in 1922 and was written for the child actress Hazel Bainbridge. Her first 'Chalet' story, 'The School at the Chalet', was originally published in 1925.
In 1930, the same year that 'Jean of Storms' was serialised, she converted to Roman Catholicism.
In 1933 the Brent-Dyer household (she lived with her mother and stepfather until her mother's death in 1957) moved to Hereford. She travelled daily to Peterchurch as a governess.
When her stepfather died she started her own school in Hereford, The Margaret Roper School. It was non-denominational but with a strong religious tradition. Many Chalet School customs were followed, the girls even wore a similar uniform made in the Chalet School's colours of brown and flame. Elinor was rather untidy, erratic and flamboyant and not really suited to being a headmistress. After her school closed in 1948 she devoted most of her time to writing.
Elinor's mother died in 1957 and in 1964 she moved to Redhill, where she lived in a joint establishment with fellow school story author Phyllis Matthewman and her husband, until her death on 20th September 1969.
During her lifetime Elinor M. Brent-Dyer published 101 books but she is remembered mainly for her Chalet School series. The series numbers 58 books and is the longest-surviving series of girls' school-stories ever known, having been continuously in print for more than 70 years. One hundred thousand paperback copies are still being sold each year.
Among her published books are other school stories; family, historical, adventure and animal stories; a cookery book, and four educational geography-readers. She also wrote plays and numerous unpublished poems and was a keen musician.
In 1994, the year of the centenary of her Elinor Brent-Dyer's birth, Friends of the Chalet School put up plaques in Pertisau, South Shields and Hereford, and a headstone was erected on her grave in Redstone Cemetery, since there was not one previously. They also put flowers on her grave on the anniversaries of her birth and death and on other special occasions.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 29, 2016
One of my favourite films is Stagecoach, which stars John Wayne. There's a shot in this film (which you can see here) that makes John Wayne a star. The camera swings into him with such exuberance, and then when it meets him, it keeps going and ends up framed on that face. This is a director making a star, and it's the first thing I thought of when I reread Three Go To The Chalet School. This is a book where several big characters debut: Mary-Lou Trelawney, Verity-Ann Carey and Clem Barras, and it's a book which features several of the landmark incidents of the series. You know the sorts of incidents I mean; they're the ones that somebody indirectly mentions thirty seven books later and everyone laughs, and you've not actually read the book that the original incident occurs in, so you're just all well whatever ...
I'm digressing. Three Go To The Chalet School's a well told book, and it's purposeful and direct. A lot of it takes place outside of the school and I rather love that. Much of that also speaks to the calibre of the new characters we're about to meet; the new girl usually gets a bit of backstory, but that backstory halts when they get to school. This time it doesn't, and the adults remain constantly present throughout. I rather love that. The more I read these books, the more I start to realise that perhaps the great longevity of them is precisely that constant adult presence. It's in the way that we see inside the staffroom (was it just me who was fascinated with what went on in there?) and become party to adult discussions. These are school stories, yes, but there's a whole world in there. But then, isn't that the girls' school story genre in a nutshell? That expression of femine power and absolute strength, wielded in a constructed and fiercely delineated space of gender parity and uniquely formed ideology?
The school is the world, always.
One other thing to adore about Three Go To The Chalet School is how Brent-Dyer handles Joey. Joey, at this point, had undergone something of an awkward transition. Still at school, but not. Mother, lover, schoolgirl, adult, writer. And here, Brent-Dyer sort of manages to relax with her and step away from that awkward effort to pigeonhole a character who denies such easy categorisation. Joey Maynard climbs trees and then goes inside and darns socks. She helps people through deep, lasting trauma and she plays slides on the drawing room floor. It's rather delightful because it's so unforced and through that lack of concern, she becomes intensely real.
I lied. There is a final, final thing to adore about Three Go To The Chalet School and it is a moment right at the end of the book with Clem and Tony Barrass. I won't outline the situation, just in case you've not read in it, but there is a line here that makes me cry, every time. It's a line borne out of life and living and of hurting, I think, and it reminds me how good Brent-Dyer really really could be.
I'm digressing. Three Go To The Chalet School's a well told book, and it's purposeful and direct. A lot of it takes place outside of the school and I rather love that. Much of that also speaks to the calibre of the new characters we're about to meet; the new girl usually gets a bit of backstory, but that backstory halts when they get to school. This time it doesn't, and the adults remain constantly present throughout. I rather love that. The more I read these books, the more I start to realise that perhaps the great longevity of them is precisely that constant adult presence. It's in the way that we see inside the staffroom (was it just me who was fascinated with what went on in there?) and become party to adult discussions. These are school stories, yes, but there's a whole world in there. But then, isn't that the girls' school story genre in a nutshell? That expression of femine power and absolute strength, wielded in a constructed and fiercely delineated space of gender parity and uniquely formed ideology?
The school is the world, always.
One other thing to adore about Three Go To The Chalet School is how Brent-Dyer handles Joey. Joey, at this point, had undergone something of an awkward transition. Still at school, but not. Mother, lover, schoolgirl, adult, writer. And here, Brent-Dyer sort of manages to relax with her and step away from that awkward effort to pigeonhole a character who denies such easy categorisation. Joey Maynard climbs trees and then goes inside and darns socks. She helps people through deep, lasting trauma and she plays slides on the drawing room floor. It's rather delightful because it's so unforced and through that lack of concern, she becomes intensely real.
I lied. There is a final, final thing to adore about Three Go To The Chalet School and it is a moment right at the end of the book with Clem and Tony Barrass. I won't outline the situation, just in case you've not read in it, but there is a line here that makes me cry, every time. It's a line borne out of life and living and of hurting, I think, and it reminds me how good Brent-Dyer really really could be.
February 19, 2017
Well, here's where the irrepressible Mary-Lou shows up. She's enough of a defined character already - and one of Brent-Dyer's strengths is that she isn't Joey 2.0 - that the series feels newly invigorated. And I will always find Verity-Ann hilarious. She makes me laugh. (I read later books with an eye toward the number of times the adjective "silvery" is used about her voice; original language is not one of Brent-Dyer's strengths.)
I wouldn't recommend these, really; a friend borrowed a volume from me once, with dubious results. Still, there's something so relaxing about a series of 40+ volumes where you can generally count on a familiar school setting with structure tempering the chaos. There are schoolgirl escapades (often melodramatic, sometimes hair-raising), but within limits. And to borrow a phrase from Enid Blyton, there's that inescapable "English honor" that eventually infects even the most recalcitrant, lends the prefects amazing gravitas, and allows the teachers an authority and a withering command of language that no other school - obviously - can hope to mimic.
There's no real reason to like these, is my point, if you haven't grown up on them, or on Enid Blyton, and are no longer inoculated against repetitive, endless British boarding school stories - in which case you will find these mostly charming, against all odds.
I wouldn't recommend these, really; a friend borrowed a volume from me once, with dubious results. Still, there's something so relaxing about a series of 40+ volumes where you can generally count on a familiar school setting with structure tempering the chaos. There are schoolgirl escapades (often melodramatic, sometimes hair-raising), but within limits. And to borrow a phrase from Enid Blyton, there's that inescapable "English honor" that eventually infects even the most recalcitrant, lends the prefects amazing gravitas, and allows the teachers an authority and a withering command of language that no other school - obviously - can hope to mimic.
There's no real reason to like these, is my point, if you haven't grown up on them, or on Enid Blyton, and are no longer inoculated against repetitive, endless British boarding school stories - in which case you will find these mostly charming, against all odds.
February 10, 2022
‘Three Go to the Chalet School’ is a slightly different beast to its predecessors. There’s more backstory, less Chalet School and movement towards a slightly experimental trajectory for the series. Still immensely enjoyable, with three new characters introduced and the sense that there’ll be still more changes as the series progresses.
May 9, 2024
Mary-Lou will always be a favourite character of mine alongside joey. Rereading this books is enjoyable and reminds me why I loved the series so much when I was younger.
March 9, 2019
3.5/5
This was pretty enjoyable but the resolution of Verity was extremely disappointing and lowered the whole book for me
This was pretty enjoyable but the resolution of Verity was extremely disappointing and lowered the whole book for me
August 2, 2018
Oh, wonderful. One of the rare middle books where EBD is visibly introducing her new stars, and yet there’s no caricature, no cardboard models - Mary-Lou is delightful and real and young; Verity-Ann is hopeless and alone; Joey is grown up without a halo, in action and by report. And, as ever, EBD is spot on in her depiction of grief, and legacy, and in the spaces it leaves behind and it is so bittersweet and beautifully done.
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October 2, 2025The first time I'd read the full text (it's on fadedpage). A whole subplot was cut from the Armada paperback -
November 6, 2023
Odd cover ( girls a all looking very similar with only variations in height and wrong uniform for Chalet School)
Also slightly odd title
Before reading this I thought the ‘Three’ were already friends and arrived together but Verity-Ann did not know either Mary- Lou or Clem, and Clem did not arrive at school til after half-term
Really Mary- Lou’s story
Feeling of a reset for EBD and the Chalet School - girls seem to speak a lot more slang!
And still talking of plans to return the school to the Tirol soon
I wondered if one of the reasons for the delay in a new Chalet School book after the war ended was the EBD was hoping that she could restart the series in the Tirol within 2-3 years of the war ending
An ok book but I was disappointed that neither the reason for Verity-Ann’s refusal to speak German , nor what her father said to convince that this was ok, were explained
Also slightly odd title
Before reading this I thought the ‘Three’ were already friends and arrived together but Verity-Ann did not know either Mary- Lou or Clem, and Clem did not arrive at school til after half-term
Really Mary- Lou’s story
Feeling of a reset for EBD and the Chalet School - girls seem to speak a lot more slang!
And still talking of plans to return the school to the Tirol soon
I wondered if one of the reasons for the delay in a new Chalet School book after the war ended was the EBD was hoping that she could restart the series in the Tirol within 2-3 years of the war ending
An ok book but I was disappointed that neither the reason for Verity-Ann’s refusal to speak German , nor what her father said to convince that this was ok, were explained
October 21, 2022
Although I had previously read the Armada paperback edition, it was some time ago, so I remembered very little of the story, which introduces three new characters to the series: Mary-Lou Trelawney, Verity-Anne Carey, and Clem Barrass. At first neither Mary-Lou nor Verity-Anne want to go to school, but for very different reasons. Mary-Lou quickly settles down and makes friends, but not Verity-Anne. And then Clem arrives. Although she is three years older than Mary-Lou, they were old friends and Mary-Lou desperately wants to be with her friend, despite the age difference. In many ways this is more than just a school story as it delves into the girls' feelings for their families, friends, and, of course, the school!
May 31, 2019
In which we meet the one and only Mary Lou
March 19, 2020
I liked this one very much. A very 'school'-based one and I've always like Mary-Lou. Love the unsentimental expressions of friendship.
December 28, 2022
Gosh what a lot has happened
March 28, 2008
21 in the series - I'm about a third of the way through! Astonishing. I really liked this book, as it sets up three characters who are going to part of the ongoing story for some time. Mary-Lou is reluctant to go to school, but fits in very well, particularly when her great friend, Clem, also coincidentally appears as a new pupil.
Verity-Anne, our other new pupil, doesn't fit in nearly as well as the other two. She's been brought up by elderly people, as her father has been on an expedition in South America for many years (coincidentally, it's the same expedition Mary-Lou's father is on - goodness, there's a lot of coincidences in this book). Verity-Anne is terribly old-fashioned, doesn't want to join in games, and thinks that speaking German is unpatriotic (this is the book where the rule of alternate days of English, French and German is re-introduced - yay! That was always the aspect of the Chalet School that I found most romantic as a child.) While she clashes with the mistresses a lot on these points, they don't particularly discipline her, other then sending her to bed - they seem rather confused by her. All is fixed when her father comes home and reforms her (after which she soon expresses a desire to be more like the other Chalet girls - to conform is always the greatest desire of a true Chalet School girl.)
Mary-Lou and Clem, in contrast, have fairly uneventful terms - Mary-Lou is working terribly hard at her schoolwork in an effort to move up a form to be closer to Clem, and makes herself ill at one point through overwork (although she soon recovers). Mary-Lou also becomes terribly close to the Maynards - she calls Jo "Aunty" and has lots of deep and meaningfuls with her, showing us that she's going to be an important character. Anyone who's that close to Jo becomes important!
Verity-Anne, our other new pupil, doesn't fit in nearly as well as the other two. She's been brought up by elderly people, as her father has been on an expedition in South America for many years (coincidentally, it's the same expedition Mary-Lou's father is on - goodness, there's a lot of coincidences in this book). Verity-Anne is terribly old-fashioned, doesn't want to join in games, and thinks that speaking German is unpatriotic (this is the book where the rule of alternate days of English, French and German is re-introduced - yay! That was always the aspect of the Chalet School that I found most romantic as a child.) While she clashes with the mistresses a lot on these points, they don't particularly discipline her, other then sending her to bed - they seem rather confused by her. All is fixed when her father comes home and reforms her (after which she soon expresses a desire to be more like the other Chalet girls - to conform is always the greatest desire of a true Chalet School girl.)
Mary-Lou and Clem, in contrast, have fairly uneventful terms - Mary-Lou is working terribly hard at her schoolwork in an effort to move up a form to be closer to Clem, and makes herself ill at one point through overwork (although she soon recovers). Mary-Lou also becomes terribly close to the Maynards - she calls Jo "Aunty" and has lots of deep and meaningfuls with her, showing us that she's going to be an important character. Anyone who's that close to Jo becomes important!
November 3, 2009
Steady, intelligent Mary-Lou Trelawney reluctantlyheads off to the Chalet School (now headed by the formidable Miss Hilda Annersley and Miss Wilson), comforted that she will be attending with her friends, Joey's oldest daughters, Len, Con, and Margot. But she hates to leave behind her dearest friend and neighbor, lively Clem (Clemence) Barras. Spoilers ahead: At school Mary-Lou meets talented, silvery-voiced Verity Ann Carey, who is somehow too staid and even prissy to fully fit in with the independent, resourceful Chalet School girls. Plus, she does not want to learn to speak German! Do you think Mary-Lou and Verity Ann will have an unexpected connection? Do you think a sudden tragedy will link them forever? Do you think Clem will turn up again? Do you think Mary-Lou will become the second most popular and influential girl ever to walk the halls of the Chalet School (after Joey, of course)? You will have to read the book to find out. Or you could just guess. One of the most entertaining of the Chalet School books, but I would have liked to see more of the triplets and Mary-Lou is just a little too good to be true.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2010
The main three girls in this book are Mary-Lou Trelawney, Clem Barras, and Verity-Ann Carey.
Mary-Lou and Clem become friends first, in the tiny village that they stay, there aren't many other children around. Although there's a three year difference, they are fast friends. However, one day, Mary-Lou's mother informs her that they are moving away, so that she can go to a good school, which turns out to be the Chalet School. So, Mary-Lou and Clem are parted.
Verity-Ann's mother passed away quite awhile ago, and she has been in the custody of guardians since then. Her father is away on an expedition to the Amazon (and it turns out that Mary-Lou's father is also on the same trip). So, she has been sent to the Chalet School. She's a quaint character, who acts much older than her age. She finds it hard to get along, but Mary-Lou tries to befriend her.
Later on in the term, Clem also turns up at the Chalet School! So, Mary-Lou and Clem are reunited once again.
Mary-Lou and Clem become friends first, in the tiny village that they stay, there aren't many other children around. Although there's a three year difference, they are fast friends. However, one day, Mary-Lou's mother informs her that they are moving away, so that she can go to a good school, which turns out to be the Chalet School. So, Mary-Lou and Clem are parted.
Verity-Ann's mother passed away quite awhile ago, and she has been in the custody of guardians since then. Her father is away on an expedition to the Amazon (and it turns out that Mary-Lou's father is also on the same trip). So, she has been sent to the Chalet School. She's a quaint character, who acts much older than her age. She finds it hard to get along, but Mary-Lou tries to befriend her.
Later on in the term, Clem also turns up at the Chalet School! So, Mary-Lou and Clem are reunited once again.
April 30, 2023
Mary-Lou meets the Maynard family and is delighted to to to the Chalet School. Verity-Ann has been brought up by elderly relatives, and does not in the least want to go to school.
Re-read ten years later in the 'Girls Gone By' edition with the full text - and enjoyed it even more! An entire chapter was removed from the Armada version. Mary-Lou is one of my favourite characters in the series, and this book is one of the more interesting, in my view.
Definitely best to read in the full hardback or Girls Gone By editions if possible, but even the abridged Armada is better than nothing.
Latest full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
Four and a half stars, really.
Re-read ten years later in the 'Girls Gone By' edition with the full text - and enjoyed it even more! An entire chapter was removed from the Armada version. Mary-Lou is one of my favourite characters in the series, and this book is one of the more interesting, in my view.
Definitely best to read in the full hardback or Girls Gone By editions if possible, but even the abridged Armada is better than nothing.
Latest full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
Four and a half stars, really.
January 26, 2025
Three Go To The Chalet School is book 23 of a reread (I started at Exile don’t @ at me, then went back to School at the Chalet and continued forward from there), and is book 20 in the series, being one of the books set in Armishire. First reread of the Chalet School books since I went to Pertisau.
I love this book. The introduction to Mary-Lou is a fun read with so great things that happen, many of which are discussed in future books years ahead. Everything so sensitively handled, and it’s just gorgeous how much everyone cares.
I love this book. The introduction to Mary-Lou is a fun read with so great things that happen, many of which are discussed in future books years ahead. Everything so sensitively handled, and it’s just gorgeous how much everyone cares.
September 6, 2015
This is a soft reboot of the Chalet School series, so to speak, introducing as it does the young lady who acts as a bridge between the first (Joey Bettany) and third (Len Maynard) main heroines of the series. It's a good read as well, with the character of Mary-Lou Trelawney - a sturdy, capable young thing who will become a real champion butter-in in years to come - standing out in particular. EBD also excels in her development of two of Mary-Lou's chums, Verity-Ann Carey and Clem Barrass, who both coincidentally wind up at the Chalet School this term.
May 20, 2009
Not the triplets, as the title makes you think, but the triumvirate of Mary-Lou, Clem Barras, and Verity-Ann Carey. I never cared for Mary-Lou but I did love Verity-Ann... funny that she got off to quite an awful start at the school.
(I also love the line in the summary "she has always had her lessons at home and, besides, she doesn't like girls!" Oh, Verity-Ann, you will learn!)
(I also love the line in the summary "she has always had her lessons at home and, besides, she doesn't like girls!" Oh, Verity-Ann, you will learn!)
August 5, 2016
Only 4 stars because I lost my GGBP copy and had to read the Armada paperback (which, I noticed for the first time, refers to Mr Young being at the end of term carol concert even though that entire storyline has otherwise been edited out!)
April 13, 2015
I wasn't sure about this one to begin with, despite loving all the previous books. It wasn't the usual escapades and antics. I love the language though: "little mokes", that'll put "a rod in your pickle" and she's a "cat of another colour" !!
August 18, 2009
Mary-Lou meets the Maynard family and is delighted to to to the Chalet School. Mary-Lou is one of my favourite characters in the series, and this book is one of the more interesting, in my view.
December 5, 2014
Where we meet Mary-Lou, Verity-Ann and Clem! Need I say more? Another great Chalet book, starts the way towards the return to the Continent.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews