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The Chalet School #15
The Chalet School at War
When Madge Bettany decides to start a school in the Austrian Alps, little does she realize how such a small idea will so completely change her life. Now, in this classic series of books, first PUBLISHER in the 1920s, join the Chalet School's first pupil, Joey Bettany, as she forges strong bonds of friendship with girls from Europe and America. Independent, intelligent, resourceful, and bold--the girls of Chalet School make each new term and adventure.
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
4 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
171 books112 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 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 28, 2015
It's easy for me to be flippant about the Chalet School and, to be frank, it is a mode I adopt quite often when discussing this bizarre, brilliant and all too frustrating series. But it is not easy for me to be flippant about The Chalet School at War; a book full of ache and of pain and so, I shall not.
I didn't think I felt like this about The Chalet School at War. I remembered it being slightly leaden, a piece of filler coming after the great The Chalet School in Exile, mostly considering of Welsh people being very Welsh, Gwensi being boring and only enlivened by the great friendship split between two key middles. That was, alas, about it, and so when I came back to it, I don't know what I expected.
I do know that I did not expect this, this book that as ever with Brent-Dyer when she was at her fiery best, this book that is about one thing and yet wholly about another. Originally published in 1941 and titled 'The Chalet School Goes To It', The Chalet School at War is a book about love. It is a strange thing to apply, this sentiment to a series which resolutely stayed away from pashes and the like, but it is a sentiment I apply most wholeheartedly.
This book is about love.
This book is about family and ties and people being split from their homes and realising that none of that matters if they are together. This book is about women, banding together in the darkness and being brave and hopeful and furious against this war of men's making. This book is about England and her 'mettle being tested' in these dark, dark times and it is a message to the readers that says - you will live through this. You will survive. You will endure. And this book is about marriage and happily ever afters; some given with near-tangible authorial grief to characters who are 'too dear and sweet to spend their lives teaching'.
This book is about pain.
My God, it is so very much about pain.
The war is on, there are girls still inside Nazi Germany (not all Germans, Brent-Dyer reminds us, are Nazis, and again this fine distinction in this wild and so often ridiculous series makes me gasp at how good she could be). There are girls forced to live a life that they have not chosen with people that they have not chosen. There are women trying to do the best for the children in their care and there are these children who are growing up in these tumultous times and clinging to simple things. Hope. Honesty. Respect. Everything embodied in that painful, jagged little league of hope that's called 'The Chalet School Peace League'
And all of that is delivered in this school story about vegetables and about inter-form arguments and babies and I didn't see it coming. Quite often, with Brent-Dyer, when she is this good, I don't see it coming and it's only when I finish and close the book that I realise what's just happened. It's only then that I remember just how outstanding an author she could be.
I didn't think I felt like this about The Chalet School at War. I remembered it being slightly leaden, a piece of filler coming after the great The Chalet School in Exile, mostly considering of Welsh people being very Welsh, Gwensi being boring and only enlivened by the great friendship split between two key middles. That was, alas, about it, and so when I came back to it, I don't know what I expected.
I do know that I did not expect this, this book that as ever with Brent-Dyer when she was at her fiery best, this book that is about one thing and yet wholly about another. Originally published in 1941 and titled 'The Chalet School Goes To It', The Chalet School at War is a book about love. It is a strange thing to apply, this sentiment to a series which resolutely stayed away from pashes and the like, but it is a sentiment I apply most wholeheartedly.
This book is about love.
This book is about family and ties and people being split from their homes and realising that none of that matters if they are together. This book is about women, banding together in the darkness and being brave and hopeful and furious against this war of men's making. This book is about England and her 'mettle being tested' in these dark, dark times and it is a message to the readers that says - you will live through this. You will survive. You will endure. And this book is about marriage and happily ever afters; some given with near-tangible authorial grief to characters who are 'too dear and sweet to spend their lives teaching'.
This book is about pain.
My God, it is so very much about pain.
The war is on, there are girls still inside Nazi Germany (not all Germans, Brent-Dyer reminds us, are Nazis, and again this fine distinction in this wild and so often ridiculous series makes me gasp at how good she could be). There are girls forced to live a life that they have not chosen with people that they have not chosen. There are women trying to do the best for the children in their care and there are these children who are growing up in these tumultous times and clinging to simple things. Hope. Honesty. Respect. Everything embodied in that painful, jagged little league of hope that's called 'The Chalet School Peace League'
And all of that is delivered in this school story about vegetables and about inter-form arguments and babies and I didn't see it coming. Quite often, with Brent-Dyer, when she is this good, I don't see it coming and it's only when I finish and close the book that I realise what's just happened. It's only then that I remember just how outstanding an author she could be.
January 3, 2022
The Chalet School remains a remarkably cohesive unit given the upheavals and relocations within the last few books.
Although not as impressive as ‘The Chalet School in Exile,’ Brent-Dyer tackles some interesting plot twists amid the real-life backdrop of World War II (this one was written in 1941) and it’s fast becoming apparent as to why this series holds a special place in the Girls Own literary canon.
Although not as impressive as ‘The Chalet School in Exile,’ Brent-Dyer tackles some interesting plot twists amid the real-life backdrop of World War II (this one was written in 1941) and it’s fast becoming apparent as to why this series holds a special place in the Girls Own literary canon.
November 17, 2025
Another exciting war-time read
March 20, 2008
Unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on a copy of Chalet School in Exile, the book between this and The New Chalet School. Rather a lot obviously happens in Exile - Jo, rather than being single and living with Madge, is now married and has triplets. Yes. Triplets. And she had a run-in with the Gestapo (as you do). The school has also moved from Austria to the Channel Islands.
In At War, the Islands are threatened by the war, and the school moves to Wales. It's interesting, the changes brought about by the way - there are lessons in gardening now, with the girls learning to grow vegetables efficiently. There is trouble when the local Colonel complains about torchlight being seen on the school grounds after blackout, and the school experiences an air raid (in which a message is dropped from two old girls stuck in Germany, rather a ridiculous coincidence).
One of the old girls gets married at the end, and there is rather a sweet fuss about making her dress, given the short notice she had, and the whole school gets to go to the wedding, as usual.
I liked Jo more in this book - she is more involved in her own life than that of the school, particularly because she has more in common with the mistresses now than the students. And I liked her little family - the Robin and Daisy live with her - and her dear friendships with her foursome of old school friends.
In At War, the Islands are threatened by the war, and the school moves to Wales. It's interesting, the changes brought about by the way - there are lessons in gardening now, with the girls learning to grow vegetables efficiently. There is trouble when the local Colonel complains about torchlight being seen on the school grounds after blackout, and the school experiences an air raid (in which a message is dropped from two old girls stuck in Germany, rather a ridiculous coincidence).
One of the old girls gets married at the end, and there is rather a sweet fuss about making her dress, given the short notice she had, and the whole school gets to go to the wedding, as usual.
I liked Jo more in this book - she is more involved in her own life than that of the school, particularly because she has more in common with the mistresses now than the students. And I liked her little family - the Robin and Daisy live with her - and her dear friendships with her foursome of old school friends.
March 26, 2017
Coming after the heights of The Chalet School in Exile, I found this uneven: oddly paced and weirdly interspersing the mundane with the outrageous. It's less prescient than its predecessor, and that means it reads as much weaker.
August 16, 2015
So... less than a year after the Chalet School arrives in Guernsey, it's on the move again, this time to the Welsh Borders (where a complete stranger has offered them a mansion he happens to have going spare). I do have a lot of sympathy for Joey over this - not for yet another terrifying journey, but because she has to stop 'nursing' her triplets with no notice, which must have been quite uncomfortable at best.
Once settled in Armishire, this becomes a story of the home front. The Chalet School pitches in (or, indeed, Goes To It) at Digging for Victory, and when Miss Everett asks the Fifth what they'd like to grow, and the first person to answer suggests potatoes, Lo! She happens to have a barrowful of seed potatoes handy. What would have happened if Amy had suggested lettuces? Or sprouts? And where exactly are those trees, if they provide shade to the vegetable plot only in the middle of the day?
The Chalet School also experiences its first air raid, from which it takes shelter in the cellar. (Everybody has to change into their gardening kit for this, because Chalet girls are always correctly dressed for every eventuality, and clearly just slipping a jumper on over their pyjamas Wouldn't Do.) But sleeping on the cellar floor isn't comfortable and Miss Annersley is worried about (a) the building collapsing on them and (b) people getting cold if the weather's bad, so she decides to have shelters with bunks built some distance away from the school buildings. Why? Why not put the bunks in the cellar? Surely if the weather's bad the last thing you want to do at 2am is march the school out to shelters 'some distance' away? Tsk, Miss Annersley, think it through.
These quibbles aside, this is a cracking CS story - one of the best. Rationing, U-boats, teenage angst, a local jobsworth, a secret tunnel, evacuees (although EBD seems to have forgotten about this potential storyline quite quickly), and through it all, anxiety and fear as characters old and new find themselves separated from the ones they love.
It's a very real story. I don't know, because I wasn't there, but I think this may be a book which captures pretty accurately what the war was like for many of those on the home front in 1940. For all the huge frustrations I have with EBD, when she's on form, she nails it; and if you only read one CSB, this could be the one to pick. You'll struggle with all the references to characters you've never heard of in the first chapter, but don't worry, you don't actually meet them in this book, so just keep going.
And new girl Gwensi, sort-of the central character (but only sort-of - this is EBD after all) is just super, once she's got over her sulks at the start. EBD has a knack of creating characters who are so real that they end up doing entirely their own thing (not always, one suspects, the thing she had intended them to do). Gwensi isn't the first or the last, but she's one of the best.
Plus, now I know where I've been going wrong with my seed potatoes for the last few years. So really, it's all good. Go for it!
I mean, To It. Go to it. Like the Chalet School. See what I did there?
Once settled in Armishire, this becomes a story of the home front. The Chalet School pitches in (or, indeed, Goes To It) at Digging for Victory, and when Miss Everett asks the Fifth what they'd like to grow, and the first person to answer suggests potatoes, Lo! She happens to have a barrowful of seed potatoes handy. What would have happened if Amy had suggested lettuces? Or sprouts? And where exactly are those trees, if they provide shade to the vegetable plot only in the middle of the day?
The Chalet School also experiences its first air raid, from which it takes shelter in the cellar. (Everybody has to change into their gardening kit for this, because Chalet girls are always correctly dressed for every eventuality, and clearly just slipping a jumper on over their pyjamas Wouldn't Do.) But sleeping on the cellar floor isn't comfortable and Miss Annersley is worried about (a) the building collapsing on them and (b) people getting cold if the weather's bad, so she decides to have shelters with bunks built some distance away from the school buildings. Why? Why not put the bunks in the cellar? Surely if the weather's bad the last thing you want to do at 2am is march the school out to shelters 'some distance' away? Tsk, Miss Annersley, think it through.
These quibbles aside, this is a cracking CS story - one of the best. Rationing, U-boats, teenage angst, a local jobsworth, a secret tunnel, evacuees (although EBD seems to have forgotten about this potential storyline quite quickly), and through it all, anxiety and fear as characters old and new find themselves separated from the ones they love.
It's a very real story. I don't know, because I wasn't there, but I think this may be a book which captures pretty accurately what the war was like for many of those on the home front in 1940. For all the huge frustrations I have with EBD, when she's on form, she nails it; and if you only read one CSB, this could be the one to pick. You'll struggle with all the references to characters you've never heard of in the first chapter, but don't worry, you don't actually meet them in this book, so just keep going.
And new girl Gwensi, sort-of the central character (but only sort-of - this is EBD after all) is just super, once she's got over her sulks at the start. EBD has a knack of creating characters who are so real that they end up doing entirely their own thing (not always, one suspects, the thing she had intended them to do). Gwensi isn't the first or the last, but she's one of the best.
Plus, now I know where I've been going wrong with my seed potatoes for the last few years. So really, it's all good. Go for it!
I mean, To It. Go to it. Like the Chalet School. See what I did there?
June 6, 2020
Just as they thought they were settled in Guernsey, Joey, Madge and the Chalet School have to evacuate once more - and just in time they are offered a beautiful home on the border of Wales. A reluctant new girl and troublesome Middles are familiar problems for the Chalet School, and on top of that come Digging For Victory, blackout, and air raids. The Chalet girls go to it with a will - but will the school come out the other side?
Written in the middle of wartime, this book’s showing how familiar Chalet people and themes cope with new wartime restrictions and difficulties must have been comforting to its original schoolgirl readers. Hitler might have been marching over Europe, but the Chalet kept safe pupils from Norway to France. Britons might be suffering restrictions, but Joey Maynard was more than a match for any jobsworth interfering official. Bombs might be falling, but the Chalet School’s Peace League and spiritual ethos as gently but firmly expressed by Robin Humphries could offer consolation.
Looked back on today, these virtues can’t hide that this is perhaps the least engaging of the wartime books, with an episodic structure where each separate incident - Jo & co leaving Guernsey, Gwensi’s sulkiness about the school arriving, Elizabeth Arnett and Betty Wynne Davis first in league to cause trouble and then falling out - happens in its own block without much to connect them. EBD also seems to have completely lost track of people’s ages, with almost random girls from Tyrol cropping up in different forms.
This book seems curiously incomplete, perhaps reflecting the uncertain moment it was written, and some of its plot threads - the Linders family, Betty and Elizabeth’s story, and even the secrets of Gwensi’s family home - will run into the next book Highland Twins. But it does have Robin to the fore, Jo a nice combination of proud new mother and heart and soul a Chalet girl, and the joining up of the girls from a non-Chalet book which is one of my favourites, Monica Turns Up Trumps.
Written in the middle of wartime, this book’s showing how familiar Chalet people and themes cope with new wartime restrictions and difficulties must have been comforting to its original schoolgirl readers. Hitler might have been marching over Europe, but the Chalet kept safe pupils from Norway to France. Britons might be suffering restrictions, but Joey Maynard was more than a match for any jobsworth interfering official. Bombs might be falling, but the Chalet School’s Peace League and spiritual ethos as gently but firmly expressed by Robin Humphries could offer consolation.
Looked back on today, these virtues can’t hide that this is perhaps the least engaging of the wartime books, with an episodic structure where each separate incident - Jo & co leaving Guernsey, Gwensi’s sulkiness about the school arriving, Elizabeth Arnett and Betty Wynne Davis first in league to cause trouble and then falling out - happens in its own block without much to connect them. EBD also seems to have completely lost track of people’s ages, with almost random girls from Tyrol cropping up in different forms.
This book seems curiously incomplete, perhaps reflecting the uncertain moment it was written, and some of its plot threads - the Linders family, Betty and Elizabeth’s story, and even the secrets of Gwensi’s family home - will run into the next book Highland Twins. But it does have Robin to the fore, Jo a nice combination of proud new mother and heart and soul a Chalet girl, and the joining up of the girls from a non-Chalet book which is one of my favourites, Monica Turns Up Trumps.
March 23, 2020
The School moves (impressively quickly) from Guernsey to Wales in this book, and is soon happily ensconced in a village somewhere in the Welsh hills. This is a relatively trouble-free instalment of the series - three Thirds go off on an adventure and manage to avoid being captured by German spies (mostly because the German spies turn out to be Welsh poachers), and we witness the death of a friendship (I predict that it won't be dead for long) between two Fourths. Oh, and there's an air raid.
Despite the lack of near-death experiences, this is a very touching book. While it's not as affecting or as poignant as The Chalet School in Exile, it is liberally sprinkled with reminders that not all Germans are Nazis, and also that not all Luftwaffe pilots want to be Luftwaffe pilots. And that love will survive and triumph in the direst of circumstances - whether that love is between friends, families or lovers.
Despite the lack of near-death experiences, this is a very touching book. While it's not as affecting or as poignant as The Chalet School in Exile, it is liberally sprinkled with reminders that not all Germans are Nazis, and also that not all Luftwaffe pilots want to be Luftwaffe pilots. And that love will survive and triumph in the direst of circumstances - whether that love is between friends, families or lovers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2023
My favourite Chalet book title , it sums up the attitude on the HomeFront during World War Two in addition to encouraging those readers in the early years of the war how to behave
It is easy to be cynical about some of the episodes in the story and EBDisms but EBD does touch on some sensitive subjects with reminders of how many of the characters are refugees
Plus mention of their concern for friends left behind in Germany
With the gentle advice to Be Brave I think this book would have helped morale for the readers of this book during the early years of World War Two
It is easy to be cynical about some of the episodes in the story and EBDisms but EBD does touch on some sensitive subjects with reminders of how many of the characters are refugees
Plus mention of their concern for friends left behind in Germany
With the gentle advice to Be Brave I think this book would have helped morale for the readers of this book during the early years of World War Two
December 28, 2020
All the war stuff is a bit too exciting for me! Give me more botany lessons and schoolgirl scrapes (with no Nazi spies) please. It's nice to get some news of what happens to the school's "old girls" but I wish she'd focus more on the actual schoolkids again soon!
December 24, 2018
Placeholder
AB - GLH
AB - GLH
December 29, 2018
Love vs...
April 25, 2019
A wedding 😊
March 27, 2020
I've finally read this, 35 years or so after finishing The Chalet School in Exile (and happily reading a hardback, so knowing I'm not missing much). Much to enjoy and 'filling in the gaps'.
May 6, 2020
This is the one where EBD starts talking about "well". Just as people now are starting to talk about "so". Move to Wales.
February 21, 2015
It's hard to follow a classic book in a long-running series, and Elinor M. Brent-Dyer makes a good attempt at it with The Chalet School Goes To It. But, despite her still splendid eye for detail, history and adventure, this is a charming but episodic entry.
Real life doesn't usually impinge on school stories, but Brent-Dyer made the brave (and necessary) decision to remove her beloved boarding school from Austria, relocating it to Guernsey in The Chalet School In Exile. That was to prove problematic, as the Islands came under target in the war in short order. Thus, the move in this book to Plas Howell in Armiford, a fictionalised county in Wales.
The first third of the novel is a great deal of fun, as our favourite characters are compelled to escape the impending Nazi incursion in the dead of night. As Jo Maynard smuggles her infant daughters out of Guernsey by boat, Brent-Dyer's alarmingly prescient analysis of the politics of her time comes through very strongly, as does her great skill for writing an action-packed sequence.
The latter two-thirds of the book are comparatively less engaging, as Brent-Dyer dwells on new girls, new locations and new classes. The best moments come in a late-night sojourn in the basement during an air raid, as staff and students alike must come to terms with the new political reality.
But the rest is less consequential, including an introduction to the lonely Gwensi Howell, who comes as part of the package deal for the property now housing the School; and the deterioration of the unhealthy friendship between the reforming Elizabeth Arnett and firebrand Betty Wynne-Davies. It's not that the chapters aren't easy to read and full of familiar detail; they are, particularly as one of the school's first pupils, Simone Lecoutier, gets ready to marry at last. But these episodes just don't quite add up to a thrilling experience overall.
Real life doesn't usually impinge on school stories, but Brent-Dyer made the brave (and necessary) decision to remove her beloved boarding school from Austria, relocating it to Guernsey in The Chalet School In Exile. That was to prove problematic, as the Islands came under target in the war in short order. Thus, the move in this book to Plas Howell in Armiford, a fictionalised county in Wales.
The first third of the novel is a great deal of fun, as our favourite characters are compelled to escape the impending Nazi incursion in the dead of night. As Jo Maynard smuggles her infant daughters out of Guernsey by boat, Brent-Dyer's alarmingly prescient analysis of the politics of her time comes through very strongly, as does her great skill for writing an action-packed sequence.
The latter two-thirds of the book are comparatively less engaging, as Brent-Dyer dwells on new girls, new locations and new classes. The best moments come in a late-night sojourn in the basement during an air raid, as staff and students alike must come to terms with the new political reality.
But the rest is less consequential, including an introduction to the lonely Gwensi Howell, who comes as part of the package deal for the property now housing the School; and the deterioration of the unhealthy friendship between the reforming Elizabeth Arnett and firebrand Betty Wynne-Davies. It's not that the chapters aren't easy to read and full of familiar detail; they are, particularly as one of the school's first pupils, Simone Lecoutier, gets ready to marry at last. But these episodes just don't quite add up to a thrilling experience overall.
August 13, 2016
The Chalet School fled Austria, recently invaded by the Nazis, for Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Alas, they must leave this bucolic setting for a safer location when U-boats begin patrolling the waters around the island. But surprise! Joey, whom we are told is a bit under the weather, unexpectedly gives birth to triplets, all girls, though not identical. These winsome babies grow into later CS stalwarts Len, Con, and Margot. But first the school must leave Guernsey, so Jo pops her babies into a wicker basket and loads them on board a friend's yacht. This escape proves to be harrowing trip when the boat is nearly captured, and Joey and her babes are rescued by the British Navy. (Rule Britannia!)
Madge fortuitously finds a mansion in the fictitious county of Armishire whose owner is content to loan it to the school in exchange for educating his little sister, Gwensi.
This words out beautifully for everyone but Gwensi, who makes her dissatisfaction known. But, true to the Chalet School spirit, she is befriended by Chalet School veterans who largely ignore her unhappiness, and eventually she comes around. There is a pleasant although largely irrelevant episode at the end when Joey's old friend Simone, now a French teacher, has a wartime wedding with no notice. Joey and her domestic staff (that CS must be doing Really well!) are able to conjure up real wedding and a wedding dress way beyond Simone's humble expectations, and the irritating, jealous Simone of the first few books is redeemed forever! Plus, bonus surprise! Best friend Frieda Mensch, now Mrs. von Ahlen, turns up out of internment in time for the wedding.
Madge fortuitously finds a mansion in the fictitious county of Armishire whose owner is content to loan it to the school in exchange for educating his little sister, Gwensi.
This words out beautifully for everyone but Gwensi, who makes her dissatisfaction known. But, true to the Chalet School spirit, she is befriended by Chalet School veterans who largely ignore her unhappiness, and eventually she comes around. There is a pleasant although largely irrelevant episode at the end when Joey's old friend Simone, now a French teacher, has a wartime wedding with no notice. Joey and her domestic staff (that CS must be doing Really well!) are able to conjure up real wedding and a wedding dress way beyond Simone's humble expectations, and the irritating, jealous Simone of the first few books is redeemed forever! Plus, bonus surprise! Best friend Frieda Mensch, now Mrs. von Ahlen, turns up out of internment in time for the wedding.
January 24, 2022
Originally 'The Chalet School Goes To It', this was re-titled 'The Chalet School at War' by the Armada abridged series. I have a hardback version of the original. It follows 'The Chalet School in Exile'. War is becoming an everyday reality, and the school staff decide that it would be safest to move the school, yet again, from Guernsey to Armiford in the West of England. Out of the blue the perfect building is offered to them, along with Gwensi, a rather angry child who does not in the least want her lovely home taken over by noisy schoolgirls.
Not as moving or powerful as one or two of the other books written around this time, this is still a solid, mostly interesting account of everyday school life under often stressful conditions. It's a nice piece of low-key social history, too, observing blackouts and 'digging for victory' while, mostly, safe from the worst horrors of the war.
Latest full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
Not as moving or powerful as one or two of the other books written around this time, this is still a solid, mostly interesting account of everyday school life under often stressful conditions. It's a nice piece of low-key social history, too, observing blackouts and 'digging for victory' while, mostly, safe from the worst horrors of the war.
Latest full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
January 18, 2025
The Chalet School at is book 17 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 book 17 in the series. First reread of the Chalet School books since I went to Pertisau. I love this book. It’s exciting and interesting and although it’s lacking the pranks if earlier books it’s very satisfying. Escape from Guernsey and settling in to a new school with all the especial horrors of the bombings, while showing the stiff upper lip of we’ll get through this. Great story
May 20, 2009
Oops! The school moved away from Austria because not even a fictional school could remain there during WWII... and straight away found itself in another hotspot and had to move AGAIN! I love how real it all is. No skirting around the issue here and pretending things away!
One of my favourites because the cover is so pretty. Okay, and because it was a good story, but I do judge books by their covers and this one is just lovely!
One of my favourites because the cover is so pretty. Okay, and because it was a good story, but I do judge books by their covers and this one is just lovely!
February 17, 2010
The Chalet School has been relocated to Guernsey, but they are still affected by the war. The girls now have lessons in gardening, as everyone must do their bit to help out in the war.
Air raids, poachers, and a wedding at the end all contribute to this charming tale.
Air raids, poachers, and a wedding at the end all contribute to this charming tale.
November 22, 2014
A really exciting start with Jo moving to England. How do the Nazis always find her! I don't think any books will be as exciting as the previous chalet school in exile, but Brent-Dyer has certainly kept the gripping flow in her writing about the war.
July 29, 2011
This was not my favourite book of the series, and it took me a while to get into it. In fact, it lay mostly unread for several weeks! I finished reading it mostly so I could put it away!
November 11, 2012
Adding a proper review later. Reading Chambers unabridged hardback edition.
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