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The Chalet School #51
Jane and the Chalet School
Jane Carew has only ever been taught by a governess, so she is both nervous and excited about starting at the Chalet School. An instant success in the school play, having grown up with her father's travelling theatre company, she makes many friends, but also one enemy - Jack Lambert.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
135 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 3, 2016
So you read 'Reunion', and you think, EBD, just stop there. Fifty is a nice round number, we did all the coming-of-age stuff so we don't need the Silver Jubilee, so STOP NOW before the books become unreadable.
But EBD didn't, and it's just as well, because 'Jane' is a cracker. Jane is probably one of EBD's best new girls ever - she's a very lovable character and she jumps right off the page. And while Jack Lambert is downright unpleasant for quite a large chunk of the story, in her EBD has (and I say this with the voice of experience) brilliantly captured the moodiness and unreasonableness of the stroppy teenager phase. Even Len is rather more human than usual - she's still aggravatingly saint-like, but only in patches. And although there is a play (which is a bit mean - I expect to be bored at Christmas and at the pantomime, but the summer term offering is usually a feature tennis match or the sports), it's not a comedy, and it's not religious! Result! Although Ruey invites Daisy to the play and is then astonished to find her in the audience. She's not the brightest button in the box, that girl.
There are two sources of annoyance: Joey, for being able to put together 500 costumes at the drop of a hat, and the fact that EBD simply cannot resist using the 'girl gets bad news from home, is hugely upset, and then wakes up and it's all OK' formula for the umpteenth time. I was genuinely surprised when Jane's father didn't turn up at the Sale. Still, at least EBD remembered Margot is off to Australia for the summer. She managed not to forget that for three consecutive books, I'm almost impressed.
Oh, and Tom Gay excels herself with the dolls' house this year, by sending forty-five, not one of which (as far as I can make out) is remotely useful as a toy. No idea why so many people entered the competition - who on earth has room for forty-five dolls' houses? Even Freudesheim isn't big enough.
And there's smallpox about (again). I'm going to have to do some revision about the smallpox vaccine now because I would have thought that Janice Chester's illness was either a side effect, or evidence that she'd never actually been vaccinated (but neither should be the case because I'm pretty sure she was around the last time the school had to be vaccinated en masse). I notice we never hear of the doughball doctor again. I expect he turns up in some other series of stories about a Swiss hospital where the ambition of all the internes is to marry an ex-head girl of the local boarding school, and he's the sad embittered one in the corner.
Anyway ... I wouldn't actually advise this as an entry-level Chalet, but if it does happen to be somebody's first, they could do a lot worse.
But EBD didn't, and it's just as well, because 'Jane' is a cracker. Jane is probably one of EBD's best new girls ever - she's a very lovable character and she jumps right off the page. And while Jack Lambert is downright unpleasant for quite a large chunk of the story, in her EBD has (and I say this with the voice of experience) brilliantly captured the moodiness and unreasonableness of the stroppy teenager phase. Even Len is rather more human than usual - she's still aggravatingly saint-like, but only in patches. And although there is a play (which is a bit mean - I expect to be bored at Christmas and at the pantomime, but the summer term offering is usually a feature tennis match or the sports), it's not a comedy, and it's not religious! Result! Although Ruey invites Daisy to the play and is then astonished to find her in the audience. She's not the brightest button in the box, that girl.
There are two sources of annoyance: Joey, for being able to put together 500 costumes at the drop of a hat, and the fact that EBD simply cannot resist using the 'girl gets bad news from home, is hugely upset, and then wakes up and it's all OK' formula for the umpteenth time. I was genuinely surprised when Jane's father didn't turn up at the Sale. Still, at least EBD remembered Margot is off to Australia for the summer. She managed not to forget that for three consecutive books, I'm almost impressed.
Oh, and Tom Gay excels herself with the dolls' house this year, by sending forty-five, not one of which (as far as I can make out) is remotely useful as a toy. No idea why so many people entered the competition - who on earth has room for forty-five dolls' houses? Even Freudesheim isn't big enough.
And there's smallpox about (again). I'm going to have to do some revision about the smallpox vaccine now because I would have thought that Janice Chester's illness was either a side effect, or evidence that she'd never actually been vaccinated (but neither should be the case because I'm pretty sure she was around the last time the school had to be vaccinated en masse). I notice we never hear of the doughball doctor again. I expect he turns up in some other series of stories about a Swiss hospital where the ambition of all the internes is to marry an ex-head girl of the local boarding school, and he's the sad embittered one in the corner.
Anyway ... I wouldn't actually advise this as an entry-level Chalet, but if it does happen to be somebody's first, they could do a lot worse.
August 10, 2013
The later Chalet School books are, to be fair, somewhat poor. That is to say, they lack the vibrant quality and resolute 'otherness' that made the early ones so spectacularly unique and glorious in their genre. But every now and then Brent-Dyer turns out a book that makes you go, "Well, she's still got it."
Jane is that book. Jane of the Chalet School is one of those books that delights, quite simply, in every page. It delights in the traditional school story manner, new girl finding her feet, but it also delights in the traditional Chalet School manner as well through being quite spectacularly bonkers. One book sees cowpox, murderous pine trees, a stand up fight over car washing AND a Mafiosi-esque vendetta between one girl and another. It is, to be frank, somewhat special and special in that peculiarly Chalet School way where special means both good and spectacularly nuts.
I love this book. It's exciting, because it gives life to a character quite unique in the genre and the series. The luvvie-esque Jane is a delight; calling everybody darling and clasping her hands together and practically skipping down the corridors reciting a sonnet or two. I really love Jane. She's one of those characters that always makes me slightly depressed she didn't pop up earlier (can you imagine how she'd have been with Grizel?!)
And finally, the last part of this book that makes me joyful, is the fact that at last, at last Jose Helston is allowed a Proper Personality. HURRAH!
Jane is that book. Jane of the Chalet School is one of those books that delights, quite simply, in every page. It delights in the traditional school story manner, new girl finding her feet, but it also delights in the traditional Chalet School manner as well through being quite spectacularly bonkers. One book sees cowpox, murderous pine trees, a stand up fight over car washing AND a Mafiosi-esque vendetta between one girl and another. It is, to be frank, somewhat special and special in that peculiarly Chalet School way where special means both good and spectacularly nuts.
I love this book. It's exciting, because it gives life to a character quite unique in the genre and the series. The luvvie-esque Jane is a delight; calling everybody darling and clasping her hands together and practically skipping down the corridors reciting a sonnet or two. I really love Jane. She's one of those characters that always makes me slightly depressed she didn't pop up earlier (can you imagine how she'd have been with Grizel?!)
And finally, the last part of this book that makes me joyful, is the fact that at last, at last Jose Helston is allowed a Proper Personality. HURRAH!
July 12, 2015
I remember reading this soooooo long ago and loving it. I need to get it again man! Both Jane & Jack are two of my 'likables'
May 19, 2025
Jane Carew is the daughter of two famous English actors, so it’s not surprising that she calls everyone ‘darling’ and sees the world in superlatives. Just the kind of girl to irritate matter-of-fact Jack Lambert - and Jane has also displaced Jack in her dorm. Will the two girls ever be friends?
I think this is one of the best later Chalet books. While Jack’s behaviour - she is called out by her favourite senior Len for bullying and stops the verbal assaults but then explodes with physical rage at Jane - attracts passionate hatred from many readers, it cannot be denied that EBD has created an engrossing character-driven situation, as through no fault of her own Jane manages to keep pressing Jack’s buttons. As with Margot Maynard in previous books, EBD presents Jack as someone who has to learn the hard lesson of controlling her strong emotions and not literally letting fly. In this book it’s the older girls who prove most effective in helping Jack sort herself out - the staff seem pretty useless, not least in being the ones to create the situations that anyone with an ounce of common sense could have predicted more often than not. Meanwhile Jane, sparkling with charisma and positivity, is a great character, and it rings the changes on some of the sulky teens of preceding books to have someone who is bright and not a gloom-fest even in the face of Jack’s persistent behaviour. This is also one of the most coherent Chalet books as most of the incidents, including the play and the now-inevitable dramatic rescue on a routine walk, evolve naturally out of Jane or Jack’s character and relate to their relationship. I enjoy this book a lot and think it relates to all too typical teenage girl behaviour, which unfortunately is so often driven by the kind of ‘she thinks she’s all that’ negative thinking that drives Jack so powerfully here.
I think this is one of the best later Chalet books. While Jack’s behaviour - she is called out by her favourite senior Len for bullying and stops the verbal assaults but then explodes with physical rage at Jane - attracts passionate hatred from many readers, it cannot be denied that EBD has created an engrossing character-driven situation, as through no fault of her own Jane manages to keep pressing Jack’s buttons. As with Margot Maynard in previous books, EBD presents Jack as someone who has to learn the hard lesson of controlling her strong emotions and not literally letting fly. In this book it’s the older girls who prove most effective in helping Jack sort herself out - the staff seem pretty useless, not least in being the ones to create the situations that anyone with an ounce of common sense could have predicted more often than not. Meanwhile Jane, sparkling with charisma and positivity, is a great character, and it rings the changes on some of the sulky teens of preceding books to have someone who is bright and not a gloom-fest even in the face of Jack’s persistent behaviour. This is also one of the most coherent Chalet books as most of the incidents, including the play and the now-inevitable dramatic rescue on a routine walk, evolve naturally out of Jane or Jack’s character and relate to their relationship. I enjoy this book a lot and think it relates to all too typical teenage girl behaviour, which unfortunately is so often driven by the kind of ‘she thinks she’s all that’ negative thinking that drives Jack so powerfully here.
August 28, 2017
This is 51st in the original series, although my copy is a paperback one numbered 55. Happily, the later books in the series were not abridged when produced by Armada.
Jane has been educated by a governess before joining the Chalet School. Her parents are touring actors, so she’s travelled widely and is friendly to all. However, she makes an immediate enemy out of Jack Lambert. Jack is a likeable girl but she is hot tempered, and apparently holds grudges.
Most of the book is fairly standard Chalet School fare with moments of high drama. We get insights into Jack’s personality as well as that of Jane. Unlike some new girls Jane adapts easily to life at the school, despite her over-enthusiastic way of addressing everyone, adults and peers.
While some of the later Chalet School books are a bit ‘samey’, I liked this one very much and thought it covered new ground. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes the series, or who enjoys this kind of mid-20th century teenage school story.
Jane has been educated by a governess before joining the Chalet School. Her parents are touring actors, so she’s travelled widely and is friendly to all. However, she makes an immediate enemy out of Jack Lambert. Jack is a likeable girl but she is hot tempered, and apparently holds grudges.
Most of the book is fairly standard Chalet School fare with moments of high drama. We get insights into Jack’s personality as well as that of Jane. Unlike some new girls Jane adapts easily to life at the school, despite her over-enthusiastic way of addressing everyone, adults and peers.
While some of the later Chalet School books are a bit ‘samey’, I liked this one very much and thought it covered new ground. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes the series, or who enjoys this kind of mid-20th century teenage school story.
June 11, 2017
Jane is a new student from a theatrical background - and she is actually a vivid individual, bursting with character, which is a pleasant change from some of the paint-by-numbers new students in other books. Jane is funny and merry and determined to enjoy life at the Chalet School to the fullest - she is somewhat prevented from doing this by a truly vicious bullying campaign from Jack, including being physically attacked at one point (which is, of course, mostly treated as an understandable result of Jack's jealousy, rather than appalling behaviour). There's a play and then some drama which eventually makes Jack reconciled to Jane, of course. A pretty decent book given how close to the end of the series it is.
October 8, 2025
One of the first Chalet School books I read 50 years ago; the only episode I remembered was the rehearsal for the play.
Although yet another of the new girl at school struggling to fit in the clash between her and Jack Lambert was interesting.
Jack is a variation on Tom Gay , also described as more boy than girl .
Reading it now there appears to be a subconscious sexual attraction for Jane , as Jack struggles to understand her antagonism to Jane. In the scene where the ‘feud’ is resolved Jack kisses Jane clumsily on her ear ‘like a boy’!
I am fairly certain that EBD did not consciously wish to imply any physical or romantic feelings in Jack ( the Chalet School has always been against any ‘soppiness’ / schoolgirl crushes) but it definitely reads that way.
Although yet another of the new girl at school struggling to fit in the clash between her and Jack Lambert was interesting.
Jack is a variation on Tom Gay , also described as more boy than girl .
Reading it now there appears to be a subconscious sexual attraction for Jane , as Jack struggles to understand her antagonism to Jane. In the scene where the ‘feud’ is resolved Jack kisses Jane clumsily on her ear ‘like a boy’!
I am fairly certain that EBD did not consciously wish to imply any physical or romantic feelings in Jack ( the Chalet School has always been against any ‘soppiness’ / schoolgirl crushes) but it definitely reads that way.
October 31, 2019
I last read this over 30 years ago - and on my grand read through, I've been looking for the passage where Miss Annersley says the child must be told her parents are ill - so happy to have found it! I thought it was going to come in several earlier books!
March 15, 2017
A classic chalet school story. Very enjoyable. Great language as usual "well crisp me in a frying pan!".
February 28, 2014
This is one of the last of prolific author Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School books, and although the series declined overall, there are some bright spots in this entry. Jane is the daughter of famous actors, although she plays that down, and she has been rather casually home-schooled up to now, when she enters the Chalet School while her parents are on tour in Australia. Like stereotypical actors Jane is over-the-top effusive, which the reserved Chalet School girls don't understand very well. But she is bright, talented, and unspoiled, so why does Jack Lambert (whom we met in A Leader in the Chalet School) hate her so much? It all started with a dormitory room switch, which separates Jack from her pal and role model, Len Maynard (Jo's oldest). But the mistresses are baffled by Jack's unrelenting dislike of Jane, even Jack admits to herself she is being unreasonable. A life-threatening adventure brings things to a head (another reviewer referred to "murderous pine trees") and of course things turn out according to formula: the New Girl is finally accepted and even admired. Jane is an appealing new character, and sulky Jack is convincing. But Jo (who writes two books a year and is the matriarch of the school despite having a large home and eleven children to manage) is as usual disagreeably perfect.
January 9, 2026
Follows the now familiar pattern of: New Girl starts at the Chalet School having never been at school before, New Girl encounters problems, New Girl has Bad News from home or a near-death experience (or both), New Girl ends the term proclaiming that the Chalet School is the best school in the world. In this case the New Girl is the really delightful Jane Carew, and the problem she encounters is some, frankly shocking, bullying.
I do think EBD displays some double standards here. If the bullying had been perpetrated by a girl we are not supposed to think of as a Good Egg, she would probably have been expelled (I don't think the awful Thekla's behaviour, for instance, was particularly worse). Instead, as far as I can tell, the worst punishment she gets is a couple of gentle talking-tos, and an assurance from Miss Annersley that she won't be punished because she has already punished herself enough.
It's one of the better later books though. I actually find the bullying situation very convincing, and Jane really is a lovely character. It probably also contains the only mention of cowpox in the whole pantheon of children's literature. My inner medical geek is satisfied.
(Edit after 2026 re-read: OK, Thekla was worse. At least Jack didn’t try to get another girl expelled).
I do think EBD displays some double standards here. If the bullying had been perpetrated by a girl we are not supposed to think of as a Good Egg, she would probably have been expelled (I don't think the awful Thekla's behaviour, for instance, was particularly worse). Instead, as far as I can tell, the worst punishment she gets is a couple of gentle talking-tos, and an assurance from Miss Annersley that she won't be punished because she has already punished herself enough.
It's one of the better later books though. I actually find the bullying situation very convincing, and Jane really is a lovely character. It probably also contains the only mention of cowpox in the whole pantheon of children's literature. My inner medical geek is satisfied.
(Edit after 2026 re-read: OK, Thekla was worse. At least Jack didn’t try to get another girl expelled).
May 20, 2009
This is another that I can barely remember the plot of - most vividly, I remember going to the other library branch in Geelong (not the one on Little Malop street) to borrow it, because that was seriously the only place that had it and this was before I was a member of Port Philip library who don't charge for ILL (the others all did, at the time).
December 29, 2014
A late chalet book which focuses on a new pupil Jane and the young middle Jack.
I enjoyed this a lot. I enjoyed seeing Jack become a better person but suffer from everyday problems like jealousy and loss of mentor / trust.
I liked Jane but could have done with less "darlings" and think she could have been a bit more believable when getting upset over Jack.
I enjoyed this a lot. I enjoyed seeing Jack become a better person but suffer from everyday problems like jealousy and loss of mentor / trust.
I liked Jane but could have done with less "darlings" and think she could have been a bit more believable when getting upset over Jack.
July 2, 2012
Suffering from the same fate as all of the books towards the end of the series - that EBD's writing could no longer sustain her ideas - Jane is nevertheless a delightful characters who shines through despite Jack Lambert's horrific bullying.
April 10, 2016
Another in the popular series. this one includes a lovely character- Jane Carew and a total bully- Jack Lambert- who doesn't seem to be punished severely enough
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews