Chalet School Fête

The Chalet School - Armada #39

by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Nina Rutherford has come to the Chalet School following the death of her father. She is a talented musician, bordering on genius, and it takes her some time to become accustomed to school life. However, midway through her first term at the Chalet School, she is beginning to learn to consider the needs of other people.

Nina's closest relatives are her cousins, the Rutherfords, and when news comes from home that Sir Guy and Lady Rutherford's eldest daughter, Alix, is seriously ill, Mary-Lou helps Nina to suggest that Alix should recover at the Gornetz Platz Sanatorium.

Then a chance meeting on a trip to Lac Leman with a very Old Girl from the Tirol reveals that Nina is not as alone in the world as she thought she was.

Genres: Childrens, School Stories, Fiction, Boarding School

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Elinor 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.

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this one so long that all the pages are loose, which makes it quite difficult to read, and does suggest I've read it many times (reading it now, I'm not sure why - possibly because I had so few to choose from). For many years, I had 'Fete', but not 'Genius', the first half of the story, so I'm not used to reading it in context (in my Chalet-verse it came straight after 'Mary-Lou' in its own right).

Anyway, it's not EBD's best. They go on an expedition, Biddy loses her hat, Joey has a baby, Nina discovers she has more relations, her existing ones arrive in Switzerland, Francie gets into trouble, and there's the annual Sale (Fete? Who came up with Fete?). There's not a lot of plot or character going on here. A few old friends turn up at the Sale to cheer up the committed reader but there are some silly loose ends (like, who exactly has Beth Chester got engaged to, and shouldn't there be some sort of romance going on by now between Biddy and Dr Courvoisier?)

Still ... at least Joey spends almost the entire book in bed.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this!!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good advert for Switzerland. And any book with a Tom Gay doll's house in is worth reading!

[Celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second part of Nina's story at the Chalet School - in this half, she does learn to be a bit more thoughtful of other people, and there's a big build up to an epic fete.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Chalet School Fete’ is the second part of the original book entitled ‘A Genius at the Chalet School’, so if you have either the hardback version, or the 2007 ‘Girls Gone By’ edition, then you won’t need this slim addition.

As a stand-alone book this is rather unsubstantial; the book continues the story of Nina, the 'genius' pianist of the title of the first part. There's a crisis in the early chapter of this which involves Nina’s cousin, but that’s never really resolved. Nina herself has already become friendly and likeable, and for the school it’s a fairly ordinary term leading up to another summer fete, which is described, as usual, in rather too much detail.

Still, it’s not really fair to judge this little book on its own merits as it needs to be read as part of the full story, and as such it works reasonably well. It's not one of the best in the series, and could be missed out when reading through them all. But it’s a pleasant enough story to while away an hour or two, even though it wouldn't make much sense unless read directly after the first part of the original book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sequel to the previous book in this series (A Genius at the Chalet School). Nina Rutherford is much happier in school now, and at a school outing, discovers that she has more relatives that she never knew of before.

The school is also busy preparing for their annual sale, which is one of the highlights of the term.

[Donna Boultwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see others have reviewed in similar vain, saying that this book and A Genius at the Chalet School should be one book. Usual story of a girl losing her parents and being sent off to the school by the guardian. Fun at the sale followed by girl loving the school! Not my favourite but always an insight into another time.

[Carolynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was originally the second half of _Genius at the Chalet School_, the story of piano prodigy Nina. Neither book stands very well on its own.

[Boneist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have been so much better if it hadn't been split from the previous book. Still enjoyable, though.

[Tria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, the abridgement negatively affects the story, as in Genius Cecil is mentioned as being 3 months old but is actually born in this "second half"!

[Bryan]

Michel Foucault