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The Chalet School #33
A Chalet Girl from Kenya
Jo Scott has been sent to the Chalet School because it is too dangerous for her to stay in Kenya. The excitement of making new friends and preparing for the spectacular Flower Show are cut short by the news that Jo's parents have mysteriously disappeared from their farm.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
6 people are currently reading
120 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 1, 2018
A decent later novel. It’s got some low points, but it’s not as dreary as the even-later books.
The low points are unimpressive, though. Page 9, discussing Maisie Gomme:
Then there’s the seesawing “It’s not time to tell Jo (Scott) yet! Now it is time! Now, not 24 hours later, we have a good update!” I don’t quite follow that decision making, you two. (And of course Jo collapses, because women in the 50s, right?)
That there are two Jos - that Maisie names her only daughter after someone she doesn’t even know - that Joey promptly decides to adopt Jo Scott as a goddaughter - it’s the most Brent-Dyer thing ever written, I think. And of course she becomes friends with Josette. TOO MANY J-NAMES, ELINOR. And no, it doesn’t help that your characters have acknowledged that in the past.
The low points are unimpressive, though. Page 9, discussing Maisie Gomme:
“She was so pretty - yards of light brown hair that crinkled all over her head and down her back; big blue eyes and a complexion as lovely as Frieda’s used to be.”As Frieda’s - used to be? WHAT DID FRIEDA EVER DO TO DESERVE THAT SNIDE COMMENT, JO? I read that twice because I couldn’t believe my eyes. I still can’t believe it. Frieda isn’t even in this book!
Then there’s the seesawing “It’s not time to tell Jo (Scott) yet! Now it is time! Now, not 24 hours later, we have a good update!” I don’t quite follow that decision making, you two. (And of course Jo collapses, because women in the 50s, right?)
That there are two Jos - that Maisie names her only daughter after someone she doesn’t even know - that Joey promptly decides to adopt Jo Scott as a goddaughter - it’s the most Brent-Dyer thing ever written, I think. And of course she becomes friends with Josette. TOO MANY J-NAMES, ELINOR. And no, it doesn’t help that your characters have acknowledged that in the past.
December 18, 2023
All 'average' chalet school books get 4 stars from me - because they bring me pleasure no matter what. This was the usual new girl comes to Chalet School story. Unlike some new girls though Jo Scott is made for Chalet School, strikes up a friendship with one of the girls from the Bettany/Russell/Maynard family (no less!), becomes an unofficial goddaughter of Joey and gets Mary-Lou's (and the school's) stamp of approval by doing a heroic act. Not many hair raising adventures save for one and there's the usual event (flower show). All in all pretty sedate. Though Jo Scott's parents' fate in Kenya adds drama. Quite the average book in fact.
April 21, 2022
I am enjoying re-visiting this series from childhood when a foreign boarding school series was glamorous. This is 33 in the series and possibly a poor place to 'start' re-visiting the original Elinor Brent Dyer books. Jo Scott is the child of original pupil Joey Bettany's (now Maynard) 'friend' from Tyrol days, Maisie Gomm, now married and stationed in Kenya. This book tells of the adventures of her first term at the Chalet School, now in Switzerland, culminating in the unlikely rescue of a pupil in an even more unlikely fall over the edge of a mountain while out gathering moss for the end of term flower show. The girlish conversation is horribly dated and, two books in, the clean healthy fun is rather tempered by a somewhat ghoulish view of women's (in particular) fragile health and need to be coddled. They also drink surprising amounts of coffee at night! Given the the eponymous heroine is only 'from' Kenya in the sense that her parents are stationed there, her casually racist rendition of a traditional African song when auditioning for the end of term show is perhaps unsurprising.
December 10, 2021
It begins with a wild tribute to Joey (someone who didn't even go to school with her remembers Joey's school days so fondly she names her daughter after her), but settles down. Jo Scott is a likeable and sensible new girl (who is "from Kenya" in the sense that her English parents moved there to run a coffee farm) who instantly assimilates into the school, and a typical Chalet term (mild hijinks and life-threatening drama) ensues.
Features: the inconsistent anti-slang rule ("awfully" is out, but they can say "browned off"), a flower show, and surely the most spectacular falling-off-a-mountain sequence in the whole series (while on a moss-collecting expedition, Emerence Hope pitches off a mountain head first, Jo Scott catches her by her ankle, Miss Dene throws a lasso round her shoulders to drag her back up). Also: (a tiny bit) more Madge than most of the later books, which is a good thing.
Features: the inconsistent anti-slang rule ("awfully" is out, but they can say "browned off"), a flower show, and surely the most spectacular falling-off-a-mountain sequence in the whole series (while on a moss-collecting expedition, Emerence Hope pitches off a mountain head first, Jo Scott catches her by her ankle, Miss Dene throws a lasso round her shoulders to drag her back up). Also: (a tiny bit) more Madge than most of the later books, which is a good thing.
September 4, 2024
Average, ‘OK’ book in the series
Reading the books close together ( I also read Barbara and Does it Again in past week) shows up the weaknesses at this stage of the series
Storyline about a new girl in each of the last 3 books starts to become repetitive, but after a break for other books I will resume my reading of the other books in the series as I enjoy the Chalet School world, even when it is being ridiculous
Reading the books close together ( I also read Barbara and Does it Again in past week) shows up the weaknesses at this stage of the series
Storyline about a new girl in each of the last 3 books starts to become repetitive, but after a break for other books I will resume my reading of the other books in the series as I enjoy the Chalet School world, even when it is being ridiculous
December 3, 2021
Joey Maynard is surprised to receive a letter from Maisie Gomme, now Maisie Scott, one of the "Saints," informing her that she had named her daughter Josephine Mary after her, and that fourteen-year-old Jo Scott was now being sent to the Chalet School. Jo's experiences during her first term at the school are extremely interesting, and sometimes quite moving.
August 2, 2019
I've been looking for the incidents described in this for ages - I must have lost my Armada edition when I left Cyprus!
February 9, 2021
On form story with some good peril and a great end of term flower show
December 31, 2021
I really liked this one. Lots of focus on school life which I enjoy.
July 18, 2024
EBD never disappoints. Every successive book I read brings home the author`s talent for making each girl`s voice unique and memorable.
October 22, 2025
I haven’t read this one very often, and now I remember why.
December 3, 2024
Jo Scott, unofficial goddaughter to Jo Maynard, arrives at the Chalet School while her parents are abroad. Better than average, this is a moving book in a few places, with some surprises.
A lot of day-to-day school descriptions makes this book feel a bit samey if you read too many in a row, but I prefer to space them out. This is part of the sequence set in the Swiss Oberland, in the mid 1950s. Jo Scott manages to be a very likeable girl despite having no remarkable abilities. She's kind, sensible and courageous.
Nothing special about the book, and probably not a good one to start with. But I would recommend it in a low-key way to anyone who enjoys the series in general, if you can find it at a reasonable price.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
A lot of day-to-day school descriptions makes this book feel a bit samey if you read too many in a row, but I prefer to space them out. This is part of the sequence set in the Swiss Oberland, in the mid 1950s. Jo Scott manages to be a very likeable girl despite having no remarkable abilities. She's kind, sensible and courageous.
Nothing special about the book, and probably not a good one to start with. But I would recommend it in a low-key way to anyone who enjoys the series in general, if you can find it at a reasonable price.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
Read
January 30, 2013One of the more interesting of the series. Jo Scott is a good character, well-drawn and not too "Mary Sue"-ish, despite the award she gets.
Of course, as is bound to be the case with any CS book with a white girl who has spent most of her life living in a country that doesn't have a white majority (in this case Kenya, as per the title), there is a good deal of cultural appropriation that takes place - though markedly less racism than in most books of its kind. If you can grit your teeth through that and some of the religious content, you may enjoy the book - there're just a couple of places I actively cringed, both of which are relatively near the end of the book.
Of course, as is bound to be the case with any CS book with a white girl who has spent most of her life living in a country that doesn't have a white majority (in this case Kenya, as per the title), there is a good deal of cultural appropriation that takes place - though markedly less racism than in most books of its kind. If you can grit your teeth through that and some of the religious content, you may enjoy the book - there're just a couple of places I actively cringed, both of which are relatively near the end of the book.
October 25, 2009
Not a favourite, though it could definitely do with a re-read.
Jo Scott from Kenya and Gay Lambert from China were just so British! The titles make them sound so foreign but then they're barely any different to the others - a few minor things of note when growing up, but otherwise they're as British as the next girl.
Jo Scott from Kenya and Gay Lambert from China were just so British! The titles make them sound so foreign but then they're barely any different to the others - a few minor things of note when growing up, but otherwise they're as British as the next girl.
June 18, 2014
I didn't get the chance to read this book as a child but my parents found it for my adult collection. This is a great book and I love Jo Scott who is in many ways one of the most realistic people in the books. She makes mistakes, she gets into trouble, she makes friends and doesn't like some people - and then she is a hero.
March 2, 2023
It's all going to go downhill from here - Jack has had a gate cut in the boundary between the School and Freudesheim. Bit of a run of the mill Chalet.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews