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The Chalet School #30
The Chalet School and Barbara
In this story 14-year-old Barbara Chester arrives at the Chalet School for the first time. The school gives the shy and cossetted child everything she has missed, including friends, new strength and confidence, as well as drama and danger.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
112 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 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 2, 2017
This is the point in the series where we have what we'd now refer to as a reboot. There are now two branches of the Chalet School, plus St Mildred's, plus the girls who act as companions to sick relatives and sort of pop in every now and then for a bit of algebra, and it is all very confusing. But then that's always been the way if you look at the detail of this series. The Chalet School is not one for precision, not consistency, nor parsing the timetable and wondering if a girl has her lesson with the lower or upper form does that mean that the entire school is studying the same subject at the time?
I'm digressing; this is charming. It's gentle, too, in that sort of delightfully comforting way these books can be. Nothing really much happens; people think about how much Beth Chester's turned into a fox and how sad she's not been snapped up, we have the phrase "the very latest thing in lifts" which is so unbearably delightful I can't bear it, and the equally joyful piece of ridiculousness that is "put forth a tiny rootlet". It is too, too delightful.
To return briefly to the point about Beth for a moment, it's important to remember that this book was first published in 1954 and that a whole generation of women would have still been coming to terms with their status in a new world. There's something oddly mournful here for me, and it centres, perhaps, on the way EBD clearly yearns for marriage for so many of her characters. Even Grizel gets married (and she's a right nightmare). I won't dwell on this topic any more here but will simply recommend Helen McClelland's outstanding biography: Behind the Chalet School: A Biography of Elinor M.Brent-Dyer. It's great, and sensitively done.
So! Charming, gentle, and oddly beautiful, this book's a joy. It's one of those Chalet Schools that revels in the detail and you don't really care, because you're discovering this new world at the same time that the girls are. I can imagine this obsessive detail about the pattern on the curtains (I'm still not 100% sure of what cretonne is), the order of morning baths, and Clem's weird 'stick a leg out of your curtain thing' might pall to new readers, but really if you're reading this then you're not new. You've been indoctrinated, and your life is all the better for it. These books are ridiculous. They are wonderful. They are everything.
I'm digressing; this is charming. It's gentle, too, in that sort of delightfully comforting way these books can be. Nothing really much happens; people think about how much Beth Chester's turned into a fox and how sad she's not been snapped up, we have the phrase "the very latest thing in lifts" which is so unbearably delightful I can't bear it, and the equally joyful piece of ridiculousness that is "put forth a tiny rootlet". It is too, too delightful.
To return briefly to the point about Beth for a moment, it's important to remember that this book was first published in 1954 and that a whole generation of women would have still been coming to terms with their status in a new world. There's something oddly mournful here for me, and it centres, perhaps, on the way EBD clearly yearns for marriage for so many of her characters. Even Grizel gets married (and she's a right nightmare). I won't dwell on this topic any more here but will simply recommend Helen McClelland's outstanding biography: Behind the Chalet School: A Biography of Elinor M.Brent-Dyer. It's great, and sensitively done.
So! Charming, gentle, and oddly beautiful, this book's a joy. It's one of those Chalet Schools that revels in the detail and you don't really care, because you're discovering this new world at the same time that the girls are. I can imagine this obsessive detail about the pattern on the curtains (I'm still not 100% sure of what cretonne is), the order of morning baths, and Clem's weird 'stick a leg out of your curtain thing' might pall to new readers, but really if you're reading this then you're not new. You've been indoctrinated, and your life is all the better for it. These books are ridiculous. They are wonderful. They are everything.
May 3, 2016
Huge affection for this Chalet, the first I ever read. They're all abroad! There are mountains and blizzards and magazines in French! And it was quite clear, on my first reading, that there were more stories about all these interesting people and places - I just needed to find them.
Of course, I had no idea what I had just got into. It was 25 years before I was able to read the whole lot in the correct order and even now I don't have a full hardback/GGBP collection.
Reading Barbara now, in its proper place in the series, it's still one of the strongest stories - the combination of new start, back in the Alps, and established characters, is a good one. Even Barbara isn't really a new character - she's changed a great deal from the whining toddler with the claw-like hands we met in the La Rochelle books (since then she has just been mentioned in passing as 'poor little Barbara') but she's one of the Ozanne/Chester/Lucy clan and they are all very old friends indeed. It would have been nice to have had more of 'Bill' - living just a little way down the mountain, and always one of EBD's strongest characters - but we get just the right amount of Joey, ie hardly any, as she's in quarantine for German measles for the first half of the book. And about half the scenes of what promised to be a particularly tedious Christmas play have been cut by the time it's performed - result!
Even the strongest Chalet school books aren't without their shortcomings, however, and there are several in Barbara (although to be fair, they aren't obvious to the casual reader, are really ones for die-hard Chalet fans, and in some cases may arise from the cuts made for paperback). Firstly, the new maths mistress. None of the oldest girls in the school was a pupil in Tirol - Julie Lucy has the longest pedigree here and she joined the Kindergarten in Guernsey at the very earliest, by which time Nancy Wilmot had moved on. So I can't see why anybody on the staff would think her arrival as Maths mistress would cause any sensation whatsoever with the girls. I'm not sure even loyal readers would have been that impressed - I was hugely disappointed when I subsequently read the later Tirol books and found that Nancy wasn't a particularly important character anyway.
Secondly, prep. We are told that all the forms below Upper IVB (which by my reckoning amounts to just the two Lower fourths at this point) will take folding desks into the hall, to be supervised by the duty prefect, and all the other forms will work unsupervised in their formrooms. Clearly at some point this is found to be unworkable because later in the term Julie Lucy turns up to supervise prep for Upper IVB (although, to be fair, it is at least her evening on prep duty) and nobody finds this very surprising.
Thirdly, languages. Why on earth is everybody so surprised about having different 'language' days, when they've been back in place for at least two years?
The trip to the Rosleinalp seems a bit pointless - a train journey, a brief peep at a village that consists of a hotel, six chalets and no shops, and then a walk down the mountain. But we get Basle (meeting up with Frieda again), Interlaken (with its expensive coffee) and Unterseen, and Berne (clock and bear-pit), so there's a reasonable quantity of tourism by proxy.
And is there no end to Rosalie Dene's talents? She's now playing the piano when the girls leave hall after the read-through of the play.
But it's a good one, all told. Lots of detail about what they wear, what they learn, what they do, and the reader really does share Barbara's experience of being plunged into a whole new world.
Updated May 2016: I've passed on my beloved (and battered) maroon paperback to the next generation (sniff) and upgraded to the GGBP edition. The only extra bit I noticed was the description of Frieda's new baby daughter - I know she's dark, and I know it was a long time ago, but using the n-word?!
I'm sure there are other bits that were cut for the Armada edition but none leapt out at me (although I have to confess I skipped the entire Christmas play). Worth the investment for the excellent introduction, and of course a copy that's not falling apart.
Of course, I had no idea what I had just got into. It was 25 years before I was able to read the whole lot in the correct order and even now I don't have a full hardback/GGBP collection.
Reading Barbara now, in its proper place in the series, it's still one of the strongest stories - the combination of new start, back in the Alps, and established characters, is a good one. Even Barbara isn't really a new character - she's changed a great deal from the whining toddler with the claw-like hands we met in the La Rochelle books (since then she has just been mentioned in passing as 'poor little Barbara') but she's one of the Ozanne/Chester/Lucy clan and they are all very old friends indeed. It would have been nice to have had more of 'Bill' - living just a little way down the mountain, and always one of EBD's strongest characters - but we get just the right amount of Joey, ie hardly any, as she's in quarantine for German measles for the first half of the book. And about half the scenes of what promised to be a particularly tedious Christmas play have been cut by the time it's performed - result!
Even the strongest Chalet school books aren't without their shortcomings, however, and there are several in Barbara (although to be fair, they aren't obvious to the casual reader, are really ones for die-hard Chalet fans, and in some cases may arise from the cuts made for paperback). Firstly, the new maths mistress. None of the oldest girls in the school was a pupil in Tirol - Julie Lucy has the longest pedigree here and she joined the Kindergarten in Guernsey at the very earliest, by which time Nancy Wilmot had moved on. So I can't see why anybody on the staff would think her arrival as Maths mistress would cause any sensation whatsoever with the girls. I'm not sure even loyal readers would have been that impressed - I was hugely disappointed when I subsequently read the later Tirol books and found that Nancy wasn't a particularly important character anyway.
Secondly, prep. We are told that all the forms below Upper IVB (which by my reckoning amounts to just the two Lower fourths at this point) will take folding desks into the hall, to be supervised by the duty prefect, and all the other forms will work unsupervised in their formrooms. Clearly at some point this is found to be unworkable because later in the term Julie Lucy turns up to supervise prep for Upper IVB (although, to be fair, it is at least her evening on prep duty) and nobody finds this very surprising.
Thirdly, languages. Why on earth is everybody so surprised about having different 'language' days, when they've been back in place for at least two years?
The trip to the Rosleinalp seems a bit pointless - a train journey, a brief peep at a village that consists of a hotel, six chalets and no shops, and then a walk down the mountain. But we get Basle (meeting up with Frieda again), Interlaken (with its expensive coffee) and Unterseen, and Berne (clock and bear-pit), so there's a reasonable quantity of tourism by proxy.
And is there no end to Rosalie Dene's talents? She's now playing the piano when the girls leave hall after the read-through of the play.
But it's a good one, all told. Lots of detail about what they wear, what they learn, what they do, and the reader really does share Barbara's experience of being plunged into a whole new world.
Updated May 2016: I've passed on my beloved (and battered) maroon paperback to the next generation (sniff) and upgraded to the GGBP edition. The only extra bit I noticed was the description of Frieda's new baby daughter - I know she's dark, and I know it was a long time ago, but using the n-word?!
I'm sure there are other bits that were cut for the Armada edition but none leapt out at me (although I have to confess I skipped the entire Christmas play). Worth the investment for the excellent introduction, and of course a copy that's not falling apart.
February 12, 2017
Whoops, I've fallen down the rabbit hole again.
This isn't really a four-star book. But it's a nostalgic reread, and it's ridiculous in a wonderfully charming way, and I just loved these so much as a teenager who was dying to learn languages and travel and have snazzy uniforms and many talents.
And here's our outsider, never been to school before, who comes in, makes friends, and has a great time. What's not to like?
It's odd to realize, this reread, that this book probably takes place in the late 40s. The world was about to change, in a really big way. It's also odd that so few people are scarred by the war. I went ahead (2 AM purchases, always a good move) and ordered The Chalet School at War and The Chalet School in Exile (and, uh, the next two books, plus one that had an interesting-sounding blurb) to see if the series at some point does discuss the war years well, which characters are involved, and how they do end up with new uniforms in England. (PRIORITIES.)
And all these years later, I'm fascinated by the idea of leaving an English branch in place when they move to Switzerland, and how it is that all the Gang manage to end up together there. (What IS going on in England, and who ARE their teachers?)
This isn't really a four-star book. But it's a nostalgic reread, and it's ridiculous in a wonderfully charming way, and I just loved these so much as a teenager who was dying to learn languages and travel and have snazzy uniforms and many talents.
And here's our outsider, never been to school before, who comes in, makes friends, and has a great time. What's not to like?
It's odd to realize, this reread, that this book probably takes place in the late 40s. The world was about to change, in a really big way. It's also odd that so few people are scarred by the war. I went ahead (2 AM purchases, always a good move) and ordered The Chalet School at War and The Chalet School in Exile (and, uh, the next two books, plus one that had an interesting-sounding blurb) to see if the series at some point does discuss the war years well, which characters are involved, and how they do end up with new uniforms in England. (PRIORITIES.)
And all these years later, I'm fascinated by the idea of leaving an English branch in place when they move to Switzerland, and how it is that all the Gang manage to end up together there. (What IS going on in England, and who ARE their teachers?)
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April 7, 2023I thought I was immune to and indeed enamoured with all sorts of Chalet School nonsense but apparently I do have my limit. The series does go rapidly downhill after the school moves to the Oberland but this is its first term there which should be fun! But no. New girl Barbara is entirely lacking in interest, gets in no trouble, causes no fights, does not run away from, or to, school. The book is entirely made up of long, tedious recitations of humdrum school life (we get treated to an entire, verbatim announcement of ten or fifteen names on a noticeboard; we also get an entire prefects' meeting where the prefects vote on committee positions and *that's all*), random history lessons (do you know why there are so many Swiss cantons? I do now) and people summarily dismissing anything anyone else says, which I'm told was the conversational style of the time but can't quite believe it. There's also a lot of very authoritarian, conformist stuff going on here that is very odd to the modern eye: the girls aren't allowed to bathe in hot water, only lukewarm; they must brush their hair a specific number of times; they can't get out of bed before 6.40am precisely (does no one get up to pee in the Oberland??). And the slang rule has got completely unhinged: the kids now can't say "sort of" and "foul" but can say "wizard" and "nifty".
ANYWAY. hard to believe this was the series that produced The Chalet School in Exile.
ANYWAY. hard to believe this was the series that produced The Chalet School in Exile.
February 20, 2016
I was reading this for my meeting with the local Chalet group and I admit I didn't actually get it finished until the day after the meeting. That's okay, I'd read it before and I could still follow the discussion. The general consensus, with which I agree, is that it's very much a comfort book, with lots of set up for the new location and just very pleasant to have read again.
February 1, 2017
I only ever read one Chalet School book, but I'm sure if I'd been given the opportunity I would have raced through the whole series with absolute relish. I must have read this one about a dozen times before I hit my teens.
July 1, 2018
I waited for decades to read Barbara, only to find that not a whole lot happens in it. As the story opens, 14-year-old Barbara Chester is being escorted to the Chalet School by her older sister Beth, a former Head Girl who is going to join Jo Maynard's household as a mother's help. It's number 30 in the series, but more usefully, the following will help situate it for loyal fans:
Where is the School located? This is the first term in Switzerland!
How many children does Jo have? Eight (I think) - there is mention of Felix and Felicity but not Cecil.
Where is Mary-Lou in her school career? She's a Senior Middle.
Barbara is one of those Delicate Girls whose poor health meant they couldn't go to boarding-school and have been babied at home instead. And I do mean babied: Matron has to show Barbara how to brush her hair. However, Barbara is likeable, determined to stand on her own two feet and enjoy her first term, which she does, with the exception of one incident which I won't spoil for you as there's little enough plot as it is. She gets adopted early on by Mary-Lou's friendship group, which helps, and of course she's a member of the Chester/Lucy/Ozanne extended family, yielding precedence only to the Russell/Bettany/Maynard clan, so it's not like she's some random new girl.
Delicious coffees drunk with "featherbeds of whipped cream" on top: 2. In fact plenty of Kaffee und Kuchen generally. 1 star for this.
Expeditions with impromptu history/geography lessons: They go to Unterseen, a suburb of Interlaken, and learn all about Swiss history. They go to Berne as well. Another star!
Chapter devoted to a Prefects' meeting: Sixth chapter, but it's not very interesting, mainly consisting of assigning responsibilities and sorting out a rota for supervising prep. It's not like there's a mysterious thief or someone sending anonymous letters (DEAREST MARY-LOU: YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL THAT, BUT DID YOU EVER STOP TO WONDER WHETHER ANYONE ACTUALLY LIKES YOU?) which mystery the prefects have to unravel and resolve totally unassisted by the staff. Alas.
Staff meeting chapter, with gossip and cigarette smoke hanging thick in the air: None. Shame. There is staff gossip sprinkled throughout.
English Tea at Freudesheim: THANK GOD NO. Well, there is, but it's offstage. Mercifully Joey is incapacitated for much for the book by quarantine, although she does burst onto the scene during a walk, screeching about how somebody has just had a baby. Jo's desperate attempt to stay relevant by announcing births before anyone else is rather pitiful, but we can discuss that another time.
Snowstorm/avalanche/river overflowing its banks/cliff rescue/plunge into lake: Yes! With the return to Central Europe, the weather once again becomes a major player in the series. There's even talk of food running out at the school if the snow lasts much longer, although disappointingly it comes to nothing. And Mary-Lou comes out with this gem while travelling on the rack-and-pinion railway:
But Miss O'Ryan says it's quite safe, nothing ever happens, and sure enough, nothing does.
Christmas Play described in endlessly tedious detail: Yup. I had to skim this chapter.
So all of this only adds up to 3 stars. But I had to add another, because, you guys, this is the school's first term in Switzerland! Barbara filled a major gap, explained how the school re-established its French and German days, and in its pages Biddy O'Ryan answered a question which had long troubled me:
So, Biddy gives her history lesson in French, because Monday is French day, and Heather therefore has to do the prep she sets in French, but the day Heather does her prep is Tuesday, which is German day, so if she needs help from the prefect supervising prep the prefect will have to explain the problems with Heather's French written work...in German?
The Chalet School is hard-core. I wish I could have spent just a couple of years there, my languages would have improved exponentially.
There's also this revelation, once again from Biddy O'Ryan, about how the triplets take after Jo:
OF COURSE. Why didn't I see this sooner?
I do slightly regret that I have a late-sixties paperback rather than the ominous raspberry-hued cover which tantalised me for years, but I unexpectedly came across this copy in very good condition for only £1, and you can't have everything. Four stars it is.
Where is the School located? This is the first term in Switzerland!
How many children does Jo have? Eight (I think) - there is mention of Felix and Felicity but not Cecil.
Where is Mary-Lou in her school career? She's a Senior Middle.
Barbara is one of those Delicate Girls whose poor health meant they couldn't go to boarding-school and have been babied at home instead. And I do mean babied: Matron has to show Barbara how to brush her hair. However, Barbara is likeable, determined to stand on her own two feet and enjoy her first term, which she does, with the exception of one incident which I won't spoil for you as there's little enough plot as it is. She gets adopted early on by Mary-Lou's friendship group, which helps, and of course she's a member of the Chester/Lucy/Ozanne extended family, yielding precedence only to the Russell/Bettany/Maynard clan, so it's not like she's some random new girl.
Delicious coffees drunk with "featherbeds of whipped cream" on top: 2. In fact plenty of Kaffee und Kuchen generally. 1 star for this.
Expeditions with impromptu history/geography lessons: They go to Unterseen, a suburb of Interlaken, and learn all about Swiss history. They go to Berne as well. Another star!
Chapter devoted to a Prefects' meeting: Sixth chapter, but it's not very interesting, mainly consisting of assigning responsibilities and sorting out a rota for supervising prep. It's not like there's a mysterious thief or someone sending anonymous letters (DEAREST MARY-LOU: YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL THAT, BUT DID YOU EVER STOP TO WONDER WHETHER ANYONE ACTUALLY LIKES YOU?) which mystery the prefects have to unravel and resolve totally unassisted by the staff. Alas.
Staff meeting chapter, with gossip and cigarette smoke hanging thick in the air: None. Shame. There is staff gossip sprinkled throughout.
English Tea at Freudesheim: THANK GOD NO. Well, there is, but it's offstage. Mercifully Joey is incapacitated for much for the book by quarantine, although she does burst onto the scene during a walk, screeching about how somebody has just had a baby. Jo's desperate attempt to stay relevant by announcing births before anyone else is rather pitiful, but we can discuss that another time.
Snowstorm/avalanche/river overflowing its banks/cliff rescue/plunge into lake: Yes! With the return to Central Europe, the weather once again becomes a major player in the series. There's even talk of food running out at the school if the snow lasts much longer, although disappointingly it comes to nothing. And Mary-Lou comes out with this gem while travelling on the rack-and-pinion railway:
At that point Mary-Lou, sitting behind with Verity-Anne and Vi crushed in beside her, was moved to wonder aloud what would happen if anything broke?
"Do you think we'd go on sliding down the rail; or would the whole contraption topple over and go rolling down?" she wanted to know.
But Miss O'Ryan says it's quite safe, nothing ever happens, and sure enough, nothing does.
Christmas Play described in endlessly tedious detail: Yup. I had to skim this chapter.
So all of this only adds up to 3 stars. But I had to add another, because, you guys, this is the school's first term in Switzerland! Barbara filled a major gap, explained how the school re-established its French and German days, and in its pages Biddy O'Ryan answered a question which had long troubled me:
"I am sorry, Heather, but lessons given in French must be answered in French."
So, Biddy gives her history lesson in French, because Monday is French day, and Heather therefore has to do the prep she sets in French, but the day Heather does her prep is Tuesday, which is German day, so if she needs help from the prefect supervising prep the prefect will have to explain the problems with Heather's French written work...in German?
The Chalet School is hard-core. I wish I could have spent just a couple of years there, my languages would have improved exponentially.
There's also this revelation, once again from Biddy O'Ryan, about how the triplets take after Jo:
"Con has her dreamy side and all her love of and feeling for history. Len has her protectiveness. When did Jo ever fail to rush to the help of anyone who seemed to need it? Len is just the same there. As for Margot, she has all her mother's love of mischief. They've split up her qualities among them; that's all."
OF COURSE. Why didn't I see this sooner?
I do slightly regret that I have a late-sixties paperback rather than the ominous raspberry-hued cover which tantalised me for years, but I unexpectedly came across this copy in very good condition for only £1, and you can't have everything. Four stars it is.
September 13, 2024
Barbara, who used to be an invalid, goes to the Chalet School in Switzerland when she is 14. There's not much plot, but a bit more human interest than many of the later books in the series. This is the first term of the school after moving to the Swiss Alps.
I re-read it after fourteen years, in hardcover form, and again ten years later. It's cliched, of course and caricatured, but I do like the people, who feel almost like old friends. I was a little disappointed that there's so little of Joey Maynard (who is quarantined for most of the book). However this volume comes immediately after 'Joey goes to the Oberland', which features Jo's family and nothing of the school.
It's an important book for fans of the series, introducing the new branch of the school, but not particularly good as a stand-alone or as introduction to the series.
Three and a half stars would be fairer.
Latest longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
I re-read it after fourteen years, in hardcover form, and again ten years later. It's cliched, of course and caricatured, but I do like the people, who feel almost like old friends. I was a little disappointed that there's so little of Joey Maynard (who is quarantined for most of the book). However this volume comes immediately after 'Joey goes to the Oberland', which features Jo's family and nothing of the school.
It's an important book for fans of the series, introducing the new branch of the school, but not particularly good as a stand-alone or as introduction to the series.
Three and a half stars would be fairer.
Latest longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
May 29, 2016
In 2008 I started a big read / re-read of the entire Chalet School series (well, the ones I could get my hands on). I got tired of it part way through, and the last one I read was The Wrong Chalet School (book 24 in a 58 book series - well, depending on how you're numbering them). I've realised these are the perfect easy comfort-food books for reading in the middle of the night while feeding a baby, so I picked up the series with this, book number 30 (using the Wikipedia series numbering).
This is the first book after the school (or the main branch of the school) moves to Switzerland and is full of lovely descriptions of the beauty of the alps and little Swiss villages. It's a typical new girl story - Barbara, a girl who has been at home with her mother for her whole life because of her delicate health is well enough to go to school, settles in well, overcomes some minor setbacks, marvels at the beauty of Switzerland and participates in the Christmas play. A very classic CS story.
This is the first book after the school (or the main branch of the school) moves to Switzerland and is full of lovely descriptions of the beauty of the alps and little Swiss villages. It's a typical new girl story - Barbara, a girl who has been at home with her mother for her whole life because of her delicate health is well enough to go to school, settles in well, overcomes some minor setbacks, marvels at the beauty of Switzerland and participates in the Christmas play. A very classic CS story.
April 5, 2010
Barbara Chester is finally able to go to the Chalet School! She's always wanted to go, especially since all her sisters have gone, but due to health reasons, was kept at home for a long time. Now, however, she's on the way there!
As she's not been to school before, there are lots of things that are strange to her. However, with the help of her cousin, Vi Lucy, and the rest of the Gang headed by Mary-Lou, she finds her feet in school at last.
As she's not been to school before, there are lots of things that are strange to her. However, with the help of her cousin, Vi Lucy, and the rest of the Gang headed by Mary-Lou, she finds her feet in school at last.
October 17, 2012
Definitely not one of EBD's best, and only of interest to fans of the entire series. Little action, and only a small amount of character development. But this is the book in which the Chalet School moves to Switzerland and if, like me, you love the place this book is worth it just for the descriptions of Interlaken, Unterseen, Lake Thun and Berne. It made me Swiss-homesick!
December 15, 2014
It feels so good to be back in Europe, even if it isn't the Tyrol. All the proper chalet stuff is there - the language days, European food, tourist trips, and dangerous escapades in the Alps!
I wish there had been a little more in the way of challenges perhaps for Barbara but all in all, quite an enjoyable chalet book.
I wish there had been a little more in the way of challenges perhaps for Barbara but all in all, quite an enjoyable chalet book.
May 20, 2009
Barbara, as in Nancy and Beth's little sister and Vi Lucy's cousin. Which means she is straight away "adopted" by Vi and Mary-Lou and thus jealousy ensues!
September 11, 2011
What a wizard book! (Quite why "wizard" is allowed, but "smashing" isn't is beyond me!). Really enjoyed it.
February 4, 2015
Love the description, which is both educational and fun of the excitement to be had from a fresh snowfall.
June 18, 2014
This was one of my favourites when I was a kid and now I still love it. It tells of the introduction of Barbara Chester to the Chalet school and all her adventures - making friends and enemies.
August 6, 2015
A new girl who's not a trouble maker is a rare thing! Barbara fits in well as the school moves back to the Alps.
July 20, 2017
A standard plot - finishing with the nativity play - but it's good to get back to Abroad.
July 24, 2019
I read the Armada version and I think it might have been savagely cut!
October 4, 2020
Nothing very much happens. But it happens very charmingly. Great escapism.
September 11, 2021
There were many highlights - but top prize has got to go to the staff party. I laughed aloud at the boat races.
April 5, 2023
Slightly less frenetic than the last few have been? Now I want to visit Berne
September 1, 2024
Had a break from my planned read of the entire series in order in May but as new school year due to start next week I thought this would be a good time to re read Barbara
Not only the start of school for Barbara ( due to illness and maternal anxiety she had been kept at home till she was 14) but also first term of the Chalet School in Switzerland
The plot is very thin and book is mainly concerned with setting the school back in the Alps , mainly seen through Barbara’s eyes but I have always enjoyed this book
I can see why Armada chose this as one of the first four books they published from the series as a good introduction to to Chalet series
Not only the start of school for Barbara ( due to illness and maternal anxiety she had been kept at home till she was 14) but also first term of the Chalet School in Switzerland
The plot is very thin and book is mainly concerned with setting the school back in the Alps , mainly seen through Barbara’s eyes but I have always enjoyed this book
I can see why Armada chose this as one of the first four books they published from the series as a good introduction to to Chalet series
March 15, 2024
Nostalgic I remember this book fondly- but in reading it today I am not as keen.
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