Summer Term at the Chalet School

The Chalet School #54

by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Summer Term at the Chalet School

Genres: School Stories, Childrens, Fiction, Boarding School, School

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

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 5 out of 5]

This a five star Chalet, because it's so awful, it's hilarious. When Armada were reprinting the final books in paperback, they left this one out, presumably because they found it embarrassing. That's how bad this book is.

It gets off to a swinging start, with a young girl recognising a passer-by in Oxford Street, London, as her Aunt Joey - a person she has only seen in 20 year old photographs. This unlikely beginning is followed by a lame 'new-girl' story, punctuated by events that prove that, if nothing else, EBD's imagination was still in full working order. A train crash, a thunderbolt, a landslide, a swarm of bees (if you look at the paperback cover, and think about it for, say, two seconds, you will be able to work out the entire 'new-girl' plot), another landslide (this time with a dramatic rescue) ... there's also a Big Event, which takes everybody by surprise, even the really good mathemeticians who were at the school four years ago when it celebrated 21 years of the Chalet School. The Big Event then completely fades into the background - there is supposed to be a grand 'first-spading' of the associated new development, but (perhaps because of editing) it never happens.

This is a truly dreadful book - there's no structure or logic to it, and even by Chalet-land standards it has very little grip on reality. Almost all the characters are annoying (Joey interrupts Miss Annersley in the middle of teaching, just to tell her that she's going to tell her something later on - seriously, she needs a slap), and almost all the events are silly. But if you love the Chalet School (and who would have ploughed through the previous 50 or so books if they didn't?), it is very, very funny. And you won't ever buy a sweet-pea fragranced perfume after reading it.

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I need to tell you about somebody I met twenty years ago. I was eleven, but that's not a problem. I think she'd be the perfect guardian for my child-that-I-have-for-the-purposes-of-making-this-point and so I think I'm going to put it in my will that she'll look after my child-that-I-have-for-the-purposes-of-making-this-point. I think that sounds like an excellent plan.

Oh heavens, what a ridiculous plan, and yet at this point in the series I accept it for what it is and how perfect it is in the special, special Chalet World we are all privileged to be a part of.

We all know that by this point, the series was tired. And it is, it is so tired, but it's sort of spectacular in the same breath. Train accidents. Bee swarming shenanigans. Broken feet. Pit-crater thingies. Basically Erica's been sent to school in some sort of prototype of the Hunger Games, and if she survives her first term then hey, ho, here's your graduation certificate, girl done good.

There are some lovely moments even amidst all of the madness, and even though I really shouldn't, I have a soft spot for Joey and Jack in this series. Jack more than Joey, I think, simply for his genuine good chap-ness during the whole Marie-Claire plot.

(And oh, how I love that whole Marie-Claire plot, even though I really shouldn't).

Essentially I have a lot of love for this book. Even though it alternates between torturous and fantastical and viciously hammy, I love it. Even though I really shouldn't.

Now where's my will?

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lighthearted read I needed this morning . The familiarity of characters I loved for long time gives me comfort on a tired day.

[Christine Brealey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one. It had more of the feel of some of the earlier books.

[Margaret Conmey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear , I think this must be the weakest book in the series ( although I have still the last 3 books in the series to read so it is possible that I might have to give a Chalet School book One Star , but I hope not).
A very odd book but an even greater share of improbabilities and accidents than usual.
The ‘Silver Jubilee’ to celebrate 25 years of the Chalet School was a very damp squib in more ways than one; comparing this with the celebrations for theComing of Age of the Chalet School demonstrates how tired EBD is by this stage.
I know that EBD had a number of heart attacks in the last few years of her life and I wondered if she had been ill around the time she was writing this book - it doesn’t even make it to the end of term!
However , Onwards and Upwards to the next book in the series.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erica Jane bumps into Joey Maynard in an unlikely coincidence, but her story is a very moving one. She joins the Chalet School after a hair-raising incident, and proves to be the kind of person who attracts accidents. Not all are her fault at all.

Some of the book is run-of-the-mill but others lift it a little above the average. I always enjoy re-reading these books, and meeting again the characters who keep going throughout, but I rather liked (and felt sorry for) Erica Jane too.

54th in the original series, so not a good one as an introduction, but worth reading as part of the series. The Armada version, which I have, was not abridged. Three-and-a-half stars would be fairer.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one where EBD sets out to prove Grizel Cochrane’s coquettish statement that if you walk down Oxford Street you’re bound to meet someone you know.

I mean…it was fine. There wasn’t much story, just multiple unrelated accounts of Middles being Middles and a couple of natural disasters to ring the changes. And it feels as though there’s a chapter missing at the end. But it was fine.

Actually, do you know what? There were glimmers when this book was far more than just fine. Turns of phrase, or little episodes, or snippets of conversation which reminded me of EBD in her prime. It just wasn’t ever sustained. They were just glimmers.

[Tria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unabridged hardback Chambers edition, obtained via Bolton Central Library. Not the best of the series when thinking about realism, but I rather like Erica and la petite Marie-Claire, all the same. May give more of a review when I've had a second read-through; I have the book til Dec 22nd. 3.5 stars, for now at least.

[Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one I don't remember ever reading before!

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can tell this is one of EBD's later efforts by the increasingly fantastical dramas occurring in the story. Well past her best by this book.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always felt like this book was “cram as many happenings as possible into it....before end of series so readers don’t get bored!”
It’s also clearly a ‘series’ book!
If you read this as a stand alone you would wonder what was going on! As a series book, it’s more adventure full than most of the Chalet books, but we just want to read more about our favourite characters even if some of it is hard to believe!!
Joey and Erica just go from one adventure to another, train crash, rescue an orphan and adopt her, a swarm of bees, a fireball and yet another rescue from a pit or cliff by doctors!!

Personally I think EBD decided the Quads Joey threatens in last few books were just a stretch too far....so having given her 11 children, she decides to round it off by adopting various children as wards etc in last few books of series....as that’s more believable than Quads on top of Triplets and Twins twice!!

[Carolynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erika has numerous misadventures including: a train wreck, twisting her ankle during a hike, falling down the stairs, and falling into a pit (didn't we see that plot angle in _Shocks for the Chalet School_?).
And the poor girl just lost her mother. Will Erika survive her first term at the Chalet School? I prefer Chalet School stories that rely more for their conflict on the interaction of differing personalities, on the adjustment of new girls to the old girls and the old girls to the new girl, rather than the more contrived problems of misadventures and disasters. But it's fun for Chalet School fans.

[Harriet · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all the later Chalet School books they begin to feel overly formulaic & have a lack of character development which I enjoyed in the earlier books. Each book focusses on a new girl & misses the joy of knowing a group of friends in the series.
However, I enjoyed the book as I have all the others. Another one tickes off my list.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first CS book I ever read (and enjoyed!). :) [See [book:The Princess of the Chalet School|1175329] ;)]

[Sarah A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit far reaching in every way but a very enjoyable read and traditional to Chalet school values with all the drama of the last few books!