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Chalet School - Complete
The Bettanys on The Home Front
1914, and the Bettany family—fourteen-year-old twins Madge and Dick and their little sister Joey—are enjoying a seaside holiday with their guardian. But the news is disturbing and their happy time is cut short by the announcement that war has been declared.
Back home in Taverton, Madge is faced with a rapidly changing world. With Guardian away on war business and Aunt Josie preoccupied with her own family, it falls to Madge to hold the household together without neglecting the all-important world of school and the challenge of a new form which seems to have no place for her. But what is Nanny’s mysterious secret, and is she a proper person to care for Joey?
Back home in Taverton, Madge is faced with a rapidly changing world. With Guardian away on war business and Aunt Josie preoccupied with her own family, it falls to Madge to hold the household together without neglecting the all-important world of school and the challenge of a new form which seems to have no place for her. But what is Nanny’s mysterious secret, and is she a proper person to care for Joey?
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Published November 24, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 30, 2016
Oh this is brilliant, truly flawless and utterly absorbing. If you have yet to dip your toe into the world of CS prequels, don't deprive yourself a moment longer. Come and meet 14 year old Madge Bettany and her family... and there will be tears, and also laughter, along the way.
December 18, 2015
This is my first reading of a “new” Chalet school book, and it’s a great place to start for anyone who loved Chalet School novels as a child (though I’ll have to read Helen Barber’s earlier books soon as well!). Home Front is a pleasing novel for lovers of Downton Abbey too, as it takes place at the start of World War I and convincingly depicting English village life, from landlord to teacher to tradesman to orphaned child.
Future founder of a famous (Chalet) school, Madge Bettany is introduced as a teenage schoolgirl, living with twin brother Dick, their guardian, a nanny, a housekeeper, and of course, a baby sister, Joey of Chalet School fame. The late-summer setting quickly becomes real—part of a world now gone and society in flux, just as evocative as Eleanor Brent-Dyer’s novels set between the wars and later. The people, just as in the earlier author’s books, are pleasingly kind in a world that’s sometimes cruel. Generosity brings rewards. Money brings responsibility. Folly brings punishment which brings its own rewards. And wisdom wins through. Meanwhile World War I is just beginning, and real families suffer real losses, then band together for comfort.
My mother read Chalet School books as a child. Then I read them as a child. And now my mother eagerly collects each new book as it comes out. Helen Barber has certainly caught the flavor of Eleanor Brent-Dyer’s writing, the ethos of gentle faith and wisdom, and the family-friendly feel of school-girl antics. After reading this book I’m hooked and will look forward to raiding Mum's bookshelves on my next visit.
Disclosure: My mother gave me this book.
Future founder of a famous (Chalet) school, Madge Bettany is introduced as a teenage schoolgirl, living with twin brother Dick, their guardian, a nanny, a housekeeper, and of course, a baby sister, Joey of Chalet School fame. The late-summer setting quickly becomes real—part of a world now gone and society in flux, just as evocative as Eleanor Brent-Dyer’s novels set between the wars and later. The people, just as in the earlier author’s books, are pleasingly kind in a world that’s sometimes cruel. Generosity brings rewards. Money brings responsibility. Folly brings punishment which brings its own rewards. And wisdom wins through. Meanwhile World War I is just beginning, and real families suffer real losses, then band together for comfort.
My mother read Chalet School books as a child. Then I read them as a child. And now my mother eagerly collects each new book as it comes out. Helen Barber has certainly caught the flavor of Eleanor Brent-Dyer’s writing, the ethos of gentle faith and wisdom, and the family-friendly feel of school-girl antics. After reading this book I’m hooked and will look forward to raiding Mum's bookshelves on my next visit.
Disclosure: My mother gave me this book.
January 31, 2016
I quite enjoyed this. The style felt very EBD-esque and the Madge-at-School plot worked well. The trouble with all these books is that it's hard to come up with interesting plots that aren't so exciting/important that they wouldn't have been mentioned later in the series and thus mucking up the continuity/illusion that it might be part of the series. And this does suffer from this slightly - as not a lot really happens. But it does have some nice detail about the Great War on the Home Front and it's a nice way to spend a few hours.
January 9, 2026
This Chalet School “fill-in” novel by Helen Barber is the very first chronologically in the series. In the story, Barber gives a vivid picture of life for Madge Bettany (Joey’s sister, and the first Headmistress of the Chalet School) during her school days, and set during WWI from 1914-1915. Madge and her twin brother Dick are in high school (just 15), and Joey is a toddler. Chronologically it is set before Barber’s other early fill-in novel, “The Bettanys of Taverton High”. The depiction of early wartime England is brilliantly done, with plenty of exciting and sobering events. This is a don’t miss CS addition.
Storyline:
Madge and Dick are thrust into the new world that is WWI England, both making the best of it. There are plenty of school antics, and even Madge gets caught up in naughtiness. There are short rations, refugees, wounded and killed soldiers, all of which affect the girls at the high school and the people in the town. Domestic strife characterizes the Bettany household, and a spy subplot weaves its way carefully through the story, leading readers to question the loyalty of one of the domestics. Rioting in the town affects Madge and her friends but eventually leads to resolution of a problem between Madge and her friends. Madge is learning to grow up, and as punishment for misdeeds has to organize a comedic tennis tournament, which all turns out well.
Storyline:
Madge and Dick are thrust into the new world that is WWI England, both making the best of it. There are plenty of school antics, and even Madge gets caught up in naughtiness. There are short rations, refugees, wounded and killed soldiers, all of which affect the girls at the high school and the people in the town. Domestic strife characterizes the Bettany household, and a spy subplot weaves its way carefully through the story, leading readers to question the loyalty of one of the domestics. Rioting in the town affects Madge and her friends but eventually leads to resolution of a problem between Madge and her friends. Madge is learning to grow up, and as punishment for misdeeds has to organize a comedic tennis tournament, which all turns out well.
January 26, 2023
This was a good background story to Madge, Dick and Joey Bettany.
I liked that we saw Madge as a school girl. She aslo has the added responsiblity of running the house with the help of Sarah and Nanny, as well as helping look after her baby sister Joey.
This book is set at the beginning of World War 1, we get information about what life was like in this time period, not just for our main characters but others in the town where they live as well. I enjoyed seeing Madge as school girl and learning about her friendships.
This was a well written book, which gave the reader much more information about 3 main characters in The Chalet School series.
I liked that we saw Madge as a school girl. She aslo has the added responsiblity of running the house with the help of Sarah and Nanny, as well as helping look after her baby sister Joey.
This book is set at the beginning of World War 1, we get information about what life was like in this time period, not just for our main characters but others in the town where they live as well. I enjoyed seeing Madge as school girl and learning about her friendships.
This was a well written book, which gave the reader much more information about 3 main characters in The Chalet School series.
December 10, 2022
Well written story which would be worth reading even if it wasn’t a Chalet School book. The WW1 stuff is excellent. Not quite enough in the book to make it five stars. The mystery about Nanny feels a bit forced.
December 17, 2017
I enjoyed this story, though felt it came to a very sudden end...I wanted a bit more.
June 29, 2022
1st book on my complete reread of Chalet School books and fill ins.
January 2, 2016
Fascinating depiction of the life of the you Bettanys during the beginning of the First World War. Madge and Dick are fourteen when war breaks out, and Joey not yet three. Orphaned a couple of years earlier, they are looked after by their guardian and two aunts, but none of these people live with them constantly. In addition to the housekeeper, Sarah, there is Nurse. But when she leaves, a new Nanny comes, who causes some upsets with Sarah.
Dick goes to boarding school, while Madge attends the local High School, with her best friend Spider (I wish Spider's actual given name were mentioned at least once). When term begins, they are astonished to be told that they, along with a new girl, have been moved up into the Fifth Form. This causes difficulties, both with the Fifth, and with their former classmates in the Fourth. How they deal with these problems, as well as issues caused by the war, is a constant theme in this book.
Altogether this is an excellent prequel to the Chalet School series. I only hope a sequel is in the offing.
Dick goes to boarding school, while Madge attends the local High School, with her best friend Spider (I wish Spider's actual given name were mentioned at least once). When term begins, they are astonished to be told that they, along with a new girl, have been moved up into the Fifth Form. This causes difficulties, both with the Fifth, and with their former classmates in the Fourth. How they deal with these problems, as well as issues caused by the war, is a constant theme in this book.
Altogether this is an excellent prequel to the Chalet School series. I only hope a sequel is in the offing.
October 11, 2020
Excellent fill in book for before the chalet school era
August 7, 2017
Of all the authors who have played in, expanded and added depth to Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet School Universe, I'll admit that I'm partial to Helen Barber. She has a way with words and characters that really recalls the series in style and tone. I especially enjoyed her first prequel book - The Bettanys Of Taverton High - in which she imagined Madge Bettany in the days before she resolved to open her own school in Austria.
For this second prequel, she heads even further back in time - to when Madge is a schoolgirl herself. Just 14 years old, Madge here is a charming - if slightly too good - creation. Her confidence and leadership skills, which stood her in excellent stead in starting her own school, are on display here, as she organises a tennis tournament with the help of her chums, Spider Carthew and Phyllida Fullen.
Most enjoyable is the war-time atmosphere that Barber conjures up - she weaves the everyday losses and tragedies of the First World War into the Bettanys' comparatively privileged lives. There's a shell-shocked clergyman in need of a little comfort, soldiers injured and dead returning home from the Front, and schoolgirls doing their bit for the war effort. It's to Barber's credit that she pulls it off with such evocative flair, given that she didn't live through the war herself, as EBD and Madge did.
The book suffers a little from being a little low on incident - there's not much Barber can add here without events becoming too momentous for them not to be mentioned in the books that necessarily follow. But Barber's knack with character helps colour in the book even when it gets a bit dull - I particularly enjoyed meeting the Bettanys all over again, including three-year-old Joey Baba, as well as Sarah, their gruff but kind housekeeper, and Miss Harding, the headmistress who's as kind and wonderful as Madge proves herself to be in future.
All in all, an enjoyable addition to the series. 3.5/5 stars
For this second prequel, she heads even further back in time - to when Madge is a schoolgirl herself. Just 14 years old, Madge here is a charming - if slightly too good - creation. Her confidence and leadership skills, which stood her in excellent stead in starting her own school, are on display here, as she organises a tennis tournament with the help of her chums, Spider Carthew and Phyllida Fullen.
Most enjoyable is the war-time atmosphere that Barber conjures up - she weaves the everyday losses and tragedies of the First World War into the Bettanys' comparatively privileged lives. There's a shell-shocked clergyman in need of a little comfort, soldiers injured and dead returning home from the Front, and schoolgirls doing their bit for the war effort. It's to Barber's credit that she pulls it off with such evocative flair, given that she didn't live through the war herself, as EBD and Madge did.
The book suffers a little from being a little low on incident - there's not much Barber can add here without events becoming too momentous for them not to be mentioned in the books that necessarily follow. But Barber's knack with character helps colour in the book even when it gets a bit dull - I particularly enjoyed meeting the Bettanys all over again, including three-year-old Joey Baba, as well as Sarah, their gruff but kind housekeeper, and Miss Harding, the headmistress who's as kind and wonderful as Madge proves herself to be in future.
All in all, an enjoyable addition to the series. 3.5/5 stars
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews