| Hello
any Antonia Forest fans out there might like to know there is going to be an article on her on the Vulpes Libres bookblog http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/ tomorrow by novelist Emma Darwin, and chances to comment of course.
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| News! (I hope it's okay to share it here, but I think it might be of interest).
BBC Drama has announced a major new dramatisation of Ballet Shoes, the classic novel by Noel Streatfeild. The feature-length film will transmit on BBC One later this year. Press release here or see my post on it. How do you feel, excited, nervous or indifferent? | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| Hello there. I started my blog and joined this community about a month and a half ago, and have been reading some of the posts here and sites linked to here avidly ever since, but I've been shy of introducing myself until I had more content. I've been a bookworm for many years, and have always loved what's aptly described as 'girls own' stories, particularly school stories. I grew up reading Lorna Hill, Pamela Brown, about the Chalet Girls and Abbey Girls, countless new fourth formers and perilous night-time adventures in the Alps, and still do so now. I've posted more about that history and the reason for my name here.
I've set up this lj account mainly to talk about my love for these books. So far, I've posted a couple of reviews, but I hope to post more, and perhaps some more general discussion of things that interest me about the genre. It's great to find like-minded fans online. Or rather, ripping. Fab. Topping :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Security: | | | Time: | 11:19 am | | Current Mood: |  geeky |
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| What did/do your family and friends think about your reading choices?
Occasionally I see comments about people hiding what they were reading - putting it inside a magazine, or pretending that they were buying/borrowing the books for a younger relative. I never felt the need to do that, though I was reading them during my teens, when I was worried about just about everything else, somehow my reading material passed me by!
I did know that my parents didn't really approve, but the only time they've tried to stop me reading anything was when I stole books they hadn't finished yet. I started by reading Malory Towers, and my mum's reaction to anything Blyton was that it was twee and awful, and that kind of tainted the rest of my reading material for her. I tried her on Autumn Term once, and she didn't like it. I also think she found the boarding school obsession slightly embarrassing to her anti-private education stance. Then when I was 18 I started working at a secondhand bookshop and my parents were much more amenable to my growing collection once they discovered that it was rather valuable. (Incorrigible capitalism. Hmph. The Chalet School would not approve. Overtly.)
When I started reading school stories I was in the retrospectively fortunate position of being completely outside any hope of popularity (although I had friends), so I didn't need to hide my books for that. Reading as much as I did of any kind of books was seen as a bit odd, so that it was school stories was just accepted as part of that eccentricity. I didn't have friends that shared my interest until the lovely internet happened to me. Now I talk about it quite a lot to people, but I do tend to phrase it as "I collect girls' school stories" rather than reading them, although I do both. I wrote about them for my MA, so people at uni know that that's one of my interests, but then most academics have weird hobbies and interests of some description, so I seem quite mundane.
How about you? | | comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
| Just to let people know that the CBB has now risen from the ashes of its hideous hacking, and can be found at its new home:
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk
Everyone's membership details have been transferred, so people can log-in with their usual username/password.
[x-posted to anywhere I can find...] | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm working on the final details of an essay for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92) new_atalanta, but I don't have all my books with me, and am hoping for some help from the collective mind here...
Rosamund's two sets of twins: the second set are called Rosanna and Rosilda: what are the first set called? (EJO had already used "Rosalind" (Kane) and "Rosemary" (Marchwood). What's left?)
Were Maid's first two twins, and what were their names?
Did either Jen or Joan have any twins? (Jen had a flock of boys, and I can *never* remember the details).
All help gratefully accepted. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | I posted a few days ago, asking for some boarding school story recs, and I'm going to narrow it down a bit - are there any books you'd recommend that include the kind of hero-worshipping schoolgirl crush you find in a lot of books from that genre, or that centre around the kind of 'special friendship' that you find in, say, Malory Towers? I'm trying to think of any Chalet books that have that as an element, but it's been too long since I've read any. Can someone help me out? Thanks. | | comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
| sorry...posted with the wrong settin!
See me blush! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Hope this is ok to post here, it will be cross posted in New Atlanta as well.
A new web site has been established in order to discuss ALL children's literature. Knowing how many CS fans also have a huge interest in other stories of the time, or the genre, or even just kidlit in general from modern times, it was decided amongst a small group of Chalet fans to set up a web site where we could explore more of our interests.
We really hope that you will all come visit our site, and hopefully join us for some discussions! The MIDDLES' COMMON ROOM is the place where all this splendaciousness is occurring.
Please visit http://www.middlescommonroom.co.uk | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I've just joined this community, so hello all! I've spent the morning curled up with Patricia, Prefect by Ethel Talbot, who I'd never heard of before. I discovered it, battered and mildewed, in a tiny antique bookstore and I got hooked just by flicking through the first few pages. The main character is Patricia, Games Captain and one of three prefects at St. Chad's Hall.
( cut for spoilers, not including the ending )
Has anyone else read it? And does anyone have any reccomendations for other boarding school novels (I've read Chalet series, obviously, and all the Blyton ones. I haven't read much Angela Brazil, and not for YEARS - any titles I should try and get hold of? | | comments: 12 comments or Leave a comment |
| I'm finally reading the Chalet School books (thankfully I have access to a library which has the original versions - the downside being that I have to read them IN the library, but still, it's worth it!) and have become intrigued by the 'twists of fancy bread' that are repeatedly mentioned as part of kaffee und kuchen. I'm wondering if anyone has a recipe or even knows the precise name for them, as I wouldn't mind trying to bake some.
I'll be looking at the Chalet Girls' Cookbook, but a review I read somewhere says it's not really local recipes, so I thought I'd ask here. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| The Chaletian has been reborn in an exciting phoenix-y kind of way as a general Girls Own news site and round-up of various online Girls Own communities, mainly focusing on the Chalet School books, but always ready and willing to include other areas of GO life. Mm.
If anyone has any news or events or anything they would like to have added, please e-mail me (Liss) at news[at]chaletian.com and it will be done.
Any comments, please do let me know.
[x-posted to anything remotely relevant, so apols if it shows up on people's flist about 50 times...] | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| *waves*
Hello, see how I come and merrily bounce into the community in a blatant plugging way *g*. There is a new Chalet School book, The Chalet School Librarian, available to pre-order now from http://www.chalet-school-librarian.co.uk. It is by Pat Willimott, and is set just after New Beginnings. Visit the website for more details, and information about ordering. It is being published by the same people who did Hilda Annersley - Headmistress. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm really just trying to create a little more discussion in this community - honest!
But I'm looking for a specific sort of quotation in the Chalet School series. In the early books, I'm sure it says somewhere that Joey wasn't picked for match games teams often because she was unreliable (you know, one of those "on her day, she's brilliant, but..." comments). But I can't find it anywhere and I need it by next Friday.
Can anyone think of a quotation along these lines? Please? | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Security: | | | Time: | 07:15 pm | | Current Mood: |  cheerful |
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| I was just flicking idly through You're A Brick, Angela (a book I love!) when I came across the most hilarious quote from a 'Dimsie' book -- '... there's no rule, that I've ever heard, against trying on new corsets in the lower music room ...'. Would that I had occasion to use this phrase!!
But the reason I was doing the aforementioned idle flicking was to see if they had mentioned Gwendoline Courtney, and sadly they hadn't. She seems to be much less well-known than many other girlsown authors, though GGBP are republishing her books so that may change, but I really like her. She's not completely addictive and caricaturable like Lorna Hill & EBD, and she's not really, really good like Antonia Forest or Rumer Godden, but her books are very enjoyable. One thing that I think she does relatively convincingly is families -- I've just read Sally's Family (10 cent, Trinity Book Sale!) and I have to say that compared to the 'hilarious' incidents that sometimes happen in the Maynard family, for example, the ups and downs of setting up a house together etc actually made me smile a few times. And her boy characters were just as good as her girls, something that I don't think can be said for Joey's male progeny!
(BTW I hope I don't sound like I scorn the Chalet books, I don't at all, I LOVE them. But I hate all the family scenes chez Maynard. And I blame EBD for my erroneous ideas about babies -- for years I thought you could just put them on a rug and they'd be happy rolling about there all day!) | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| It started off so well! And has such lovely brown & flame colours -- come and talk to me about school stories!
Well, this week I read the unabridged version of Changes for the Chalet School, which I got from GGBP. It was really enjoyable as, unlike most other Chalet books, I'd either never read it or only read it once years ago. But the funny thing was that there were some things in it that probably would not have been in an Armada version, like a relatively long and dull chat between Miss Annersley & Commander Christie (father of Dickie, Cherry & Gaynor, and owner of 'the Big House', where the school is based in the 'island' years). And there is also A WHOLE CHAPTER on a trip the sixth go on to the Bournville chocolate factory!! It is hilarious, and I am convinced that EBD made the trip herself & took notes -- it literally goes from room to room, and they look at cocoa beans and roasting machines and conveyor belts and people putting designs on the sweets and making the cardboard boxes. And their guide, Miss Whatever, is always looking sharply at the girls when they ask questions, but being relieved when she finds nothing but 'friendly interest in their faces etc etc', so she's obviously afraid they're going to look down on her because she works in a factory ... it's just so odd. has anyone else read it? | | comments: 18 comments or Leave a comment |
| This morning I was rereading Arthur Marshall's Girls will be Girls. For years, Marshall wrote about girls' fiction (and many other things) for the New Statesman. His reviews are incredibly, tear-inducingly funny, especially if you are a school story fan, and I thought I'd google him and see if I could find any online to post here. And that's when I discovered this piece by the usually excellent Ju Gosling, which somehow I hadn't read before. It's a remarkably humourless article, which often somehow just doesn't seem to get Marshall:
Marshall concludes the review by bemoaning the new preoccupations of the genre, and by calling for a return to more innocent topics: "Girls, shie away your bath-cubes and freesia soap. A moonlight night and a rope ladder were all your mothers ever needed to make them happy. And give those stays to Mademoiselle."
It is interesting to note that while anything which might reflect lesbian sexuality is perceived as undesirable, so are topics such as "beauty culture" which reflected heterosexuality. Or perhaps it was the fact that girls were using make-up for their own sakes rather than in order to meet with boys.
Oh, for fuck's sake, he's TAKING THE PISS. I'm not usually a fan of the "but I was only joking!" defence, but it seems quite preposterous that such a defence should even be needed in this case. It's impossible to really analyse or explain a joke, but it is blatantly obvious that when Marshall chastises these (fictional!) schoolgirls for their newfound love of rouge, he is joking. As for the alleged homophobia, Marshall - who was gay, by the way - also writes (very funnily) about homoeroticism in boys' school stories, in exactly the same way he writes about schoolgirl crushes.
The thing is, most school stories, with notable exceptions like Antonia Forest, are simply not great literature or anything like it. Even if you love them (and I do), they are very, very easy to make fun of. I love Dorita Fairlie Bruce - I think she can be genuinely, and intentionally, funny - but even to compare her with Forest is kind of ridiculous, because she doesn't come vaguely close as a writer. To view Marshall's good-humoured mockery (and it is good humoured - there's nothing mean-spirited or misogynistic about his very funny reviews, and he quite obviously has a great, amused affection for the genre) as some sort of attack on the very notion of women's education seems quite absurd to me. Finding school stories ridiculous doesn't mean you hate them - I mean, seriously, is there anyone here who doesn't find the way every Chalet girl falls off a glacier and Becomes a Better Person funny? Or the fact that the St Bride's sanatorium really is swept out to sea? | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| | So, the user info is very vague at the moment, and I would love suggestions for additions to the "interests" list. Post 'em in comments! | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Welcome to the Common Room, a community devoted to vintage British girls' fiction. Post away! | | comments: Leave a comment |
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excited