The New Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

In my gradual re-read through of Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s ‘Chalet School’ series, I’ve reached ‘The New Chalet School’, which is thirteenth in the original series. Until a couple of years ago, I had this in Armada paperback form only - not abridged, but divided into two books: ‘The New Chalet School’ and ‘A United Chalet School’, which I last read over ten years ago.

I was very pleased to be able to acquire a hardback of the whole book, which therefore flowed as the author originally intended, covering the course of a whole term. The Chalet School is ‘new’ because Miss Browne, the head of St Scholastika’s (the English school introduced in ‘Rivals of the Chalet School’) has decided to retire, and has handed over her school to the Chalet School.

This poses a few practical problems - where will everyone sleep, for instance?  But none of the girls seem to mind at all. The two schools have become friendly by this time, and although the author tries to introduce a bit of tension - prefects of the former ‘Saints’ talking about ‘our’ Middles, for instance - they actually blend in remarkably well, far more quickly than I would have expected.

However this is just the background to a book which is full of subplots and some excitement. It’s the book in which some local children form a gang, bonded primarily by the fact that all their names start with M. They have a grudge against the Chalet School and play all kinds of unpleasant tricks on them until there’s a really very unpleasant - and quite poignant - natural consequence to one of their worst attempts at upsetting the school and its connections.

There’s a lot of detail in the book, things that might have been cut if the book had been abridged, but which are useful information or backgrounds to other books. We learn that the Robin is now fatherless, and that one of the old girls is widowed, very young - I had entirely forgotten that. We also see, again, Cornelia very distressed at the serious illness (unspecified) that the former head, Mademoiselle Lepattre, is suffering.

Of course the combined Chalet School Middles are bound to make themselves a nuisance, and that happens when they’re discovered sneaking out of their dormitories at night for a surprising activity, which also ends with a suitable consequence - logical rather than natural - which dissuades them from doing anything like that again.

There’s a half-term trip to Salzberg, which isn’t over-described (as is sometimes the case), and which goes peacefully until a thunderstorm hits on the way home. And there’s the runup to the school Sale at the end of term - this being the summer term - but rather than lots of detail about the sale, there’s yet another dramatic event that nearly leads to tragedy.

Jo Bettany, now a year away from her time at the school, is still around as her brother-in-law has taken on the former St Scholastika’s building as a summer home. So she pops in and out, accompanies the girls on the half-term trip, and is one of the Guide troop leaders.  She’s started writing seriously, and had her first school story book accepted for publication shortly before this term begins.

All in all, I found it an enjoyable book in the series. It could stand alone, but so many people recur through the series that it’s best to have read at least a few of the others beforehand.

Recommended to voracious readers of about nine or ten and upwards, or - more likely - to those of us who remember this series with fondness from our teenage years.

Note that the link above is to the Armada paperback with this title, which seems to be the only one currently available. It is just the first half of 'The New Chalet School'. Unfortunately, the second half, 'The United Chalet School' is remarkably difficult to get hold of. 

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