A problem for the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly ten years since I read ‘A problem for the Chalet School’, 36th in Elinor M Brent-Dyer's original series. It's the first time in several decades that I read it in an unabridged edition. I previously had an Armada paperback which was starting to fall to pieces, so I was pleased to be able to acquire a ‘Girls gone by’ version, with the full original text. Apparently it was quite seriously abridged, with an entire chapter missing in the Armada paperback.

I vaguely recalled the story, which involves two girls called Rosamund and Joan. They go to the same day school, and are neighbours. Joan is something of a leader who uses emotional blackmail, while Rosamund is quieter and easily led. Rosamund’s parents were from ordinary working backgrounds, but brought her and her siblings up to be polite, honest and kind. Joan’s family are more snobbish, despite similar background, and Joan thinks it amusing to be rude, sneaky and arrogant. 

Rosamund is told, at the start of the story, that she has been given a full scholarship to the Chalet School by Tom Gay’s parents. She really doesn’t want to go to boarding school in Switzerland. Partly this is because she’s horrified at the thought of lessons in French and German, when she speaks neither. Partly it’s going away from family and friends. And partly because she thinks that girls will look down on a ‘scholarship girl’, whose mother was a maid and whose father was a market gardener. 

But Mrs Gay persuades her to take it up, and to do her best to be happy there. Rosamund is a likeable, if biddable person, and she does decide to make the effort. She has been thinking that she would like to be an air hostess, and realises that having extra languages would be useful. So Rosamund begins, rather nervously, and gradually starts to make friends. By the time she’s been in the Chalet School for two weeks, she’s beginning to feel settled, and even starting to understand some French.

Then she has a shock - Joan arrives. Her father had a big win on the football pools, and decided to send his daughters to private schools. Joan was very envious of Rosamund being chosen for the scholarship, and certain she can lord it over her in their new environment. But Joan is stymied, again and again, by the ‘gentlewomen’ approach of the Chalet School. She’s told that her gaudy outfits and heavy make-up look ‘cheap’. Nobody admires her when she’s rude or cheeky. And when people learn that Rosamund’s father is a gardener, they ask her questions about plants…

It’s a slightly different book from most, in that Joan isn’t reluctant to be at the school - she simply doesn’t fit in, finding their values and expectations to be entirely at odds with her own. She thinks some things, like Saturday evening games, are ‘childish’, and she wants a lot more independence than she is given. She also doesn’t  like having to wash so much, particularly the cold baths in the mornings (I can sympathise with her on those!) 

Joan is undoubtedly a caricature, but the author does it well, contrasting her nicely with Rosamund. They’re from the same school with similar backgrounds, yet Rosamund is polite, and full of integrity whereas Joan is not. The point is made, more than once, that what matters is how people behave, not their backgrounds, or their ‘class’.

Inevitably Joan does gradually absorb some of the Chalet School ethos. But there are quite a few incidents and discussions before she realises the value of the school and its principles. Mary-Lou, Joey and Miss Annersley all talk to her and help in different ways. And evidently Joan does have a seed of niceness inside her; she is horrified when it’s implied that her parents must have brought her up badly when she swears. 

Although I don’t know for sure which chapter was omitted in the abridged version, I suspect it’s one near the middle of the book where nothing much happens and there’s no real progression in the story. I expect there were a lot of other cuts too; there are a lot of conversations which don’t add to the plot. But they do add to the characterisation, and to the pace of the book. I’m very glad to have the original text at last, and liked taking a little longer to read it than I would have done with the Armada.

What I particularly appreciated about this book is that, although there’s a half-term trip, it’s not bombarded with educational information. Indeed, Nancy Wilmot says, several times, that they should ask Miss O’Ryan, rather than going into detail. And the end-of-term flower festival is only mentioned in passing, rather than in minute detail. 

Definitely recommended if you like this series. It could possibly even be a good introduction to someone new to the Chalet School books, although the number of people could be a bit overwhelming.  First published in 1956, it doesn't feel seventy years old to me, although it's obviously somewhat dated, including the class attitudes that are somewhat explored. I don't know that today's teenagers would appreciate it, but there are plenty of people my age or older who loved these books in our own teenage years.

As a bonus, there’s a short story at the end of my GGBP edition. It’s called, ‘A trying day for Joan’, and is set towards the end of the main book but before the final chapter. It’s well-written, very much in EBD’s style, by Lisa Townsend, and I enjoyed it very much.

Unfortunately the original hardbacks and the Girls Gone By editions are out of print, and tend to be quite pricey second-hand. Despite the abridgement, the Armada version is a useful alternative, and still tells the story well, if a tad more abruptly. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews