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Jack Lambert is a new girl in this, aged eleven. Her sister Anne is also new, but Anne is quiet and conforms with others, so we don’t see much of her. Jack (whose real name is Jacynth, but she loathes it) is much more interesting. She’s outspoken, she’s mischievous, and she’s something of a tomboy. She is thrilled to be at the Chalet School, and - to start with, at any rate - works hard and makes some friends.
But Jack is easily bored. When the girls are stuck inside due to bad weather, or when others are reading or playing quiet games, she decides to be independent. And more than once she plays a practical joke which doesn’t turn out too well. But Jack is truthful, and always owns up to her sins.
Jack also develops a strong admiration for Len, who is her dormitory prefect. Len is fifteen, but, asgo the eldest of a long family, she has developed quite a lot of responsibility. Jack is extremely inquisitive and her classmates often can’t answer her questions, so she saves them up for Len. This is quite tiring for Len, who has her own work and friends to take up her time, but she feels responsible, and does what she can to answer.
She also tries to instil a few morals into Jack’s brain. Jack isn’t deliberately mean, she just behaves without thinking and is easily bored. She doesn’t know why one of the girls seems to dislike her, but she takes it rather personally…
My edition of this book is the Armada paperback, which apparently has several minor cuts. That usually means that the story is all there, but some of the extra conversations have been removed. It works well, and I enjoyed rereading it, although I’d like to read the full edition one day. Sometimes there’s a lot of depth in the parts that have been removed, and the pace is improved. I found this an interesting book, but it feels a bit abrupt in places.
There are scenes in the classroom, one or two in the staff room, and some next door at Joey Maynard’s home. There are references to illnesses, and to Naomi Elton who was a new (and rather unpleasant) girl in ‘Trials for the Chalet School’, which I read a few months ago. She’s quite weak after some operations - Brent-Dyer was very vague about operations and appeared to have minimal knowledge of medicine - and has to undergo another one.
While any of these books could stand alone, I feel it’s better to read them as part of the series, as there are so many recurring characters. It would be confusing to read this without having read at least some of the earlier books. I love the continuity, seeing - for instance - Joey, now in her mid thirties with nine children; in the first book, ‘The school at the chalet’, she was eleven, and almost as mischievous as Jack Lambert.
There are, unsurprisingly, plenty of continuity errors in the series as a whole; I expect the author kept extensive notes, but in the pre-computer era they would all have been on paper, and easily to lose track. But in this one they’re minor. Margot has a major singing part in a pantomime which is never referred to again, and Jack is supposed to be invited to tea with Joey and family, but that doesn’t happen. Perhaps these were omissions in the paperback, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the author simply forgot.
My edition is only 175 pages, and I read it in 24 hours, dipping into it at odd moments, eager to know what was coming as I found it one of the more engaging books. I liked Len’s increasing maturity, and was mildly amused at her horror of being seen as following in her mother’s footsteps.
Recommended to anyone who likes the series; intended originally for teenage girls, it appeals more now to people like me who read the books in our own childhood and teenage years. Unfortunately the 'Girls gone by' full edition is long out of print, and even the Armada paperbacks are not easy to find, and can be pricey.
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