Jo of the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

I started my current full reread-through of Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s lengthy Chalet School series just over a month ago, with ’The School at the Chalet’. I’ve now finished the second in the series, ‘Jo of the Chalet School’, which follows on from it, covering the second and third terms of the newly formed school for girls in Austria. I last read this book in 2009, and had mostly forgotten it.

The first chapter is perhaps a tad dull; we meet twelve-year-old Jo, irritating her slightly older friend Grizel by repetitive singing. The two then talk about their various friends who will soon be returning to school after the summer holidays. The school has expanded to over thirty pupils, so some extensions have been made, and changes to the structure. The author went into a lot of detail about this kind of thing, and I find it quite interesting, but young teenagers (for whom the books were originally intended) might find it very slow-moving.

Once the book gets going, though, it’s full of action, and one or two quite moving sections. This is the book where young Robin Humphries is introduced, for instance. At six year old, recently bereaved after her mother died, now left behind with strangers when her father must work abroad, she is remarkably good humoured and adaptable. Robin is an important character in later books, so I enjoyed reading about her introduction to the Chalet School, something I had almost forgotten about.

This is also the book where Joey’s dog Rufus first appears, as a puppy rescued from a watery grave. We get a brief insight into the extreme poverty in which some of the local folk would have lived in this era - this book was published in 1926. We also learn something about local customs and a Austrian Christmas of the era, half way through the book when Joey and her family stay with friends in the Christmas holidays.

For this is one of the few books (possibly the only one, I don’t recall) which covers two entire terms. There’s a fair number of classroom or school scenes: we meet Mr Denny the eccentric singing master for the first time, but although he has some strange quirks, we also see him in a much more positive and sympathetic light later in the book.

And it’s that, I feel, which was Brent-Dyer’s main gift, and the reason why her books still enjoy so much popularity, at least amongst adults, nearly 100 years after publication of the earliest ones. She created believable, well-rounded characters with a mixture of traits. Some of them are quite annoying, but they get under our skin one way or another. I never feel bored with Chalet School heroines even if I don’t much like them.

I wonder if, when the author wrote this, she intended it to the only sequel to the first book. It’s a well-rounded story, with some hopeful and satisfying scenes towards the end. Joey confirms her long-held ambition; Madge learns what her future is going to hold, too. The school is clearly a success, and it could have been quite easy to leave it there.

Definitely recommended if you like young teenage school fiction of this era; but it’s best to have read ‘The School at the Chalet’ first. 

Unfortunately it's not currently in print. Armada paperback versions are relatively easy to find at charity shops and this is one of the books that wasn't too seriously abridged in that edition, although there are many minor cuts.  However I much prefer my hardback Chambers edition (linked via Amazon above) which was my mother's.  'Jo of the Chalet School' was reprinted by Girls Gone By about eight years ago, but finding it second hand is difficult and - currently - very expensive.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews