I always like re-reading the ‘Chalet School’ books by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. But in my current re-read, which will probably take about five years in all, I’m enjoying it all the more as I have several books, for the first time, in hardback or GGBP edition. The Armada ones, many of which I bought inexpensively in my teens, are abridged - some more than others. ‘Jo Returns to the Chalet School’, which I last read over ten years ago, is listed as having ‘minor frequent’ cuts. Nothing major, but sufficient that the hardback version feels considerably fuller.
The previous book, ‘New House at the Chalet School’ is about the final term for Joey Bettany and her three close friends. Since Jo was the first pupil at the boarding school in Austria, and her sister Madge the founder, it felt quite final. I’m sure that, when the books were first published in the 1940s, the author’s readers were devastated at the thought that Jo would no longer be part of the series. But that is far from the case…
A new term starts, with a new head girl, and the girls are all ready for their first Assembly. In troop the staff… and at the back is Joey. This creates something of a sensation, but it’s quickly explained that she’s just visiting. Her home is in the mountains with her sister and her babies, and Jo is planning to write books.
Alas for Jo, one of her nephews develops measles, and she’s told not to return. Jo was quite delicate as a child, and although she’s outgrown that, and has has the measles, her brother-in-law - who is a doctor - insists that she stay at the school for a couple of weeks. So Jo decides to get going on her planned school story…
Naturally things don’t go to plan. Jo butts in - to good effect - with a teenager she finds in the loca. post office, unable to speak any German, and with no adults around. She finds herself staying at the school much longer than expected, taking on more and more responsibilities - including organising an unusual fancy dress party for those who have to stay at the Chalet over the half-term break.
In one sense this is a typical Autumn term at the Chalet School. There are classroom pranks, staffroom discussions, snowball fights and - unusually - the building of snow statues. There’s a new girl - albeit part-way through the term - who has some unusual ideas, and there are brief forays into the mountains when the quarantine is finally finished. There’s a good scene involving the hobby club, and there’s the inevitable over-detailed description of the Christmas play in the last chapter.
But there’s also the whole thread of Jo, gradually getting involved in a different way in her old school, and the important subplot of her writing her first book, going through both despair and hope, and some important concepts mentioned as asides, about the responsibility of authors to their readers. And there’s an extremely poignant thread, too, about one of the staff who becomes quite seriously ill. As is typical of Brent-Dyer, we never learn what the illness actually involves - she mentions ‘operations’ vaguely throughout the series, but perhaps at the time there was more mystique surrounding medical procedures than there is today
All in all, I found myself liking ‘Jo Returns…’ very much. There’s a good balance of likeable, flawed people, and a nice pace, so at times I found it hard to put down. I had forgotten most of the detail over the past ten years, and very much appreciated re-reading it. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes this series, although there's so much continuity from the earlier books that it's probably not great as an introduction to the series.
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