Tom Tackles the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

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In my gradual re-read of the lengthy Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, I reached ‘Tom Tackles the Chalet School’. I didn’t read this book last time I did a read-through, as I had forgotten that it appears out of sequence, chronologically. ‘Tom Tackles…’ was originally written as a two-part story for a ‘Chalet School for Girls’ publication, and wasn’t published as a hardback book until several other subsequent books had been printed. It was originally listed as 31st in the series, but is now advised to be read directly after ‘Jo to the Rescue’, or after 'A Chalet School Headmistress', if also reading the non-canonical fill-ins.

This time I remembered, and had the books in order on my shelves anyway. The last time I read this book was July 2001, I had forgotten almost everything that was in it. The only thing I recalled was that Tom (whose real name is one she refuses to answer to) had been brought up to believe boys were superior to girls in every way, by a father who really wanted a son.

Tom is a likeable person, with some ideas by her rather biassed father that turn out to be wrong. She’s excellent at maths and Latin, since he educated her at home as if she were a boy of the era, but has done very little creative writing, almost no French, and her history and geography understanding are very limited. So the staff have a hard time placing her; she ends up in the upper Third form, with some lessons at a higher level, some lower.

But Tom is a hard worker, and having agreed to come to the Chalet School, she focuses on what she needs to learn. She becomes friendly with Bride Bettany and a couple of other pleasant girls in their form, and is quite willing to admit when she’s wrong. She discovers that most girls don’t ‘sneak’ any more than boys do, that they can be courageous, and kind, and that, at least in the Chalet School, they’re not soppy or emotional.

It’s a book of its era, where gender stereotypes were much more expected than they are today. Tom is sent to the school to learn to be more ‘ladylike’, and there’s no evidence that she really feels like a boy inside. She’s undoubtedly a ‘tomboy’, as we used to say, and - for instance - has no interest in dolls or sewing. But although she insists she’s a ‘gentleman’, this is considered a positive trait rather than a gender statement, and she bestows it as a compliment on some of the girls who have a strong sense of integrity.

As far as the story goes, it’s a run-of-the-mill Chalet School book, with classroom incidents, a misunderstanding that leads to Tom becoming rather sulky for a while, a scary incident in the snow, and the end-of-term ‘Sale’, which, in this book, has an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme. Tom has built a dolls’ house - the first of many, as other houses she makes feature in several later books in the series - and by this stage is considered an asset to the Upper Thirds, even if she is a bit unusual and outspoken.

There’s also quite a moving theme in the book as the Bettany parents - Dick and his wife Mollie - finally return to the UK from India after more than eight years. Bride, who is eleven, and her sister Peggy, who’s a year or two older, haven’t seen their parents in all this time. It seems unbelievable in today’s society that any parents would do this, but India was considered an unsuitable climate for children, and Peggy was ‘delicate’ as a baby. So they have lived with Madge - Dick’s twin sister, and founder of the Chalet School - and her family, all this time.

I found it odd that Dick and Mollie’s younger twins, Maeve and Maurice, have been with them in India - apparently the climate wasn’t a problem for them - and that they haven’t returned at all during this long period. But perhaps it wasn’t so unusual in the 1940s when this took place.

Still, one has to accept a few oddities in these books which, overall, are warm, positive stories. The writing is a tad old-fashioned, particularly in the line between acceptable phrases and ‘slang’, but I’ve always loved these books, and am sure I will continue to re-read them over the next decades.

My copy of ‘Tom Tackles the Chalet School’ is a hardback, but apparently the Armada paperback doesn’t have any cuts, unlike some others in the series. It could, in my view, have done with some minor adaptations at the start of Chapter 10, which I assume is where the second original ‘part’ started. It has a few explanations that really aren’t necessary when it’s seen as a whole book. But it’s a minor issue.

This book stands alone, as most of the books in the series do. But there are quite a few characters whom we're expected to know already, so I’d recommend anyone - teenager or adult - new to the series to read some of the earlier books before this one. 'Tom Tackles...' isn't currently in print, but Armada versions can sometimes be found second-hand.

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