Joey Goes to the Oberland (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

I have been re-reading the lengthy ‘Chalet School’ series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer over the past few years, as I have done regularly since my teenage years. In May I re-read the 28th in the original series, ‘Changes for the Chalet School’, where it was announced that the middle and senior part of the school would be leaving the UK and relocating in the Swiss Oberland. 

I’ve been travelling, without my books available so I have only just read the next in the series, ‘Joey goes to the Oberland’.  I have it in a hardback edition that once belonged to my mother. I last read it in 2013 and had forgotten almost all of it. 

I did remember the opening sequence when Joey Maynard - mother of eight - manages to fall into a packing case. It’s a dramatic opening to the book, cleverly showing the chaos of packing up a house prior to moving to another country. The image on the front cover of the original hardback (or the Girls Gone By paperback) illustrates this well. 

Jo has the help of some of her close friends, and her faithful Anna, who does about five people’s work. But she’s doing a lot of the packing herself, involving her older children where possible. (The only problem with the image on the book cover is that the triplets look about three years old, whereas they are now ten.)

I quite like the books that don’t involve the school itself. This whole story takes place during the summer holidays, and focuses almost entirely on Jo and her family. Before they leave, her adopted niece Daisy gets married to a young doctor (as happens to a surprising number of people in the series). Daisy’s younger sister Primula - who must be about twenty, I suppose - is inclined to be tearful, as the two have been very close. So Jo decides to enlist her help in the family move. Jo's husband Jack, who will be working at the Sanatorium nearby, has had to go ahead. So, not unreasonably, she would like another adult to travel with them in addition to herself and Anna. 

There are some things that go wrong as they travel, some incidents that are mildly amusing, and some poignant reunions with old friends (even if one of them is a tad too coincidental for reality). But there's also much that seems very dated. I was quite shocked, for instance, at the casual way children sit on laps in the front seats of cars, or lie down on back seats. The twin babies, Felix and Felicity, do at least have some kind of harness in the car. But that appears to be so that they don’t wander around and distract the driver, not for their own safety. 

The casual attitude to smoking also jars, but I know from having spoken to grandparents in the past that most people would smoke a cigarette or two after a meal, with a cup of coffee. It was seen as a relaxing, comforting thing to do. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the evidence against smoking became so strong, and this book was first published in 1954. 

Some of the language used is unfortunate, too. Jack and Jo regularly refer to their children as ‘brats’. In today’s society, that word implies a child who is spoilt and selfish. But apparently in the middle of the 20th century there were ‘military brats’ and even ‘Hollywood brats’, just referring to children in general. It seems to be equivalent to the current word ‘kids’. 

There are also two or three uses of a word now considered very derogatory and racist. Again, it wasn’t intended that way: I imagine it was used out of ignorance, or thoughtlessness. I wish it hadn’t been used, but it’s part of the social history of the era - and as these books were written as contemporary novels for teenagers, the language and culture is likely to be authentic. 

However, overall I very much liked this book. It helps to develop Jo’s character as an adult: healthy and strong, but still prone to extreme exhaustion when she does too much. She’s a good mother, probably radically modern for the era as she listens to her children and takes their concerns seriously. She and Jack expect ‘instant obedience’ for their children, but are always willing to discuss issues. And sometimes when they want to be annoyed, or to explain the severity of what a child has done, they are stifling giggles…

The Chalet School books are sometimes read by young teens, the original audience, but I suspect that most of the readers are those, like me, who first read them forty or fifty years ago and remember them with nostalgia. A book like this one is particularly likely to appeal more to older folk, as it doesn’t much involve children, and there are no school scenes. 

While it stands alone, ‘Joey goes to the Oberland’ is much better read as part of the ongoing series, as so many people from previous books are mentioned. I seem to like it more each time I read it. Unfortunately it's not in print, and second-hand editions, even of the abridged Armada paperback version, tend to be very expensive. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews