Trials for the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

In my gradual re-reading of Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s lengthy ‘Chalet School’ series, I finally reached ‘Trials for the Chalet School’.  According to the unofficial lists, it has been quite extensively abridged in the Armada version, which is what I have. I actually have a ‘two-in-one’ Armada, which also contains its immediate sequel, ‘Theodora and the Chalet School’. But I have been able to acquire that in a ‘Girls Gone By’ unabridged edition, so I have just read ‘Trials’. I last read it in 2016. 

Maybe one day it will be republished, or I’ll manage to find a full edition of this book; I have looked in many places and inquired online, but second-hand editions are very expensive, and it’s not as if I don’t have this story at all. And it doesn’t feel like an abridged book, somehow. Maybe there are a lot more asides and religious references in the full edition; maybe there’s an extra chapter. But this still feels complete in itself.

Naomi Elton is the only new girl in the spring term in Switzerland. She’s an orphan who lost her parents in a fire, some years ago. The fire left her quite seriously disabled. She has been looked after by relatives but has become very bitter and resentful. And she really doesn’t want to go to the Chalet School. It's unusual for someone of sixteen to join, and the staff are quite concerned. 

It’s a fairly common trope in the books to have girls who have no wish to be at the school, but I think it’s the only one that touches on physical disability.  The girls want to accept Naomi and offer assistance when it’s clear she needs help; but she snaps, and is sarcastic and rude. She also insists that she is an atheist, something unknown in the Chalet School.

Mary-Lou is head girl, and, unsurprisingly, does what she can to talk to Naomi, hoping to find out what is beneath the anger and resentment. And, predictably, Naomi gradually relaxes and softens under the Chalet School influence. She’s very bright, quite advanced in all academic subjects. 

The title of the book is ‘Trials for the Chalet School’, and sure enough there are a lot of trials in this term. Mary-Lou unwisely says that it should be an easy term, thus tempting providence, as her somewhat superstitious friends tell her. Herr Laubach decides that he will retire, after an unpleasant incident. And then most of the school go down with scarlet fever, something that still required quarantine and notification in the late 1950s when this book was first published. 

If that wasn’t enough, there’s a slightly scary interlude during the half-term break, when several people are trapped in a hut by an avalanche. Scary for the people involved, that is; it turns out that they all have bits and pieces of food in their knapsacks, and of course they are eventually rescued.

Then there’s an incident with some of the senior middles trying to get the sixth formers into trouble… three of them are mainly responsible, with a few extra hangers-on. The seniors deal with them in a suitably appropriate way, thought of by Naomi. 

There’s rather a lot of detail in the chapters about the St Mildred’s pantomime, which takes place at the end of term. I’m never entirely sure why Brent-Dyer liked (apparently) to write full plays herself and then provide most of the script and characters in her books. I would have thought that, if anything was going to be abridged, it would be this. However, it’s slightly more interesting than some of the pantomimes from other years. A few ‘old’ old girls return, much to the audience’s delight, and then there are power cuts.

The pantomime is not quite the end of the  book, however; on the way back to school afterwards, there’s a nasty accident, leaving Naomi fighting for her life. It’s almost a cliff-hanger as the book ends. 

I don’t think this is a book I’ve read all that often. I vaguely recalled Naomi, but did not remember any of the plot. I thought it one of the better books for this era of the Chalet School, and look forward to reading it again in another eight of nine years. I hope to have a full edition by then, but if not this one is quite adequate. 

Definitely recommended to fans of this series; most seem to be adults like me, rather than the teenage audience for whom they were originally written. This wouldn't make a particularly good introduction to the school, and those unfamiliar with the era and style might find it irritating or inaccurate. However, as a Chalet School fan, I enjoyed it very much. 

The link above is to an Armada paperback second-hand edition of this; they are fairly easy to find in used versions and not too expensive. While the hardback or GGBP versions are complete, they're extremely expensive, and this abridged version does at least tell the story, and is one of the better books from the Swiss era, in my opinion.  

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