Jane and the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

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It’s nine years since I read ‘Jane and the Chalet School’, 51st in the original series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. Before that it had been at least a couple of decades, and I found I had no memory of it. This time, I vaguely remembered that one of the girls, known as Jack, took a dislike to a new girl called Jane. But I had entirely forgotten the details. Evidently this is not a book I have read regularly. 

The book opens at the start of a summer term in Switzerland. The first chapter is quite dramatic. Jack Lambert, who is fourteen but seems young for her age, is in a furious temper. She’s been moved from the dormitory where she has slept since she came to the school, and she will no longer be able to ask constant questions of her favourite senior, Len Maynard. 

For most girls this would be a minor frustration, but Jack is an all-or-nothing person, and she is determined to dislike the new girl who is taking over her cubicle. And Jane Carew is about as different from Jack as possible. Jack - who hates her full name of Jacynth - likes what were then considered ‘boyish’ activities: mechanics, cars, woodwork and so on. She has short hair, and a short temper.

Jane, by contrast, has long fair hair, and a rather gushing way of speaking. She’s the daughter of two well-known actors and has toured with them, educated by a governess. So this is the first time she’s been at school. She’s a friendly, likeable person who soon learns that she shouldn’t address staff (or, indeed, classmates) as ‘darling’ or ‘poppet’. And while she’s excellent at languages, well-read and extremely good at memorising poems, she loathes maths and knows almost nothing about science.

Very often there are new girls at the Chalet School who struggle to fit in; Jane has no trouble doing that, and quickly makes friends. She turns out to be an excellent actress, too, when called in to take over a role in a play at the last minute; but she’s not the least bit conceited about it. 

But Jack nurses her grudge, and is determined to hate Jane. She even starts to bully her until Len takes a hand. And in a sense, although this book is about Jane, it’s more significant in Jack’s life as she finally starts to mature and think things through. It makes for an interesting plot, and I really didn’t remember any of the details.

I even enjoyed reading the detailed description of the play in which Jane demonstrates her skill; sometimes Brent-Dyer gives lengthy details of a Nativity play or pantomime, and my mind tends to wander. But for some reason I liked the detail of this play, and enjoyed Jane’s success.

Inevitably there’s a dramatic rescue, in an episode that is really the start of Jack’s starting to question her attitude. Then there’s a potential tragedy for Jane, and a few pages that I found extremely poignant; not everyone who reads these books likes Joey Maynard, mother of eleven, who ‘butts in’ and involves herself with school life whenever she can. But she’s an excellent person to provide a bit of mothering to anyone going through a difficult patch.

Even the annual sale, towards the end of the book, is written about in a more interesting way than is usual, so I didn’t skim that. All in all, I enjoyed this book very much. 

Recommended to fans of the series - and this might even make a good introduction to the Chalet School, as quite a bit of it is seen through Jane’s eyes. There are several references to previous books, but it wouldn't matter if one hadn't read them, though it feels more well-rounded (at least, to me) to read the books through in order. 

I have an Armada paperback edition of this book, but, happily, the last ten or so books in the series were not abridged from the originals when they were reprinted in this format. Unfortunately, it's quite hard to find and used editions are often pricey. 

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