The Chalet School

Pikaboo, you're a fan too! Yay :biggrin:

Definite heap of us coming out of the closet
I am super jealous of you Helenia :p:

I have to go there sometime - need to either brush up on my German or drag along my boyfriend who always makes fun of the books.

Reply 3

Helenia

OP

pikaboo

That's just how I imagined the school would look too - beautiful! Awww, it's even got a petit chalet :p:

I've read the first few in the series then a random one towards the end. Needless to say I got confused. But I always intend to read the ones that include the war, as it'll be interesting to see what their experiences are from the other side of the border.

Hate to break it to you, but they escape to England (via Guernsey) for the duration of the war. You really must read Chalet School in Exile if you can, it explains all this and is one of the best books in the series, I think.

Acaila - I dragged the boy along to the Achensee, I did disguise the trip a bit as a nice long walk though, which just happened to be where the Chalet School was set. He was grumbling quite a lot, but then he saw the little steam trains that go up there, and that kept him happy for a while. :wink:

I think I found the Dripping Rock, but I'm not quite sure. It was in the right place (between Pertisau and Gaisalm). Seemed to be a cliff with a small stream running off the top of it. The roof is put up to protect the path, I expect - there are loads of landslides round there, so having water continually running onto the path would not help matters!

Reply 4

*sneezes*

Sorry, it was a bit dusty in that closet :biggrin:

I'm learning German at the moment, it would be a wonderful excuse to travel there.

That picture's beautiful. I've just been reading one of the books where the original chalet is described a bit, and it does look similar to how I imagined it.

Reply 5

I love the description of us as geektastic!

Chalet School in Exile is definitely a must read - easily my favourite of the series.
Helen - I'm going to find out now if the boyfriend likes trains! He actually answers to SLOC, as in "solid lump of comfort", proving I've read Exile a few too many times :biggrin:

Reply 6

pikaboo

13

Helenia - I just realised who you remind me of - there's a picture of Jo on the front cover of my first Chalet book and it's an exact likeness, or at least the expression is lol!
*runs off again*

Reply 7

pikaboo

Helenia - I just realised who you remind me of - there's a picture of Jo on the front cover of my first Chalet book and it's an exact likeness, or at least the expression is lol!
*runs off again*

Wow, now that you mention it, it really is! :biggrin:

Reply 8

potspansamy

10

The Chalet School :biggrin:

I love those books I have about 20 of them (maybe a few more) haven't read any of them in a while apart from a few I got off ebay. I will have to route the rest of them out.
I have always wanted to visit that part of Austria, to see what it was like for real...I am so envious :rolleyes:

Reply 9

How much should one pay for white spines on ebay?

Reply 10

Helenia

OP

All this talk of different kinds of books is confusing me - I've probably got a couple of each print run but I'm not sure of all the names. So, the most recent ones were the metallic ones, then before that it was the ones with coloured spines and the name in the coloured box on the front, then before that it was the white spines? And before that?

Reply 11

From what I gather, these are the editions, most recent first:

(metalic ones)

(coloured spines)

(white spines)

(70's)

(60's - hadn't ever seen any of these before I started looking on the net)

I have one metalic one, and the rest are mostly coloured/white, with another two of the ones I linked to third.

Reply 12

Juno

I have a few 60's ones, and they're so cool! They're my favourite out of all the styles.

But this thread took all my internetness, so don't expect me back

Reply 13

I have a few 60s ones - Mary Lou, Genius, one of the Austrian ones off the top of my head.
Most I now have in white spine or coloured spine, but there's a few swiss ones in the 70s style, and I've got Lintons and Rebel at in metallic spine.

Reply 14

Juno

Acaila

I have a few 60s ones - Mary Lou, Genius, one of the Austrian ones off the top of my head.
Most I now have in white spine or coloured spine, but there's a few swiss ones in the 70s style, and I've got Lintons and Rebel at in metallic spine.

And you also have half of my collection!

Reply 15

Excalibur

15

I haven't heard of these series before, but it sounds quite interesting.... what are they about?

Reply 16

Helenia

OP

Excalibur

I haven't heard of these series before, but it sounds quite interesting.... what are they about?

It's a girls' school series, which starts out in the Austrian Tirol before WW2, but moves around a lot before ending up in Switzerland for the last part of the series. There are 62 books (I think) covering nearly every term of the school's existence. I loved them because they were different from Mallory Towers/St Clare's - more exciting locations, and the girls seemed more real.

I was very disappointed to get to boarding school of my own and discover it wasn't at all like that :frown:

Thanks for those pictures, Princess Ana. I've only got one of the 60s editions (Eustacia) but of my 70s ones, there are two different types of spine - one has her name first, then the title in what looks like Arial bold, the others have the title first in the same font as the front cover, and then her name. Now there's pedantry! I also have a white spine edition of Adrienne, but it's numbered 45, when it's actually later in the series, I believe. Strange.

Reply 17

Excalibur

15

Helenia

It's a girls' school series, which starts out in the Austrian Tirol before WW2, but moves around a lot before ending up in Switzerland for the last part of the series. There are 62 books (I think) covering nearly every term of the school's existence. I loved them because they were different from Mallory Towers/St Clare's - more exciting locations, and the girls seemed more real.

I was very disappointed to get to boarding school of my own and discover it wasn't at all like that :frown:

Thanks for the description :smile:

And it sounds good, and probably the sorts of books I like, although I'm not sure if they're books that can only truly be enjoyed during childhood.... I'll search around for the first one, anyway.

Reply 18

Helenia

Thanks for those pictures, Princess Ana. I've only got one of the 60s editions (Eustacia) but of my 70s ones, there are two different types of spine - one has her name first, then the title in what looks like Arial bold, the others have the title first in the same font as the front cover, and then her name. Now there's pedantry! I also have a white spine edition of Adrienne, but it's numbered 45, when it's actually later in the series, I believe. Strange.

Weird. I have a coloured spine Adrienne, and it's definately number 57.

On checking the spine of the only 70s book I have to hand, it's got the title first. My Head-Girl seems to have disappeared (probably into one of the various piles of books stacked up in the corner of my room), so I can't check that.

Reply 19