More for the record in my 60 books in a year challenge than anything else. I’m not expecting to inspire anyone to read Chalet books but they were a childhood love of mine and I still dip in occasionally. over the last few years there has been a good few ‘fill in’ titles written, published fan fic that fits into the holes left in the series by the author, Elinor M Brent-Dyer. All the ones I’ve read have been very close to the original style and really kept to the plots that are alluded to in other parts of the series.
The Guides of the Chalet School is one of the early terms and sees the beginning of the school Guide company. It’s not the most fast moving of plots but the detail is great, clearly well researched and interesting. The first aid from the 1930’s was perhaps more scary than interesting and the book rightly carried a warning not to use such methods today! The characters were all true though and I loved having that extra bit of the early Austrian days which were under-used really and by far the most charming of the Chalet years.
Juliet of the Chalet School was a bit of a triumph and Caroline German should be rightly proud of it. Juliet is a great character and I have no idea why EBD didn’t stretch her and keep her at the school longer, especially as some characters managed to stay till they should have been in their early 20’s! (The notes to this book are also great; here is a woman with full on timeline OCD!) Juliet is very real, the tribulations with various middles excellent and lots of the other characters really come to life. Another book the series is better off for having.