The Chalet School books

Hey Ladies, so lovely to hear all your stories of the Chalet School Books. They clearly mean as much to some of you as they did to me. I found solace and wonder in them, they were all mine and the escapism was a life-saver. My household was wild, feckless parents who left us mostly to our own devices, so the Chalet School Books were my haven. Thanks for sharing everyone, have a lovely evening

Only Ballet Shoes originally had the word ‘shoes’ in the title. The others didn’t, as far as I remember. Ballet Shoes is the best of the Noel Streatfeild books, I think, but they are all very readable. She had a genius for portraying character,

I had one of her less-known books called The Painted Garden. It’s about making a film of The Secret Garden, in the 1940s. The awkward one of the family lands the leading role of Mary Lennox. There’s usually an awkward child in Streatfeild’s books - selfportraits, I suspect.

Someone mentioned Lorna Hill. I read those, too. Also Pamela Brown’s Blue Door Venture, about children who run their own theatre.

My brother read Malcolm Saville and Arthur Ransome, but I didn’t. I regarded them as boys’ books, and therefore inferior ?.

Oh, Tennis Shoes was the original title, I think.

This thread is about the Chalet School books, which I have never read. Perhaps I should. I was sidetracked, sorry.

I loved the Mallory Towers books and was excited to go to boarding school at the age of 11 (father in forces) oh my goodness … girls boarding school of the 60s was like Dante’s 9th circle of hell. When I confessed to thinking that it would be like MT to other girls, I was mocked mercilessly and they wrote letters to Enid Blyton (which they left out for me to find) saying how sorry they felt for me.

Happiest day was when I left 7 years later. My daughters would never ever have gone boarding.

I too loved the chalet school series and the stclair series by enid blyton. I have some tatty copies in the spare room

Loved the Chalet School books and did some research into E.M Dyer she was a prolific writer. There is a group Friends of the Chalet School which keeps the books and ides going www.chaletschool.org.uk/new-chalet-school-and-other-title-short-stories/