Dimsie Goes Back by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Dimsie Goes Back by Dorita Fairlie Bruce was published in 1927, my Oxford University Press copy seems to be a first edition.

In this one Dimsie has been asked to come back to the Jane Willard Foundation for one term to help out the headmistress Miss Yorke, who is looking a bit ‘seedy’ as far as the girls are concerned.  Dimsie will be working as school secretary.

Dimsie is now engaged to be married, the older girls who know her are glad that she’ll be coming back, she had been Head Girl in the past and with a lot of common sense she could be just what is needed as things haven’t been going very well in the school recently.

The behaviour of senior girls has deteriorated badly, with the prefects and even the Head Girl happy to ignore the rules. Even worse than that is the influence of Coral Danesbury who comes from a very wealthy family and thinks that she should get special treatment from the staff, even offering to get her mother to pay the headmistress extra if she can have a room to herself for a study. Already her shared study is stuffed full with silk cushions and ornaments – all against the rules. But a majority of the girls look up to her and want to emulate her style. Face powder and anti-freckle lotion have become popular despite being against the rules.

Dimsie helps some of the girls set up a revived Anti-Soppist League.

This was a good read, there’s quite a lot of humour with a new girl Lintie Gordon being allowed to bring her puppy with her. Lintie is only nine years old and it’s thought she won’t be so homesick with her dog Jeems being at the school. He’s an absolute scamp and is always in trouble, but never for long as he’s just too sweet to be angry with. Through Dorita Fairlie-Bruce we’re told what is going through his mind, which is always amusing, she was obviously a dog lover as they often feature in her stories.

 

Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer – 20 Books of Summer

Eustacia Goes to the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer was first published in 1929.

Eustacia has never been to school before, her father had been a professor of Greek and her mother a doctor, they had not made a good job of bringing her up, and by the time she was a teenager she was a rather superior little prig.

When both of her parents died fairly suddenly Eustacia only had two people in her life, her Aunt Margery as her guardian and uncle Edmund as trustee, and it’s decided that she’ll go to boarding school – the Chalet School of course.

When Eustacia gets there she makes herself very unpopular from day one. She’s a prig and a sneak, two things that most schoolgirls detest, as do the teachers. The girls are intent on pulling her down several pegs. Eustacia can’t stand it and decides to run away, over the mountains!

Of course she has an accident which means a long recuperation. With visits from staff and girls Eustacia is a changed girl. When Eustacia is happy to call herself Stacie it’s seen as an improvement by the headmistress, they didn’t like her ‘sister’ Eustacia at all.

There are a lot of books in this Chalet School series, and they are still being written by different authors. I suspect that I will not be reading them all, but will probably just read up to just after the war years – I’ll see how it goes. They’re an enjoyable read, for me anyway.

Christmas Term at Vernley by Margaret Biggs

Christmas Term at Vernley by Margaret Biggs was first published by Blackie in 1951, but I read a 2012 reprint by Girls Gone By Publishers. It has a few black and white illustrations by W. Spence.

I enjoyed this one despite it not really having anything to do with Christmas, it’s just mentioned in passing close to the end of the book.

It begins at the home of Judy and Philippa (Phil) Fraser right at the end of the school holidays. Their two brothers are also at home and they’re preparing to go back to their boarding school too.

Vernley, in common with most schools has been split up into two ‘houses’ called Raleigh and Drake. Both Judy and Phil are in Drake which is regarded as the rather useless house, they’re the duffers. They never get enough points to win the end of year cup and they’re getting a bit despondent about it. Everyone in Drake is pessimistic about the situation which is half of the problem. They just don’t have the confidence that they can do as well as Raleigh at anything, and Raleigh in turn have a sense of entitlement and superiority.

In the past Phil has been a big part of the problem as she is a bit of a harum scarum and her exploits have led to Drake having points deducted. She’s constantly ‘turning over a new leaf’, but she just can’t help herself so gets into trouble again and again. Her eldest brother John thinks that Drake’s dire record is a bit of a slur on the family name and has a bet with Judy that Phil can sort herself out this time and help Drake to win the cup. She just needs to be encouraged.

This is the first book I’ve read by Margaret Biggs and I was particularly impressed with her dialogue between the schoolgirls. It all seems very authentic to me, with plenty of cheeky banter going on between the girls.  There were a couple of hockey matches which seemed long to me,  I was never keen on hockey, but no doubt if you were an enthusiastic hockey player in your schooldays then that would be a plus for you.

 

Jo of the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Jo of the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer was first published in 1926 and it’s the second book in the very large Chalet School series, 58 books long in fact.

There are over thirty girls at The Chalet School now and Jo’s sister Miss Bettany is the rather young headmistress. There’s a lot going on in this book as it’s set in the winter term, an exciting time in the Austrian Tyrol with plenty of entertainments for the schoolgirls to get involved in. It’s not so great for the locals though as it’s a lean time for them economically. This results in the school getting a Saint Bernard’s pup, the only one saved from a litter.

The ‘school baby’ also arrives, Robin’s mother has died and as her father has to travel for work Robin is placed in the care of the school, she quickly becomes a favourite.

Miss Bettany launches a campaign against slang, just about none of which we would call slang nowadays. Jo is so annoyed about that and she decides to start speaking as they did in Shakespeare’s time. That’s a bit of a hoot, but otherwise there’s a lot of jeapordy for Jo as she gets ill a few times and has accidents.

I read some of the Chalet School books when I was about ten years old, and I remembered that I felt so cosmopolitan because of the smatterings of French and German in them, but I’ve been enjoying reading them recently for the charm of a bygone age, and sometimes they just hit the spot when things are grim in real life, as they were earlier in the month with the death of our friend Eric.

Dimsie Intervenes by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Dimsie Intervenes by Dorita Fairlie Bruce was first published in 1937 and it’s the eighth book in the Dimsie series, so I’ve missed a few of them. I’ll have to get online to find the others. This is the third last book in her Dimsie series and it was only written after readers had asked her for more books featuring Dimsie and the school, the Jane Willard Foundation.

Old girl Erica is living in the village and has set up a branch of the Girls’ Guildry there, but they’re in dire need of a piano. They’re trying to raise £8 to buy one and that’s an awful lot of money. When Erica mentions it to some of the pupils they decide to help out somehow.

Some of the younger girls are getting very keen on make-up, face creams and slimming cream!! But things like that are frowned upon by the school. A small business is set up by the older girls when they realise that they can send off for small samples from the manufacturers who advertise in magazines, and they can sell them on to the younger girls, at a profit naturally. It’s all very secretive of course.

I think this is the fourth Dimsie book I’ve read and I didn’t enjoy it as much as the others, although it was still a good enough read to continue. Inevitably I feel uncomfortable when there’s interaction between the schoolgirls and the local village girls as there’s an air of them being condescended to. Which is exactly how it would have been, in fact it still is like that – in some places not that far from here!

Autumn Term by Antonia Forest

Autumn Term by Antonia Forest is the first in her Kingscote school (Marlow Family) series. It was first published in 1948.

It begins with twin girls Nicola and Lawrie Marlow travelling by train to Kingscote School to join their four older sisters there. Before they even reach the school Nicola has a moment of madness which could have ended in tragedy. Big sister Karen Marlow is unimpressed as she’s the Head Girl and a misbehaving young sister is reflecting badly on her.

Nicola and Lawrie are shocked when they discover that they aren’t as clever as they thought they were. All of their siblings are smart, it’s a bit of an embarrassment for the youngest girls to be put into the Third Remove. Nobody expects much from that class but the girls are determined to make the class’s mark in the school, somehow.

This is a really good read. Antonia Forest was so in tune with girls of high school age, and the scrapes that they can get themselves into. In parts it reminded me a bit of Noel Streatfeild, with a play being rehearsed and acted towards the end.

Dimsie Moves Up by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Dimsie Moves Up by Dorita Fairlie Bruce is the second book in the Dimsie series which I started reading recently. It was first published in 1921 but my copy dates from 1950. These books were obviously very popular as this book was reprinted eight times within those years.

In this book Dimsie is unexoectedly moved up a form along with several of her friends, with new girls arriving those who had done well academically the previous year need to move up to make room for them. Some of the older girls in the new form make Dimsie and her friends promise not to give flowers to any of the teachers. It’s something that none of the younger girls had even thought of doing. It’s explained to them that some girls go through a phase of being soppy over their female teachers or older girls. Nowadays we’d call it having a crush. Dimsie and her friends set up an ‘Anti Soppist Society’ as they don’t want anything to do with that sort of nonsense.

Dimsie Moves Up has quite a lot about games in it, but even if like me you were never keen on PE at school this doesn’t detract from the storyline

Nita Tomlinson isn’t a prefect but she has been made games-captain. Giving someone like Nita any power is just madness, she does her best to make trouble all round, stealing away best friends and generally throwing her weight around. I suppose she’s the sort of character that you love to hate, whereas Dimsie is a lovely girl, nothing startling in the looks or brains department, just a girl with plenty of common sense and kindness. She reminds me a bit of Darrell in Blyton’s Malory Towers series but I must say that I think Dorita Fairlie Bruce was a much better writer than Blyton was, although I loved her books as a youngster.

It has been mentioned before that the name Dimsie is an unfortunate choice, her actual name is Daphne and I’d plump for Dimsie any day rather than that. However I googled dim as in dimwitted and it seems that it was first used in that way in 1934. However another source cites it as being used in US colleges first in 1922, which is still after this book was published.

Three Terms at Uplands by Angela Brazil

Three Terms at Uplands cover

Three Terms at Uplands by Angela Brazil was published in 1945 and it was her second last book before her death in 1947. I think her later books are slimmer than her earlier volumes.

Claire and Colin Johnstone’s parents have been killed in a car accident in Mexico where their father had been working as a mining engineer, so the children are sent back home to England to live with their grandparents. Their young Aunt Dorothy has sailed to Mexico to accompany them back and the children make friends with some of the people on board.

Back in England their aunt and grandparents cocoon them in love and the children eventually settle down to their new life, but times are hard as money is scarce and Aunt Dorothy who had been keen to study art in Cornwall with some talented artists ends up having to become an art teacher to help support the children.

Colin, being the boy is without question sent to the same private school that his father and grandfather had gone to. But when it comes to Claire she’s expected to make do with the local high school as there’s no money for her to go to a boarding school.

A stroke of luck leads to her getting a partial scholarship to Uplands which is apparently a very good boarding school, and so begins her journey from unsure new girl to a more confident personality who helps out with a younger girl.

This was a very quick read, entertaining and so true to life as I laughed (or should I say huffed) when Colin’s education was seen as being so much more important than Claire’s. The exact same thing happened to a schoolfriend of mine in the late 1960s – 70s. Mind you Morag did very well at the local high school along with the rest of us, whereas her brother ran away from his posh boarding school as soon as he turned 16 – and joined the Merchant Navy!

For the Sake of the School by Angela Brazil

for the sake of the school cover

For the Sake of the School by Angela Brazil was first published in 1915 but my copy was published during World War 2 as it has that Book Production Economy Standard logo at the front and although there’s no publication date it was a gift to Rose from Jean for Christmas 1943.

I didn’t read any of these books as a child, I was strictly an Enid Blyton Malory Towers/St Clare’s girl which were obviously written along very similar lines as far as morals and behaviour are concerned. Blyton probably just wrote updated versions of Brazil’s books. I suspect that Brazil was better though.

It begins at a railway station as most schooldays’ stories do (Harry Potter). The girls are on their way to The Woodlands which is in a very rural setting in Wales. The two women who own the school are keen on nature and wildlife and the girls are encouraged to get out into the great outdoors as often as possible. In fact they could be regarded as nature worshipers, such is their enthusiasm.

This year Ulyth (new name to me) is particularly excited because Rona the New Zealand pen-pal that she has been writing to for the last two years is arriving as a new boarder. Rona’s mother is dead and she has had a rather rough upbringing by her father who is a farmer in the wilds of New Zealand. Ulyth who has been looking forward so much to meeting Rona is rather shocked by her appearance and lack of manners. She’s keen to drop her pen-pal but is persuaded to take her on as a work in progress and try to make Rona conform more to what is expected of girls from The Woodlands School.

Trials and tribulations ensue, wrong conclusions are jumped to but as you would expect – all is well in the end. I did find the storyline of this book to be more than a bit obvious, but it was still enjoyable and I can imagine that if I read this as a ten year old I would have loved it. I think most if not all of Angela Brazil’s books are available free from Project Gutenberg.

It struck me a couple of times that Angela Brazil wrote as if she was Scottish, according to Wiki her mother was a McKinnel, so possibly they were originally from Scotland – or she had a Scottish nanny. In part of this book someone says that they “put something by in the dresser” – meaning they put something away in the dresser. Very Scottish.