Tag Archives: sea adventure

The Chalet School in Exile by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

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The Chalet School in Exile by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer was first published in 1940 by Chambers, but my copy is an abridged paperback Armada. I don’t have that many of the hardbacks as they tend to be overpriced, in my opinion.

Anyway, this one is quite different from previous books as the location of the Austrian Alps became distinctly uncomfortable when the local Nazis started to flex their muscles. A simple walk by some of the girls in the school’s surroundings leads to a dangerous encounter with locals who call the Gestapo, accusing the girls of being spies.  Before the Gestapo come calling the girls attempt an escape into Switzerland and safety, it’s a terrifying journey, but they have no choice.

Meanwhile – back at the Chalet School it has become obvious that the school needs to find a new home. The German pupils go home, as do some others. So much school equipment will just have to be abandoned.

This is a very different read from the others I’ve read in this series as it involves spies and a chase across the Alps.  A new school will have to be started up elsewhere, and Guernsey is chosen as the new location!!

As this book was published in 1940, the same year that the Nazis invaded the Channel Islands including Guernsey, I’m intrigued. What made Brent-Dyer choose Guernsey for the new school location? Possibly by the time the book was published Guernsey had already been over-run. Anyway, they are obviously going to have to move the school yet again. This was an enjoyable romp.

Towards the end of this book there’s a shock for Jo who is now married. I suspect that the birth of triplets was seen by many readers to be very far-fetched, but I knew a woman who did give birth to triplets, naturally, it was pre test tube babies, and the mother was over 40!

There was an article in today’s Guardian about adults reading books for Young Adults which you can read here. Apparently 74% of Young Adult fiction readers are adults. If writing is good I don’t think there is an age category, it’s for readers of all ages to enjoy.

I started reading the Chalet School books again as it’s so long since I read them, they’re a real nostalgia kick for me, not that I can actually remember much about them. But the ambience seemed cosmopolitan to the ten year old me.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi was published in 1990 and has won several children’s book awards. You really have to suspend your disbelief while reading this book in order to enjoy it as the whole thing is most unlikely, but that didn’t stop it from being an enjoyable read.

It’s 1832 and thirteen year old Charlotte Doyle is in a crowded dock in Liverpool where she is to board a ship bound for America. Her father had arranged for her to be in the company of two families who would also be passengers and would look after her, but when Charlotte boards the Seahawk she discovers that those families have changed their plans, and she is alone on the ship, apart from a crew of mainly ragged ruffians.

Captain Jaggery is a cruel master and it isn’t long before Charlotte witnesses his harsh command. The only person that Charlotte befriends is the ship’s cook, but he is the target of Jaggery’s cruelty, with disastrous consequences.

Charlotte ends up becoming a member of the crew, casting off her dainty frocks in favour of the more practical clothing of a sailor boy and in no time she’s crawling up the masts to the crow’s nest as if she has been born to do it – you see what I mean about having to suspend your disbelief!

Things go from bad to worse when Charlotte is accused of murder – but all’s well that ends well. I can imagine this one being very popular with young girls hankering after adventure – vicariously.

A Ship of the Line by C.S. Forester

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A Ship of the Line cover

A Ship of the Line by C.S. Forester was written in 1938 and I read it because it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize that year, I’m trying to read my way through as many of the winners as I can. Mind you, I can’t find any mention at all in the book’s introduction (by Bernard Cornwell) or on the jacket of the fact that it did win the prize.

It is of course a Horatio Hornblower tale of the sea during The Napoleonic Wars. It begins with Hornblower taking command of a ship called the Sutherland, it was originally captured from the Dutch and it’s design isn’t really suitable as a warship, it’s described as the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List. Hornblower is having a hard time getting enough men to man the ship, he’s having to make do with prisoners and even men who have been pressed into service.

The action quickly moves off to the coast of Catalonia in Spain, where Hornblower and his ship’s company engage in sea battles and conduct raids on shore against the French army. It is of course set at a time when Napoleon was rampaging around Europe, particularly Spain.

To begin with I really didn’t think that I was going to enjoy this book, it seemed like it was going to be far too much of a sort of ‘boys’ adventure’ tale, with lots of fighting going on, but I ended up getting really into it, and when Hornblower mentioned that he knew the area well because he had been held captive in Ferrol for two years in the past, I felt quite at home too because of course we sailed into Ferrol just a few months ago.

The only annoying thing is that it would have been better if I had read the previous books in this series first.

I must admit that I had no idea that C.S. Forester had written The African Queen (which I have seen so often I could act all the parts myself, including the leeches!) in fact quite a few of his books were made into films. I’ll probably read some more in this series, apart from anything else, it ended so abruptly that I feel I have to find out what happens next in Hornblower’s life.