ISBN: 978-1-84745-157-6
Doing pretty much what it says on the tin, in distinctly impressive style, The Chalet School Encyclopaedia is an encyclopaedia of everybody who has played a part in the Chalet School world (up to D). Interspersed between the letter sections are a few one-off entries detailing various aspects of Brent-Dyer’s work. This volume has: School Uniforms at the Chalet School, Books written by Josephine M. Bettany, Bit Parts and Leading Ladies, and a Character Index by Christian Names.
It is one of those books which awes me in the scale of its scope and yet frustrates me equally as much as it impresses. It is a boon to anybody considering Chalet School research (or fanfic!), as McCallum has got some beautiful entries which sum up every mention a character has had.in the books. There’s something very lovely and endearing about browsing the entry for Miss Annersley and seeing how many times the colour of her eyes are mentioned. (For those of you who are interested, it’s eleven, though I may have got that wrong as I got distracted and then highly amused by the fact that she also has ‘preternaturally sharp ears’ Shocks, 94).
That sort of satisfying segue and then another segue is a key joy of a topic like this. For example, the entry for Chudleigh, Peregrine ‘Hawk’ has made me really rather desperate to read Chudleigh Hold. How can you stay away from a book which features a character described as ‘a dark silent youth who is known as Hawk, partly due to his name, partly because he has a beaky nose and partly from his habit of hovering over a subject and then pouncing suddenly on the main point. He is something of a loner’ (Excuse me whilst I go and giggle over that one some more).
So where’s the annoyance? It lies, I think in the illustrations. There are some glorious images throughout this book and none of them are labelled. You can work out a lot of the context through where they are, but there are others that aren’t immediately as accessible of these, Labels, references, some sort of citation at least would connect these a lot more to the text as at present, the illustrations feel rather like a closed reference. You understand and know where they’re from if you know, but if you don’t, then they could be from any edition and if you’ve not read the relevant title, then it’s a magical mystery tour.
And that’s not good, really, in a book which is so gloriously detailed in other ways to be a bit blase about a substantial part of the books appeal. It is at odds with the obvious care and attention given to the volume as a whole.
(And now, now that I’ve said all that, if somebody would like to break down the illustrations on the back cover for me, I’d think you were amazing as I’m dying to know which girl is serving a horses head to somebody… (update: “re girl with horse head. It’s from Mystery and part of a Christmas play with character serving a boar’s head” Thank you Twitter!!)
Daisy May Johnson 
From the style it looks as if it comes from one of the Chalet Books for Girls, but as I don’t have my copies with me I can’t check and most of the inside illustrations are black and white. I don’t think it is a cover, unless it is a later published one (and I recognised all the others.) On the front left to right: Does It Again, Lavender, Rescue, Camp. Back left to right: Future, Changes, Problem
Thank you! 🙂
I love these types of reference, especially for those subjects I have an interest in, because it’s always interesting to see how someone else expresses their enthusiasm — though it’s not always successful.
Regarding the lack of labelling, it’s quite possible the art direction was done by someone in-house rather than by the author, in which case the fault lies with the publishers — more shame them!
It’s kind of brilliant isn’t it – when you see the different approaches to something but know that it’s from a place of utter love for the series. It is a splendid book but lord, how those un-referenced images do bug me!
I wouldn’t have guessed they bugged you!
Ha! 😀