Excitements at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Excitements at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am slowly working my way through the last few Chalet School books I’m yet to review and picked up Excitements, prompted by the discovery of a nicer paperback in the shop. I like this slow and steady collection making, when you find one of them somewhere by accident, rather than the swifter rewards of the internet. There’s something haphazard about it, an unexpected joy when you see one of them staring back at you from the shelf, and I love that moment immensely.

So: Excitements. A later book but one with Miss Ferrars in, and that’s always a plus. She’s such a dynamic character. In terms of plot, this is A TERM WITH A DIFFERENCE. I mean, it’s not really a term with a difference, it’s a term where things happen in a steadily sequential manner, everybody forgets about the moment that they’ve happened because the next thing’s about to come, there’s a trip somewhere, somebody has an accident, everybody goes oh my god, the middles, we stop everything for an enormous meal, there are CAMEOS FROM THE PAST (honestly, these capitals, forgive me), Joey flies in and out, there’s the coadjutor (this name always bothered me, just call her Rösli, quit with the dehumanisation of her), but somehow, somehow, it’s also intensely charming? In a way that really startled me?

The later books are as a rule, not the best. Quality starts to dip and as I wrote about this book on Twitter, the ‘excitements’ part of this one’s title is more than a little bit ambitious. It’s all very soft and kind of brief and we’re just moving through things and yet, and yet, there’s something here and it’s a something about family, I think, the fact that if you’re in the Chalet School club, these people will go to the end of the world for you, and it’s a something that brought me to sudden tears: twice! Twice! Can you imagine it? And yet it happened in this book where literally we sing a song, somebody has a chat, and there’s a goat. Oh my god. (I shall not spoil it for those of you who do not know but for those of you who do: Matey, and then Hilda’s line about giving the window …)

It’s ridiculous. There’s so much admin. Vast amount of it are instantly forgettable. And yet, and yet, all of it can suddenly break your heart. I love it.

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