Shocks for the
Chalet School

HB/PB comparisons      Publishing history  

Click to see a larger image of the dustwrapper. On the right is a paperback edition.

Comparison between the hb (1st edition) and the pb (1971 edition)

It was not until I began this comparison that I realised how many changes there were between the hb and pb of Shocks.  In fact it amounts to nearly 25 typewritten pages!  However, having said that, the majority of the alterations do not have a major effect on the story - they are mainly incidental details, but which tell us more about the characters and about old friends.  So here goes with the main omissions.

Chapter 1
Surprise is expressed at the length of the cable from Mr Hope given that the cost of sending a cable is so expensive.  There is more background about the McKenzies.  Jock McKenzie had sent Con and the boys to Australia from Singapore and they only returned to Singapore after the war.  Housing shortages in Britain and Australia are also mentioned as is the fact that the McKenzies had been hoping to find somewhere in Manly after Jock had been promoted to a post in Sydney.  We learn that Jennifer Penrose has been rather subdued over the holidays and her mother has written to the school about it.  She obviously was not told about her daughter's nefarious practices the previous term or that Hilda had at one point considered asking her parents to remove her at the end of term.  Emerence is apparently a Catholic and also a vegetarian, although I don't remember that last being mentioned ever again.  It certainly is never referred to again in Shocks.  I can only assume that to EBD this was a further indication of the eccentricities of the Hopes.  Con McKenzie also says in her letter that Corney and Evvy had nothing on Emerence as regards demonic behaviour!

Chapter 2
More mentions of the cost of cables are omitted.  Hilda, Rosalie and Matey indulge in "hilarious" games of Monopoly and Ten Rummy.  There are tedious descriptions about the arrival of the trunks.  Last year apparently Megan had let the men leave the trunks in the yard and the maids had had to carry them up to the trunk room.  Rosalie arrives just in time to stop the same thing happening again and spends ages sorting them out (yawn).  Megan meanwhile has gone into a huff at having her orders countermanded and refuses to bring anything nice for teas so Rosalie makes some cakes.  Aren't you glad you know all that?  Rosalie speculates on the name of the new Maynard baby and decides that as all the family names are used up it will depend on which saint's name Joey has a fancy for at the moment.  More details are given of the birth of the Maynard twins.  As far as their names are concerned, Jack says that Joey was so delighted to have twins that "only Felix and Felicity can express her joy".  We are told, yet again, that Joey has beaten everyone in the family so far.  We are also reminded about poor Rolf, Jack's brother's son, who was killed as a result of disobedience.  What did he do- does anyone know?  As far as I know that's all we ever hear about him but I could be wrong.  A mention of the flight from Tirol disappears.  Jack also says they are going to move into their own place in Toronto as there are now too many of them to fit into Jem and Madge's house.

Chapter 3
We learn that Elfie had a stepbrother who died when he was a baby and who would have been 13 now.  The Woodwards also have had a housekeeper called Florence since Elfie's own parents were married, but who is getting old now and needs to be told what to do.  My favourite bit is omitted, so I quote from the hb "The Chalet Girls always had a carriage and a half engaged on this train, and several girls had fallen out since they were arriving at Carnbach by road."!!  Did no-one stop the train and go back for them?

Chapter 4
Nancy Chester's remark "What utterly putrid luck!" is changed to "What awful luck!"  Consequently Primrose's rebuke about slang and Nancy's explanation that it's because of having so many brothers are omitted.  There is a lot of detail about how the girls are organised into the coaches, who the escort mistresses are and the information that Mary-Lou has lost two umbrellas on the train before this.  A reference to the fact that "Tom really is a gentleman" is also omitted.

Chapter 5
Hilda explains why the new girls are going to arrive later this year i.e. due to Carola Johnstone gatecrashing two terms ago and Katherine Gordon coming to the wrong school last term.

Chapter 6
During the allocation of duties at the prefects meeting talk turns to Grizel Cochrane.  Madge Herbert had really suffered under her and had almost given up music because of her.  Julie tells her and the rest about Grizel's background - that she always wanted to do PE but her father refused to allow her and that she now ran a music shop with Deira O'Hagan.  Julie suggests that she will probably be a different person now that she is no longer forced to do something she didn't like doing.  We are also told of Julie's own wish to follow in her father's footsteps and read Law.  After Emerence's appearance and abrupt departure, one of the prefects remarks that she was surprised at Con McKenzie sending Emerence to them as she thought Con liked them, but Loveday's comments that Emerence is not a fair specimen of an Australian Middle.

Chapter 7
Rosalie tells the staff that Emerence is worse than Evvy and Corney and that "It isn't a school she needs - it's a Borstal reformatory of the strictest kind!"  The menu for lunch was corned beef hash (no allowances made there for Emerence's vegetarianism then) and stewed plums and custard.  Incidentally, can anyone tell me why it is that when the school is at Howells and St Briavel's they always seem to have very British food?  I thought that one of the many Karens left Tirol with the school.  I'm sure she'd manage something a bit more adventurous than corned beef hash.  There is a reference to Hilda's excellent hearing when she tells Mary-Lou not to use slang after introducing Emerence to her and her gang.  Mary-Lou has been growing recently "and was doing it with the vim she did most things."  Emerence has "an inveterate dislike of foreign languages."  Doris is apparently inclined to be curious according to Mary-Lou and that her Gran would call her "a regular curiosity box".  When asked how Gran described Mary Lou herself, she replies "a perfect nuisance".  Some detail is given of the netball match and there is an even longer description of the hockey match.  In fact the latter in the hardback covers a couple of pages and is cut in the pb to "Emerence had enjoyed her afternoon and had lots of questions she wanted to ask about games".

Chapter 8
Clem is in a bad mood on the day Emerence breaks out because of the continuing rain and because Carola had practically hammered down the bathroom door as she reckoned Clem was late.  The fact that Emerence's cubicle is in a mess did not improve matters.  Incidentally, the hb description "the Gentleman's garret which was Emerence's cubicle" becomes simply "Emerence's cubicle" in the pb.  Emerence decides to use the main staircase as "she was as good as any mistress or prefect of them all".  She is due to have a remedial session with Peggy Burnett as she is threatened with slight flat foot and we are told that she wholeheartedly admires Peggy and that games is the only lesson she likes at the moment.  Bride meets Peggy and explains what Emerence has been up to and why she will not be coming to see her and Peggy says she will get her to come in her free time.

Chapter 9
Lots of details about the recent bad weather are omitted e.g. one of the netball courts is flooded.  We are given details about the girls' gardening uniform - blue jeans covering them from chest to ankle, stout clogs, scarves to cover their heads, short sleeved blouses and, if necessary, dogskin gardening gloves.  Does that not just conjure up a lovely picture?  Peggy Burnett, we learn, had often been corrected in her younger days for using "Can I ..." instead of "May I ..."  Mary Lou, in trying to get free of the rose bush leaves half her blouse behind.  Miss Everett half thinks that Verity Anne is joking when she tells her of Peggy's disappearance down the well "though why she should suspect that rather humourless young lady of such a thing is hard to say".  I always believed that Verity Anne did not have much of a sense of humour and I'm vindicated at last!  Miss Everett apparently keeps "an enormous bandana like a small table-cloth"  in her pocket and she uses this to tie up Peggy's ankle.  There is also a suggestion that the girls would have liked to hear the "slangy colloquy between the mistresses".  Peggy is carried off with the help of Hilda Jukes and Armine Browne "who were big sturdy girls".  Is this Armine Browne's moment of fame?  Does she appear again in any other book?

Chapter 10
Some four pages are cut from the hardback at the beginning of this chapter.  Priscilla Dawbarn causes a stramash by remarking that the whole incident with the well was really Mary Lou's fault in the first place.  Everyone else is up in arms and she backs down, but Mary Lou admits that if she had not had the scissors in the first place, probably nothing would have happened.  We also learn something of Mary Lou's interview with the Head who had told her that, although she may not have broken a direct rule by using the scissors, she had been deceitful.  She had also remarked "I didn't think that you, of all girls, would ever turn shifty, Mary Lou", which seems a trifle harsh.  This had devastated Mary Lou, as she felt that she had let down her father.  Since his heroic death she had resolved to grow up into the kind of girl he would have wanted her to be.  Clem too had told her she had cheated and she dreaded to think what Tony would have to say if he ever found out.  So, all in all, Mary Lou is feeling rather small.  We are also told incidentally that Emerence managed to save the big dandelion root they had dug up and had brought it in so they could show it to Miss Everett.  Emerence is delighted with the praise which is heaped on her for this especially when Vi says "you angel-pie".  All of this is condensed into three lines in the pb.  Cherry Christy's polio is mentioned as is the fact it has left her with a small appetite.

Chapter 11
We learn that the new Christy baby is to be named Francis for his mother (Frances Caroline) and Michael for his father.  Vi reckons that the baby will be unlikely to be called by his full name.  Her full name is Viola, Julie is Juliet, Betsy is Elizabeth, Barney is Barnabas and Kitten is Katherine.  The only one always to be given his name in full is John.  At the moment Michael Christy calls the baby Blinkie, according to Cherry "cos he blinks at you when he's awake".  The prefects are seen as responsible enough to go for a walk on their own with no supervision.  The highly strung Julie is given a sedative in hot milk after landing in the bog when jumping the sunk path.

Chapter 12
Thora Bjornsessen (née Helgersen) is married to a timber merchant and lives in Oslo.  She sent both her daughters to school when the youngest was old enough.  Her sister, Astrid, married an English sea captain and lives in Tynemouth and has invited her nieces for half term.  Only Emerence and Carola would have been left at school as Jeanne de Lachenais was taking all the French and Belgian girls with her to France.  Biddy O'Ryan went off to visit Elsie Carr and be godmother to her daughter.  A description of Rosalie's drive from Cardiff to Carnbach is also cut.

Chapter 13
Madge tells Hilda, Gwynneth and Rosalie that she has sent Marie (formerly Pfeiffen) to open up Cartref for her and that Marie and her daughter, Gretchen, had duly done so.  There is a long discussion about hair colour.  Madge describes Margot as golden fair and says that Mike and Steve are darker.  Felix and Felicity are going to be flaxen, the first in the family.  Rosalie reminds Madge that Peggy was always described by Jo as silvern fair.  There is also a discussion on size - Peggy being built on a miniature scale, Bride a hefty young woman and Maeve the inevitable leggy object, as well as being, according to Rosalie "a young imp of sin".  We also miss out on the fashion news that Madge was wearing a cossack cap of astrakhan fur with matching coat.

Chapter 14
The clock in the prefects' room was donated by Bette Rincini, now Bette di Bersetti.  She lives on a prairie farm in Canada with her two children.  Her daughter Marie was born three months after the death of her father in a climbing accident.  One of the reasons for Bride being made Bank Prefect is that Dollie Edwards cannot easily do it now that she is permanently at St Agnes' on the mainland.  Elfie asks about the new staff and is told that Miss Derwent takes Senior English, Miss Oldroyd Junior English and Miss Armitage takes science.  They are all young so will join in the fun of the evening which the prefects have prepared for them.  For some reason Miss Derwent is taking Catholic prayers, although I should have thought that Jeanne de Lachennais would have done this duty.  Mary-Lou is the first to notice Elfie's return at prayers and is forced to keep quiet about it until dinner.  We are told yet again that Prudence Dawbarn's name is a misnomer and that Hilda did not want her to get into trouble so soon after returning to school from the half term break.  Matey is responsible for all the upstairs keys in the house and Rosalie for the downstairs ones.  Today's menu - kedgeree.

Chapter 15
Rosalind is no longer allowed to stand with an arm around Julie's waist in the pb.  When the Middles hear the mirth coming from the Hall Prudence is moved to suggest trying to see what is going on only to be totally crushed by Mary-Lou and co.  Emerence, fresh from her punishment of cleaning out the cupboards in the prefects room for trying to sit in on a meeting remarks, 'gloomily, "I'd leave it alone.  They  might turn you on to cleaning Hall!"'  Miss Lawrence remarks, when trying to identify a baby photo.  "This can't be any of you!  You mayn't be a set of geniuses, but I will say that none of you are mental!  Obviously this poor child was slated for the nearest institution for half-wits!"  Obviously not quite p.c. enough for the pb.  Matey tells Madge "with a twinkle" that she intends to give Miss Armitage a dose of medicine to ward off incipient appendicitis after her apple exploit.

Chapter 16
Emerence had been so backward when she arrived that she should have gone into Upper IIIA but it was felt better to put her into Lower IVA where most of the girls were fairly sensible.  The Dawbarn twins had also been split up and Priscilla was in Lower IVA and Prudence in Upper IIIA as Priscilla "had been known to think once before she did anything, while Prudence did whatever came into her head without thinking at all".  Jeanne de Lachenais was rather sneaky over her vocabulary testing, never saying exactly when she would test it, "leaving it largely to chance" but always remembering to test it so the girls had to learn it.  Mr Hope had a large sheep station in Australia and their house in Manly was only a holiday home.  He was very keen on irrigation and Emerence was used to seeing irrigation ditches, hence her fascination with the brook filling from the old well.  Biddy was fond of Australians, having lived there for a few years.  She had gone there to accompany a friend from Oxford who was dying and had stayed on with the family to help look after the children, before coming back to teach at the school.  Julie Lucy is the youngest of the prefects.  Emerence, having been sent to Coventry by the rest, had moved her desk into a corner far away from the others.  The only person near her was Priscilla Dawbarn, who had been told by Miss Stephens to move right away from the others until she learned to stop talking.  This was how they had been near enough to scrap over the exercise book during Julie's prep.

Chapter 17
A few pages are missing with more details of Michael Christy's efforts to remove the blockage from the pipe.  Hilda goes with him to watch, gets cold, is rushed back to the school by Michael Christy who sends Rosalie for Matron.  Matron appears with hot towels, clean stockings and slippers, as well as her own whisky flask (does Matey have a secret we should know about?)  Hilda is given a hot toddy with four aspirins in it (!) and is forbidden by Matey to go into school for the rest of the morning.  This really sounds like the kind of treatment which would be meted out to someone of the utmost delicacy, not the Head of a school who had merely been standing out in the cold for half an hour or so.  Was Hilda really such a wimp?

Chapter 18
One of the carols at the Nativity  Play had been written by the poetess Eleanor Farjeon.  We are told yet again what a wonderful voice Joey had "sweet and almost as sexless as a chorister's" and that Madge Davison (Dawson?) had a sweet mezzo soprano voice.  Angela Carter had been given Emerence's part in the play as she could usually keep her head and had a good speaking voice.

All in all, the changes do not make any difference to the story, so that it does not suffer in the same way as Gay or Three Go.  There seems no good reason for all the omissions, unless they wanted to make the text shorter.  However, that does not seem to me to be a very good reason.  So much of the byplay, particularly among the staff, adds a good deal of zest to the story and although some of the descriptions of matches are a bit dull, they are typical EBD, so why omit them?  Anyway, if you haven't read the hb yet, go for it!
Trish Wilkie
 

Publishing history