Changes for the
Chalet School

HB/PB comparisons      Publishing history  

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

Changes for the Chalet School  - hardback versus paperback comparison

This article first appeared in FOCS 30, published in November 1995

I embarked upon my comparison of the hardback and paperback texts expecting to find a considerable number of alterations, but as my work progressed, it became clear that Changes has suffered relatively minor tinkering rather than wholesale abridgements, unlike some other titles. Changes is the 28th book in the series, first published in 1953 - the paperback appeared in 1989 - and relates the events of the final term at St Briavel's. I've never regarded it as one of EBD's most sparkling efforts, but on closer inspection, I decided that it is still rather satisfying in its own right. For whilst the events of the term are mundane - pigs escaping into the old orchard being the wildest happening - there is plenty of detail about the minutiae of day-to-day routine and traditions of the Chalet School. Bride Bettany is no Jo, Mary-Lou or Len, but she is eminently more human and believable as Head Girl than they are ever allowed to be. I think EBD must have been very fond of Bride, Tom, Julie, Nancy and co, for they constitute one of the most satisfying coteries (another EBD favourite!) in the series.

I'll give a brief resume of the plot of Changes. Commander Christy and Miss Annersley are both amused to learn that each is serving the other with notice to quit Big House on St Briavel's Island. Although the political situation in Austria has made it impossible for the school to return to the Tirol, Madge has acquired properties on the G?rnetz Platz in the Swiss Oberland. Part of the school will be moving there for the autumn term and the remainder will be settling at Glendower House in Carnbach. For their part, the Christys are now able to buy Big House, since Dai Lloyd's treasure has been recovered, and amounts to more thank anyone could possibly imagine. Term begins, and Julie Lucy returns to school at last. Everyone is intrigued by the rumour that the school is about to move, although the destination remains a mystery.

Bride learns from Miss Annersley that Diana Skelton will not be returning to the school, since her father has discovered that she has sold two of her mother's rings to pay gambling debts incurred during the Easter holidays. Mary-Lou and Verity-Anne reveal that their parents are marrying in the summer. Eventually Miss Annersley tells the school about Switzerland and Glendower House. Only those over the age of twelve will be going, and even then they will require their parents' permission. A further surprise comes in the shape of the resumption of French and German days. The prefects set about splitting the school's possessions between the two branches, and Tom is delighted to learn that she has won a scholarship to attend Welsen, although she soon renounces it when she hears that her father has been given a living by Bess Herbert's father, the Dean of Minchampton, and can afford to pay her fees.

Jo returns to Britain with the news that the San is moving to the Platz too, and that she and Jack will be setting up home there, although she is loth to leave Plas Gwyn. Madge and Jem will remain in Britain. Emerence Hope encounters the triplets, who have returned to school and takes a decided fancy to Margot. The trips will be going to Switzerland, but Miss Annersley warns Margot that, if she doesn't work, she will stay behind. However she is keen to be promoted to Lower Iva, Emmy's form, and works hard although the same can not be said of Miss Hope, who is determined to be kept down to be with her new bosom-chum. Not surprisingly, the girls' scheme does not pass unnoticed and Rosalie Dene encourages the youngest triplet to work for Jo's sake. During a trip to Brandon Mawr and Vendell, Priscilla Dawbarn excels herself by falling into a marsh whilst picking marsh-marigolds.

Several disappointed girls learn that they are not to go to Switzerland and Miss Slater surprises everyone by announcing that she has taken a post as Head of Maths at Selling Grammar. Jo brings the news that Gillian Young (formerly Linton) has a baby son, whilst Frieda has given birth to a new daughter. She also tells the staff that Hilary and Phil Graves will be moving to the Platz. The Seniors visit Bournville for Madame's birthday celebrations, and Madge makes her reappearance having regained some of the snap that she had lost before her trip to Canada. Preparations are made for the exams, which are to be held outside, since it is so hot. The Dawbarns and co. hold a midnight feast in the orchard and upset pigs which are temporarily lodged there, with disastrous results! Term winds up with the last Regatta and a Grand Supper.

No chapters have been omitted from the pb, nor are there any plot changes. Most of the differences are slight and fall into several categories: - omissions for various reasons, changes of text to update slang or change awkward expressions, corrections of errors and typographical alterations. Where text has been omitted in the pb, I have bracketed it. Where I have given page numbers, the first refers to the hb, the second to the pb, unless specified.

Omissions

The pb lacks both the dedication, worded "To Madge Halliwell, with whom I shared the trip the Seniors took, with love from Elinor", and also the author's foreword. This reads:

"I have been asked by so many people who wrote to me about the books to give some information about old friends from the Chalet School, that I have devoted one whole chapter mainly to that purpose. I do hope thjs will please everyone who wrote and tell them what they wanted to know. Later on, further news may come to hand; but at present, the Old Girls of the Chalet School are, like the rest of us, spending their lives in hard work, as much play as they can manage, and carrying the banner of their school into the outer world, whether they do it consciously or not.          Elinor Mary Brent-Dyer"

I think this omission rather a shame, since it provided insight into EBD's interest in her readers, before the days of the Chalet Club.

In Chapter 1 (pp12.13), Miss Annersley tells Commander Christy that Welsen will remain a separate entity, as a finishing school, "a place where the elder girls can have one or two years spent largely in acquiring some idea of culture and their responsibilities [with regard to their fellow men]". To my mind this omission is pointless and the new sentence seems curiously unbalanced and incomplete. Another apparently pointless cut occurs in Ch.3 (pp41/48), when Miss Annersley has informed the school of the exciting plans.

"At the present, as no one seemed to have any more questions to ask, Miss Annersley dismissed them, the under-thirteens to bed, the rest to have another hour or so in the common-rooms [-this depended on age-] in which to ventilate their ideas on the latest events in the Chalet School."

In Ch.4 (pp56/66), Bride remarks to Tom, "You may be awarded one of the schols [yet], you know", whilst in Ch.7 (pp73/85), EBD briefly resumes Emerence's final misdeed that led to her father sending her "willy-nilly to the Chalet School in England, [together with a character that had the head and staff of the school sit up and take notice with a vengeance. They] had already taken notice of the affair.". In the pb version the bracketed words are omitted and the new paragraph begins "The head and staff". Again I can't see much reason for cutting these texts, nor for Ch.9's descriptions of the Merry Maidens (pp95/112), where the sentence: "Even now, when the channel was properly buoyed, most vessels gave them a wide berth", is omitted.

Perhaps more understandable, although unnecessary, in keeping with the practice of avoiding any connotations of masculinity and sexuality in girls' stories, is the omission on pp99/116 in the same chapter: "Blossom's come on enormously this year. Have you noticed her drive anyone? [It's as swift as a man's.]" I assume that the omission in Ch.10 (pp111/130) of "Sheer awe kept the girls silent as they gazed up at the mighty cliffs with the sea heaving in long oily swells at their base, some greater wave than the rest breaking every now and then with a roar and a cataract of white froth against the relentless granite" was on the grounds of floridness and prolixity, but even then it's scarcely excusable.

The following omission from Ch.11 (pp120/141): "Doris had been certain beforehand that she would go, and the decision of a firm parent [with no great belief in the sense of most schoolgirls] to keep her in England, until she had, as he had said, had a chance to develop some idea of responsibility, brought grief to her crew" also seems rather unnecessary, unless the editor considered Mr Hill's attitude patronising, or didn't think that modern readers would understand ironical understatements! Also inadmissible is the following cut on pp124/146 which describes Jo's relief that Felix and Felicity do not follow the Maynard trend for diabolical teething sessions: "Not," she added, "that I can grumble much there. They're following in the footsteps of their cousins and getting their teeth quite easily on the whole. They're good babies - only howl when howling is indicated in any reasonable baby." Hot on its trail is another cut about Gillian Young's baby (pp126/148): "Jack thinks he'll resemble his mother, though you can't really say at such an early age. You can write to Gill all of you to congratulate her. You won't be allowed to visit for at least ten days. Jack means to keep her quiet and see that she rests properly", made, presumably, in the light of modern childbirth practice!

Not surprisingly most of the slashing in Changes goes on in the twelfth chapter which recounts the visit to Bournville. It's not one of EBD's finest, written in her "expedition style", that so many of us know (and love?), in the later books. Before the girls leave, they discuss the sports fixtures. The cricket match against Cwyst High has been scratched owing to an outbreak of scarlet fever (pp132/156). The sentence "And the only other date they could give us was the Saturday after we break up so that's no good" is cut in the pb for no apparent reason.

Later, on the tour of the factory (pp136/160), the following is omitted:

"But wait a moment," Bride said, "you showed us the beans being roasted, and said that helped to extract the oils. Isn't that enough?"

"Oh dear no, not nearly! The powder has to go through many processes before it becomes commercial cocoa as we call it," the guide explained.

and further on (pp143/168) as Miss Nichols shows them about the Bournville site:

"She spoke of the dramatic, operatic and music societies and told them with modest pride that she belonged to the Dramatic, and had quite an important part in the play they would be giving in a few week's time. There was a hall in the village where they danced and a library from which they could borrow books. In the winter there were lectures and concerts, in the evenings. In short, everything that employers, anxious for the welfare of their workers, could provide, had been provided."

is cut. I presume the editors decided that the references to the philanthropic ideals of Miss Nichols' employers might seem old-fashioned and cut it for this reason, but as other people have pointed out, the books are of their time and provide interesting glimpses of history, eg. sweet-rationing. In any case what is wrong with philanthropy?

Chapter 14 contains only one omission on pp159/186. While preparing for the exams, Nancy Chester comments "Well, there's no end to do, so we'd best get cracking [especially as we've been warned not to go tearing round over it.]" Incidentally, "best" becomes "better" in the pb. Further on, in Ch.15 (pp167/196), an unnecessary cut is made in the sentence "Priscilla had ears that [according to Norah Fitzgerald, an Irish girl] were fit to hear the grass growing."

Ch.16 contains a couple of interesting cuts and alterations about the Senior inter-House race. Madge comments on p186 (hb) "What a workmanlike set they seem". This is changed in the pb (p218) to "What a strong set they seem", presumably to avoid references to masculinity, and later on the same description is omitted as the girls paddle over to the holding boats in their shorts and shirts.

Finally, in the last chapter (pp197/232), while the staff relax after the Regatta, the following passage is missing from the pb:

"However, that was at the end of the day, when the weary staff were sitting limply about the staff-room, taking a well-deserved rest and indulging in idle chatter until someone had the strength of mind to get up and say that she was going to bed."

Perhaps our editor did not like to see the doughty staff of the CS portrayed in such a flaccid mood!

Alterations of Text

There are several, but not many word changes, mainly occurring to update outmoded slang or to neaten style. In Ch.1 (p12 both eds) "For any special reason you can arrange for money to be forthcoming" becomes "In certain circumstances you can.(etc)", presumably to improve on the rather awkward original. In Ch.2 (pp21/24), Bride describes her mother as "out-ousized!" before her thyroid operation. In the pb this becomes merely "outsized". An unfortunate choice of slang (nowadays) is changed in Ch.6 (pp63/74) where Jo describes Catriona and co. as "utterly pussystruck". The pb gives this as "utterly dumbstruck". A description of Emerence in Ch.7 (pp72/85): "She was a product of an early upbringing which had been based largely on giving her her own way in every possible thing" becomes ".based largely on letting her do exactly what she wanted" - perhaps a neater phrase. An incredible tennis score in Ch.9 (p107 hb): "Eleven-nine, nine-twelve, fifteen-twelve" is changed to (p126 pb) "six-four, seven-six, six-three". I think Bride would have been on her knees in the former match!

During the Bournville visit in Ch.12, Elfie remarks "How awfully nice" (p142 hb) when Miss Nichols offers the girls samples of chocolate. In the pb (p167), this becomes "What a lovely idea!". I wonder whether this was altered because the editor thought the original sounded old-fashioned or because the Anti-nice Brigade objected to the offending word, since it had already occurred in the previous paragraph. In the following chapter, there is an inexplicable substitution (or perhaps misprint?), where the hb "Bride said quickly" (p149) becomes "Bride said quietly" in the pb (p176).

Another interesting update of a word whose meaning has changed occurs in Ch.15, when the Junior-Middles are plotting their feast: "Rosalind might be the least of all the prefects, as they were cute enough to know, but no one argued with any prefect at the Chalet School - not if she knew what was good for her" (p169 hb). In the pb "cute" is changed to "shrewd", although you do still encounter the word used in this meaning. Lastly, in the same chapter, Priscilla remembers "Oh, and that tin of sardines Mums sent for the picnic" (p172 hb), but in the pb "Mums" becomes "Mum's", perhaps because the editor thought it sounded more modern, or that it was a typographical error.

Corrections/Errors and Typographical Alterations

Several corrections have been made in the paperback, notably in the second chapter (pp20/23), where one of the asterisked references to Julie Lucy's peritonitis wrongly ascribed in the hb to Shocks is corrected to Bride Leads.

Interestingly, in the light of Helen McClelland's article on locations in FOCS 25, Jo's reference to the school at Wengen (p119 hb) is altered to Welsen (p141 pb)! Conversely on pp71/83 the misprint "Sinnalpe" remains, and Das Haus unter die Kiefern (p24 hb) misprinted as Das House on p27. On pp11.12, Gornetz Platz is printed without umlauts in both editions.

There has been plenty of comment on EBD's erroneous French and German in issues of FOCS and editors have obviously tried to correct some of the mistakes! In Ch.4, Emerence's "étes à" (p50 hb) becomes "etes a" on p57. Still incorrect, I'm afraid - it should be "êtes à". On the other hand the correct "prenez-garde" (p50 hb) becomes "prener-garde" on p58.

At the regatta on p193 in the hb, Jo declares "Carry me home and bury me dacently!" making her sound positively Biddy-esque! In the pb on p227 it is corrected to "decently", although I've noticed the dame expression used in Mary-Lou" and wonder whether it might be a favourite EBD idiom! However the hardback's "sweetpeas" which Miss Annersley sniffs on p157 becomes comically, in view of the heatwave, "sweatpeas"! (Unless the pb editor was using 16^th century spelling). Page 36's "beginning of term hymn" becomes plural in the pb p41.

Finally there are a number of typographical changes, most of them substitutions of small case for capitals, or punctuation changes. I list a few examples.

pp32/38 omission of dash "[-]Here you are everyone"; pp31/36 et passim. banisters/bannisters; pp54/63 Biro/biro; pp18/21 ward-room/wardroom; pp107/126 "Someone will be in charge of the little dears; never fear" - semi-colon changed to comma; pp182/214 "They'd be 'way out to sea"/"They'd be way out to sea"; pp61/72 re Miss Slater "who was ticking - or otherwise, mostly otherwise - the arithmetic of Lower Ivb" becomes "or otherwise, (mostly otherwise)".

As you can see, there are no radical changes in the paperback version of Changes, but I feel that the majority of the alterations were unnecessary. You won't lose out on plot-lines if you can't get your mits on a hardback, but I'd "beg, steal or borrow" (to milk Kirstie's advice, for the umpteenth time!) to read the original version, if possible.

Judith Laity

Publishing history