The Chalet School In Exile
Key Facts (possible spoilers)
Headmistress - Miss Annersley
Head Girls - Hilary Burn in Tyrol and Maria Marani in Guernsey
School Characters
Jo Bettany - later Mrs. Maynard - in Guernsey
Robin Humphries - living with Jo in Guernsey, attending the school
Cornelia Flower - Prefect at the school
Peggy and Bride Bettany - with Madge and Jem
Biddy O'Ryan - in the Fourth form
Daisy Venables - living with Jo in Guernsey since the death of her mother six months previously
Len, Con, and Margot Maynard - born towards the end of the book
As a result of the traumatic hide and seek game, Jo and Jack become engaged, and are married shortly after their arrival in Germany. Bruno von Ahlen and Gottfried Mensch, two doctors at the sanitorium, are ordered to leave by the Gestapo, but finally escape.
As a patriotic gesture, the school starts gardening lessons when it re-starts in Guernsey. Visiting mistress, Miss Everett, and the Fourth form (specifically Betty Wynne Davies and Elizabeth Arnott) clash when the girls decide it would be funny to hide the tools all over the garden. However, the mistress goes straight to Miss Annersley and the joke backfires badly on the girls.
Just after the start of the first term at Sarres, the school is told that Madame Lepattre has died in Paris. Cornelia Flower and Simone Lecoutier, back at school as a mistress, are particularly upset.
The new girl is Gertrude Beck (Gertrud Becker), a young Nazi, who is sent to the school to find out just what the girls were trying to hide that day on the mountain. However, the atmosphere of the school thaws her, and when she receives news that her mother has disappeared form Germany, the girl runs away from school, leaving a note to confess her position. The ship she takes to Denmark is torpedoed by a U Boat, but she is rescued by a British ship, and on arrival in Scarpa Flow is sent a letter from her mother who is now safe in Denmark.
Jo's big surprise is the arrival of triplet daughters, Helena, Constance and Margot, and her insistence that they are to call her and Jack Mamma and Papa.
The hurt prefects are Violet Allison, Cornelia Flower, and Maria Marani. The latter's recovery is slowed down by the lack of news concerning her father, but while Maria is still in hospital, his ashes are received by Frau Marani; at least now they know for certain.
The people who escape from Austria are Bruno von Ahlen, (Frieda Mensch is his new wife), and Gottfried Mensch. They bring with them Rufus, Jo's big St. Bernard dog. Their escape was made possible by a German member of the Chalet School league, but we are not told until the next book who it was.
Missing from the paperback
The hardback edition has a short chapter in Switzerland while the escapees are with Gottfried's Aunt. Jo has recurring nightmares and Miss Wilson's ankle is still uncomfortable when they leave the saftey of Switzerand for the last part of their escape to Guernsey.
contributed by Julia Chantrell, England __ working from a paperback edition