Gay from China at the Chalet School (hardback)
Gay Lambert at the Chalet School (paperback)
Miss Bubb is Acting Head in the absense of Miss Annersley
* Miss Annersley is Headmistress, and has run the school for eight years
* Miss Wilson is Senior Mistress
* Mlle. de Lachenais is Senior Languages Mistress
* Miss Edwards is Head of Junior School
(* It is these four who are injured in a bus accident)
The School is located at Plas Howell, just outside Howells Village in Armishire
Series Characters' Whereabouts
Elizabeth Arnett is Head Girl
Joey Maynard is living at Plas Gwyn in Howells Village.
The Maynard triplets are three and a bit, and Stephen is a baby.
Robin Humphries, Daisy & Primula Venables and the McDonald twins are based at Plas Gwyn with Jo.
The story begins in the Easter holidays which ended LAVENDER LAUGHS / LAVENDER LEIGH, and runs through the ensuing summer term. It is wartime, and rationing and blackout regulations are still in force.
The staff injured in the accident have various fractures and sprains, but Miss Annersley has concussion and is unconscious for some time. She has to undergo 'a very serious operation' and is slow to recover. Madge Russell brings in Simone and Jo to teach, and Miss Durrant (now Mrs. Redmond) also returns to help. But Miss Bubb treats her staff very highhandedly and pushes at least two of them to the verge of resigning.
Josette Russell's accident is the fault of her elder sister, Sybil, who is playing with the kettle and spills hot water on her. Lady Russell cannot step in to control Miss Bubb's doings, not only because of Josette's condition, but also because she is expecting another baby in September, and must not over-exert herself.
Gay offers to teach Jacynth to play the cello, as Auntie's hard-earned funds will not run to lessons or an instrument. Jacynth shows real aptitude, but Miss Bubb disapproves.
On the train to school, Gay and Jacynth meet the Thirlbecks and Grandma (Mrs. Learoyd), an aged martinet who turns out to have a heart of gold. She is scornful of modern manners but thinks Gay 'a real little lady'. It is she who looks after Gay when she runs away, and afterwards Miss Bubb receives a very caustic letter from 'Rebecca Learoyd, Widow'.
Jacynth's aunt is too weak to recover properly, and dies while Jacynth is ill with German measles, but she writes a last letter to her niece the night before her operation. Gay's sister-in-law has visited her in hospital, and will see that Jacynth does not want for a family. 'Bill' promises Jacynth the cello that once belonged to her sister, Cherry.
contributed by Angela Woodgates, England __ working from a hardback edition