Lavender Laughs In The Chalet School (hardback)
Lavender Leigh at the Chalet School (paperback)
Key Facts (Possible Spoilers)
School Facts
Miss Annersley is Headmistress
The school is at Plas Howell, just outside Howells Village
Miss Wilson is Second Mistress and in charge of the Chalet School Peace League membership
Whereabouts of series characters
The Head Girl is Elizabeth Arnett
Robin Humphries is in the Sixth, and lives with Jo and Jack in the holidays
Daisy Venables is in Lower Fifth, and living with Madge and Jem in the holidays
Biddy O'Ryan is a prefect
Bride Bettany is in Lower Third
Amy Stevens (19) is the oldest girl in the school, and still delicate
Cornelia Flower is in Ireland looking after her father
Jo Maynard has been poorly after the shock of believing Jack lost at sea and Jack is at home on six months' sick leave
Spoilers
"Auntie Sylvia" tells Miss Wilson that Lavender is a clever, sensitive child who worships beauty. In fact, her education has been extremely patchy and consists mainly of a fluency in foreign languages and wide experience of travel. She has always had her own way and is accustomed to a lot of attention and admiration (Bride suspects that such a celebrity will be "awfully stuck-up").
Lavender makes various faux pas which don't endear her to either the Staff or her fellow-pupils, and contrives to "get across" Matey within minutes of beginning her unpacking. She is critical of the Chalet School Peace League, sniffs at the girls' pride in having Josephine M. Bettany as a neighbour and former pupil, and is inclined to swank about her own experiences.
Lavender quarrels with Joy Bird, another Junior, during a snow-fight with the result that she gets buried in a snowdrift. While she is recovering in San, Lavender does some hard thinking and undergoes a change from the selfish, indulged pet of Auntie Sylvia's régime.
The new girl who arrives late in the term turns out to be Lavender's friend Lilamani whom she knew in Kashmir, and whose mother is at the Sanatorium and who is very frail. Lavender looks after Lilamani, and shows that she can be concerned for someone other than herself. Gradually, she is losing her "only child" ways and learning to fit in.
Finally, playing games with the other Juniors, she loses patience with her old-fashioned ringlets and cuts them off with Frau Mieders' big scissors. Now, with an up-to-date hairstyle, she is ready to become a proper Chalet School girl.
The only significant difference between the paperback and hardback editions is that the paperback omits most or all references to past school history/old girls/family information
Information about Old Girls and others
Juliet O'Hara (nëe Carrick) is looking after the Triplets. She has a son, Donal. Elisaveta (now registered as Mrs. Helston) and her three children have left Plas Gwyn to live with a cousin. Margia Stevens is in Sydney, training as a nurse. Evadne Lannis is in the WAAFs and engaged to a Lieutenant in the US Army. Polly Heriot (20) is coming to stay with Jo before joining up.
contributed by Angela Woodgates, England __ working from a hardback edition