A Chalet School A-Z Trivia Quiz

Answer: Herefordshire

Armishire is located on the Welsh border, hence the many Welsh-speaking characters. The school moves to Plas Howell, a large house belonging to the Howell family, in Armishire in 'The Chalet School Goes to It', and remain there until a problem with the drains forces them to move in 'The Chalet School and the Island'. Gwensi Howell, whose brother owns the house, becomes a pupil at the Chalet School.

Answer: The New House at the Chalet School

Baby Voodoo is a doll made by a group of Juniors to get back at Cornelia Flower for telling them off. They dangle it in front of her window, in the hope of waking her up and giving her a scare, but Cornelia is a heavy sleeper. Joey catches them at it, sends them to bed and puts Baby Voodoo on the piano. A maid finds it and freaks out, thinking it's the Devil in disguise.

Answer: Miss Wilson

Miss Wilson is Catholic, and is one of the godparents of the triplets; she is Len's godmother, as Len was named after her. Both she and Mlle de Lachenais take the Catholic girls for Prayers, while Miss Annersley takes the Protestants.

Answer: St Bernard

Rufus was a puppy who Joey saved from drowning in 'Jo of the Chalet School'. His mother Zita had given birth to puppies and her owners, being too poor to keep them, decided to drown them and were planning to shoot Zita. Joey and Madge adopt Rufus and Zita, and Rufus helps Joey on various rescue missions, such as Princess Elisaveta's kidnapping.

After he dies, Joey gets a new St Bernard puppy, Bruno.

Answer: Australia

Emerence Hope is the daughter of rich parents and has grown up with very few boundaries. She is sent to the Chalet School after she sets fire to the garden shed, and the neighbours (one of whom is Miss Stewart, the former history mistress) complain. She causes headaches for both the prefects and staff, especially when she blocks a tunnel with a scarecrow, but starts to settle in.

She befriends Margot Maynard, much to Joey's disapproval, and buys her an expensive clock in 'Theodora and the Chalet School' when she leaves school.

The clock becomes the source of conflict among the triplets.

Answer: They have to wash the flour out of the girls' hair.

Joey, Marie, Simone and Frieda prank the younger girls by sewing some of them into their cubicles or sewing their bedsheets together, and flouring the hair of others. Cornelia Flower, Evadne Lannis, Yvette Mercier and Anita Rincini are all on the receiving end of the flour prank, and when Madge finds out, she makes the Quartette wash and brush the girls' hair to get the flour out. Bear in mind that people back then washed their hair a lot less often, and grew their hair very long (though the two American girls have short hair), so it's not an easy task!

Answer: Miss Ferrars

Kathie Ferrars is the new mistress in question in 'A New Mistress at the Chalet School'. She teaches geography, and is a very close friend of Miss Wilmot. She initially clashes with Mary-Lou Trelawney, mistaking her laid-back manner for rudeness, but Mary-Lou saves her life later in the book when the rock Miss Ferrars is standing on gives way.

As for the others, Miss Carey teaches handicrafts, Miss Armitage is a science teacher and Miss Edwards teaches maths.

Answer: Tom Gay

The Chalet School's most famous tomboy starts at the school in 'Tom Tackles the Chalet School'. Her real name is Lucinda Muriel, but her father always wanted a son, so he raised her like a boy and called her 'Tom'. She is a keen carpenter and makes several dolls' houses, with assistance from other girls who make clothes for the dolls, furniture and so on.

Her dolls' houses are used to raise money in competitions, such as guessing how many materials were used or finding a name for a model village.

After she leaves the school, she works with disadvantaged children and teaches them carpentry skills, and they help her make other dolls' houses.

Answer: St Briavel's

St Briavel's is thought to be based on a mixture of islands near Wales, such as Skokholm Island, Caldey Island and Ramsey Island, and is off the Welsh coast. The school moves there in 'The Chalet School and the Island', and use the home of the Christy family, the Big House, as their new building.

The Christy girls, Dickie, Gaynor and Cherry, join the school as pupils. During the school's time on the island, they hold regattas and swimming lessons, as it's an ample location for watersports. 'Changes for the Chalet School' is about the school's last term there before they pack up and move to Switzerland, though a British branch remains open at Glendower House.

Answer: Saxophone

The other instruments include a glockenspiel, a bugle, a Jew's harp, some ukeleles and various percussion instruments. Frieda and Joey hear Cornelia practising her sax - which has been given to her by her rich father - in the woods, and Frieda thinks it's a cow being slaughtered.

At the end of the book, the band give a concert, and their attempts to play 'Pomp and Circumstance' have the audience in hysterics. Joey also gets called up to sing, much to her embarrassment. The band are referred to several times throughout the series.

Answer: Seabirds

Kester Bellever, aka the Bird Man, lives on the nearby island of St Brandon Mawr, where he runs a seabird sanctuary. He becomes a popular figure with the girls, especially Cherry Christy, who often goes to visit him. He gives talks on seabirds to the girls and is often on the radio.

He looks after Annis Lovell when her boat capsizes on the small island of Vendell in 'The Chalet School and the Island'. In 'Changes for the Chalet School', the girls visit his bird sanctuary, and he gets annoyed with Priscilla Dawbarn when she gets stuck in a marsh and starts screaming and scaring the birds.

Answer: Ringlets

Lavender Leigh, who appears in 'Lavender Laughs in the Chalet School', is a spoiled brat who has travelled the world with her aunt, and is the star of a series of geography books known as the 'Lavender Laughs' series. A doctor recommends school for her as the constant travelling is making her ill.

She wears her hair in ringlets, which she has to style every night. Her constant whining and know-it-all nature make her unpopular with the other girls, until she has a fight with Joy Bird, who pushes her into a snowdrift and makes her ill. During her convalescence period, Lavender decides to work hard and make an effort to fit in, and at the end of the book, she cuts off her ringlets to show how much she has changed.

Answer: Madame

Madge Bettany, 'Madame' to her pupils, is the founder and first headmistress of the Chalet School. She starts the school in the Austrian Tyrol with her little sister Joey, a girl called Grizel Cochrane from the same town as them, and Simone Lecoutier - the young cousin of Thérèse Lepattre, a French teacher - as the first three pupils.

The school gains in numbers as its reputation spreads across the area, accepting girls from all over Europe (and a couple of Americans), but is forced to relocate because of the rise of the Nazis. Madge marries Jem Russell, a doctor specialising in tuberculosis and head of the TB sanatorium which is closely linked with the school. Daisy is Jem's niece and Madge is in quarantine with German measles when Daisy gets married, so cannot attend the wedding.

She and Jem stay in England when the school moves out to Switzerland. They have six children: David, Sybil, Josette - who later becomes a Head Girl - Ailie, and twins Kevin and Kester.

Answer: Having to escape from a group of Nazi thugs through a hidden passageway

In 'The Chalet School in Exile', Joey and a group of other girls, along with Miss Wilson, are forced to flee to safety through a hidden passageway in a church when Joey, Robin and Cornelia defend an old Jewish man from a gang of Nazi thugs, and the crowd turn on them.

After emerging in a cave, they have to go into hiding for several days until they can escape over the border into Switzerland. The experience is so traumatic for the people involved that Miss Wilson's hair turns white, and Joey has nightmares for a long time afterwards.

She states that writing 'Nancy Meets a Nazi' was a cathartic experience.

Answer: Three Go to the Chalet School

The irrepressible Mary-Lou Trelawney lives in Cornwall with her mum and grandma, and is sent to the Chalet School. She becomes a major character in the island and Swiss years, and ends up as a much-loved Head Girl. Due to having grown up around adults, she has a tendency to treat all people equally, and other people will often say, "It isn't cheek, it's just Mary-Lou." She has a near death experience after Emerence Hope's sledge crashes into her and slams her into a tree.

After she leaves school, she becomes an archaeologist like her late father.

The other two girls who make up the 'Three' are Clem Barras, an artist's daughter who was friends with Mary-Lou when she was in Cornwall, and Verity-Ann Carey, whose father later marries Mary-Lou's mother.

Answer: The New Forest

Pretty Maids is in the New Forest in Hampshire, and is the Maynard family home. Bob Maynard, Jack's brother, and his wife Lydia move there after the death of Bob's parents. As Bob's son Rolf dies in an accident, Jack is next in line to inherit the house. Joey does not want to live there as she finds the air 'too relaxing', and the Maynards donate it to the National Trust instead. (I mention Fareham because EBD taught there for a while.)

Answer: 11

In order, Joey's children are: triplets Mary Helena (Len), Mary Constance (Con) and Mary Margaret (Margot), Stephen, Charles, Michael, twins Felix and Felicity, Cecil, and the second twins, Geoff and Philippa (Phil). The triplets were born in Guernsey, the first three boys in England, Felix and Felicity in Canada, and Cecil, Geoff and Phil in Switzerland. Len, like her mother, is a Head Girl, while Con is the editor of 'the Chaletian', the school magazine, and Margot is a games prefect. Felicity is a junior when the series ends.

Answer: Cecilia Marya

Cecilia Marya Humphries is half-Polish, and is nicknamed the Robin, shortened to 'Robin'. Joey's daughter Cecil is named for her. She joins the school in 'Jo of the Chalet School'. Her mother died of tuberculosis and Robin herself has health problems as a child, and needs constant supervision.

She is adopted by the Russells after her father dies in a climbing accident. After leaving school, she tries social work but is unable to cope with it physically. Around the time of the move to Switzerland, she becomes a nun and joins a convent in Canada, where she is named Soeur Marie-Cecile, and later saves Adrienne Desmoines - who is revealed to be related to her on her father's side - from an evil landlady.

Answer: Loveday Perowne

Loveday Perowne is Head Girl in 'Shocks for the Chalet School', as she is the oldest in her age group. She comes from a farming family. In 'Bride Leads the Chalet School', Bride finds herself taking over Loveday's job at short notice when Loveday has to go to Argentina. Her great uncle leaves her a share of land at his cattle ranch, and Loveday's father is her trustee.

Answer: Gisela and Maria Marani

Gisela is several years older than her little sister Maria, and is the first Head Girl of the Chalet School. She and Maria are Tyrolean, of Italian descent, and are among the school's first local pupils, who first appear in 'The School at the Chalet'. Prudence and Priscilla Dawbarn join the school in 'Peggy of the Chalet School', and are constantly in trouble, though they mellow out in the Swiss books. Nella (short for Peronelle) and Vanna (short for Giovanna) Ozanne are the daughters of Elizabeth Ozanne, one of the Temple sisters from the 'La Rochelle' series. Flora and Fiona McDonald are the Highland Twins of the book of the same name, and are at school during the war years; they later join their sister Shiena in Canada.

Answer: Ruey Richardson, Chaletian

For a while, the school has brown and flame as its main colours, but switches to gentian blue and crimson when it moves to Switzerland. During 'Ruey Richardson', the decision is made to change the uniform, and Madge sends over a series of sketches of possible designs.

The design the teachers opt for has crimson honeycombing (a kind of stitch) on the shoulders and waistline, and a white revers on the neck (a revers is an edge of a garment that is turned back to reveal the undersurface). Miss Yolland, Miss Andrews and Miss Derwent model it for the girls, and the uniform is a resounding success.

The girls have a fancy dress competition where they make costumes out of crepe paper, and the winners get a free uniform (which is good news for the girls whose parents are short of cash).

Answer: She sends Princess Elisaveta poison pen letters.

Vera Smithers is a pupil at St Scholastika's, the new school set up on the shores of the Tiernsee, in 'Rivals of the Chalet School'. She is a huge snob and is impressed that Elaine Gilling, the St Scholastika's Head Girl, is the daughter of an aristocrat.

It is implied that her family are war profiteers. She sends anonymous letters to the King of Belsornia, Elisaveta's father, claiming that the Chalet School girls are rude and disrespectful and do not call her 'Princess Elisaveta'. (Elisaveta herself points out that she doesn't want to be called 'Princess' by Joey and her other friends.) Miss Browne discovers a banned book in Vera's desk and some scraps of paper that show she has been practising script, and match the handwriting of the letters.

She is subsequently expelled.

Answer: Friedel

Friedel von Gluck is a handsome young army officer in the same regiment as Graf von Eschenau, Wanda and Marie's father. After the Anschluss, Wanda takes the children to the USA and Friedel is hoping to join them, but goes missing. It is later revealed that both he and Bruno von Ahlen, Frieda's husband, were arrested by the Gestapo and taken to a concentration camp. Wanda refuses to give up hope, and sure enough, both Friedel and Bruno escape, thanks to Karl Linders, whose sisters Emmie and Joanna were pupils at the school. Wanda and Friedel have seven children, though two of them die young. (Gottfried is Frieda and Bernhilda Mensch's brother and Gisela's husband, and Kurt is Bernhilda's husband.)

Answer: Dickie Christy

Dickie's ancestor, Dai Lloyd, was a notorious pirate who used to own St Briavel's. In 'Shocks for the Chalet School', Miss Burnett accidentally falls down a well, and the well being unblocked leads to a brook and pond being formed. Commander Christy also discovers an old outlet for the pond, which he thinks was blocked during Dai Lloyd's day so the underground channel for the brook could be used to store treasure. Before 'Changes for the Chalet School', Commander Christy does some searching and finds Dai Lloyd's treasure hoard in a hole in a cliff. Dickie and Carey, her stepmother, have no interest in the jewellery because of how it was obtained, so Commander Christy plans to sell it once he has proved his relationship to the pirate, keep some of the proceeds and give the rest to charity.

Answer: Althea Joins the Chalet School

Zürich is the biggest city in Switzerland, and the Fourth Forms go on a trip there in 'Althea Joins the Chalet School'. Zug is the capital of the canton of Zug. The trip is not without incident; on the way there, the coach gets buried under bales of hay falling off a lorry, and a large pink worm gets stuck in the engine and damages it.

In Zug, they go to visit the Höllgrotten, a series of caves, and Val Pertwee trips over a stalagmite and hurts herself, while Brigit Ingram sits on an anthill and has to bathe in the lake.