Chloe wrote:
Does anybody have a complete list of books about the Chalet School e.g. Behind the CS, The CS Companion, EBDs Chalet School, The CS Encyclopaedias?
I don't know of a complete list but I own:
1 EBD's Chalet School, 2 The Chalet School Companion (Armada)
3 The Chalet School Companion (2nd edition Bettany Press)
These three books contain very similar information although the third has some additional information about EBD and the CS fandom whilst the first two contain some of the CS short stories.
4 The Chalet Club Newsletters. Much of the actual information in these can be found in the Companions.
5 Behind The Chalet School - Helen McClelland (2 editions). This is a biography of EBD
6 The CS Revisited - (ed Auchmuty and Gosling) which is a collection of essays about EBD, the CS, the books etc published for the 100th anniversary of EBD's birth.
7 The CS Encyclopaedia in 4 volumes (although it would be more accurate to describe this as a "Who's Who", I feel)
There are the
8 newsletters of the NCC and FOC plus various supplements published by them. The newsletters can be seen as similar to this and the fb groups in many ways but the supplements also have information about various aspects of the CS (for example the Peritsau locations). Some of this material turns up elsewhere (for example, Clarissa did supplements on the book covers and editions which now appears in the relevant GGBP edition)
9 The World of Girls and
10 The World of Women are mentioned but are not primarily EBD.
EBD is also covered as one of many entries in
11 The Enclyclopaedia of Girls School Stories (Sims and Clare to be issued in a second edition in parts by the GGBP starting next year)
There was mention of a listing of information so that people can identify first editions (should you be that kind of collector) and that's produced by Sue Sims.
I know of nothing else that deals predominantly with EBD
What of these it is worth owning is dependent on how much of a completist you are.
In general one of the 3 "Companion"s will be enough for most people and I'd advise the second edition from Bettany Press (
3) as having the most content. (If you want the short stories, you'ld be better off with "Elinor M Brent-Dyer's Short Stories" published by GGBP and containing all the short stories and stuff that appeared in the Chalet Girl Annuals (with the exception of the stories like Tom which became books in their own right).
5, 6 and
7 are worth owning.
9, 10 and
11, whilst interesting, are really more for people with a general interest in GO rather than EBD aficionados.
8 can be interesting to read but many of items of discussion is still coming up on here and the fb groups so can seem a little repetitive., and, as I already said, some of it turns up in other sources. Personally, I'd like the locations supplements!