This question came up as I, in a fit of completism, tried to work out which Armada books had which style covers.

"Camp" published by Armada in 1969, has a list in the front which is headed "other titles by EMBD in the Armada series include" and lists:
School;
Jo of;
Princess;
Rivals;
Eustacia;
Exile;
Island;
Peggy;
Carola;
Barbara;
Genius;
New Mistress; and,
Mary-Lou.

which ties up with the "first style" covers on my shelves.

This wasn't the order in which they were published ("Mary-Lou" was published before "Camp", for instance and there's a further complication that the "first style" and "second style" covers overlapped - my second-style "Jo of" has an earlier print date than my first style "Genius") and all were later published in "second style" covers although additional books were added in the "second style" run. Each subsequent cover change seems to have reprinted the previous books and then added further copies (except for the "coloured spine" covers which were almost entirely books that had not earlier been printed in paperback)

So what criteria did Armada use in selecting which books to issue in paperback, and to select the order in which they would be issued?

This doesn't answer your question, but does give info on the first 19 Armadas. Don't know who chose them, but EBD did some of the abridgements herself, so may also have had a hand in selection.

The last few of EBD's Chalet Club newsletters mention Armada publication.
No 16, May 1967 lists the first 4 - School at, Jo of, S and s Barbara, CS in Exile
Dec 1967 no 17 says - there are now 6 in print, , and 2 more due next May, Rivals and Mary-Lou.
No 18 July 1968 lists - School at, Jo of, Rivals, Exile, Island, Peggy, Barbara, Mary- Lou
No 19 Feb 1968 says these due - Spring, Eustacia and New Mistress; Autumn, Camp, Genius (latter was only the first half of the book, rest was published later as Chalet School fete)
no 20 Nov 1969 lists all those above and Princess, CS and Jo, Carola, and says to be published during 1970 - Head Girl (this one is mentioned in Behind the Chalet School - EBD was apparently working on the abridgement the day before she died) , Jo returns, Wrong, Future.

Thank you for that.

It's interesting that "Future" was listed as it didn't actually appear until the 1990s.

Yes, I wondered about that one as it didn't seem to fit with others chosen, I think all the "holiday" stories were very late in getting into paperback.

To me, that is the biggest indication that EBD might have had a hand in choosing which books were published. It would appear to have been dropped after her death which seems to me to show that the publishers weren't as keen on the book as she was.

The case can be made that many of the earliest issues were starter or reboot books (School, Exile, Island, Barbara) which could have acted as a taster for other books in the series but the publication order then jumps about terribly with a run from the start of the series and then books from all over the place. Again the earliest issues do appear to have been the more popular books (and those regarded by this group as among the best of the books). "Future" doesn't fit that pattern and, as issuing progresses, the pattern falls apart. It's hard to see why "Excitements" - one of the dullest books - was published before books like "At War".

A little OT but I wasn't sure if my question merited a thread.
My collection is mainly Armadas due to availability and finances. Are there any books people would recommend I track down as the Armadas are so inferior? I plan on getting a 'proper' version of Exile because of what it is, but are there others I should try to get?

If you look on here (if the link won't work, it's in the "resources" thread at the top of the Lemon Biscuits & Liberty Bodices forum, under "ticklist") there's a chart showing how badly cut each book is.

The columns for which ones have been published by GGBP and how easy the books are to get hold of are out of date now, but the "cuts" column is very helpful!

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The School at the Chalet, if you don't already have a hardback or GGBP.

There's some logic to aiming at collecting the titles up to Exile anyway: you then have a continuous narrative; it covers the Tyrol years (most people agree those are among the best of the series and also contain many incidents referred to in later books); School at and Head Girl are two that were quite severely cut to make the Armada editions; and (not least) they were printed in large enough editions and often enough that it's still possible to buy some of them, at least, at quite reasonable prices in hardback.

I'm assuming that you're not bothered about uniformity of appearance: if you are, then I think it would have to be the GGBP editions - the hardbacks certainly don't have an absolutely uniform appearance - but even some of them can be quite expensive.

Great, that is very helpful! I will start with School At (I already have Jo and a few other Tyrol HB).

Good luck with your book hunting, then - it's easier in some ways now because of the internet, but harder because more people collect CS...

I have a pb of Ruey that shows all the CS books and the ones actually in print are shown in bold. (This would have really annoyed me as a kid, knowing that the books were out there but that there was no way of getting them).

Nearly all the books are in print with the exception of the war ones. Why??? These are some of my favourites. I get that in the immediate post-war period it wouldn't hold the same fascination and people maybe even wouldn't want to dwell on it too much, but the pb is from the 80s at the earliest, surely by then the war books should have been rehabilitated?

My "white spine" Ruey doesn't show the same list and dates from 1984. The "War" books were printed in 1988/1989

They weren't the last of the books to appear in Armada. There's a tranche of the "Island" books, the later Swiss books plus the "holiday" books that all appeared later than the "War" books. Perhaps it was felt that the "exotic" locations of Austria and Switzerland were more likely to interest the target audience than Wales.

(And the "bold" on the list didn't indicate what was in print. It indicated what had appeared in Armada at some point)

I remember reading somewhere (on GGBP website possibly?) that Armada decided not to publish the holiday stories until much later as they thought that as they weren't set in the school they wouldn't be much interest.

Armada just wanted to get out of printing them. They argued that as they were "holiday" books they were not part of the "school series". A lot of people, me included, got very angry with Armada and eventually they capitulated. They published them discretely and you had to search for them.