What do people think of EBDs non CS books? How do you think they compare to the CS books? Do you collect them? I think GGBP have 9 of them left to publish - Beechy of the Harbour School, Nesta Steps Out, Leader in Spite of herself, The New House Mistress, Top Secret, The Marie-Jose, The Little Missus and the final two Geography Readers. I imagine the final two Geography Readers will be published in one volume like the first two Geography Readers so that will bring it down to 8 non CS EBD books still left to publish for GGBP.

1) I collect all EBD and I do have some of the ones that GGB haven't published (and had have some of the others from before the GGB publications).

2) I think the quality is variable. Some are noticeably old-fashioned in style and some are just fairly ordinary books.
a) The Little Missus, for example, is clearly aimed at a younger age group than most of EBD's books but is still astonishingly old-fashioned in style. It tends to be regarded as rather dull by many readers but is actually a perfectly good mid-Victorian book. Trouble is that it was published in the 1940s!
b) Her "Christian" books whilst by no means among the worst of the genre are poor. This is a little surprising as EBD works Christian belief into the CS books very naturally.
c) The Chudleigh Hold books are standard adventure stories. Top Secret reminds me very much of the overseas Biggles adventures of the same period.
d) The Lost Staircase manages to be a good read whilst simultaneously being rather old-fashioned.

3) It should be noted that a number of EBD's other works are, in fact, written by Josephine M. Bettany. The Chudleigh Hold books are Joey's version of Gillian Culver's family's adventures (although it's hard to see why Joey represented the very nice, competent Gill as the weird Arminel), The Lost Staircase is based on Jessanne's story, and Elizabeth The Gallant is clearly JMB's "A Royalist Soldiermaid". Perhaps this is why the books differ in style to EBD's books.

4) For all their weaknesses, the other books do provided some elucidation of things mentioned in the CS books, not just in terms of back stories. For instance, one of the dogs books (I've only ever read these once so can't remember which) tells us that the "hot cakes" with which Joey often entertains her guests are definitely drop scones, and "Jean of Storms" confirms that Madge's endearment "Joey-Baba" is definitely a reference back to the Bettany's time in India.

5) Personally, my favourite of the other books is "A Thrilling Term at Janeways" which I met very young. It seems to me to have many of the tropes associated with EBD. I wasn't so keen on Caroline The Second which I only read as an adult in the GGBP edition, probably because I was very familiar with "Tenth at Trinders", a Dorothea Moore with a similar theme.

(Edited to correct misspelling)

The New Housemistress is a novella and would need to be combined with other material to make up a full length book.

I think Nesta, Beechy and Leader are also too short to be published on their own.

My favourites are the obvious CS connectors, as I think it’s fun finding out the back story of CS characters (as per the fantasy books thread, the lack of a Gay in China back story book is a big personal regret!) - Monica, Lost Staircase, the La Rochelles (obviously), and The two Lorna books are great.

Some of the others are good, as Victoria says, and some are very, very weak. The Little Marie Jose is supposed to be hilariously bad.

I sold most of the ones I had which weren’t obviously CS related when we moved house earlier this year. They were interesting to read, but I couldn’t see myself ever wanting to re-read them.

I wonder will GGBP combine some of the shorter non CS EBDs into one volume like they did with the Geography Readers, for example New House Mistress, Beechy, Nesta, Leader, they might publish two of these in one volume.

I collect the none CS books, and of them all, that have been published so far, The Lost Stair Case is my favourite. It's a bit of a connecter to the CS, as the main characters eventually go there. It's lovely to read around December time, too as it's a bit of a Christmassy book too.

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Wishes the land of Merlin and magic was real

My absolute favourite is The School by the River, which is very vaguely connected to the Chalet School in that the heroine's best friend's brother is the man who Elisaveta eventually marries! But it's well worth reading despite that.

Monica Turns Up Trumps is a good read, a bit similar to Heather Leaves School in story. The Marilliar family is nicely shown (Dr Marilliar my favourite EBD father, and Monica's relationship with Barney is lovely), and Monica is very believable as a fundamentally nice girl who has gone a bit off the rails, and doesn't insta-reform. The Lost Staircase is definitely old fashioned, but a good read (Jesanne is great), and Chudleigh hold is a good family/adventure story, with interesting sibling dynamics and a delightfully mad aunt.

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Ring the bells that still can ring; Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything; That's how the light gets in
Anthem: Leonard Cohen

I've read Seven Scamps and The Maids Of La Rochelle, and enjoyed both. They're very different to the CS books and more adult in some ways, especially Maids, as well as having supernatural elements. They have a charm of their own though. I love the holiday bit in Seven Scamps where you have the Athertons, the Willoughbys, Janie, Polly and Julian all hanging out together.

ETA: I want to read The Lost Staircase because the Gellibrand family sound so barking mad.