Hello,
Just discovered this topic/ thread, very nice to find out a little about people I have exchanged views with. (Madge would have picked me up about that - a preposition is something you should never end a sentence on.)
I'm 60 and am retired from regular work. Working in the public sector wasn't much fun a lot of the time but I was in the right place when they wanted to unload some people with early retirement offers a couple of years ago. I live in East Yorkshire, but have lived and worked in other places and will probably move again in a few years. Married, no offspring.
I got into the CS books as a boy, probably when I was about 12 and was given a used copy of Joey and Co in Tirol and then discovered the whole series in the library. It didn't really bother me that they were books for and about girls. The world EBD created was much more real for me than anything in the sort of thing boys would read at that age - Biggles, etc. I never told my friends, but I read over thirty of the books before some other aspect of life sent me in other directions. Then, a few years ago, I went on a coach trip from Innsbruck to the Achensee / Tiernsee and decided to revisit those books from forty-odd years earlier. I was immediately drawn back into that world and, importantly, realised that reading the CS books as a boy had stimulated my interest in the language and culture of the German-speaking world. I am now working my way through them again, but reading them, a chapter most nights, to Mrs Gottfried, before going to sleep. Currently up to the war years.
Favourite books are, predictably, The School at the Chalet, Exile and perhaps less predictably, The CS and Jo. Favourite character probably Grizel, least fave is Simone, although she does have some sort of function, even if she is utterly wet. I sometimes feel a bit of an interloper on this site which is run by and largely for, women, but I enjoy the intelligence, insight and humour enormously so I hope you will continue to put up with me!

Oh I am sure we will continue to do so Gottfried! Nice to have some background. Your contributions add good things to our discussions so I think you can shed that interloper feeling

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Cestina's dolls houses - Brave new world?

Gut' abend, Gottfried - and nice to meet properly. No putting up with has been required!

Gruss Gott, Gottfried .

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

We may be mostly women but it is good to have a masculine take on our obsession, so you are very welcome.

Interesting, isn't it?

I was (and am) a great "Biggles" fan (and other BO books). I hated the arrival of Harriet Vane into the LPW novels because it was soppy. I have every sympathy with George and was supremely irritated by Anne (but also wanted to punch Julian).

But that's "okay" because being a woman is a weakness. Men are the norm and for me to be interested in "male" books is treated with understanding and mild contempt (Of course, being a man is the BEST - oh. good ol' male chauvinist Freud!)

I use different handles in different groups. But my most frequent usage is something I see as female (albeit with very negative connotations - reclaim the word!) but is seen by people who read what I write as being male.

What I am trying to say is: Don't apologise. You like the books: You belong here.

A very belated welcome Gottfried, and please don't dub yourself "interloper", your posts are always interesting and often insightful!

Victoria, oh I agree, Anne was so wet and George was by far my favourite character. I grew up in the 1970s when Southern TV had their Famous Five series and I had a Raleigh Grifter just like George's!

Hello.
*waves from the other side of the Humber*

Hello and welcome to the CBB

Welcome to the CBB Gottfried - enjoy.

Hello and welcome. I'm also in the good old East Riding, at the seaside in my case!

Thank you all - you're very kind. My eye was caught by the word 'obsession', though. Yes, I know that was humorous, but it made me think a bit about the appeal of the CS. Someone said in an exchange of views in another thread somewhere that she needed an alternative universe. That's what the CS books provide for me. Lovely places, populated by a huge cast of recurring characters, some of whom are real enough for me to feel some kinship with them, others who amuse me, some who are irritating. It isn't so much an obsession as the facility to slide into that universe at will. At the bottom of it all is a phenomenal achievement by Miss B-D over more than 50 years. Yes, of course there are faults and fluctuations in the quality of the stories, but there is some superb writing. I've just read this out of sync, as it were, as I just got hold of a copy, but the chapter in "The CS and Jo" entitled "The Boat Race" is about as good a piece of descriptive writing as I've come across anywhere. If I was a lad again, I wouldn't be keeping quiet about reading those 'girls' books', I'd be encouraging my mates to read them too! I look forward to many years, I hope, of the company of all you other occupants of that universe.
Gottfried

Belated welcome, Gottfried, although I already feel I've 'met' you from reading your contributions.

(and in contrast to Victoria, I like the Harriet Vane books best of all the Sayers ones )

A warm welcome to you, Gottfried, though I feel we are friends already form reading your interesting insights!

It's always nice to see new people about the board. I agree about the depth of the CS world being a major attraction, there's always another character to know more about, and always another link to make between situations and characters.

Nice to 'meet' you, and welcome to the board.

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'An adventure was one thing. But an adventure without something to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all'
Enid Blyton, The Valley of Adventure