BOTM: E.M. Brent Dyer, The Chalet School in Exile (1940)
P. Everett. Dr
No (2023)
A. Fletcher, A
refuge for the chalet school (2017)
A. Hollinghurst, The Sparsholt
affair (2017)
H. Lewis, The Genius Myth (2025)
H. Oliver, Second Act: what late bloomers can tell us about success (2025)
V. Sackville-West, All
passion spent (1931)
Tan Twan Eng, The gift
of rain (2007)
S.T. Warner, Lolly
Willowes (1926)
I mean, it was never in doubt. Exile remains one of my favourite books in the world. I read it because Anna had bought me the fill in which covers a section of missing chronology. So I read that interleaved with the original. I very much enjoyed refuge, but the original is the best. I wish I had written the Slightly Foxed review, which is good, though a little bit dismissive of the religion. Exile it describes as the 'one truly great book' of the series, which is true. I think what makes is so brilliant is that it combines ordinary school moments with melodrama (Nazis! Spies! Engagements! Someone's hair turning white overnight!) with brutal clarity about the world as it was. Characters just die several time. It was published in 1940 and it is a genuinely affecting book the older I am when I read it, and not just for the jolly-hockey-sticks stuff or the religiosity, both of which I am massively in favour of.
Tan Twan Eng's first book is really good too, though not as good as the Chalet School or his latest. And I did very much enjoy Vita Sackville-West.
