Bride Leads the Chalet School Trivia Quiz

Answer: Her family have inherited a ranch in Argentina.

Bride is relaxing at home with her family, and her mum Mollie is recovering from thyroid surgery, when Miss Annersley turns up for a visit and reveals that one of the reasons why she is there is to ask Bride to take over from Loveday as Head Girl. Loveday comes from a farming family, and her father's late uncle - who is also her godfather - has left her his share in a ranch in Argentina.

As Loveday is underage, her father is trustee and she and her family have to fly out to Argentina and live there for several months.

While she will be returning for her final year at St Mildred's in Switzerland, she will no longer be attending the school at St Briavel's. Miss Annersley tells Bride that she had initially been considered for Head Girl, but Loveday was chosen as she was older and it was felt that some of the girls might have a problem with Bride being appointed immediately after her sister. Bride is uncertain at first, but both Peggy and Miss Annersley reassure her that she'll be fine. When school starts again, a rumour goes around the school that Loveday has had to leave, much to the consternation of the prefects, and Bride explains what happened.

Answer: Missionary

Tom, a vicar's daughter, has been undecided about her future career for some time now. In earlier books, she talks aobut becoming an analytical chemist or teaching Classics. When the other prefects talk about going out to Switzerland for their final year, she says she won't be coming as she can't afford it, and doesn't need to for her future job anyway.

She explains that she wants to become a missionary and work in the poorer areas of London, and that her father is going to support her when she goes to university and then a theological college.

As for the other girls, Madge Watson is studying music, Bride and Elfie Woodward want to teach languages and PE respectively, and Julie Lucy is intending to read law. (If you've read 'Changes for the Chalet School', you'll know that Tom does end up going to St Mildred's after all.)

Answer: Tanswick

Tanswick is the other Chalet School which Katharine Gordon was originally supposed to be attending in 'The Wrong Chalet School'. Both Bride and Julie notice that there seem to be more new girls than usual, and Miss Annersley later explains the reason for this: the Chalet School has taken on several former Tanswick pupils.

The previous headmistress retired and her replacement died, and the school has had to be closed down and its pupils sent elsewhere, as a replacement could not be found. Because the younger forms have been relocated, there is enough space to take on the new girls and the forms have been rearranged, with a new Fourth Form being set up.

Answer: Glue

As the staff and prefects find out the hard way, Tanswick had little to no discipline and prefects had no authority there, and the teaching was of poor quality. Nancy Chester also recalls that Tanswick had a problem with snobbery among the girls. Diana Skelton first attracts Bride's attention when Katharine Gordon and Betsy Lucy tell her about a new girl who considers herself to be 'a beauty', and Betsy later introduces her to Bride. Diana is not only not very bright, but arrogant with it, which gets the staff's backs up. Miss Annersley does not want Diana being relegated to a younger form, but has also warned Miss Wilson not to let her into St Mildred's.

She also reveals that Diana's father runs a glue factory, and Miss Everett adds that he started out in a knacker's yard, went to night school and worked his way up the ladder. Miss Annersley worries that other girls might use Diana's nouveau riche background against her. Mlle de Lachennais also expresses concern that Diana and some of the other girls cheat, and the girls in Leafy dormitory have to nag Marian Tovey, another ex-Tanswick girl, to make her bed. Miss Annersley also pulls the Tanswick girls up on their lack of manners in class and their poor Biblical knowledge, and Miss Slater notes that many of them have little basic mathematical knowledge.

Answer: Peritonitis

Julie's appendix has been playing up and she has stomach pain, but ignores it. It comes to a head during a prefects' meeting when she looks pale and ill, and later collapses in pain. Bride immediately orders the girls to get Matron, fill some hot water bottles and help her get Julie into her dormitory, as the school sanatorium is full of girls with flu. Bride, Tom and Primrose Day carry Julie to her dormitory on a mattress and get her undressed, and the school nurse later tells them that she has appendicitis, which develops into peritonitis.

The local doctor takes Julie to the mainland hospital, as she needs surgery. Tom asks Mlle de Lachennais if they can have a prayer circle for Julie, and they say a few prayers for her together. Miss Annersley calls Betsy and Viola Lucy into her office to inform them of the news. Julie survives, but is off sick for the rest of the term, so the prefects have to reallocate her prep sessions and other work.

Answer: She throws the cake on the floor and jumps up and down on it.

Bride and the prefects are late to afternoon tea as their meeting overruns, and find that Diana is taking too long to finish her cake and insists on nibbling at it, while Mary-Lou Trelawney bolts hers, to Diana's disgust. Bride orders her to finish her cake and Diana is rude to her. Primrose makes a comment about Diana being a 'regular snail' and Diana responds by throwing her cake on the floor and jumping up and down on it. Primrose tells her to get a dustpan and brush and clean up her mess, and Bride also tells her to come to the prefects' room and apologise. Diana refuses, but gives in and cleans up the mess when Bride warns her that the maids will be in soon to set the table for dinner.

However, she does not come to the prefects' room as requested.

Answer: Joey Maynard

Diana continues to hold out against the prefects and they worry that she is setting a bad example, as the other girls will think they can be rude to the prefects as well (and Emerence Hope is rude to Audrey Simpson when Audrey tells her to tidy her locker).

As her aunt Joey - who is currently in Canada - is a former Head Girl, Bride writes to her for advice, as she would rather not go to Miss Annersley if she can help it. She tells Joey everything, including the context, and Joey writes back to suggest that they withdraw Diana's privileges and explain why, but that they must be tactful about it in case they make her even more resentful. Bride decides on an ultimatum: either Diana apologise in front of the school, or she will not be able to borrow fiction from the school library, will be banned from Hobbies Club and the Sale, and will not be allowed to attend any entertainment evenings organised by the prefects. Clem Barras gives Diana the message and both she and her classmates warn Diana not to ignore the prefects. Diana grudgingly apologises to Primrose (and Audrey, for some reason) in front of the school, and both Elfie and Nancy worry that Diana will want revenge on Bride.

Answer: 'The Crown of Success' by ALOE

The prefects struggle to come up with ideas for the Sale, but Bride remembers 'The Crown of Success' has recently been donated to the school and rushes off to get a copy. Most of the girls have read it, and Bride explains it to the ones who haven't. The Sale is based around an educational theme, with the girls dressing as various characters from the book (Elfie as Duty, Tom as Mr Learning, Madge Watson as Mrs Sewing, and so on). Grammar's Bazaar involves various items representing different parts of speech, such as dolls' clothes and scrapbooks, while the Mathematics-themed stall features competitions, the Geography section has a map of the world drawn on the floor, the Natural History section has boxes decorated with grass and leaves and insect paperweights, History has papier mache models of historical figures, and so on. Tom, with the help of Nella Ozanne and Katharine, makes a model village for the Sale.

Answer: She trashes Bride's study.

Bride is puzzled when she receives a message that Matron wants to see her, and gets a horrible shock when she finds that her study has been vandalised, with ink spilled on a rug she made, broken furniture and pictures, and flower pots overturned. She breaks down in tears and Miss Annersley calms her down and sends her off to the school sanatorium, and discusses what to do with the staff, realising that it is very likely the work of an older girl.

She calls the Middles, Seniors and Sixth Form into an emergency assembly and asks the perpetrator(s) to own up. Mary-Lou notices that Marian is looking guilty and passes a message along her row, and Miss Annersley tells her off for it. Diana freely owns up that she vandalised the study, and blackmailed Marian into helping her after finding out that Marian had stolen other girls' sweets. Miss Annersley has both girls put into isolation, with Diana under constant supervision, bans Marian from having any sweet food, and calls Bride and the prefects into a meeting to find out why Diana might have vandalised the study.

The whole story comes out and Miss Annersley ultimately decides to give Diana a second chance, and makes her apologise to Bride.

Answer: Honey Combe

Bride, unlike most of her friends, isn't dressed up as a 'Crown of Success' character as she is starring in a short cantata about Margaret Roper, the daughter of Thomas More, and an academic and translator. Tom's village features electric lighting, gardens made from moss and gravestones with lettering by Elinor Pennell. Miss Dene has typed a list of names, with Miss Annersley picking one at random and putting it in an envelope, and the names are placed in a raffle, with contestants paying for each name.

The winning name is revealed to be 'Honey Combe' ('Dabble Duck' is another choice). Sir James Talbot, a surgeon and recurring 'Chalet School' character, wins the village and donates it to a sanatorium for children with TB. The village is also responsible for a large amount of the Sale's takings.

At the end of the Sale, Bride tells her friends that Diana has offered to turn over a new leaf (although as anyone who has read 'Changes for the Chalet School' will know, she leaves the school soon after for personal reasons).