Diary of a Wimp Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dr Marilliar

Dr Marilliar is the father of Monica, the heroine of 'Monica Turns Up Trumps', which also features her cousins, the McNab sisters. At the time of 'Lavender Laughs', Vicky McNab is studying to be a doctor and Alixe and Mollie, her younger sisters, are still at school. Dr Marilliar notices that Lavender is moody and underweight, with a poor appetite, and warns her aunt - who is her sole guardian - that constant travelling is bad for Lavender's health, and that she needs some routine in her life. As his daughter and nieces attend the Chalet School, he recommends it for Lavender, and as Lavender's aunt is being called up, she is left with little choice.

Answer: Travel books for children

Lavender's aunt writes a series of travel books for children, based on her own travels and starring her niece, called 'Lavender Laughs'. The titles include 'Lavender Laughs in Cyprus' and 'Lavender Laughs in Brazil'. Although some of the girls have read the books and enjoyed them, their parents aren't as impressed, and neither is Miss Wilson, who mentally calls her a 'grinning little monkey'. She is even less impressed when she meets Lavender's aunt, who begs her not to tell Lavender too much about the war as she is a 'sensitive plant'.

Despite being 13, Lavender is placed in a form with younger girls, as most of her work is sub-par for her age except for languages. Bride Bettany, by contrast, has been promoted from Upper Second and is gloomy about being separated from her friends.

Answer: The Peace League

Lavender gets off to a bad start with Matron and the prefects when she brings more dresses than allowed, and Matron makes her keep four and put the rest in storage. At Prayers, Miss Annersley makes a speech to the school and explains about the Peace League, which was started by a group of girls in 'The Chalet School in Exile'. Lavender interjects and complains about having to be 'decent to the Germans', but Bride shuts her up by putting her hand over her mouth. Lavender overreacts and accuses Bride of attacking her but, as Bride herself and others point out, she is doing Lavender a favour by preventing her from speaking ill of the Peace League (as both girls and mistresses are involved with it, and Lavender's comment about it being unpatriotic would not have gone down well).

Answer: Lavender wanted the form prefect's desk, and Bride tried to move her to another one.

Miss Slater comes in to find a scuffle taking place between the girls, and pulls both Lavender and Bride up for fighting. It turns out that Lavender wanted to sit by the window, but the desk happened to be the form prefect's desk, and when Bride tried to move Lavender to another one, Lavender pulled off her glasses and threw them on the floor. Lavender claims that looking out of the window helps her work, but Miss Slater isn't buying it. Lavender also upsets Miss Burnett and Mademoiselle Berné with her rudeness and ignorance, and when Miss Stevens asks her about volcanoes, she brags about climbing El Jorullo (a Mexican cinder volcano) and Pélée, but is unable to answer a question about why volcanoes overflow.

Answer: Hockey

Monica Marilliar is taking a games class where the girls are playing hockey, and tells Lavender off for holding her stick too high. Lavender complains when Judy Rose accidentally hits her with a hockey ball during a throw-in. Monica is unsympathetic and continues to criticise Lavender's game play, and Lavender loses her temper and brings down her stick, hitting Anne Montague's hand and calling her a 'little baby crying for a knock'. Anne has a phobia of blood and faints, and the rest of the girls are so angry with Lavender that they stop speaking to her. Miss Annersley gets Judy to apologise, but cannot get an apology out of Lavender.

The girls start speaking to Lavender again a few days later, after Biddy O'Ryan warns them that it has gone on long enough.

Answer: Ask G-d to help you when you're in difficulties.

Lavender had been reluctant to go to the new girls' tea at Joey's house, but ends up going anyway, along with Bride as Joey has invited her niece personally. Jesanne Gellibrand and Lois Bennett, a pair of older girls whose own story appears in 'The Lost Staircase', are present, as is Gay Lambert, a senior from China, and Gillian Culver, the heroine of the 'Chudleigh Hold' series, where her name is Arminel Chudleigh. Polly Heriot has also come to visit. Joey and the girls play games and they meet the little triplets, and Joey gives her a pep talk, though she doesn't mention religion (that comes in later books).

Answer: No

Trouble starts brewing between Joy Bird, a girl in Upper Third, and Lavender when the two get into a fight after Joy badmouths both Lavender's aunt and Madge Russell as well, which upsets Peggy and Bride. Lavender attacks Joy, and as a result, tension flares between the Lower and Upper Third forms, with the girls forming distinct groups.

The Thirds go for a walk in the snow and have a snowball fight, and Lavender accidentally hits Joy with a snowball. Joy thinks this is deliberate and pushes Lavender into a snowdrift, and Lavender becomes ill and has to stay off school. Joy worries that Lavender will tell on her, but Lavender refuses, because of what Joey said about standing on her own feet (although she does not tell Joy about what Joey said).

Answer: Kashmir

Lilamani is one of the very few non-European Chalet School pupils. Lavender met her while she and her aunt were travelling in Kashmir. Lavender is thinking about Lilamani when Bride comes to visit her and tells her that their form has a new girl - and it turns out to be Lilamani.

Her family moved to Menton (called 'Mentone' in the book), a city in the south of France on the Riviera, because of her mother's illness; in real life, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Menton was a popular spot for sufferers of tuberculosis and wounded soldiers to recuperate, due to its pleasant climate (and EBD sends ill characters there in some of her other books!).

However, the Italians annexed Menton and Lilamani's mother's health deteriorated, and she was transferred to the Sanatorium, while Lilamani was enrolled at the Chalet School. Lavender wants to give her some of her dresses, although the school authorities insist she contact her aunt for permission.

Answer: They have too much bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in them.

Cooking sessions in 'Chalet School' books barely go to plan, and this one is no different! The wind blows the pages of the recipe book over, so the girls end up putting the wrong waffle ingredients in. They put more bicarbonate of soda and baking powder than is necessary, and as a result, the waffles rise dramatically and are so bitter that even copious amounts of maple syrup can't save them. Lavender complains that they taste too bitter and Flora runs out of the room! The cake fares no better, and Joey and Jack give it to the pigs to eat. Luckily, Anna comes to the rescue and makes some buns, and Joey gives the girls a tin of maple syrup to take back to school.

Answer: She cut off her ringlets.

Throughout the book, Lavender has been wearing her hair in ringlets, which she has to style every night. At the end of the book, she is playing tag with a bunch of other girls in her form, and gets fed up with her hair constantly getting her face, so she takes a pair of scissors from the needlework room and starts to cut off her ringlets. Miss Stevens catches her in the act, cuts off the remaining ringlets and sends her to Miss Annersley, who is not at all pleased and makes her write to her aunt. Matron is also mad at Lavender when Lavender has to go to her to have her hair tidied up. Lavender claims her aunt won't mind, but Monica reveals in a conversation with her friends that Lavender's aunt refused to have her hair cut, and will be upset about it. Lavender and Joy also make up after their quarrel.

Lavender's cutting of her hair can also be seen as a symbol of her changing as a person and being more willing to fit in with the other girls.