Elinor and the Chalet School Part IV

Elinor found running the Margaret Roper school more difficult than she had anticipated... When World War II broke out, the school got more pupils, because of issues such as air raids, and financial problems. A local school like hers was useful to middle class families in Hereford. As a lady said, “it filled a need” for some years. However after the war, numbers went down. The better off middle class families began to send their daughters to Boarding school again and Elinor found that her school was attracting more of a social mix and was less successful. This put off the middle class pupils’ families and the school began to decline. Elinor was a good teacher but she wasn’t good at the organisational side of running a school. The place was chaotic. Her Mother, Nellie Ainsley was in charge of the catering and was not really up to organising cookery and meals for a number of girls, with wartime and post War rationing to add to her troubles. The girls said that the food was terrible. Elinor and her mother both also adored cats and there were issues about the cats being allowed to roam around the kitchen. On the academic side, Elinor’s lack of organisation created problems. She sometimes forgot about classes when she was busy with a book, and the girls took advantage of her negligence. People have referred to her as "living in Chalet Land" rather than the real world. Over 10 years, the school did fairly well but it is probable that she was relieved when it finally came to an end. She continued to write, and the Chalet School series was now established and made her a good living. It was an exciting idea of a school set abroad, where children of different nationalities and denominations mixed. As time went on, most readers would admit that the quality of writing declined. In the “Oberland” books, the format tended to be somewhat repetitive, - there was a new girl, usually one who had some family problem,or was “difficult”, coming to the school and learning to fit in... “Becoming a REAL Chalet girl” was how Elinor put it. One girl who never quite fit in was Joan Baker in “A problem for the Chalet School”. Joan is from a working class background, and has “cheap” vulgar ways... Since the school is not meant to be snobbish, it’s not her background that is held against her but her vulgarity and silliness. Joan goes to the school because her family has come into some money they won on the Pools, but her childhood friend Rosamund Lilley, also from a poor background, has won a scholarship to get there. Rosamund “fits in” quite well, though she hasn’t learned any languages prior to going there, and she becomes friends with Len Maynard. Joan improves up to a point, but is never quite a “real Chalet girl”… Another problem is Joey Bettany/Maynard. Jo’s connection with the school goes on, improbably, even after she has left school, married and given birth to an enormous family. Elinor seemed to see “having large family” as a success for her heroines. Joey is always living close to the school no matter where it ends up! She always has time for helping out problem girls, though she has her writing, her home and her many children to cope with. Elinor went on writing the novels, and didn’t seem to become bored with the format... right up to the 60s. Her mother had developed health problems and was frequently ill. After her death, Elinor was in her 60s and she too developed a heart condition. She was less vigorous and lost some of her zest for life, but her books were still popular and she continued to write, though more slowly. She was now alone without her mother, she decided to move in with a friend Mrs Phyllis Matthewman and her husband, into a house in Surrey. Mrs Matthewman was also a writer. She, her husband and Elinor were good friends and they bought a house big enough to divide into two flats. It worked out reasonably well, in that Elinor had some company and someone to keep an eye on her, but Mrs Matthewman did find that her friend intruded on her privacy to an extent. In 1969, she died, peacefully at home. Her last book, Prefects of the Chalet School, was published after her death.