A Royalist Soldier Maid by Josephine M Bettany

Lady Penelope Spencer by Sir Peter Lely: thanks to the Minneapolis Institute of Art

Title: A Royalist Soldier Maid

Author: Josephine M Bettany 

Publisher: not known 

Source book: A Problem for the Chalet School by Elinor M Brent Dyer (Chalet School #36)

Rosamund attends a government school and is unexpectedly awarded a scholarship to the Chalet School. Initially she doesn’t want to go. She’s worried that she won’t fit in with girls who have been at boarding school for years. However, much to her surprise she finds new friends Len and Con (but not Margot) Maynard quite quickly, and what’s more, their mother turns out to be one of her favourite authors: Josephine M Bettany! Rosamund’s older sister and her husband bought her A Royalist Soldier Maid last Christmas, and Rosamund loved it.

Interestingly, in New Mistress at the Chalet School (#37), we hear about a Josephine M Bettany book called King’s Soldier Maid. Now, EBD was famous for changing the names of characters, their ages, the names (sometimes numbers) of dormitories, and goodness knows what else, so do we think this is EBD getting a bit confused and calling the same book by a slightly different name? Or could King’s Soldier Maid be a sequel to A Royalist Soldier Maid? Or, I suppose, vice versa?

In New Mistress, Kathy (the eponymous new mistress) also mentions the bestselling Swords Crossed. Another in the Soldier Maid series perhaps? Who can say. We do know that Jo writes several different series, so why not?

And then, in Two Sams at the Chalet School (#56) we discover yet another similarly named book by Jo: Swords for the King! An exciting series for girls about the English Civil War (1642-1651) or EBD getting confused about the titles of Jo’s fictional books? Once again who knows, but Samantha van der Byl is thrilled with this historical novel. She’s American and has never read one of Jo’s books before.

I would very much like to believe that Josephine M Bettany has written a series of books about the English Civil War, but it’s probably more likely that EBD forgot what she told us that Jo had written and just gives us several books with a similar name. Honestly, it’s plain she never had a useful card index to keep a record of her characters.

In the later CS books we don’t get to see Jo discussing her books as she used to. Otherwise we might find out what is going on with this possible English Civil War series.

Rosamund borrows Werner of the Alps from the book shelf in the Common Room. Oh dear, we can tell she isn’t exactly like the other girls because she talks about ‘having a lend of’ the book [I’m just reporting how the characters react]. Len and Con aren’t quite sure what to say. Luckily Rosamund is a really nice girl and we like her very much however incorrect her grammar.

It’s a great pity that Rosamund, who should have been a starring character in the Chalet School series, is allowed to fade into the background (head girl one minute, totally disappeared the next) while the much less interesting triplets constantly take centre stage. 

I find it frustrating that EBD obviously decided that the triplets were destined to become major characters in her CS series, come what may. Even when she creates a very strong character like Rosamund she still favours the triplets. 

Portrait of a Lady by Sir Peter Lely: thanks to the Art Gallery of New South Wales
I wonder how women managed in winter when this off the shoulder style was so fashionable?
It must have been very chilly.