The Lost Staircase by Josephine M Bettany

 

Thanks to Spiral UK 

Title: The Lost Staircase 

Author: Josephine M Bettany 

Publisher: not known 

Source book: Jo to the Rescue by Elinor M Brent Dyer (Chalet School #19)

We first hear about The Lost Staircase back in Lavender Laughs at the Chalet School (#17) when Jesanne and Lois arrive at the school, new girls, full of their staircase-discovering exploits. They have heard that the famous author, Josephine M Bettany, is connected with the Chalet School, and hope to tell her their story so she will turn it into a book. 

I don’t know. If I were a bestselling novelist I might not be prepared to take on such a silly sounding plot. But guess what? Not only did Josephine M Bettany (a fictional writer) write a book called The Lost Staircase, but Elinor M Brent Dyer (a real life writer) wrote a book called The Lost Staircase too.

Yes, it’s one of those books that starts out as fictional and then becomes real. Just like Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp or Quidditch Through the Ages by JK Rowling.

Anyhow, Jo has been working on her version of the staircase story, and by the time we get to Jo to the Rescue, which is a fairly realistic two books after Lavender, the book seems to be nearly finished. Don’t forget, Jo has the Triplets and baby Stephen to consider, not to mention the somewhat improbable supply teaching Latin (honestly, if you knew Jo you’d think English or History or even French more likely… but anyway) in Gay from China (#18). She has brought the ‘fair copy’ of the first few chapters which she lends to new friend Phoebe. And I am willing to bet that she kept a carbon copy* just in case of accidents.

You might be interested to know that Jo to the Rescue is the CS book where Jo plans to make calves foot jelly. Phoebe has been very ill,  and in the past (this is the 1950s) invalids were fed this revolting-sounding concoction which was supposed to be very nourishing. I found the Mrs Beeton recipe Jo was going to use. See what you think. At least Mrs Beeton doesn’t use a calves head as well as the feet: some recipes do. Check out the weird Irish moss recipe at the bottom of the page too. Do please let me know if you eat moss.

If you want to read about the lost staircase, try and get hold of the EBD version. I’m not sure the JMB book is readily available. Not even second hand.

* In the olden days, before most of us had easy access to a computer printer, and even before the invention of the photocopier, when the only way for schools to make multiple copies (like exam papers for example), was a great big noisy gestetner machine. For the average writer, the best way to make copies was to use carbon sheets. 

Imagine taking a sheet of paper to type on (using a typewriter of course, because word processors hadn’t been invented), and then a carbon sheet (with the carbon side held away from the original paper) and then another sheet of paper, and another carbon sheet…and then another piece of paper. You then tidied your pile of paper as carefully as possible and put it through the typewriter all at once. And you got a top copy, and two carbon copies. The second carbon copy was often quite faint. And if you got the carbon paper the wrong way round you got a double sided copy. Not helpful.

But luckily we don’t have to do that anymore.

Thanks to Wikipedia