Tophole!

It's that time of year when we finish varnishing our scrapbooks and stuffing our toy animals, and encourage our friends and family to get out their purses and spend, spend, spend at THE SALE! Are we organising the stalls by forms, groups, or houses? Do we need a Sale Committee or shall we skip it for this year? Readers participate in 13 sales of work at the Chalet School - here's a recap of each one.

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2025/04/01/s2e15-our-highest-total-ever/

You can contact Tophole via Facebook or at [email protected].

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Let's spend a year or so in Guernsey, catching up with friends. Or, if you've never read any of the La Rochelle books, let's get hugely confused by dozens of characters. Either way, settle down for an authentic portrait of the first year of married life.

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2025/03/18/s2e14-a-romance-for-older-girls/

You can find Tophole on Facebook or contact us at [email protected].

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Second half of our discussion of Armada paperbacks - second style covers from 1972 to 1985.

You can see most (although not all) of the covers we discuss at https://uk.pinterest.com/deborahlofas/chalet-school/2nd-style-pb/

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2025/03/04/s2e13-paperback-writer-2/

You can find Tophole on Facebook or email us at [email protected].

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It's a Wendy week (woo-hoo!) and we're discussing Armada books, and particularly their covers. You can see most of these on the boards at https://uk.pinterest.com/deborahlofas/chalet-school/. Obviously this took us hours so part 2 of our conversation will come next time.

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2025/02/18/s2e12-paperback-writer-1/

You can find Tophole on Facebook or email us at [email protected].

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Delayed for technical reasons (for which apologies) - in this episode I consider Prunella Davidson's arrival at the School, and refrain from wondering what exactly 'It' is. I also don't talk much about the arrival of Bruno because we covered that last time.

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2025/02/04/s2-e11-this-one-started-with-antonia-forest/

You can find Tophole on Facebook or email us at at [email protected] - I do get round to reading the emails eventually...

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The long-promised episode where Wendy and I discuss dogs in EBD's books, and what we learn about training and caring for them. We talk about Rufus and Bruno in the Chalet School books, as well as They Both Liked Dogs, The Lost Staircase, and Kennelmaid Nan - and there are, of course, spoilers, but it is absolutely still worth reading Kennelmaid Nan for yourself if you get the chance.

Where I refer to 23 November 'this year', actually I mean 2024!

You can find Tophole on Facebook or email us at [email protected].

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/s2e10-woof-i-quite-agree-barked-rufus/

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It's that time of year, so there's really only one Chalet book to talk about!

Brittany can be found here

You can find Tophole on Facebook, or email us on [email protected] (and I promise I will get to the emails this week).

Episode transcript available here

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Third time lucky for recording this particular episode, which is about backs and back problems (a) at the Chalet School (b) elsewhere in children's literature and (c) across the whole of recorded time. We are nothing if not ambitious.

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/s2e8-oof/

You can find Tophole on Facebook or email us at [email protected].

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An overview both of Girlguiding, and the Chalet School's experience of it.

Transcript available at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2024/12/03/s2e7-on-my-honour/

You can find Tophole on Facebook, or email us on [email protected]. 

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The final book set at Plas Howell (which I keep accidentally calling Plas Gwyn, but I think Kit has managed to edit out all the incidents).

Full transcript at https://topholepodcast.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/s2e6-the-series-re-boot/

Tophole has its own Facebook page, or you can email us at [email protected].

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