The Chalet School in Exile was published by Girls Gone By a few years ago, and they have decided to re-issue it this year in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War and in memory of all those who lost their lives.
Exile was without doubt Elinor’s strongest Chalet School title, and indeed it was this title which enabled the series to continue. Chambers had thought that there should be no more titles after Jo Returns to the Chalet School, and although they did allow publication of The New Chalet School, without the Anschluss and all that Elinor made of it, the series would have finished.
As well as all she does with the issue of the Nazis, Elinor moves the story of the school on, so that by the end of the book, Joey not only is married, but also has her triplet daughters.
The original GGBP edition did not have extra introductory material, but with this new edition includes a short story from Carol Allan, A Fateful Day at the Sonnalpe, which won a competition in the Friends of the Chalet School magazine some years ago, and which fills in one of the gaps in Exile.
Other additional material includes an short article on the Anschluss, detailing the events leading up to the annexation of Austria by Germany, details of errors in the first edition and how and why these have been corrected and full details of the publishing history of Exile.
