I recently read "Two Chalet School Girls In India", by Priyadarshini Narendra. This is one of the fill-ins to
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's original "Chalet School" series.
So why am I calling this post "The Lost Manuscript"?
Well, to quote the late Helen McClelland's foreword:
"No question about it: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer did undoubtedly
write a book with the title Two Chalet School Girls in India.
She refers to it at various times during the Chalet School
series. But the mystery of what happened to this story
is still unsolved."
Helen McClelland speculated that the book may not have
had a close enough connection to the Chalet School.
"Or could it have been that, at some stage, the story dealt
with Jo's conversion to Roman Catholicism, which might in
those days have been thought unsuitable for a school readership?"
Personally, I think that this is very possible. The New York Public Library banned "Heaven To Betsy", by Maud Hart Lovelace, due to Betsy and Julia's conversion from the Baptist to the Episcopal church. (The ban has since been lifted.)
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's manuscript may still be lying around
somewhere. And perhaps it will turn up and FINALLY be
published. I, for one, would love to read it.
It would be so interesting to compare the two versions.
