Primula of the Chalet School (Chalet School)

Primula Venables, a shy and physically frail member of the Bettany/Russell clan, is one of the more elusive characters in the Chalet School series. In her early school days she usually remains in the background and we only get a clear picture of her as a self-reliant young woman when she helps Joey Maynard during her move to Switzerland. In Primula of the Chalet School Helen Barber fills in for us some of the events which have helped bring her out of her shell. Placed for a term in a small class where she cannot efface herself, forced by circumstances to take responsibility for a rather challenging new girl, and caught up unexpectedly in some very secret wartime activity outside the school, Primula has no option but to think for herself and use her own initiative. The story takes place in the same term as The Chalet School and Rosalie and The Bettany Twins and the Chalet School and blends seamlessly with both, without going over old ground.