Katherine Bruce

Katherine Bruce has always been fascinated by the Chalet School books that are set during war-time. With a long-standing interest in matters related to World War II, she has always found herself drawn to those titles that explicitly take place during that period: The Chalet School in Exile, Goes To It, Highland Twins, Lavender Laughs and Gay from China. Elinor Brent-Dyer’s writing allowed her a glimpse into the everyday world in which she had long had such an interest, and unlike much of the academic writing on the subject, the Chalet School stories showed the experiences undergone by much of the general public. Such matters as rationing, blackout, air raids, and other restrictions on people’s lives became commonplace, while the suffering of characters in bombing raids or other war-related tragedies gave individual depth to the general understanding she had of the war-time situation in Austria and England as well as other places. It was the detail provided in those books that prompted Katherine to undertake to write the end of the war as it affected the Chalet School, the end result of which was first published in 2005. Despite writing three other books set during the Tyrolean era of the books, war-time stories remain her first love.  However she has loved the opportunities to set her short stories at different points across the entire series as the original titles were reprinted by Girls Gone By.