Brent-Dyer, (Gladys) Elinor M(ay) (1894-1969)

English children's writer. Author of 98 schoolgirl novels, her fourth book, The School at the Chalet (1925), established her popular ‘Chalet School’ series, which were set in an English school in the Austrian Tyrol and featured the heroine Jo Bettany.

Brent-Dyer was born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, and educated at Leeds University, later becoming headmistress of the Margaret Roper Girls' School in Hereford. The first of her schoolgirl novels, Gerry Goes to School, appeared in 1922, and the final book in the series, Prefects of the Chalet School, was published posthumously in 1970.

The Chalet School in Exile (1940), a judicious account of the school's flight from Nazi rule with a grim depiction of the persecution of Jews, is considered the best single ‘Chalet School’ title. The series sought to evangelize against English parochialism and xenophobia.