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Children's books

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Original poster

Antonia Forest fans: your favourite parts or lines?

113 replies

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 21/01/2013 09:54

Inspired by posting near MirandaWest....

I often think of Nick's pondering in End of Term that 'it was queer and difficult being friends with someone who disliked one so much; at least, she supposed they were friends, and she supposed it was dislike, though neither seemed quite the right word.'

And for some reason, the description of Edwin Dodd in The Ready Made Family as 'an old, old man with three tiny, tiny tots'.

Yours?

OP posts:

SilentMammoth · 29/01/2013 16:22

Would quite like to marry Commander Marlow, so deliciously decisive, well dressed, well paid and absent!

SilentMammoth · 29/01/2013 16:21

Yes, but it's just a product if it's time isn't it?

I try very hard to model myself on Rowan, but probably more of a Lawrie!! And I need a mrs bertie!

seeker · 29/01/2013 13:48

I do have to work very hard at ignoring the undercurrent of classism in the books- not to mention the private/state school debate!

DeWe · 29/01/2013 13:13

I think that some aren't very nice (Ginty, Lois, Lawrie, Tim) and don't get reformed by one term at said school actually adds to the realism.

I don't think Marie is very nice actually, and don't think she had the right over the desk. If I remember rightly, they had their own set desks and Marie came down early to swap the desks round so Nick didn't have that one. Not that she specifically wanted it, but more she didn't want Nick to have it. Add to that how she lied over the guides thing, which certainly added to Nick and Lawrie being in a lot of trouble-and it could have been considerably worse. She was written as a weak character, but not a nice weak one really.

The form chose to write to her parents, not that they were told to, and Nick says that she's not sure they should, but it would have been a good idea if they'd liked her. And I get exactly what she means there.

MirandaWest · 29/01/2013 12:57

Am hoping I do definitely have it now - am pretty sure I've seen it lurking somewhere....

womblingalong · 29/01/2013 12:42

MirandaWest, wow, , I'd love your spare Attic Term, will PM you, thank you so much!

Original poster

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 29/01/2013 12:41

You're right - she says she's the 7th child in RMF, doesn't she?

Another dodgy bit of parenting, I remember, when daddy says about sorting the Guides thing, that they shouldn't rake it up now 'and anyway, the twins wouldn't want you to, would you Nicky?'.

No wonder Lawrie has problems!

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SilentMammoth · 29/01/2013 12:40

Ace aibu!

Vivienne, you are right, many are not very nice! But that is life isn't it, not everyone is nice and however not nice some characters are, they are very true to life!

Another who loves the time frame.

RussiansOnTheSpree · 29/01/2013 12:36

DD5 surely? Nick is the older twin....

Imagine the AIBU for when Karen came home from Oxford to tell them about Edwin.....

Viviennemary · 29/01/2013 12:36

You're right only a couple of them did. And they had to write to her parents. I thought that was really sad and not nice at all. Reminder - Must not take schoolgirl fiction too seriously!

Original poster

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 29/01/2013 12:32

Can you imagine the AIBU?

Hi all, am new to MN being from a non-specific but definitely pre-internet era and need advice but don't want to start a whole private/state debate.

We are very hard up as a result of me buying a horse and giving our large Hampstead house to some Tory mates we'd forgotten about the credit crunch and can no longer afford to send dds 3,4, 5 and 6 to boarding school. WIBU to remove dd6, who is 13 and very bright, but leave the others there? DD is undiagnosed but definitely on some sort of spectrum (does not believe other people have emotions etc), but has been put on the G&T register for performing arts, so think she would be best where she is. DD3 very well-behaved and likely to choose hard life for self, while dd4 a bit of a flibbertigibbet so also best at boarding school. WIBU to take dd6 out, and also should I tell her before or after this is a fait accompli?

Response 1: OP, do you work outside the home? My advice is to get a part-time job and see if you can cover fees that way

2, OP, I can't understand why you have so many children if you can't afford them? I would have loved three children, but had to cut my coat according to my cloth.

3, It is certainly best for a child to be in private school and my advice is to choose a career now which will allow them all to remain in one, but not boarding as it will mess them up. Have you looked at Habs or CLC? Pick a career which will enable you to send them there, perhaps.

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RussiansOnTheSpree · 29/01/2013 12:32

@Vivienne Many of them aren't very nice. Even the stars aren't very nice, some of the time. And actually - I don't think hardly any of the kids felt guilty about Marie. :(

RussiansOnTheSpree · 29/01/2013 12:30

Of course it's daft! Many of them are! That's the charm.

Everything I know about pigeon fancying I learned from the Thuggery Affair (I know nothing about pigeon fancying)

jeee · 29/01/2013 12:27

I keep checking Amazon, in the folorn hope that her books will one day be available as e-books. Frankly, I think their out-of-print status is a a conspiracy to keep the resale value of tatty paperbacks spectacularly high.

Viviennemary · 29/01/2013 12:26

I'm not exactly a fan so I'll probably be slated. I don't think some of the characters sound very nice people. Saying that the books are very well written. I've only read two or three and bits of others and that was quite a long time ago.

That business in one of the school term books I think it was Autumn Term where there was a row over a desk. I thought the other girl (Marie or Maria?)was in the right. And I think she later became ill and died and they all felt guilty they hadn't been nicer to her. That was quite a strange event for a children's story.

Original poster

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 29/01/2013 12:25

.... and Tim Keith?

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seeker · 29/01/2013 12:25

Patrick is the best argument against only children I have met since Violet Elizabeth Bott.......

Original poster

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 29/01/2013 12:23

Oh The Thuggery Affair is incredibly daft! 'Don't you see? Junkie - in their language - means drug addict!'

And when Patrick says 'that's where you're so very, very wrong' to Jukie - it's another phrase I like to use, but my god how did that boy not get his block knocked off quite frequently?

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Original poster

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 29/01/2013 12:21

Oh no - Mrs Marlow does bugger all, all day long! She can't even take her child for a bloody haircut!

Farm needs running but Dad and big bro in Navy - let the sporty one give up school and do it! MOney situation a bit dodgy - sell the jewels and buy a horse! Mrs Bertie ill and can't do the cooking? Not to worry, another daughter has half term and can cater for all of us! Money really really short now as have used all savings for horse - take the most sensible child out of private school and leave the rest there! Mrs Bertie can't cope with 'the rough'? Get another maid in!

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MirandaWest · 29/01/2013 12:20

I do love how time is wonderfully elastic - it just moves on while the characters don't age. Did confuse me a little when I first read some of them. When I was younger Autumn Term, Cricket Term and Attic Term were the only ones I could find. Was very excited when I got a copy of End of Term for the first time :)

RussiansOnTheSpree · 29/01/2013 12:20

The Thuggery Affair is brilliant! You must read it.

lucky I didn't choose KinkyMobster as my new username clearly at least one aficionado wouldn't have got it

DeWe · 29/01/2013 12:18

Yes, I agree with jee over the Nick needing to leave. Why not Ginty? Or both twins, I sort of understand with Ann that it was a bit late. Lawrie might have actually been better at a less academic school that she didn't have her sisters to baby her.
Or both twins leaving or maybe saying Lawrie had been offered a place at a preforming arts and so they'd both be leaving. Although maybe she'd have hated a performing arts because she'd have found she was middle of the range and not the genius she thought.
And they had just had both karen (although she had scholarships) and Rowen leave the school, so there was no real reason why they suddenly found themselves short of money.
I also think most private schools would have come to some sort of arrangement anyway. After all, they could have said if we don't do it for one, then we don't for them all, and then they'd be 3 fees down.

And I didn't get why she didn't tell Miranda either. Yes, she didn't want Lawrie to know, but I think she would have told Miranda, particularly when she got upset. You can imagine Miranda coming out with some schemes, and I think it would have been much worse to tell her on the last day.

MirandaWest · 29/01/2013 12:18

I have inspired a thread

I have also been LawrieMarlow and LoisSanger and possibly Ginty. And maybe a few others....

I also think I have an extra copy of Attic Term - that one's near the end womblingalong but if you would like to have it let me know.

Did anyone else try and read the Thuggery affair and fail? My grief is probably controllable it has to be said but I still feel a little bad about it.

Think I might need to have a read all the way through (I do love GGBP for having allowed this to happen :))

seeker · 29/01/2013 12:17

Oh, I reckon Catkin was the unnecessary one- if anyone deserved a gee it was the poor downtrodden Mrs Marlow!

Original poster

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 29/01/2013 12:13

Would be funny, too, if that had happened and it turned out that Kingscote's tendency to spend Maths lessons discussing the diaspora and English lessons doing hawking meant Nick failed the 11+, and rather than going to Colebridge Grammar as Pam so confidently assumes, she ended up at Colebridge Sec Mod with the chair-throwing hordes....

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