Any Antonia Forest fans out there?

I like Rowan best, wanted to call DD Rowan, DH went mental so she is NOT Rowan.
I like "Peters Room" best as I love the Bronte's and I find Ginty fascinating as she just defines ditsy teenage girl.
Don't you love Grandma too?
I always wanted to be Nicola, but I'm more like Lawrie...

I hated Kay's adopted kids, am I horrid?

Oh, anyone got a copy of "The Marlows and the Traitor" for less than £100?????

Can't wait for DD to read the books but my old copies are so battered she may have to take up archaeology to put them together!!!!

Yes I do see what you mean and I was just partly being rude about the poor old plank for the sake of it
but I do think the bit where she realises Tim likes Lawrie best is a bit cathartic for Lawrie fans
and you do think 'oh good lord Nicola has this honestly never occured to you before that someone might not like you best'
she is very superior about Lawrie in her private thoughts - well the family culture is that Lawrie is an idiot, also - they don't value her good points much at all

i think this could be getting to the heart of why I identify / identified so much with Lawrie actually

yes Giles was vile, wasn't he
another one who is slightly too sure of his own likeability and charms really

LOL @ irate Nicola fans
the shattering discovery that someone likes someone else better than you
hmm
Lawrie not the only spoilt one really, is she? and as for Tim fab character, wouldn't want to know her

MrsJC, re: Peyton books - there are several fabulous books which are sort of in 2 series, but they overlap wonderfully with characters from each popping up

the Pennington books are absolutely divine and form a discrete series (Beethoven Medal, Pennington's 17th summer, Pennington's Heir)
but you also have the other books in which his gf Ruth and her horsey set feature - Fly By Night, The Team, The Last Ditch, Midsummer Night's Death (kind of offshoot book about J Meredith), Call Yourself a Hero (ditto)
and finally Marian's Angels which features Ruth and Pat several years on
I have probably missed some! I would start with Fly By Night and The Team and then read the Pennington series
I think that is sort of chronologically correct

Oh I love all her books so much. I now own nearly all (just waiting for GGBP to publish Thursday Kidnapping which I have never read). Also will have to buy their End of, Cricket and Attic terms as my copies have completely fallen apart, and I want DDs to read them.

Nicola and Rowan are my faves, I'm afraid. I like Lawrie's characterisation, but I would just have to scream at her in frustration sometimes.

On the Patrick/Nicola/Ginty question - AF says something like "perhaps he didn't marry either of them" - and something along the lines of him entering the priesthood possibly. Can't remember exactly.

Great thread btw!

I used to spend ages trying to decide which one I would most like to be - Nicola (good at music), Lawrie (good at acting), Ginty (really beautiful), Tim (really cool).

I have spent way too much time thinking about this.

oh and # 2

Tallis - the thirds would NEVER have beaten the sixth form were it not for all that fielding practice nicky foreced on them

ok - going to stop typing now

oh, and i got marlows and their maker for xmas from my mum. its ok - written by a fan, i disagreed with a reasonable amount of what she said. BUT it included lots of v sweet things like sketches of kingscote grounds based on the books ... also good for boxing day quizzes with my sis "what type of dog was daks?" etc etc

excellent thread title for a sunday morning. anyone remember the argument between tim and miranda in art class in end of term abotu the twins?? miranda lays into lawrie .. "the trouble with you is you're spoilt, if things dont go your way you cry the house down (or words to that effect)..." etc etc. nicky is FAB, lay off her guys. miranda too damn smart for own good... but then i just named my first daughter esther ....

I like Nicola best when I was a child, as an adult Lawrie wins hands down. But I would NEVER describe Nicola as a plank

I need to read some more KM Peyton - have only read a few things
what do you recommend Franny? which ones have those characters you mentioned in them?

I had a history teacher JUST like Crommie - she reminds me of her so much

I love Miranda. She is the coolest girl in the whole school

Peter is depthish but gawd, would you want to GO in those depths?
I am still puzzling about something K M Peyton said about HER Peter - Peter McNair - she said he wasn't just based on Peter Marlow, he WAS Peter Marlow
now quite a few things would have to happen to Peter Marlow to make him into Peter Mc Nair IMO
the latter is much more likeable - a decent amount of introspection without all this tormented soul searching and so on

but if we are moving on to K M peyton then may I bring in the delicious Jonathan Meredith and the swoonworthy Patrick Pennington

Marlows and their Maker

yes Miranda super but obviously rather superior
not exactly the loyalest friend either (you forgive her because she is so funny about it)

I thought everyone was MEANT to prefer Lawrie - after all, Tim does, much to Nicola's chagrin (that makes me like her even less - I mean! The Idea! Someone actually Preferring Lawrie! )
it was only as an adult rereading I realised we were meant to think Plank Nicola was the nicest

I'd much rather my dd grew up like Miranda - so grown-up about singing in a CofE service, clever, loyal, funny. And a voice with a chime in it, like a bell.

Or Tim, even.

Lol was just off with the fairies and Nicola...gawd spare us. I loved her when I was growing up, mind, and only now look back and think, oh just relax,love. Stop putting the Lower Fours through fielding practice and being all interesting with your hawks. Anything wrong with a rabbit?

I wanted all my teachers to be like Crommie.

And btw, what is this Marlows and their Maker book, pray?

This is my favourite ever MN thread.

Rowan is my favourite

oh LAwrie is annoying but yes, FAR more interesting

youy are right about central characters often being quite dull

yes that's it with Patrick, and teh whole Catholic guilt thing. He is a bit of a ponce, frankly

Rowan of course, Idris, you have to like Rowan the best

no no Lawrie is fab
really fab
what a great character

erm I think Patrick is a bit screwed up about girls isn't he
he's almost got this madonna / whore thing going on - he is full of romantic notions about women and doesn't really understand them at all - but you can see that eventually he will either marry a Ginty type in a grand and terrible romance, or finally realise that what he actually needs is someone who can be a friend and a sensible partner like Nicola

SWATHED obviously

DS is 'helping'. It's an hour past his bedtime

Have placated children. Just .

Am annoyed as somewhere I have a GGBP copy of Ready Made Family and I can't find it anywhere.

Trying to decide who I actually like the best - not Lawrie, not Ann, not Ginty, not Karen. Not Giles (who never seems real enough to me, although he does a bit more in Run Away Home).

Bother, have to leave.

yes that's what I thought but it came right out of left field and sat really strangely I though.

Lawrie was going to turn into a barmy old drama teacher swather in kaftans, with a very deep and raddled smoker's voice.