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Original poster

Another Antonia Forest thread

155 replies

tvaerialmagpiebin · 27/04/2010 20:18

We haven't had one in a while.

I have just won "Attic Term" on ebay and almost got "Marlows and the Traitor" from a dealer but it turned out their website was out of date and it had sold in December. Boo hiss.

I tried to find the thread from a while back about "Nicola Merrick" the radio producer but I think it must have been in Chat because it has gone. I am re-reading all the AF books I have, in order, and it is surprising how things slip into place now. Can't believe I got "Ready-made family" for 25p in a charity shop 10 years ago and that launched me on such a fantastic discovery.

Now I have to convince my local library to get out the copy of "Run away Home" that they claim to have in the HQ store, and I will be very happy..

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megonthemoon · 28/04/2010 21:08

marie does need a slap. but then she dies! by getting up to switch off the telly, or something banal like that. and you feel bad for having hated her!

CoupleofKooks · 28/04/2010 21:06

shall i wait a bit before revealing my dull amazing AF claim to fame, or can i do it now?

LittleSilver · 28/04/2010 21:05

Brilliant thread. AF rocks. I've just read TTK and was a bit disappointed, although to be fair I think AF said it was a bit of an experiment. Does anyone go on the Chalet School Bulletin Board, there's quite a lot fo threads on AF there?

I want to be Rowan, but truthfully am a bit more of a Lawrie. I want Trennels too.

CoupleofKooks · 28/04/2010 21:04

lois haunts me - the finale of the cricket term and how it all finally goes wrong for her - and she is so very much an ambivalent character - not just a baddie - the way she steps in at the play and does the narration and charms them all, unwillingly
i think her self-deception is her major fault isn't it? it is carried to a dangerous level
if she had more self-awareness she could be quite quite devastating

lawrieisluckybutnickyisnicer · 28/04/2010 21:00

i think the brilliance of AF is summed up in Lois. such a believable baddie, so easy to be that baddie.

anyone met an AF fan in real life? i never have. i fantasise about it

MayorNaze · 28/04/2010 21:00

oh i heart these. though i only have autumn term, something else term (th one with the dog and the jewish girl) and another one with rowan's step family in...i need more as there are too many gaps...

isn't marie in autumn term just in dire need of a good slap? she is such a drip...

CoupleofKooks · 28/04/2010 20:59

sorry - DOH - it is Ready Made Family that is my favourite, not Run Away Home

lawrieisluckybutnickyisnicer · 28/04/2010 20:58

more on the lady herself

CoupleofKooks · 28/04/2010 20:57

oh what a lovely thread
i have them all, mostly from GGB
my favourite apart from schools ones is Run Away Home, I think - I also love the Players titles

i am the oddball who loves lawrie
i had NO IDEA as a child that i was meant to prefer Nicola, and was gobsmacked to work it out as an adult
Lawrie is just so cool - so funny - so guileless in her faults and her ambitions and her egocentricity
i adore that bit in The Thuggery Affair where she gets carried away being a beatnik and completely gets into bother

i also think Lois Sanger is the most amazing character
god they are good books - too good to be left in the children#s fiction section

lawrieisluckybutnickyisnicer · 28/04/2010 20:53

lucy mangan in guardian

slightly more eloquent than me. i am a total dunce at conveying her greatness.

lawrieisluckybutnickyisnicer · 28/04/2010 20:43
Original poster
tvaerialmagpiebin · 28/04/2010 20:39

I might have to kiss the postman tomorrow if he has Attic term for me

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HumphreyCobbler · 28/04/2010 20:33

We could provide an armed guard.

I think her style is just so accomplished. She conveys so much with so little, there is never a wasted work.

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tvaerialmagpiebin · 28/04/2010 20:33

Oh I love Miranda too. That bit in End of Term when she is in the minster being a Candle Angel.... and all the anti-Semitic stuff... yet another example of the adult theme. Oh, and all the Catholic stuff.

Yes Rowan very sensible sister. Brave to take on the farm. Again I would have liked to know what she had got up to, a bit more, like Karen.

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megonthemoon · 28/04/2010 20:31

I lie - I have Autumn Term too somewhere, I know - just need to get dad to find it!

megonthemoon · 28/04/2010 20:31

I've just reread Cricket Term after my dad found it in my parents' loft! I don't possess any of the others but read most of them from library when younger.

I am pg and if it is a DD I want to name her Rowan or Miranda, but DH doesn't like either of those names

Rowan was my favourite sister. Always said the right thing at the right time.

I always wanted to go to Kingscote - love the fact that they played cricket as I have always loved cricket and it was a revelation that girls' schools that played it existed, even if only in fiction! I always wondered if it was based on Roedean as that was the only girls' school I was aware of that played cricket.

Original poster
tvaerialmagpiebin · 28/04/2010 20:29

We ought to do a swap, temp only, of ones we have but others don't. Mind you I don't know if I would trust the post office. I would trust MNetters though

I think that they are not really children's books, despite some of them being school stories. The themes are just too adult. I was astounded by re-reading The Thuggery Affair by the drug storyline, for instance, for the time of writing it struck me as being highly unusual for a so-called children's book. Her style is adult, not patronising in that "oh what fun let's have a midnight feast" way of a certain E Blyton.

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HumphreyCobbler · 28/04/2010 20:26

God I had forgotten about RAH. Only read that one once too.

HumphreyCobbler · 28/04/2010 20:25

I first read AF when I was little, I remember getting Autumn Term out of the library again and again. Peter's Room was my favourite for ages. I even love the cricket bits. Falcolner's Lure I only read once in someone elses house.

I would like to discuss WHY the books are so good. And why such a talented writer wrote school stories (I am glad about that, but imagine if she had tackled other subjects). The characters are so well drawn, they are most vividly present in my mind.

I have never read The Ready Made Family

Original poster
tvaerialmagpiebin · 28/04/2010 20:20

Ooh I don't much like Ginty, but I do like Karen, she is my favourite. Possibly because I am a bit of a booky geek like her. I would have liked a "prequel" with a bit more about her days at Kingscote.

When I was about 10 it was one of my favourite games to "imagine" a boarding school, I used tolike to draw plans of the dorms etc....

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pooka · 28/04/2010 20:19

I suppose my dislike of Lawrie is her lack of sensitivity and self-centredness. She just seems so "me, me, me". Agree though that Ginty is harder and less likeable - for all Lawrie being frequently insufferable there is still a vulnerable core to her I think.

I'm keen on Peter, Nicola and Rowan. I actually rather like Ann too for her goodness.

Wish I had a house like Trennels.

HumphreyCobbler · 28/04/2010 20:08

I wish I had the lot.

They are just so so so good.

My copy of Cricket Term has fallen to bits

Lawrie is a brilliant character, why do you all hate her so much? Ginty much more dislikable imo.

Original poster
tvaerialmagpiebin · 28/04/2010 20:04

They are so expensive, aren't they. I did email GGB to ask them for another print run but they won't do it. I would have bought them all....

I bid on RAH and Peter's Room on ebay about a month ago, the seller started them off at 99p....... needless to say they didn't sell for that.

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RustyBear · 28/04/2010 19:51

I have them all, having rescued most of them from the chuck-out pile in the stacks at Morden Library over 20 years ago (I used to work there, I didn't just wander in and grab them!)
I was furious with myself for years for forgetting to pick up The Thursday Kidnapping the day before I went on holdiday & when I got back it had gone, especially as it was about £70 on Amazon. I was really happy that Girls Gone By brought it out last year, though as so often happens when you've been waiting that long for something I was vaguely disappointed - it's not quite as good as the Marlow books, or maybe it's just the different characters.

BellsaRinging · 28/04/2010 19:40

I still haven't read all the books, but love the ones I have read. Desperate to read RAH, but will just have to keep hanging out at charity shops and car boots and hoping I think!