"Delicately balanced on a razor edge of mutual toleration": Rowan Marlow, Saint or ?

I didn’t like Spring Term.

I don’t even allow it to sit on the same shelf as the other books 😄

Agree. IIRC I found the Paton Walsh sequels annoying because they presented Harriet as a bit of an idiot... which she absolutely isn't in DLS.

I thought Spring Term was OK in stylistic terms (which is certainly an impressive accomplishment) but had an unconvincing plot about a letter which read like something from an inferior girls' story, and as someone said above made Ginty into a pantomime villain which she really isn't. The Patrick/Nicola stuff also felt quite fanfic.

Mainly that if Bredon Wimsey wanted to be extra polite to Bunter surely he’d have called him ‘Mr Bunter’, not Mervyn. I imagine children wouldn’t have dreamed of using first names for adults in those days unless the adults were very low rank indeed.

Exactly! It would be hugely impertinent for a schoolboy to address an adult man by his Christian name if he hadn't been given permission to do so. Public schoolboys might say 'sir' when speaking to a much older man.

Christian names were much less freely used all round, even between social equals. Boys and men would use surnames, women would be 'Miss Smith' or 'Mrs Jones', unless or until they agreed to do otherwise.

I recall inaccuracies in one of the books set in the War, but I'd have to re-read it to remind myself what they were.

I like the Jill Paton Walshes but I have quibbles too.

Mainly that if Bredon Wimsey wanted to be extra polite to Bunter surely he’d have called him ‘Mr Bunter’, not Mervyn. I imagine children wouldn’t have dreamed of using first names for adults in those days unless the adults were very low rank indeed.

....Jill Paton Walsh’s continuation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels are among the very few I’ve rated.

I have quibbles about those.
I really disliked the Sophie Hannah Poirot novels. I gave up part way through the second or third.

Continuing highly literate authors such as AF and DLS is a challenge - knowing or being able to find appropriate literary references, and not just in English!

AF and DWJ are both such intelligent and original writers. And they do require a little effort on the part of the reader.

Not that much effort, I think, and the effort is more than repaid but, unfortunately, a lot of children, used to the ease and immediacy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid et al, just don’t persevere with them.

Dd triumphantly came home with a hardback copy of End of Term that she’d paid 50p for in a sale of school library discards a few years ago - after first protesting to the librarian that no one should be getting rid of Antonia Forest. The librarian agreed but rather sadly pointed out that no one had borrowed it in the last ten years.

I enjoyed Sally Hayward’s Spring Term. I thought she did a good job and I think she would be the first to admit her story is just her take on possible events after Run Away Home and in no way an official sequel.

I’d read another if she wrote one and normally I am not a fan of sequels by other writers. Kate Saunders’ Five Children on the Western Front and Jill Paton Walsh’s continuation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels are among the very few I’ve rated.

GGBP seem to do their valiant best to reprint AF in rotation so if you wait patiently it should be possible to get a full set.

My favourite phrase! Please keep adding to the bank of Forest gems to brighten up a dull Monday.

Slightly off topic but I have spotted a number of fellow Diana Wynne Jones fans on this thread too. Despite writing different genres, their use of language, characterisation and plot structure makes both women superb authors. Neither gets the credit they deserve but Antonia Forest gets a particularly raw deal.

Don't give up hope! I bought a first edition of Ballet Shoes for a tenner last spring (now sold for significantly more).

That is dreadful @RosamundGarth!

I discovered the missing holiday books at my university library in the education section 2 floors down. I was delighted to fill the bemusing gaps and nobly didn't steal them. 20 or so years later I was back there for a work event and was told all the children's books were offered to staff and then chucked in a skip. Wished I'd smuggled them out in my big coat pockets (before electronic gates).

"There will be BLOOD FOR BREAKFAST."

I’ve never read it, because it just seems like a crazed endeavour — AF was a genius, and honestly, it seems arrogant to think ‘I know! People want to know if Esther and Nick made up, whether Ann forgave the others for lying about the Edward Oeschli situation, whether the Karen, Edmund and the children situation improved etc, so I’ll just write it up!’

The sequel published by GGB is Spring Term ( not Summer Term) by Sally Hayward. She does a pretty good job but it doesn’t quite work for me because she turns Ginty into a much more stereotypical schoolgirl villain whereas AF’s portrayal is characteristically nuanced. It’s worth a read if you can get hold of it but it’s not AF.

I really appreciate all that GGB do - republishing old titles and commissioning fill ins - but I wish they would bite the ebook bullet. I prefer real books but Kindle keeps costs down and is good for those of us with less space for all the books we want to read.

i have woken up thinking about why I like Antonia Forest so much and it is because her characters, whilst far grander than anyone I’d met growing up, were real in how they behaved. There was a chapter (when Nicola gets the letter from her mother) when the rest of the form were playing up the student teacher. It was school as I knew it. It is a shame she didn’t write more.

@WryNecked I bought two copies of Run Away Home from a library book sale for 10p each. They had about ten of them in a pile (this was back in the early 90s). I wish I’d got them all. I could have made a nice amount and bought a pony or a cream dress.

You can’t, alas.

Yes, GGB has reprinted all the Marlow books at some point, but only one is currently in print, The Player’s Boy. I get that they’re a tiny, old-school operation, and that it’s all very much a labour of love (you can pay by cheque!), but the AF books are seldom in print, print runs are small, and they refuse to produce e-books because they aren’t set up for it.

Ultimately I’d like the books to be more easily available from a bigger publisher, and to have Kindle editions.

If you look on Amazon, other than the GGB The Player’s Boy, all the listed options are secondhand, and often extremely expensive. There’s a copy of Run Away Home for €301!

girls gone by own the publishing rights so you can get from there or Amazon.

they also published summer term -the term after run away home by sally someone, it’s very close to af.

Absolutely wonderful books. I keep trying to get people to read them (no, they aren’t like Malory Towers and the other school stories) as they are so special. Love the characterisation and love Forest’s use of language. Poor Rowan (who I would fear in real life) taking on Trennels and the adults letting her do so, I always felt for Nicola when she got The Letter from her mother too. I have to say that I really enjoyed the ‘follow on’ book published by GGB a few years ago as I wanted to know what happened to the characters.

Lucky Bletchley. I longed for my teachers to be like Crommie!

There was a very short fanfic on I think Trennels (could be AO3 though) in which it was revealed that Miss Cromwell had worked at Bletchley Park. Apart from the stretchy timeline, it was entirely credible.

I love her descriptions of The Staff

Miss Latimer - like a gorgeous jersey cow. And Miss Cromwell with her acid tongue and low tolerance for fools.

It's high enough that she's calculating her 4' plus her arms, but it definitely references her being 4'. Which even allowing for post war nutrition is decidedly unlikely - I think the twins would have been 12ish by TM&TT. The illustrations in my edition do show all 4 Marlows as looking much younger than expected, & oddly elvish; Ginty in particular is all eyes & pointy ears.

I'm not sure AF had that much familiarity with actual teenagers. They all seem to be physically tiny whilst mentally operating as Eng Lit undergrads. I mean, it would be lovely in some respects if that were a realistic vision - English teacher here - but...

It is, and the film certainly supports AF's theme that too much Gondalling can become dangerous.

They're fourteen and a half in RAH, aren't they? Doesn't Nicola say so to Giles?

I don't know if AF intended that the twins were premature, but I've always thought they must have been. It would account for their early delicacy, and also allow for Peter coming between Ginty and the twins. It only works if you assume Mrs M fell pregnant very quickly after the births of Ginty and Peter, and the twins came very early.