Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

What do you think happened to characters from your childhood?

82 replies

Squigean · 04/03/2020 14:34

(Bear with me, I'm off ill and got too much time to think.)

I was just thinking about the Secret Garden - it's been made into another film; out this year.

It's set in 1910 (or 11) Dickon was 12 I think (?). So will be 16 in 1914. Good chance he's off to the trenches at some point, highly possible he dies there.

Colin was 10 so will miss out on being having to go and probably continued being obnoxious and privileged. (Might be hard to tell, but I didn't like Colin.) He would probably miss being conscripted - as he would be 39 when WW2 started and probably married. (Plus I can't recall when the upper-aged men got conscripted, it wasn't immediately and i think Colin would probably have just missed out age-wise).

Mary I think would be married off and that would be that for her. If she's lucky she might have a passionate affair with the gardener.(Probably not Ben Weatherstaff; thinking more along the lines of Oliver Mellors.)

Martha (my favourite character) I think would have married, had many children and lived near her mother.

I'm going to figure out Enid Blyton characters now. (Despite a lot of them being knob heads.)

OP posts:
antisupermum · 04/03/2020 14:38

I would need to put some serious thought into what I imagine happened to Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester. I need to look up the timelines and the such like. I enjoy having things like this to think about as it can transport me away from the tediousness of everyday life for a while!

I'm keen to see what examples other people come up with! Great thread idea, OP.

puffmais · 04/03/2020 15:20

re: the Secret Garden, I like to think Mary developed serious feelings for Dickon and they eloped and went to live in a cottage on the moors, maybe keeping some sheep or goats.

Enid Blyton characters- this will be fun: (Mallory Towers)

Darrell Rivers- schoolteacher who marries a boy next door type- a civil servant maybe. They have 4 children- 2 boys, 2 girls.

Sally Hope- would maybe BE a civil servant. spinster.

Alicia- plenty of lovers, leaving a string of broken hearts in her wake. Maybe marries someone impressed by her wit and "fun" persona until she shows her nasty side. divorce then very likely. her cousin June becomes a bitchy tennis coach who chain smokes and has a foul mouth.

Gwen- suicide. or dead from complications caused by binge eating. She a lonely and bitter person already and the being scapegoated by everyone at school most likely leaves her needing a good decade of therapy. .

Irene and Belinda- I see them as sort of bohemian types- Irene as composer who perhaps teaches part time but is wonderfully dotty as ever, Belinda an artist, who becomes a hippy by the end of the 60s, and lives a pot smoking filled life painting obscure psycadelics that sell well at the Tate St. Ives, near her home in a little cottage in St Erth or Carbis Bay.

Mavis- opera singer. ends up living in Vienna or Milan eventually. I see her as very chic with a handsome husband, maybe a sexy baritone or tenor who would look good in a men's cologne advert were he born 2 decades later.

Bill and Clarissa- I see them living together, still running their livery stables. Occasionally Bill goes in for local showjumping and Clarissa teaches disabled children to ride.

Mary Lou- a nurse until she meets a handsome but also shy doctor. They fall in love instantly and ML has 3 or 4 happy children. Their marriage is happy and their children are gentle and kind just like them.

St Claires:

Alison O' Sullivan- goes to London to train in fashion design. Meets a guy of her dreams but he lets her down. Falls quickly in love with man after man but they all let her down or cannot live up to the pedestal she has placed them on. becomes alcoholic to cope with the pain

Hilary Wentworth- secretarial college for a few months out then drops out gets married, pops out 2 children and that is all i can say about her

Alma Pudden- becomes thin and gorgeous after having a thyroid op. But she never forgets the way she has been treated and her past insecurities. She dates unsuitable men just to prove she can now that she is gorgeous. Then has a breakdown and burns down St Claires. She ends up in a secure prison wing , but finally at peace now she has "shown" the bullies what is what.

Witchend · 04/03/2020 17:31

OOh good one!

Famous Five:
Julian-GCHQ as an analyst
Dick-Geologist
George-Explorer and researcher in the Antarctic where she lives with a pack of dogs
Anne-Writer of children's books
Timmy-enough said that there's a lovely cherry tree at Kirrin Cottage that George comes to sit under every time she's home.

turquoisesapphire · 04/03/2020 17:34

Jinny from Finmory married Ken. I hope!

TheMemoryLingers · 04/03/2020 17:36

I always wondered if Alison O'Sullivan would find happiness in a lesbian relationship as an adult, because she had so many crushes on women/girls - hopefully she'd find a woman worthy of her devotion rather than the idiots she fell for at St Clares.

MintToBee · 04/03/2020 17:38

@Squigean I read a book that was the sequel to The Secret Garden. It was brilliant. Look it up. I don't want to give out spoilers.

turquoisesapphire · 04/03/2020 17:39

But for the OP, I do find a lot of the later Victorian books and the Edwardian ones almost unbearably sad for this reason - the shadow of WW1 looming over them horribly. Anne of Green Gables in particular.

BahMooQuack · 04/03/2020 18:02

Oh i always thought Jinny from Finmory would marry Ken also!

Icecreamdiva · 04/03/2020 18:03

@turquoisesapphire In the final book of the Anne of Green Gables series (Rilla of Ingleside) Anne is a mother of a large family several of whom do go off to the war. It’s not the best of the series and a hard read on many levels but it’s interesting to read something contemporaneous.

Squigean · 04/03/2020 20:06

Nice call on Sally being a civil servant. Though I could also see Darrell being civil servant too. Probably leave to get married t a man she met in the office.

@MintToBee there's a sequel? What!!!!!! How did o not know this!! I was obsessed with the secret garden as a chid.

OP posts:
ShesGotBetteDavisEyes · 04/03/2020 20:15

icecreamdiva I loved the Anne series and Rilla of ingleside was probably my favourite - I reread it so many times. It was definitely a bit different to the others as it was set in WW1 and LM Montgomery didn’t shy away from the realities of war.

And I wanted to be Darrell Rivers!

What about sweet valley high? I reckon Elizabeth will be married to Todd and be the perfect housewife with lots of kids. Jessica will be an actress on some crappy American soap.
But will they both still be “perfect size 6’s”? That line featured in every single bloody book and used to get on my nerves!

Windyatthebeach · 04/03/2020 20:18

I wonder what modern heads Worzel would have...
Grin

Clawdy · 04/03/2020 20:18

Julian from the Famous Five would definitely be a pompous, extremely right-wing Tory politician.

HappentoHappen · 04/03/2020 20:22

Amazing thread! Did anyone else read Five
Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders? It follows on from what @turquoisesapphire says above about the shadow of war looming over so many of the characters.

HappentoHappen · 04/03/2020 20:23

@Clawdy Julian is in fact Zac Goldsmith

Clawdy · 04/03/2020 21:01

Ah, of course!

Pinkarsedfly · 04/03/2020 21:03

Willie Beech became a famous artist. He was probably gay, and had a lovely affair with David Hockney for a bit in the 1970s.

halfsoaked · 04/03/2020 21:04

What happened to the chalet school girls ?

Pinkarsedfly · 04/03/2020 21:07

Fatty from the Five Find Outers is Boris Johnson’s dad.

HeechulMyOppa · 04/03/2020 21:10

Sadly Belle and Prince Adam (the Beast) would have been off to the guillotine during the revolution

pallisers · 04/03/2020 21:15

puffmais I enjoyed your post almost as much as I enjoyed the books!

Squigean · 04/03/2020 21:28

"Fatty from the Five Find Outers is Boris Johnson’s dad."
That made me laugh. Totally possible!! Loved the Finder-Outers.

Julian would definitely be a awful as an adult wouldn't he.

OP posts:
Coconut0il · 04/03/2020 21:32

ShesGotBetteDavisEyes, There is a Sweet Valley High book set after the originals. I'm pretty sure Jessica and Todd were having an affair while he was married to Elizabeth!

ShesGotBetteDavisEyes · 04/03/2020 21:44

That’s disgusting coconut - practically incest! I’m glad I didn’t read the x-rated ones!

Coconut0il · 04/03/2020 21:47

I know! I wish I'd never read it!