What do you think happened to characters from your childhood?

[Squigean]

(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.)

@halfsoaked - apparently someone has written Chalet Girls Grown Up which features Reg having an affair with Mary Lou and a load of other unfortunate events. Opinion on the thread I heard about it from was ambivalent...

I like to imagine what would have happened if Margot had got Not Exactly Expelled after her dangerous exploit [not read it properly for ages, think it involved a potentially-fatal collision between object and other girl's head?] Her father decides that a stint being an orderly in the San will be suitably shaming punishment good preparation for studying medicine so she does proper hard work and makes proper friends with some locals, who incidentally point out to her what a ridiculous situation her sister's engagement is.

Margot goes to study at Addenbrooke's, staying in a convent in Cambridge (I did actually go as far as finding out that there was one...). Len rebels by studying at Cambridge too (just because I wanted to annoy Joey not because I'd actually mind her going to the other place). Con probably drifts into going to the same place (doesn't drift into her studying, note; just vital life decisions).

After graduation Len gets a job in the Civil Service. She doesn't get married, having decided she's lived with babies and small children quite enough thank you, but about half-way through the Sixties takes the plunge into a sexual relationship and has a few long-term partners. Probably mostly from her sister's social circle, because Con is a journalist (best known for her scathing book reviews and deep posts for the Catholic Herald). She doesn't get married either and shares a home with her Great Friend a painter whose icon is Freda Kahlo.

Margot goes to Calcutta to be a missionary with Mother Theresa. She causes a minor scandal when she turns up at the British Embassy asking for help to leave, after having been disciplined for raising her valid concerns over the way the place is being run. Mildly disillusioned, she joins the Red Cross and later helps set up Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Amazing thread. I particularly enjoyed @puffmais Mallory Towers/St. Clare's breakdown

@Squigean Misselthwaite by Susan Mood

Nah, Mary marries Colin IIRC. Keep it in the family and all that. But I like to imagine that Misselthwaite had farms and that Colin and Mary got Dickon exempted from active service on the grounds that his labour was required.

The TV adaptation I saw (mid-90s?) had Mary going back to the house as a young adult, and the implication was that at least one of them had died in the war.

Gah, can't remember anything. Going to have to Google it...

Joey Maynard appears on an early 60's tv show called '73 kids and counting'. Is later arrested and charged for using the school and platz as her own personal adoption centre.

Mary Lou ventures into the world and can't cope when it doesn't fawn over her. After extensive therapy she rediscovers her real self and the actual personality she had before being sucked into the Swiss era.

Swiss family Robinson- the problem of available partners inevitably takes it's toll, and several generations later the inbred descendants are wondering what on earth old man praying Robinson was thinking when they decided to stay on the island.

For those mentioning the war, I remember reading a children's book that was wrote and set around 1910 or so when I was primary age. It was just a generic happy story about a group of children/ early teens, and at the time I found it incredibly sad that many of the characters would have died in ww1.

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

I adore this.

I disagree with some of the Malory Towers ones. IMO:

Irene and Belinda become extremely boring, sensible types. Belinda marries an accountant and comes to all the Old Girls events, where she bores everyone by talking about her WI group and reminiscing about schooldays. (I think people who are Arty and Wild at school tend to become very conventional).

Sally Hope is a lesbian. Obviously.

Alicia discovers women's lib and channels her energy into fighting the patriarchy. She can be a wee bit annoying, but she gets photographed leaning out of the window at the Spare Rib offices and generally has a great time. She gets married to a nice sympathetic man, but suffers horrible pangs of guilt for bullying Gwen about her weight.

I like the Bill and Clarissa one, though.

Swallows and Amazons: John becomes a Naval commander like his father. Roger goes into the Navy too but as some kind of engineer. Susan marries and has a huge brood of feral children and dogs but manages to remain serene and capable throughout. Titty becomes a new age therapist of some kind. Nancy becomes an sailor/explorer and goes missing in the South China Sea. Peggy is a teacher in the slums of Calcutta (and is still afraid of thunderstorms). Dick goes to Oxford, becomes an eminent scientist and wins a Nobel Prize. Dorothea is a children's writer. Neither of them marry so end up cohabiting in Jericho.

@squashyhat I was thinking about Swallows and Amazons too, and agree with you on all but Titty. I think she would have travelled a lot while also writing.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is set in WW2

Peter becomes a businessman, notable leadership skills for one so young 🤔 , becomes the youngest Chairman in the FTSE, makes a fortune in the 80s privatisation boom

Edmund becomes a born again Christian and televangelist after his redemptive experience

Susan - too sad to say what happens in The Last Battle if you haven’t read it 😢

Lucy becomes a goat farmer

Professor Kirke writes a series of ‘fantasy’ novels under the pseudonym CS Lewis...

@SoMuchToBits you could be right. I was thinking of the water divining episode in Pigeon Post

SheGotBetteDavisEyes There was a book called Sweet Valley High Ten Years on released a few years ago, which I may or may not have read ( totally did) and Todd is married too........Jessica!!!

@squashyhat

You are 100% right re Swallows & Amazons, apart from the fact that Susan's children would not be feral - just can't see her letting that happen.

Do John & Roger marry?

My most favourite childrens' books.

John and Roger are brothers!

I know - I didn't word that well, I meant do they marry women (or men), but obv not each other!!

I expect John marries, but not so sure about Roger.

I'd forgotten about the water divining, @squashyhat !

@PrincessLouis The Pevensies die in a train crash in The Last Battle.

Jessica is married to Todd, their brother Stephen is gay if I remember rightly, and Elizabeth ends up with Bruce.

There are some gorgeous Swallows & Amazons fanfics featuring the characters grown up. I love this one which is a crossover with Dorothy L Sayers' characters (same author has the Provincial Lady visiting the Lakes & bumping into the Amazons).

@Witchend I thought it was just Susan and a bit ambiguous about the others? Or was it that the others went to heaven?? Either way quite a harsh punishment for wearing nylons

Just checked - they are all killed except Susan, who doesn’t get to heaven (then?) because of over-interest in nylons 😢

Neil Gaiman wrote a short story called The Problem of Susan which is about Susan from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I was a big into Enid Blyton's Adventure series (these and the Five Finder-Outers):

Philip Mannering: he becomes a small-animal vet, doesn't marry or have children. Lives in the countryside.
Dinah Mannering: works for the BBC (Radio news reader) like her brother doesn't marry
Jack Trent: sets up a bird sanctuary marries a lovely woman who works there. They have three girls.
Lucy-Ann Trent: becomes a nurse, works in a hospital near to Jack's bird sanctuary. Married to a doctor she meets in the hospital; have five children together.

Absolutely loving this thread, but can I just go off on a little tangent and ask WTF Francine Pascal was doing here? Going off piste with the storylines!