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Original poster

Do you ever wonder what happened to fictitious characters?

84 replies

Aliceandthemarchhare · 29/04/2021 07:15

When I was younger one of my favourite books was Junk, about teens who end up addicted to heroin. I found myself idly wondering yesterday what might have happened next to the characters. They’d be in their early 40s now.

Does anybody else do this - think about when the book was released and wonder about them? A book I read in 2013 was set in summer 2011 and ended with the birth of a baby girl and I thought ‘oh she’s 10 in July’ Grin

OP posts:
misslomi · 29/04/2021 11:54

Junk was my favourite book as a teen! I might have to dig it out and read it again.

thelegohooverer · 29/04/2021 11:56

@Ilovemaisie

Oh no I have just realised Bad Harry would have been 19 to at the start of WW2. I hope he was ok. Oh little Harry...Sad
I feel like this about The Railway Children.
Ilovemaisie · 29/04/2021 11:58

Any books with kids/teens in that is from the 1930s always gives me with a little shudder of worry to what happened to them in The War. The German books Emil and the Detectives and it's sequel are really funny books about a group of ordinary German lads. All those poor boys would have probably ended up in the army whether they wanted to be or not and doing really awful things out of their control. It makes me really sad.
(The author of Emil and the Detectives was deemed 'anti German' and his books were burnt !)

Interested in this thread?

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Books
ginnybag · 29/04/2021 12:12

This is interesting to think about for classic books, as well.

Colin, Mary and Dickon from Secret Garden would have been in young adulthood in time for WW1, which cannot even have been imagined when the book was published in 1911. At least Dickon would have been involved.

Similarly, the children from Ballet Shoes would have lived through WW2. There are mentions of Pauline and Posy in the later books, but nothing really of Petrova, and it's fun to imagine her serving in the Auxiliary Forces, and flying.

NicolaDunsire · 29/04/2021 12:22

Someone, can’t remember who, has written a sequel to Secret Garden which includes what happened in WW1.

tuttifuckinfruity · 29/04/2021 12:24

@damekindness

I've just finished reading Shuggie Bain and I'm now totally over invested in his long term fictional well being
@damekindness Shuggie was pretty much based on the author - it was loosely just about him and his mum Sad

So, he's doing great Smile Douglas Stewart says he's doing fine, mentally / emotionally despite his bad start. He lives in New York, I believe, has a successful career and husband.

It brings me a lot of comfort to know that because the story of Shuggie absolutely broke my heart Sad

MargaretThursday · 29/04/2021 13:08

@ginnybag

This is interesting to think about for classic books, as well.

Colin, Mary and Dickon from Secret Garden would have been in young adulthood in time for WW1, which cannot even have been imagined when the book was published in 1911. At least Dickon would have been involved.

Similarly, the children from Ballet Shoes would have lived through WW2. There are mentions of Pauline and Posy in the later books, but nothing really of Petrova, and it's fun to imagine her serving in the Auxiliary Forces, and flying.

If you read Curtain up (I think it recently was republished as Theatre Shoes) the Petrova gets a mention, and writes to Mark, the middle Forbes boy.

I always wonder what happened to the Swallows & Amazons in WW2! I think John Walker would have been old enough to serve. In the navy, obviously.
Roger would have too. I think S&A was set in 1929, Roger was 8yo, making him 18yo at the start of WWII.

SkepticalCat · 29/04/2021 13:21

It's a long time since I read it, and it's not something I often think about, but because of this thread, I've been wondering what happened to Richard and the others from The Beach.

Did he become dinner-party travel bore, relating his tales of Thailand, becoming a corporate bod, before settling down, marrying someone, then moving to the 'shires after having kids.

Wishingwell75 · 29/04/2021 13:38

I don't know, his experiences in Thailand were pretty extreme even for travelling tales. Either he sort of falls into helping families find missing loved ones abroad, the agency does very well and has branches in Vietnam, India etc. Or he (very much like Alex Garland) gets into writing and making movies or yes, he returns to the UK, goes into IT, gets a pot belly and a beautiful wife but is really really happy and content.

FoxyTheFox · 29/04/2021 13:48

Colin, Mary and Dickon from Secret Garden would have been in young adulthood in time for WW1, which cannot even have been imagined when the book was published in 1911. At least Dickon would have been involved.

There's a sequel called Misselthwaite by Susan Moody that goes into all of that and shows them as adults, its not a children's book and is not a happy story so I'd avoid it if you'd rather think of them as forever-children playing in the garden.

Andante57 · 29/04/2021 13:51

Colin, Mary and Dickon from Secret Garden would have been in young adulthood in time for WW1, which cannot even have been imagined when the book was published in 1911. At least Dickon would have been involved

Dickson would’ve been involved and likely killed as the Yorkshire regiments had terrible casualties.
Presuming it was a contemporary setting, Colin and Mary were 10 in 1911 so would’ve been 17 when the war ended so were probably too young for active service.
Misselthwaite Manor might have been requisitioned as a hospital for wounded soldiers and if so Colin would’ve had to snap out of any lingering hypochondria pdq.

Hellomylove · 29/04/2021 14:16

@SkepticalCat

It's a long time since I read it, and it's not something I often think about, but because of this thread, I've been wondering what happened to Richard and the others from The Beach.

Did he become dinner-party travel bore, relating his tales of Thailand, becoming a corporate bod, before settling down, marrying someone, then moving to the 'shires after having kids.

I always imagined he’d be on some kind of lifelong spiritual journey, dabbled in yoga retreats and ran a travel bookstore Grin

Such a great book!

Hellomylove · 29/04/2021 14:18

Richard Papen in The Secret History - how do you think he would’ve turned out?

BlackCatShadow · 29/04/2021 14:19

i must admit I wonder what happened to Jon Snow after he returned to The Wall. I felt he would have many more adventures somehow.

Andante57 · 29/04/2021 14:49

Richard Papen in The Secret History - how do you think he would’ve turned out?

Gosh I must have a reread of that.
He might have ended up disappointed in life somehow and unable to stop brooding over his experiences at university.

Another Donna Tartt novel, The Goldfinch. Does Theo end up marrying Kitsey or does he get his real love, Pippa?
I wish she’d write a sequel!

SkepticalCat · 29/04/2021 14:52

@Wishingwell75 and @Hellomylove ooh yes, I like these theories as well.

Might give it a re-read soon.

Liverbird77 · 29/04/2021 14:53

George from the Famous Five.
I've often wondered what happened to George.

Confusedandshaken · 29/04/2021 15:24

@Liverbird77

George from the Famous Five. I've often wondered what happened to George.
I think she would have ended up a Barbara Woodhouse type striding about in tweed suits with a huge brooch on her equally huge bosom , teaching people how to train their dogs and not putting up with any nonsense. When she was older she would have been a stalwart of her church and organised meals on wheels. Unless of course she was gay in which case she'd look pretty similar but would breed dogs rather than train them.

In my head she is a larger, less chic version of Audrey fForbes- Hamilton from To the Manor Born.

Hellomylove · 29/04/2021 18:05

@Andante57

Richard Papen in The Secret History - how do you think he would’ve turned out?

Gosh I must have a reread of that.
He might have ended up disappointed in life somehow and unable to stop brooding over his experiences at university.

Another Donna Tartt novel, The Goldfinch. Does Theo end up marrying Kitsey or does he get his real love, Pippa?
I wish she’d write a sequel!

Yes - I imagine him to be slightly withdrawn and unable to move on properly. Would probably be in a non-descript job just passing the days away.
Puddycatfan · 29/04/2021 22:20

I think Ken would have gone off to "find himself" but I reckon you are right about Jinny's Etsy shop!!

StillCoughingandLaughing · 29/04/2021 22:51

@Liverbird77

George from the Famous Five. I've often wondered what happened to George.
Somebody did write a sequel to the Famous Five where they were all adults. Julian was a property developer who wanted to build on Kirrin Island Shock
Clawdy · 29/04/2021 23:17

I see Julian as a Tory politician.......

BillMasheen · 29/04/2021 23:49

Unless of course she was gay in which case she'd look pretty similar but would breed dogs rather than train them

I see George as the devoted... companion of Connie Sachs out of Smileys People. On the farm with all the dogs, calls herself Hilary in the Book, but it’s George.

Is there a literary trope of lesbian dog breeders, I wonder ?

MrsMoastyToasty · 29/04/2021 23:55

I wonder what Darrell Rivers did after Mallory Towers.

Liverbird77 · 30/04/2021 03:56

@MrsMoastyToasty in the last book I am pretty sure it says she went to St Andrews and then became a journalist.