To ask what happened to Ramona and Beezus, Elizabeth Allen, Jill from the gymkhana et al?

[HomeSliceKnowsBest]

Been really wondering how these and various other characters fared in later life,having reread various box sets to soothe my nerves over the lockdown...

Jill would be mid-80s by now so would hopefully have just had her covid vaccination. She probably had an ordinary job and spent all her free time and money on horses. There are books about Jill as an adult so you can't be the only one to wonder!

There's also a great Twitter thread about Ramona Quimby as an adult.

there are Jill sequels???? (disappears down the internet rabbit hole squeaking with excitement...)

Forget them, what about Katherine in Forever? (Judy Blume). Did she get over her first love, Ralph the penis? Did she name subsequent penises (penii?) she encountered?
eg Roger, Malcolm, Stephen, Geoffrey, etc etc..

I loved my Jill books! I actually found one when sorting books for the loft a few weeks back and gave it to my horse-mad niece.

@alltoomuchrightnow

Forget them, what about Katherine in Forever? (Judy Blume). Did she get over her first love, Ralph the penis? Did she name subsequent penises (penii?) she encountered? eg Roger, Malcolm, Stephen, Geoffrey, etc etc..

She dumped him for pretty much the first guy she met next and he was a bit of a dick anyway, so I think she'll be fine by now. He's probably matured a bit too, to be fair. It was 40-odd years ago.

Ralph, ffs. Did that read better in 1975 than it did in the 90s?

Ramona first appeared in 1950 and was age 4. She last appeared in 1999 age 9. Therefore she is presumably barely into her teens. Ramona will never grow up !! I won't allow it.
Katherine from Forever wouldn't have used the name Roger - cos that was her Dad's name (eww).

Boring answer but I think Ramona followed in her Aunt Bea's footsteps and became a teacher. I could see Beezus as some kind of scientist in adult life, probably not married. Ramona might marry 'Yard Ape' (Danny) - I can see him as a teacher too. Ramona and Danny would have three children, like Ramona's parents, but at least one would be a boy.

I had no idea there were books about Jill as an adult! I was thinking about them the other day. They were all a bit hearty, weren't they? A far cry from my working-class suburban upbringing, but I loved them.

How about Jinny and Shantih in that amazing house at Finmory? I hope Jinny grew up to be an artist, and that her dad found success as a potter.

@NobbyButtons

Jill would be mid-80s by now so would hopefully have just had her covid vaccination. She probably had an ordinary job and spent all her free time and money on horses. There are books about Jill as an adult so you can't be the only one to wonder!

There's also a great Twitter thread about Ramona Quimby as an adult.

How weird, I read the OP and thought I could imagine Ramona as a librarian. Which is what the Twitter woman thinks too.

I read all the Jill books to my pony-mad eight-year-old DD recently. I think Jill-land is her idea of heaven: her two own ponies in the garden, riding all day in the eternal summer holidays, followed by a huge tea of homemade cake and hot buttered crumpets.

I loved Ramona! I bet she grew up to be a feisty character.

Are Jessica and Elizabeth from Sweet Valley High now grandmothers? I can imagine the bitchy one (Jess?) living in Santa Monica and going for daily beach runs to keep her size 8 figure trim in between trips to the surgeon, while Liz is fat and happy and enjoys baking cookies for her grand kids.

I tried my best with the Jill sequels but they're written by a different author and even the basic grammar is often wrong! Still read a couple anyway for a bit of escapism

Are the Four Mary's from Bunty magazine still at school?

I was thinking about Jill this morning! Don't know why it popped in to my head though.

It has always annoyed me that Captain Cholly- Sawcutt (was that his name?) offered Jill a job and she seemed to forget all about it in Pony Jobs For Jill.

There’s one decent Jill sequel written by Jill Badger (IIRC) with Jill and Ann at secretarial college, but the ones by someone else based on Mrs Crewe marrying an old flame and them all moving to Scotland are a bit pants.

Jill would be a leathery whip-thin octogenarian these days, with a waiting list of young riders wanting to train with her longer than your arm. Most of them would be terrified of her but would admit later she really knows her stuff. She still has all her marbles and never forgets a horse’s name but does occasionally call her pupils Mercy or Celia.

April,May & June Cholly-Sawcutt will all live together in an equestrian filled stone cottage on a farm in Gloucestershire.

Yes, Jane Badger's Jill sequel is great.
www.amazon.co.uk/Jill-Lost-Ponies-Crewe-Stories-ebook/dp/B089KS7YRD/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=GPKVR8M7SQN2&keywords=jane+badger&sprefix=jane+badger%2Caps%2C152&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1612374316&sr=8-1

i LOVED jill and the fact she sings "the autumn leaves must perish" when she's in a good mood. i always thought ruby ferguson was called rugby ferguson. or maybe she was.

also recently i saw a woman in a shop who had susan hair (boing boing) and i told her about ramona and susan and miss binney and she looked at me as though i was totally mad. but i did say that ramona is well worth reading (even if you're nearly 9203 like i am)

I think Elizabeth Allen became a teacher - maybe at Whyteleafe, maybe at a big comprehensive school. She was probably very successful at discipline because she knew all kids' tricks from her own experience! Maybe she even became a headmistress. Her friend Julian followed in his medical scientist father's footsteps, and is a member of the AstraZenica team.

Ramona Quimby! I always think about her whenever I crack an egg (which I did today). There's a bit in one of the books where she cracks an egg on her head thinking it's hard boiled (and it isn't).

April, May and June Cholly-Sawcutt grew up to be the Pullein-Thompson sisters and write books about ponies. Obviously.

My DD is currently reading St Clares (including the later fill in books... So she's on book 9 about the sixth form.)

I'm sure they all had an interesting life. A new set of identical twins start first form in book 9 (I borrowed it!). I did wonder if the author was setting that up for a sequel series....

@UselessYoke

I loved Ramona! I bet she grew up to be a feisty character.

Are Jessica and Elizabeth from Sweet Valley High now grandmothers? I can imagine the bitchy one (Jess?) living in Santa Monica and going for daily beach runs to keep her size 8 figure trim in between trips to the surgeon, while Liz is fat and happy and enjoys baking cookies for her grand kids.

It's physically impossible for the Wakefield twins to be fat or ugly. So Liz will still be slim and stunning. She'll be married, though not to any of the twats she dated in the books, with loads of kids and grandkids and a menagerie of animals, in fact she probably runs an animal sanctuary on the 50000 acre farm she owns and has a PhD in being perfect. Jessica didn't want kids and has a new 20something toyboy every month. She's had every cosmetic procedure going. Liz hasn't, of course, because she would never succumb to vanity because she's perfect, but she still looks exactly like Jess because she's perfect.

Steven is a hobo living in a back alley and flashing his bum for pennies, at least I fucking hope so. Ned and Alice are in prison for being shit parents. Lila is like Jess but with a much better property portfolio.

Did I mention Liz is perfect?

And Ramona married Howie Kemp. Beezus married the older one whose name I can't remember but he had his own book about getting a bike and he wore a hat with some sort of animal tail on it. Ramona is an artist and art teacher and Beezus is a school counsellor.