I have just blued £30 on Nicola bloody Marlow

[Failedspinster]

Help me. I'm addicted. By hook or by crook I obtained two Antonia Forest paperbacks at low prices. It was not enough. Now I've just bought another for thirty sodding quid I can ill afford, comforting myself with the knowledge that I can always economise on clothes.

I know I am not alone. Please tell me your stories of absurd expenditure of money and effort to secure a favourite.

£30 on Antonia Forest is money well spent!
I have got the set but would definitely have spent that to get Falconers Lure when I was missing it - in fact I'd prob still pay to get the hardback version I remember reading at school!
Am I the only person who likes Karen? Not that she didn't make some truly bad choices, but still...And Rowan and Giles irritate me, they are just so, well, Right all the time

I used to like Karen but she behaves APPALLINGLY in TRF. Even though I see the point if the lacrimae rerum.

I like Rowan when she says how boring being a farmer is. I am irritated by the so obvious antithesis between the twins.

But I love the minor characters. Patrick's wonderful parents, with his mother not prepared to lie about her attitude to Vatican ll, that it's a relief she no longer has to turn down dinner parties on Fridays. Miranda, so cleverly drawn. Drippy Esther. Jan and her boring future. The dreadful Lois. The scary murderous paedophile, written a long time before our current concerns. The scary MFH.

I do feel The father is a bit too like the father in Swallows and Amazons, but then many naval fathers fall into type.

Have just realised what it would cost if I were to ask for the Elizabethan ones for Christmas.

Damn. It was RAH where k is so awful. I wrote before I checked.

She wasn't that great in TRF either though, was she? Pushing Mrs Tranter out of the farmhouse before her husband was cold in his grave...

I dislike Karen but there is one episode (might be in Cricket term?) where I warm to her when Nicola has taken the washing to the farmhouse and she is talking about her pudding disasters. I think it is the scene where Chas coins the term Methren.

Rusty, it was that I was thinking about.

I think Karen is horrible in TRMF. She wants Edwin (and I have my suspicions about her discovering she wasn't quite as academic and intelligent as she thought and seeing marriage as another option) and she doesn't give a damn about anyone else.
She brings Chas, Rose and Fob to a new situation with no thought about what's best for them. Her treatment of the Tranters is horrible - I'm always amazed at Mrs Marlow's complicity in this.
I think Karen acts like a spoilt child

Nicola Marlow is def worth £30...

I need to find my copy of Cricket term. Didn't realise they were collectors items now.
I paid a fair amount to complete my trebizon set though!

I've never been able to afford Run Away Home.
I console myself that it's something to look forward to one day.

I've got two End of Term if anyone's desperate for a scruffy paperback.

GGBP are reprinting them all :)

Ha ha! This thread has cheered me up, yes have certainly spent more money than I can afford on AF books, the latest being The Thuggery Affair - reasonable hb off ebay, - 24 hours after giving birth. Well I could always blame the hormones but I wanted to say 'well done' to myself (any excuse!) It was more than I would have normally, or should have, spent but as with all my other AF purchases I cannot regret it!

£30 for Nicola Marlow pales into insignificance besides the £125 I paid for Masha a few years back, thinking it would only ever go up and up in price and I knew I would always want it. About six months later, one of the specialist publishers (not GGBP but another one) published it for a fraction of that. Ah well.

Marlows and the Traitor due out in 10 days time -£19
www.ggbp.co.uk/forthcoming-books/

Thank you Miranda and Rusty

Just ordered mine.

morningtoncrescent62... Masha? Really? That was one of my favourite books when I was at school and I thought it had sunk without trace, apart from the occasional copy costing hundreds of pounds. Oh wow , must go and search for it instantly . And even again, though I guess I may have missed the boat and all available copies will be too expensive again!

Masha! I've never come across other people who have read it. And I never read the sequel, always wondered what happened. Oh joy. Will have to wait though...

Did Anyone else read the Abbey Girls ? Full of folk dancing and twins.

Was Masha the girl who left a green jewelled ring (from a cracker) on a tree branch? And reddened her cheeks with geranium petals for a party?

Yes, that's right, Marcipex, though I think it's cranberries that she uses to redden her cheeks. The publisher is Margin Notes books and they've also published the sequel, The Youngest Lady in Waiting, which I also bought prematurely for just over £100. The website says they're available to order, so maybe not published yet. They're my favourite books ever.

I don't know where to start with that Antonia Forest fanfic site! Does anyone have any recommendations?

Yes, I've read most of the Abbey Girls - MIL has all except the last (valuable) few. Totally bonkers but apparently historically accurate regarding obsession with folk dancing in the 20s/30s. I didn't like the Dimsie books so much though.

Very glad I bought my Forest non-school books when GGB first did them.

I've read most of the Abbey girls. The early ones are better than the later ones. The number of twins rivals even the Chalet ones.
I think Rosamund had two sets of twins inside a year, Rosalin, Rosabel, Rosanna and Rosilda afaik.
Sadly my copies are long lost.

I started off with the South African cousin coming over and rescuing Margaret and ? bridget ? A good study of poverty and depression. Yes, Cecil Sharpe Club throve and we would know little about former customs without it. My DM was taught all those dances and even I was taught some if them

But too many twins and AFTER far better on psychology as well as plot and language.

I have quite a lot of abbey books :) They went over the top on twins