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Original poster

Antonia Forest fans please come and talk to me so I can tell you my superb AF related thing

98 replies

FrannyandZooey · 29/12/2007 20:39

I got this for Christmas and am having such a good time reading it.

It contains loads of trivia which I didn't know, including the fact that Wade Minster (where Nicola sung her solo in End of Term) was based on Chichester Cathedral. Where I also sang a solo as a child.

I am unwarrantedly happy to discover this and know absolutely no-one in RL who would know wtf I am talking about, so am sending this out into cyberspace instead in the hope that someone will say

ooooOOOOOOOooooh

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Fingerbobs · 30/12/2007 10:05

How fantastic - there are others out there, and even one who sang in Wade M. I got Marlows & their Maker when it came out, having ordered it in advance [hurray, no need to blush emoticon]. The publishers also did the ones that weren't in puffins but they're all out of print - the website does have a list of sellers where they are still available though.

Blood for breakfast with a vengeance...

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 10:14

Any AF fans who also like K M Peyton? If you haven't tried her you are in for a treat - start with the earlier stories about Ruth, Fly By Night etc, and then work your way through the Pennington trilogy OMG swwwwoooon

btw, K M Peyton says her character, Peter Mc Nair, was influenced so far by Peter Marlow, that he is not just like Peter Marlow, he IS Peter Marlow

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pooka · 30/12/2007 10:21

Rob Anquetil was the name of the secret service sailor. I rather liked Foley, but he was blown up.

constancereader · 30/12/2007 10:32

Patrick ended up with the sexy au pair!

I knew this would still be going when I got up, we are all obsessives.

seeker · 30/12/2007 11:00

Claudie - nah - his mum wouldn't let that happen!

His father would take him aside and explain the difference between wives and mistresses.

SixRustyGeeseALaying · 30/12/2007 12:45

"He's forty-one," said Karen... "You needn't bother to work it out. That makes him twenty-two years older than me."
"But that's three years longer than you've been alive, even," said Nicola into the silence.

MrsBadger · 30/12/2007 12:54

ooooooh

I must get my hands on some more of these - have still only read Autumn Term and End of term

(and for the record I rather like Giles as he is so wonderful in the half-term break of Autumn Term when Gin and Rowan are ripping the piss out of the twins)

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 15:14

Giles is marvellous but a bit shadowy isn't he? And can we ever forgive him for egging Nick and Lawrie to be bad at school and then been so squashing to Nick when she ran away to see him?

So which is everybody's favourite title? I very much like The Ready Made Family because I waited over 20 years, after The Cricket Term, to read the story of how Kay ended up married with 3 step-children. I didn't know there WERE titles that came in between the school stories.

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seeker · 30/12/2007 15:33

And he's pretty unpleasant to Anne occasionally - irritating though she is, he doesn't have to quite so tough.

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 15:34

poor Ann no-one likes her much do they

The book in the OP points out she would have been the absolute heroine in any other typical school series eg Chalet School

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SixRustyGeeseALaying · 30/12/2007 15:36

I think I like Falconer's Lure best because it's so much the kind of summer holiday I would have liked to have had when I was that age...

seeker · 30/12/2007 15:42

I like the fact that occasionally Nick sees Anne slightly differently from the way she normally does - like when they joined the Guides and discovered that she was a brilliant Patrol Leader, and when she realized that she minded being left out of Gondal. Much more real than any other similar school-type story.

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 15:46

yes yes and the bit where Rowan says "she does have real feelings you know", is that right?

AF is just merciless about people's intentions and innermost thoughts isn't she. The whole Marie Dobson bit, even as a child it blew me away with how uncomfortably true it all was - and bloody Lawrie refusing to write in the card, but she was quite right really

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constancereader · 30/12/2007 16:02

Ann had her moment of glory in the play too- everyone is rather surprised at her excellent performance.

seeker pmsl about the difference between wives and mistresses. How true.

I haven't read The Ready Made Family, didn't know it existed.

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 16:04

constance all the non-school titles have been reprinted by GGBP

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constancereader · 30/12/2007 16:17

omg, i am pratically hyperventilating

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 18:56

I know I know I nearly passed out with excitement when I first discovered them (at that point, just doing photocopies of the OOP books! They hadn't got them back into print when I found them)

the bad news is a lot of the reprints are now sold out, and book dealers can charge a LOT for them

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bramblebooks · 30/12/2007 19:01

Oooh, have loved this thread. My bro and sil are so into these books - they've set up a website, not sure if I'm allowed to say its name but it's to do with badger and books!

constancereader · 30/12/2007 19:02

cheers for the link btw

They are worth the money though, aren't they? I am going to get the K M Peyton ones you suggest now too.

bramblebooks · 30/12/2007 19:02

just looking at frannyandzooey - my bro sells ggbp! He's an a SAHD and that's his business whilst the children are asleep.

InnAFull · 30/12/2007 19:09

Quite agree about AF being merciless in her expose of how real people, really are. That she manages to accomplish this while still retaining our interest/love for the characters is nothing short of genius, don't you think? (Brent-Dyer for example was so utterly black-and-white - good was good and married a doctor and bad was bad and came to a sticky end.) Marie Dobson definitely one example, another is Nicola's thoughts about Esther when she does a mortified runner - 'if she never had to see her again she wouldn't terribly mind, actually.'

Interesting about KMP saying Peter was Patrick. I've just read another KMP, A Midsummer Night's Death, and the 'hero' of that, Jonathan, is very Patrick too, with his entrenched but rather misfit morals.

constancereader · 30/12/2007 19:16

lol at "good was good and married a doctor".

I also remember being really surprised at Nicola's fear of riding (Peter's Room?) as it didn't really fit with a conventional heroine figure. It was like real life, people are always behaving oddly.

Original poster
FrannyandZooey · 30/12/2007 19:21

no no Peter MacNair not Patrick but Peter Marlow

yes AF says she loved Jonathan Meredith, I like him better than I like Patrick myself. Jonathan does cut loose occasionally whereas Patrick is a tiny bit more uptight.

They are fabulously worth the money constance and the K M Peyton ones you should be able to pick up for very decent prices.

Bramble you can link if you want. I think I know their website!

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InnAFull · 30/12/2007 23:00

Oops, not sure how I misread Peter for Patrick - I think too much chocolate has made my eyes go muzzy

I think I'm ready now for my every-few-years Marlow rereading and I'm going to start with Cricket Term - the only book that has ever, or could ever, made x pages of a ball-by-ball cricket match something to eagerly devour.

seeker · 31/12/2007 07:23

FiveRustyRings - are you Tamzin or Lindsay?