Any Antonia Forest fans out there?

[seeker]

My dd likes Lawrie better than Nicky! Where did I go wrong?

It wasn't Unity who was off - it was Monica. Broken leg, I think.

Just realized that this thread could double as an "unusual names thread"!

Monica was off because she was in a car crash. And Nicky did the first illicit phoning as Ginty was too worried to phone Monica's mother as she thought Monica might have been dead.

Nicky used the secretary's phone which I think gave Ginty the idea. There was then some time when Ginty walked past the office and the phone was ringing, I think, and then she started calling Patrick.

Ginty was briefly friends with Unity because Ginty was off school for a while (annoying I can't remember why) and tehn when she came back had to go into Middle Remove so she could catch up. I presume Unity was also there so they became friends.

Ginty was originally off school because she was Overwrought after being shut up in a lighthouse by a Traitor (The Marlows and the traitor) This was in 1947 or so, natch. By the time she was with Patrick two years later it was the 1980s!
Unity is beyond dreadful, I love her.

I am LIVID
got outbid on 'The marlows and the Traitor' at the very last minute on Trademe(kiwi version of Ebay)

they don't come up that often and it was a reasonable price {angry]

oh how annoying

if there are no versions in print I wonder what the copyright issues relating to publishing a free (or not) e-text would be?

I could live without an actual book so long as I got to read the stories...

cockles, lol at your nickyism "natch"

mrsjohn - just did a hunt on abe for Traitor and am at the price.

I don't understand the chronology - am I being dense?

Someone remarked earlier how the books were all written in a close chronology, reading-wise, though years apart, writing-wise. God, very clumsy sentence there! So how does this square with cockles pointing out ages gap between 1947 and the 1980s with au pairs and Up Pompeii etc?

I don't remember Ginty being off school due to Overwroughtness. Similarities between my memory and steel trap rather overdone by me, may have to bow out of quiz!!

Isn't the Marlows and the Traitor in print - GirlsGoneBy? Was recently.
On the chronology, Forest says in one intro that each book was written to fit with the time of writing. Hence Peter goes to Dartmouth at 14, but by the middle of the series he woudln't have been able to; hence the Marlows are, in Autumn Term, just back in their lovely London house after being bombed out, but then we have End of Term relating to Vatican II in the 1960s. There's about a 30 year gap between books first and last I think!

limited runs only - only The Marlows And Their Maker is still in print afaik

OOh - got Unity and Monica muddled up there, bugger.

I have all the original puffins for the School based ones and 3 others (Thuggery Affair and Peter's Room, which I hated, and the Ready Made Family which I liked) in some other paperback.

Am sneaking off to order "Marlows and their Maker" - DH will think I am totally mad when it comes through.

Oh I loved Peter's Room. There was all that wonderful "faithful family retainer" stuff about Doris and the dress!

Falconer's Lure is great for explaining exactly why they move to Trennels - it wasn't that Captain Marlow just wanted the land (although he did), but that it was entailed, so he couldn't have sold it to pay Cousin Jon's death duties (which is why they sold the London house). Rowan admits that she didn't really know what to do after school, so why not try farming.

I love the bit at the end where Patrick teases Nicola about renaming Sprog to Horatio (although she doesn't in the end)

He could have rented it out, though! Still think it was rough on Rowan. I was really shocked when Kay left Oxford too.

yes exactly tyaca - I couldn't believe all the prices on abe!

shall be scouring the 2nd hand shops here and will be More Alert next time one comes up on trademe. (Looked at what the person who outbid me buys and it was nearly ALL Antonia Forest/Elinor Brent-Dyer - obviously a kindred spirit)

OK - she's changed her mind - she likes Rowan best now!

Have you seen fanfic with Forest characters and appearance of Chalet School people? rose-and-lizard.livejournal.com/15073.html