Patrick's education

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Trying to write a fic inspired by some of the recent AO3 additions and a nitpicking community post that came up shortly after. I've re-read Peter's Room and AT, but can't find my copy of RAH.

Am I right that in RAH, Patrick has been dragged to interview at Broomhill and tutors have been suggested, but nothing is confirmed other than the plan to sit his O-levels that June, which will be the same time as Ginty?
Will he still be 16, or turned 17 by then?

Prior to that, he was at his hated London day school from some time after Falconer's Lure to December in Attic Term, so is that one year and a term, or two? I think it's two and a term, so he would have been just turned fourteen and entering third year mid-year? (UIV, as Kingscote and my school would have it)

Presumably he was at a boarding school before that? Would he have been at a prep and then a Catholic boarding school for one year age 13?

Meanwhile, Dartmouth for Peter has the problem of not existing by RAH - is there any mention of Peter doing O-levels there? I'd like to think they push him towards science and practical qualifications and generally not being on their boats, just designing them Somewhere Else. I'm assuming he's then one year behind Ginty and one ahead of the twins, education-wise.

I don't recall either of their birthdays, but have an impression Peter's is spring and Patrick's summer - anyone know?

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Comments

[occasionalhope.livejournal.com]

Peter's age is more complicated than that. I once went through the whole series working out who was how old when, and I can't remember the precise details now, but I do remember he ended up only three months from either Ginty or the twins.

IRL my uncles are six months apart (because one was adopted from within the wider family), and one of them got into trouble at school because one of the teachers refused to believe they were brothers and not cousins.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

My boys are 3 1/2 months apart - thankfully in different school years so only once have had someone tell them they must be mistaken about not being twins. Few people listen to the answer after asking about the age gap, just nod and smile - though most are fine with "I only have birth to one of them" with the exception of a colleague who retorted, "Well I could tell that! I am a qualified vet, you know!"

Actually there's a whole angle for fic - Peter is actually adopted... Is he really Aunt Molly's child?

I think I'll keep Peter one year behind Ginty and one ahead of the twins (even if they should be in his year but repeated one), so making his birthday in late September would work.
Close enough for government work, as they say...

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

http://trennels.livejournal.com/38507.html says

"We were discussing the fact that, given the author's note at the beginning of Marlows and the Traitor, which says that Peter must be 14 when it starts (Easter holidays), and the fact that Ginty becomes 15 on January 6th in Peter's Room, there is no way Peter and Ginty could be siblings. Various theories were suggested to explain this 3-4 month gap, such as them being twins with a very large delay between births, and Ginty being the adopted love-child of Geoff Marlow and Auntie Mollie, which accounts for him having given his wife a necklace when she was born, and the trip to Paris.

"These thrilling speculations were slightly crushed by Sue Sims telling us that she had brought up the birthdays issue with Forest and Forest had said oh yes, she was never very good at dates (I'm paraphrasing here. If any of you who were there remember exactly what she said, or happen to be Sue Sims, please correct me)."