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[buntyandjinx.livejournal.com]

Maidenhead? And sharing AF with one's children.
August 12th, 11:59
Apologies if this has been discussed before but I can't find any references. I'm reading AF aloud to my daughters, 11 and 9. I was worried they'd find the novels too esoteric and wordy, but so far the novels have been a surprising - and very gratifying - hit with both, to the extent the 11-year-old told me she couldn't sleep for thinking about Lawrie and Tim. I think I'll skip Thuggery, Attic Term (too much Catholic and lerv stuff)and prob RAH, as not great, but am very much looking forward to the next two school books. Has anyone else shared AF with the next generation?

Reading aloud also helping me notice things I missed during countless childhood rereads and during the read through two years ago.

On which note, in chapter one of Falconer's Nicola says they were bombed in Hampstead during the war, had to move to Maidenhead and only moved back at half term. To paraphrase Nicola's pov on this: 'Maidenhead's all right, it has the river, but it's not London."

This would mean that they moved in the middle of the summer term of the twins' third form, yes? Which means in Autumn Term, the half term interlude, which I took to be in Hampstead (I haven't got my copy to hand to check) was actually in Maidenhead?

Can anyone explain?

Comments

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

On a flip through Autumn Term, I can't see any specific mention of where the Marlows live at all: she keeps it all very general. I think the boring answer is that Forest wasn't planning a sequel when she wrote Autumn Term, and the details in Falconer's Lure are part of a retrospective fleshing out of the world, which she perhaps did without bothering too much about what she'd written in the first book.

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

How lovely that they're enjoying them - and that they still have the pleasure of all the others to go.
I gave Autumn Term to my daughter when she was about 10/11 to try. She did read it (she said) but it was politely returned with a studied lack of comment, and she never asked to try any of the others!

[sue marsden (from livejournal.com)]

I left autumn Term lying around for my daughter to find -can't remember how old she was -maybe 12 or 13? She loved it and read all the rest and I had to fight her for Spring Term when it appeared! One of her middle names is Nicola.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I read Autumn Term at 10 or 11 (I was named after Nicola so I had a special interest) and adored it (and my namesake). I went around saying "natch" and "trimmensely". :-) On balance I like the school books the best though I have a special place in my heart for The Marlows and the Traitor which I devoured next.

[buntyandjinx.livejournal.com]

How lovely to be named after Nicola, I toyed with the idea for my own daughters but my husband would never have bought it, sadly. I always have a soft spot for Nicolas, though.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't think my father would have bought Lawrie for my sister (but then I had an uncle Lawrie), nor did my partner when I wanted to name a kitten Lawrie. She ended up being Ashley.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I think you're right and they are in Maidenhead in AT. But then they must have spent very little time back at Hampstead before moving to Trennels, and yet you get the feeling of them being very devoted to the house and neighbourhood.

Also the Hampstead house and garden don't sound very bomb damaged in Attic Term. So all a bit mysterious.

Another thing I wonder is why the Marlow children weren't evacuated from London during the War - why were they still around in Hampstead to get blitzed (and for Ginty to get stuck in that cupboard?) I know a lot of families brought their children back to London during the phoney war period, when they were missing them so much and it didn't seem that dangerous, but that doesn't seem a likely thing for the unemotional, stiff-upper-lip Marlows to have done. In fact, Mrs M could have gone with them (as happened with Miranda and her mother). The explanation I rather like is that Mrs Marlow had some hush hush job in the Admiralty, Secret Service or whatever, and so couldn't leave London, and wouldn't allow the kids to leave without her...

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Just went to check in my copy of Falconer's.

Yes, I think they've only been back in the Hampstead house for half a term at the start of Falconer's. And it lost a wall in the War, so I guess most of the house remained intact. What intrigues me is that they only left when it was hit by a fly-bomb - doodle bug - which means they were in the Hampstead house until 1944. I guess this explains why Nicola is so fond of the house and London, as she would have lived there for most of her childhood including the War - but it does puzzle me even more that the twins were living in London through almost all of World War II. Surely most children - especially upper middle class children - would have been evacuated?

[(Anonymous)]

And, just for completeness, in Autumn Term Nicola sees Giles and runs down the drive to the gates to meet Giles; in Attic Term, Patrick walks up the black and white path to the front door. Clearly different houses. I would guess based on real houses.

I wonder about the Ramseys of Thursday Kidnapping - how close was their house to the Marlow/Merrick house? Did Ellen deliver papers to the Merricks?

Colne_dsr.

[buntyandjinx.livejournal.com]

Thanks all, I will look at AT when I have my copy to hand again. As others said, their devotion to Hampstead made me assume that's where they'd always been. I've never thought of the Marlows in Theresa-May territory but as always having a strict city/deep country split. Mea culpa.