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As mentioned by prestonuk in her previous post, I took notes of the two speeches given at the Forest Day., and thought people might be interested to see them. Similar apologies for the delay. prestonuk or liadnan, please shout if you think I’ve missed or misrepresented anything.

Sue Sims, as readers of the GGBP editions of AF’s work will know, was a friend of hers and is currently working on her biography. She provides a comprehensive overview of AF’s life in the books’ preface, but was keen to give some new and different information in this presentation.

She began by explaining that AF attended South Hampstead High School (‘SHH’), and it is possible to see some direct parallels between what is known of AF’s experience there and the way that Kingscote and key characters are depicted. The remote and rather capricious headmistress of SHH can be clearly seen in Miss Keith. AF ‘had no time for her’, and had liked her predecessor at the school. Crommie also has her origins in a real teacher – the history teacher, Theresa Stead. Although an appealing teacher for upper forms, she was frightening to the more junior children. Sims thinks that the phrases ‘blood for breakfast’ and ‘of course you can; the question is, may you?’ do really come from Miss Stead.

There are also parallels between her educational experiences and some of those portrayed in the school stories. Ginty’s experience of translating the Aeneid would have been part of AF’s school experience. SHH would have had student teachers such as the Hellibonk. Neither of these would probably have been the case in a good girls’ public school such as Kingscote. (I didn’t gather why, I’m afraid.)

Sims posed the question: is Nicola AF? Her answer was ‘yes, and no’. Similarities: AF loved the Navy and Nelson and reading matter such as Hakluyt, Renault, etc. (She was annoyed that she hadn’t read the novels of Patrick O’Brian at the time of writing.) She also had the very Nicola characteristic of taking difficulties ‘on the chin’ rather than making a fuss – Sims said that she had never heard AF complain about any personal discomfort or problem, although she would often be indignant about others’ troubles. However, she wasn’t possessed of a ‘stunning treble voice’ – even if others were singing, AF would keep quiet. And, famously, Nicola does not share what AF saw as her own most defining characteristic – her Catholicism. Sims pointed out that AF loved the ‘history in action’ aspect of Catholicism, and the fact that she was able to be deeply religious without being pious. She was deeply suspicious of piety, and mocks it in the books through the character of Ann Marlow.

Other characters also have characteristics of AF. She was a very good actress and starred in productions at school and at the University of London. And the inability to refrain from crying whilst listening to classical music – attributed to Patrick in The Attic Term - was AF as a child.

For reasons of time, Clare drastically shortened her presentation towards the end, so the narrative thread is not entirely clear. She will be publishing the extended presentation.

She opened by commenting that the only major writing on AF is Victor Watson’s essay ‘Jane Austen has gone missing’. Otherwise, the only literary attention to AF is through the GGBP reissues – arguably ‘preaching to the converted’ – and her entry in the Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories (edited by Clare herself?). Clare posed two questions: (1) why has AF been so overlooked, and (2) what is her real contribution?

She then quoted an answer to her first question. ‘You can’t count Antonia Forest – she writes too well.’ AF was ‘a brilliant writer’ – witty, a great style, superb characterisation, serious subject matter (death, life changes, religion, divorce, romance) and a lack of sentiment in placing these issues under a microscope. The reader learns what it feels like to be the characters. But the books are not publicly lionised, but treasured by a small number of fans. Why is this?

Autumn Term was written in 1948. The school story genre was enjoying a renaissance after its stagnation of the 1930s, with new voices such as Joanne Lloyd, Nancy Breary, Olive C. Duggins and M. K. Harris. All are subversive writers - they don’t question the status quo overtly, but they don’t accept it unquestioningly in the manner of their predecessors either. AF ‘transcended the genre’ – her school provided the backdrop for universal stories.

AF was praised by some critics but the genre was in decline once more by the publication of End of Term through to The Attic Term. By the 1960s, the upper-middle classes were not fashionable subjects, and AF’s subjects – recusancy, falconry, the Navy – were undoubtedly of this type. The 1970s ‘Players’ books came at the end of a very rich decade of children’s writing that had taken the genre in a very different direction.

Clare then moved towards some more detailed appraisal of AF’s books. She pointed out that the books are not without flaws – for example, The Cricket Term suffers from too much revision of earlier books, such as Nick’s visit to the Dodds, recapping the events of The Ready-Made Family. However, she asserted that ‘what makes AF stand out is her treatment of not only sympathetic but unsympathetic characters’, which is rare in children’s books. ‘Lois is the enemy, and remains so, but we can see how and why her enmity happened.’

Clare closed by suggesting that AF’s lack of popularity was due to the complexity with which she treated these issues, and that this made the books inaccessible to many. However, she cited the Harry Potter books as proof that ‘brilliance will out’ and ended by looking forward to AF’s getting the recognition she deserves.