Peter's Room

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Peter's Room is probably my favourite AF and I've reread it many times, but I've never properly thought this thought through before, why when they invent their fantasy world do all the female Marlows choose to be male characters? It's not just the era, although I know the Marlow 'boys are better than girls ethos, women can't join the navy' must have something to do with it.I remember a favourite book of mine as a child - 'Crowns' (written in much the same period) in which 4 middle-class children imagine a world in which they are kings and queens, and the female characters are quite happy to imagine themselves as explorers, adventurers, hunters, involved in palace intrigues, fighting and killing when necessary, exploring snowy mountains.. Not until Patrick and Ginty start to fancy each other do any of the Marlows invent a female character. Is romance all girls are for, even in a world they have invented themselves?