I loved school stories, particularly the Chalet School, and used to get a lot of them from the second-hand books at local jumble sales. Cricket Term in the Puffin edition was on one of those stalls, and it looked like my kind of book, so I bought it, and read it, and then immediately read it again. I was completely hooked. The style, the characters, the hints at previous stories, the cricket match, Nicola being a Thackeray person not Dickens, the references to Murder Must Advertise (which I had read) and other authors that I hadn't, but immediately wanted to seek out.

Then set out to collect the other Forests, which was easyish with the ones Puffin had published, and difficult with the others, though the two Players books were in our local library. I think I was the only person who borrowed them for years. Thursday Kidnapping I didn't read until a few years ago, though I have my own copy now.

I didn't know anyone else who'd read her until I got online and discovered the Girlsown list. I'd recommended her to a few people, but I only knew one other person who admitted to reading anything labelled as a 'school story' and my proselytising was unsuccessful.