Patrick's Birthday

[aella_irene]

Do we ever find out a rough date for Patrick's birthday? He is presumably an academic year below  Ann, and therefore the same year as Ginty,  since, in Attic Term, Ann has taken her O-levels, and he is getting ready to take them, but do we know when he was born?

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure we do, which suggests it falls somewhere in term-time.

Hmmm, that doesn't really narrow it down!

[aella_irene]

I like to think that it falls in the autumn term, making him older than Ginty.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

No, Ginty hasn't taken her O Levels yet in Attic Term, as Patrick's school is bizarre and make them take them in November (I assume), so Ginty will have her first (and probably only) sitting in the following summer. But that's a digression!

When does he get Blackleg? Isn't he a birthday present from his godfather, or is he just a present.

I wonder if he's quite young in his year, so that he and Peter are closer in age.

[aella_irene]

Oops, I should have clarified, in Attic term Ann has already taken her O-levels.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

There was a conversation between him and Ginty, wasn't there, about him skipping the country after his Levels rather than going back for the dire rest-of-year until he was sixteen and could leave school. So that suggests, I think, that he isn't an Autumn term baby.

(As opposed to an Autumn Term Baby, which would put a whole new slant on Delicate, not to mention Plain Stupid)

[owl]

He's 15 at Christmas in Peter's Room, and 16 I think in RMF, which would make him a spring baby.

Personally, I think it's 17 March :)

[miss-lilley.livejournal.com]

Well, Patrick doesn't seem to be a Merrick family name, so he could have been born on the 17th of March.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Ginty hasn't taken her O Levels yet in Attic Term, as Patrick's school is bizarre and make them take them in November (I assume),

It isn't al l that bizarre. In the late 1950s we took our strongest subjects in the previous December (usually two) so that we could concentrate on the weaker subjects for the summer.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

But he's taking all of them, not just the strong ones, and it's set in the 1970s, when I don't think it was as usual. I'm not saying it's impossible, only that it's unusual, and unusual enough for Ginty to comment on it in Attic Term.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Agreed.
First, I think it was a regional thing and depended on the examining body.
(Our girls took the Cambridge Syndicate O and A levels, but a neighbouring school took the Oxford and a third took London.)
Secondly, didn't Forest muddy the water a bit about dating and might this have been back projecting?
I agree with the likelihood that he'd be named for the nearest saint's day, so could be a March baby.

[aella_irene]

Michael isn't either, so it could also be September 29th.

[miss-lilley.livejournal.com]

Michael could be his confirmation name - or will that be the Mary?

[aella_irene]

And really, he could also be named after a maternal grandfather.

[aella_irene]

I just checked, and apparently the confirmation name comes directly before the surname. So he was christened Patrick Michael Anthony Merrick, and the Mary was added in later.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure anyone could call Maths one of Patrick's strongest subjects. :)

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure anyone could call Maths one of Patrick's strongest subjects. :) You have a point there - but I still find it odd that Ginty thinks its unusual

[(Anonymous)]

I just checked, and apparently the confirmation name comes directly before the surname.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I just checked, and apparently the confirmation name comes directly before the surname

Oops! Nobody told our family that. Several of us made it our first name, but nobody told us that it wasn't - er - I almost typed kosher.

[aella_irene]

I got it from my father, so I could be wrong...

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

I had an idea that he was 2 years older than Nicola, the same age as Peter (roughly). Nicola is 14 and a half in Run Away Home, and Patrick is taking O Levels, which should mean that he's 16 in that school year, or in other words about 15 and a half give or take 6 months. However, he did miss 2 years school while recovering from his accident - has it set him back a year, making him 16 and a half or so?

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I got it from my father, so I could be wrong...

Well, it makes sense that you keep the baptismal and add the confirmation name. I expect that it's just a case of some parishes/dioceses being more dictatorial than others

[miss-lilley.livejournal.com]

Peter's only a year older than the twins - he's between them and Ginty. But Patrick definitely is two years older than Nicola; when she asks him if she should buy Catkin, he says she's not experienced enough, and she's 'suddenly conscious of his extra two years' or words to that effect.

I believe Blackleg was a 'being better' present rather than a birthday present.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Appearing after months of silent lurking. (ankaret made me an icon-for-the-quote-of-my-choice so I have absolutely no excuse not to now.

Patrick's age has been making my head hurt all day. In Lawrie's imagined obituary in Thuggery (spring half-term), she is 13, Peter 14 and Patrick 15 but as we don't know when his birthday is, we can't tell if in that school year he is 14-15, or 15-16.

At the start of Attic Term he says he's taking O-levels a year late, to which Ginty says "Don't they work you hard! Only the terribly bright people take them at fifteen at our place". Does this make him 16-17 in that school year, rather than the 15-16 of everyone else? This would make him older than Ginty, who is 16 that following January but seems to make it unlikely he'd have played with a 2 years younger infant Peter.

Or does Ginty's comment mean that he's 15 when he takes his O-levels, in which case everyone else at his school must take them in the year when they are 14-15, which sounds too madly young even for his daft establishment.

Claudie is 2 years older than him, if that helps at all.

[aella_irene]

but seems to make it unlikely he'd have played with a 2 years younger infant Peter.

In my experience, who you play with depends on who you've got around. It might have been a case of playing with whoever was nearby. I know that, as a child of five or so, I played with my four years older cousin as often as I possibly could, and she didn't seem to mind having me around.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

, who you play with depends on who you've got around. It might have been a case of playing with whoever was nearby. I know that, as a child of five or so, I played with my four years older cousin as often as I possibly could, and she didn't seem to mind having me around.

I agree. I never played with anyone until forced by authority but my younger sister spent hours playing with neighbour who was five years younger than she was.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I don't think Forest meant there to be that big a gap between Peter and Patrick in any case. Generally it seems to make sense for him to be 2 years older than Nicola, one year older than Peter and the same age as Ginty but I can't reconcile that with the bit about him doing his O-levels a year late.

There's also the problem that there just isn't room for Peter (in the 14-and-over diving in Falconer's Lure and still 14 in Thuggery) between the twins and Ginty (15 on 6th January in Peter's Room).