Why is Patrick an Only Child?

[geebengrrl.livejournal.com]

Pam and Geoff Marlow are remarkably fecund; but Helena and Anthony Merrick only have one child. Anthony Merrick seems to be a fairly strict Catholic, so why is it that Patrick is their only child?

I wonder whether Helena Merrick, being a rather pragmatic Catholic (see Patrick's remark about fish on fridays in Attic Term, for example), was secretly using some form of contraception. Or perhaps they were playing Vatican Roulette and were just lucky...

I guess from AF's point of view, Patrick needs to be an only to contrast with the Marlows; and maybe he also represents her: she was also an only child.

Comments

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Patrick only became a Catholic retrospectively when AF needed one to comment on the play in End Of Term - after all, in Falconer's Lure he had a cousin who was a vicar!


Not all that astonishing? I know an Anglican Vicar whose brother is a Catholic priest, and a Catholic nun whose father is an Anglican bishop.
The owner of the computer I'm using is the Catholic daughter of an Anglican bishop and his father waa a Baptist minister. Then there are all those Anglican clergy in the Quaker chocolate families.