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

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I think it's probably because 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!

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Vatican Roulette wasn't allowed pre-Vatican II - I suspect either they were being very pragmatic indeed or they only managed the one.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

My grandmother had only one child, in 1935 after which my grandad went round every priest he could find to get one to tell him contraception was OK to save the mothers life, so there were priests who would say it, even then.

As to VAtican Roulette, my mum planned three kids using the rythm method and got our dates of birth when she wanted too, so it's not always as chancy as all that :-)

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing some gynecological disaster or other; the Merricks don't strike me as the sort of people who would think one heir enough.

[aella_irene]

Personally, I'm torn between

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...


and fertility problems.

Or possibly a combination...

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

I believe that there's an interview with AF somewhere on the internet - yes, here (http://www.maulu.demon.co.uk/AF/author/interview95.html) in which Sue Simms "mentioned that I'd always felt it to be a slight discrepancy that Patrick seems to be an Anglican in Falconer's Lure (at least, he has a cousin who is a vicar), but emerges as a fully-blown Catholic, complete with aristocratic recusant ancestors, in End of Term. Was this because she had become a Catholic in between the two books? No -- again, I'd failed to take the needs of an author into account. "I actually became a Catholic in 1947, considerably before either of those two books were written. I wasn't thinking about Catholicism in Falconer's Lure; but in End of Term, the Christmas play needed to be described from the point of view of the audience. The trouble was, I didn't know the proper Anglican vocabulary -- so Patrick became a Catholic!"

What did you do in the War, Daddy?

[charverz.livejournal.com]

One possible explanation is that Anthony Merrick spent 4-5 years in a prisoner of war camp. If captured 1n France in 1940, that would account for 5 years; if Singapore in 1941 possibly more, given travel time. The health effects might have aggravated the issue of children.