The non-school books - are they worth the effort?

[tosomja.livejournal.com]

I read all the four school Marlow books as a child and absolutely loved them, read them 100s of times etc.  Now I have rediscovered them and realised only for the first time that there were others - I just thought that all the references to the holidays and falcons etc were things which happened 'off-stage', as it were.  So I acquired a version of the GGB Thuggery Affair, but found it really hard going and nothing like as good as the school books.  In fact I gave up once altogether, and then came back to it and managed to finish but wasn't hugely impressed..  I have also acquired The Ready Made Family which I enjoyed much more, but still, not as much as the school books. 
Given that it requires a fair amount of time and money to acquire the rarer Marlow books, it is really worth the struggle? Or are the school books the most popular for a reason?  What do you think - does anyone actually prefer the non-school books?   I don't want to spend a lot of effort on them only to wish that I'd kept to the school books and kept my memories of AF as good as they were!

And also what do you think of the historical ones? Are they as good, and do they connect to the later Marlows in any way apart from the characters being called Marlowe?

Comments

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Starting with the Thuggery Affair was probably bad luck - it's definitely the hardest to like of AF's work, I think. But the other holiday books are excellent and really worthwhile. My personal favourites are Falconer's Lure and Run Away Home. Peter's Room has some fabulous moments, though there are some tricky bits too. Ready Made Family and The Marlows and the Traitor are also worth a read.

Try ebay for not-too-expensive Girls Gone By reprints of these.

[robvic.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's def worth it - and I'd agree with everything else above - Falconer's Lure and Run Away Home are great, and Peter's Room explains all the Patrick/Ginty stuff before Cricket Term and Attic Term which is quite handy.

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

I too would think it worth it. GGBP has published some of them, and well worth getting hold of if you can. You get to know Patrick Merrick much better, which has to be worth it. Also Peter Marlow, who is a very pleasant boy.

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

My favourite of all is Falconer's Lure, which is a holiday book that comes the summer after the twins' first year at Kingscote. I also like Run Away Home, the very last one, a lot as well, and all the bits of Peter's Room which aren't Bronte and Gondal.

Generally speaking though, I'd recommend reading the holiday books because they shed so much light on the school books. As you say, there are so many references to things in the school books that are never properly explored or explained! And if you can get hold of GGB editions they shouldn't cost TOO much to track down...

PS Thuggery Affair is my least favourite too: really struggled with the dialect stuff.

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

I read on the Folly interview that can be found on the Antonia Forest website (sorry I am too technically incompetent to do the link - I'll try to learn- but you should find the website if you search "antonia forest") that AF's personal favourites were the historicals and Peter's Room, and I think they are definitely worth a read. Actually I think that anything written by her is worth a read, although I know her books can be hard to come by/expensive.
As far I know (haven't recently checked) some of the Girls Gone By reprints are not hugely expensive, and could probably be found second-hand through dealers on Amazon or ABE books. The Player's Boy, I believe, is the only AF non-school (Autumn Term is in print) in print through Girls Gone By on Amazon, but you might want to wait until they print the Players and the Rebels too, as they are two parts of the same story (unless The Player's Boy goes out of print). Anyway, don't be too put off by the Thuggery Affair - the thuggery dialect is hard to follow - apparently it was originally worse, before it got to an editor!

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

You do not need to read the historicals to understand the present day Marlow books, but they do connect to them in that they feature the ancestors of the current Marlows and Merricks. Information relating to them is mentioned in The Attic Term and the Cricket Term, when Edwin is researching the farm log. The plots of the historicals involve Shakespeare, Shakesperean drama, religious persecution and the Essex rebellion.

[(Anonymous)]

Having looked at web-sites, I think that e-bay does probably offer the best value - it is just a personal quirk of mine to be a bit nervous of it. Good luck with future Marlow reading!

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Books are one of the safest things to buy on ebay. You know exactly what you're getting and the money's not huge. Usually things like the AF books are sold by professionals who have high star ratings and you can check lots and lots of satisfied customers. I've never had a problem with anything I've bought that way.

I don't like Paypal much, so I generally send a cheque which takes a little longer, but works for me.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Also paperbacks fit in small jiffybags which fit through your letterbox (well 99% of people's, not mine sadly), so you don't have to trek to the sorting office to collect your parcel.

I think I prefer the school stories (a world I'm more familiar with, maybe) but the others are well worth reading. Thuggery is somewhat different - perhaps more interesting after reading the others and getting to know Patrick better (at which point people love or loathe him. I love him, myself).

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip - I mistakenly logged in as Anonymous before.

[kit120.livejournal.com]

When I discovered the existence of 'Run Away Home', I ordered it from my local library for 20p. It cost £3 to order 'Ready Made Family' because the county didn't own a copy, but it is a simple process.

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

AS everyone else said, starting with The Thuggery Affair is bad luck, as its impenetrable slang has dated it far more than any element of any of the other books. I would have another go. Maybe begin with Falconer's Lure, set immediately after the first year the twins spent at Kingscote - which has them moving from London to Trennels, with lots of Patrick, the very interesting Peter, and animals. Peter's Room is probably my favourite, and both the Elizabethan novels (really one novel broken in two for publication purposes) are excellent - essentially, imagine Nicola as an Elizabethan boy, moving from grammar school youth to playing Shakespeare's heroines. AF's characterisation of Shakespeare in particular is wonderful.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

The fascinating thing about Trennels is discovering that people have such very different responses to the books. Falconer's Lure and Run Away Home, mentioned by others as favourites, are far and away my least favourite, and I actually do like Thuggery Affair, although not as much as Ready Made Family and Peter's Room.

I think the internal politics of Kingscote, and some of the humour that generates, as well as some of the specifically school characters - Tim, Miranda, Janice and Miss Cromwell particularly - are really irresistable. But the holiday stories have other things to offer. There is a lovely feeling for the landscape in them, which grows on you I think. And it is interesting to see the interactions between the Marlows as a family. And then there is Patrick - not a favourite of mine, but he does set up some interesting discussions/situations.

I have to admit Cricket Term is probably my all time favourite Forest, but Peter's Room contains some of her absolutely best pieces of writing, IMO - the hunt and the Twelth Night party and Sprog. And Player's and the Rebels is absolutely fantastic! It really is excellent - the character of Shakespeare, and the way the plot resolves at the end, the characters of the different players and some of the touches of humour, and...everything really. As Smelling Bottle says, Nicholas is a dead ringer for Nicola - and I have no problem with that. I would rate these books - Ready Made Family, Peter's Room and Rebels - ahead of Autumn Term and Attic Term (although admittedly it is years since I read the latter).

I'd also say that having known and loved some AF books so well, I have found it hard to take to the missing books I have recently aquired through GGBP. FAlconer's Lure, Marlows and the Traitor and Run Away Home all came as huge disappointments, and the first historical doesn't seem as good as Rebels either. I'm wondering if this really reflects the quality of the books themselves (especially as so many on Trennels love them) or whether I somehow have to get used to them. I feel resentful when the characters don't behave quite as I expect, I feel they are dated (which I never notice with the other books) and they seem bitty somehow. I think AF is maybe a writer who repays rereading. So maybe you will find the same with the holiday books. I'm reading FL - again - and enjoying it more.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I'm torn between Peter's Room and Falconer's Lure as favourite - they are the two that my hand most often hovers over. I see why people find Thuggery difficult, but I find it very interesting - the bird aspect always sends me back to Williamson's Scandaroon, as FL sends me back to T. H.White's Goshawk.

The there's the AF-dealing- with -death topic. It's so delicately done - cousin Jon, Marie Dobson, the thug - name?
By delicate, I suppose that I mean nice, careful, exact, all those words that never seem to sound quite the right word.

[tosomja.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all of the comments - you are inspiring me to try again. I think what frustrated me most about The Thuggery Affair - apart from the slang which I found annoying - was that I didn't feel I got to know much more about any of the characters, there was none of the sense of slow development which there is in the school stories. I also think that maybe I am more tolerant of datedness in school stories, in fact it's almost a prerequisite in so many boarding school stories, and it doesn't jar, whereas in The Thuggery Affair it felt like she was trying to reproduce a certain time and getting it wrong, in the same way as adults often get teenage slang wrong, or even if they don't, it comes across as acutely embarrassing. Having said that, I wasn't around at the time that book was written and so she may be 100% accurate in her slang, but somehow it doesn't feel like it. What does anyone else think?

I liked the fact that in the school books I felt like I was gradually learning more about the Marlows and Merricks - maybe this is a side effect of the way I read the stories, since I in fact only met characters like Patrick through his very brief appearances in the school stories, and so each time was like another piece of the puzzle. Maybe the Thuggery Affair was too plot-driven for me, and I found the plot too unlikely. School stories in general don't need so much plot, I think, since the rhythm of the school term provides a natural framework, and that can leave more room for character development. Antfan is right too, the other Kingscote characters are great and I miss them in the other books, I kept hoping that Miranda or Tim would come to stay for part of the holidays!

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I really like the Thuggery Affair, especially Jukie, I find him fascinating, and I think that last part where he and Patrick drive through the night is just about the only time in the series that Patrick gets seriously challenged and has to do a bit of self-questioning in terms of his beliefs and background. Yes, Patrick's almost likeable in those chapters. I find Lawrie amusing too.

The slang doesn't bother me at all - (maybe it would if I read the book for the first time as an adult?) And I like the fact that the Marlows are being confronted with a more - to me - authentic teenage world at last - out at the coffee shop with oikish lads showing off and out to impress and even trying to pick Lawrie up. (Setting Lawrie in the middle of all that is very comical, and the way she behaves is so of a piece with her character - playing along then getting scared and generally causing mayhem.)

I don't like the fact it all happens in a day, though. I agree with you there - it means something is inevitably missing in terms of character development. And I don't like Peter's bit, where they decide to finish him off - that I find hard to believe.

[melandraanne.livejournal.com]

It's been very interesting reading everyone's comments. I must admit that I started off with the school stories, bought in the paperback editions, and I was initially very frustrated by not knowing what had happened in between. Wondering about things like the abrupt change between 'Patrick as Nicola's friend' to 'Patrick and Ginty', Nicola's 'windfall', puzzled by what on earth had gone on with The Idiot Boy ...

I suppose they are not serious matters, but it did puzzle me, and I was very pleased to fill in the gaps. I think my favourites of all the books are Run Away Home and the Ready Made Family, closely followed by Peter's Room ... I think I enjoy the family dynamics when they are all around.

[bluebellbicycle.livejournal.com]

I didn't read AF at all until this year, and then I read the books in order, so there was never any separation of school story and home story for me. Saying that, my favourite books span both - FL is far and away the best AF IMHO, followed by AT and PR, which I think is just genius, all of it, even the Gondol bits! lol

The GGB editions are now out of print (some of them) and the prices are rocketing again :(

[(Anonymous)]

I actually love *The Marlows and the Traitor*--a good yarn with lots of nice characterization and one of those typical Forest villains who has a very appealing side. Nicola's way of judging people always intrigues me. I own this book in THREE LANGUAGES! That's fanaticism.