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

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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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