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End of Term query
I was named after Nicola Marlow, and very pleased I was too when I read the books at around 10-12. I always identified with Nicola because of our shared name and because she was what I wanted to be and wasn't--confident and competent at games--and was--a tomboy, but obsessed with the RAF instead of the Navy. :-)
This year I decided to read all the books I can lay my hands on, and I'm enchanted and very impressed by their quality, depth, and understanding of teenagers. I think I've sorted out ages and terms thanks to this great comm, but I have a question.
I've just finished 'End of Term', which I don't think I've read before. The only bit that doesn't make sense to me is why Nicola is chosen for the Shepherd Boy by Keith. She bases her casting decisions on character (and possibly looks and size) rather than ability, so why does she choose Nicola when Nicola, as far as she knows, has been so unreliable at turning up for netball practices she was excluded from the team? Lawrie on the other hand has done nothing to upset authority, and doesn't already have an important role. OK, I know it was for Plot Reasons, but is there an explanation I can accept? It's so illogical to pick the best soloist they have for the shepherd boy and not the best actor.
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Miss Keith is illogical and that does allow for useful plot devices eg Karen as head girl when the twins arrive.
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[looks at book] Jess Geddes, the really bad Shepherd Boy, was going to South Africa with her family and Keith had three recommendations for the part; what did Miss Kempe think? I don't see why Keith wouldn't consider Lawrie, a brilliant actor, especially after Nicola has been thrown out of the netball team.
I'd like an explanation that makes sense, but I suppose I can go with Keith being high-handed. She has a right to dislike Lawrie, perhaps because 1) it might go to her head and 2) she was Tim's best friend and 3) she may have seen Lawrie bawling her eyes out at some point and written her off as not terribly sensible. I'd just like to have known and thought I may have missed something.
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I always rather identified with Lawrie...
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I always identified with Nicola, not just for the shared name, but for her being such a tomboy. Yet I'm a dreamer and have done quite a bit of acting, so there's a lot of Lawrie there too. I was also the class clown all through school so I've got a soft spot for Tim even though she can be very cruel.
BTW I haven't read the later books yet, so don't spoil me!
[Edit] Picked wrong icon, sorry.
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Lawrie however, probably tooled around in third remove for too long, got up to all sorts of hi-jinks under Tim's bad influence, and was considered too much of a liability for a big production (even though talented) because she was always bursting into tears. Also, netball's already taking up her time.
Also Lois's 'blackening' may not have been taken seriously by Miss Keith (it always struck me that Miss Redmond may have been a bit on the outer with the rest of the staff). In Attic Term when Nicola is getting her conduct mark, it says next to her name that she was left off the team for being overdonfident, but someone else has written 'query' next to this.
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Also, how fabulous to be named after Nicola Marlow! I fully intend to name an infant Rowan, should I ever get one that is.
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I wasn't fond of my surname as a kid (it's a shortened form of a Russian one) and wished it was Marlow too, and that I had blue eyes and blonde hair. :-P
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Why not Nichola, I wonder?)
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I've yet to meet a female Lawrence or Lawrie.
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I'm slowly re-collecting copies of the books to give to my Nicola when she is older - my parents got rid of mine years ago :( and now I have to chase them on ebay.
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Yay, another one! I do wonder whether AF made the name popular because I don't think it was at all common before her books came out.
Books cost so much here I tend to borrow from the library unless I know I want to reread a book. I've been acquiring the Swallows and Amazons ones as paperbacks because they've been reprinted recently, so I hope the Marlow ones will be too.
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