Antonia Forest fans

Yes, I agree. I like the idea of Gondal a lot, and the way that AF uses it to explore the boundaries between fact and fiction. I forget which book it is when AF talks about how fictional characters are real to Nicola in a way that they will never be to Ann, and not just because she's younger. But in Peter's Room, I think you get Nicola realising the opposite - that fictional characters are, in very important ways, not real at all, while Patrick and Ginty start to inhabit the fictional world and lose their sense of the real world. Lawrie, I think, is acting in Peter's Room, just like she acts in The Prince and the Pauper, and the Christmas Play. So although she always has a strong sense of how to play at being another person, she doesn't seem to me to be so profoundly affected by Gondal as Patrick and Ginty.