Patrick

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Patrick's romantic life provides a lot of scope for speculation.  The canon only provides Ginty, Claudie, and Nicola.  I'll state up front that, of the three, Nicola is obviously the best match, in my opinion.  Claudie is a non-starter, and unless Ginty gets a massive dose of maturity or Patrick goes off the deep end, we can rule Ginty out.

On the other hand, I see other possibilities.  First Rowan, for all that there's an age difference.  They certainly interact well together at the Nativity play in End of Term.  And I can see each providing the other with something each lacks - a romanticism that would be a nice break from Rowan's constant level-headedness, and a practicality that might help Patrick go somewhere in life.

The other, surprisingly enough, is Ann.  She is the only religious Marlow, and surely between low church Anglican and conservative Roman Catholic they could find some common ground. With the Anglican communion having its own turmoil, Ann might decide she doesn't want a woman vicar or blessings of same-sex unions.  One suspects that Antonia Forest would have found today's religious landscape very interesting (and would have been very happy with the new Pope).

Comments

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I'm always fairly convinced that Patrick would not end up with either Ginty or Nicola. After all AF pretty much says so in her interview with Sue Simms. But more than that, I think it's easy to forget that the whole Marlow canon covers such a tiny slice in the life of the characters - it's something like two years in all, isn't it? And during that short time all their relationships with each other are fairly fluid - as is typical of adolescents. So to start to imagine they might imagine marry each other in terms of how they feel (briefly) when they're fourteen, fifteen...I don't think AF is that kind of writer.

Jan Scott (a very sensible person) says something similar to Nicola in Cricket Term: that lifelong friendships are about as common as unicorns. She also says "when you go to university -" and doesn't finish - I think implying that although Nicola can't see beyond the world of Kingscote friendships, actually things will change hugely for her when she hits adulthood.

And then there's the way that Nicola guesses when Kay says she's getting married that it's Ronald Merrick...because he Kay danced with him a lot at Twelth Night. Nicola can't really see beyond the immediate. But actually Kay is part of a whole new world beyond Trennels (thought not for long of course ;))

So yes, I kind of agree with you...if Patrick were to marry a Marlow girl, then it wouldn't be one of his childhood sweethearts but somebody completely out of left field. So why not Ann or Rowan - hee hee - but more likely somebody completely different altogether.

Patrick and Jan Scott

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Now why didn't I think of that! Patrick and Jan Scott. There was a recent Folly AF fan fiction which has Patrick as a young solicitor (15 years on). We know Jan is planning on a career in law.

There's the motive and the opportunity...