{"id":4956,"date":"2016-10-21T00:05:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T13:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2020-12-23T21:57:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T10:57:56","slug":"autumn-term-by-antonia-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/autumn-term-by-antonia-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Autumn Term\u2019 by Antonia Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

After hearing a lot of praise for Antonia Forest\u2019s Marlow books, I was happy to find a reasonably-priced copy of the first in the series, Autumn Term<\/em><\/a>, originally published in 1948. I had high expectations for this book and so far, a few chapters in, I\u2019m liking it very much \u2013 and also having a lot of thoughts about it, so I\u2019ve decided to blog about it as I read. If you aren\u2019t much interested in British boarding school stories, you might want to avert your gaze from Memoranda<\/a> for the next little while.<\/p>\n

Chapter One: A Knife with Sixteen Blades<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"'AutumnSo, the story begins with twins Nicola and Lawrie Marlow, aged twelve, on a train, nervously heading off for their first ever term at school. The twins are in a compartment with their sisters, of whom there seems to be a vast number. Karen is head girl, Rowan is a netball star, Ann\u2019s a Girl Guide Patrol Leader, Ginty is \u2026 actually, I don\u2019t know what Ginty\u2019s talent is, but it\u2019s definitely not being nice to her younger sisters. Admittedly, Nicola is bouncing around, making a nuisance of herself by asking a lot of questions about school. But the twins have the huge weight of family expectations on their (identical) shoulders. They have \u201can awful lot to live up to\u201d. And they are reminding me a lot of Ron Weasley \u2026<\/p>\n

Nicola and Lawrie go out into the train’s corridor where they meet a dark-haired girl who\u2019s all alone, is happy to share her stash of chocolate and is quickly revealed to be the Chosen One<\/strike> headmistress\u2019s niece. Tim hasn\u2019t been to school either, but at least she has an excuse because her father is a painter who travels the world and she does speak a lot of languages. The twins, though, haven\u2019t been to school properly because \u201cevery time we started we always caught something\u201d (contagious diseases, Nicola means, not fish or fire). So they haven\u2019t attended school for the past seven years<\/em> because they keep getting sick? Hopefully, they\u2019ve had lots of home tutoring, because they\u2019re expecting to be placed into Form IIIA \u2013 not IIIB and certainly not<\/em> the dreaded Third Remove, which is for utter idiots. Tim is cheerfully resigned to being put into Third Remove, but Nick and Lawrie have decided they\u2019re not just going straight into the top form, they\u2019re going to be credits to their family in many, many fields of endeavour:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026first we\u2019ve got to get into the junior netball team, so that next year Nick can be captain and me vice. And then \u2013 we\u2019ve been Brownies at home, you know \u2013 so we\u2019re going to pass our Tenderfoot and fly up and get our Second Class badges all in one term.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a sneaking suspicion that things are not going to go as planned for the twins.<\/p>\n

Tim goes to have a peek at the famous Marlow sisters and the twins explain there are also two Marlow brothers, one in the navy and one at Dartmouth. So that\u2019s eight of them – Giles, Karen, Rowan, Ann, Ginty, Peter and the twins. Their father\u2019s a commander in the navy. Presumably their mother is slumped on a chaise longue, recovering from giving birth to at least eight children in ten years. It seems a very<\/em> large number of children for an upper-middle-class English family in the 1940s. Are they Catholic? Is Kingscote a Catholic school?<\/p>\n

Anyway, back in the train corridor, chocolate is munched and confidences are shared. Tim has a horror of being \u201cquiet and dreary\u201d and is planning to take advantage of her relationship with her headmistress aunt at every opportunity. Lawrie has a big crush on Margaret, the games captain, who\u2019s Karen\u2019s best friend. (I really hope there are actual lesbians in this book, but that\u2019s probably expecting too much.) Lawrie got a nice watch for their going-away-to-school present, but Nicola proudly displays a super-duper knife with sixteen blades. Then the train jolts and the knife flies out the window! No, it\u2019s okay, it\u2019s resting on a ledge. They\u2019ll retrieve it when the train stops. Wait, the train’s going through a tunnel. And when it emerges, THE KNIFE HAS DISAPPEARED!<\/p>\n

Chapter Two: \u2018A Fine of Five Pounds\u2026\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018In an emergency,\u2019 Commander Marlow was given to telling his family, \u2018act at once.\u2019 On occasion he amplified this, saying that it was also necessary to think clearly and sensibly and not act upon impulse. Nicola, however, had absorbed only the dictum that she was to act immediately.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nicola pulls the cord, stops the train and bounds off down into the tunnel. There is general uproar on the train because no one knows what is going on. Karen, head girl, is calm and sensible until she realises Nick has vanished. Lawrie becomes unhelpfully speechless. Nicola re-appears, luckily not squashed flat by another train, and is dragged back on board by the guard and Miss Cromwell, a nasty teacher who proceeds to berate poor Karen. Then Rowan comes to her rescue. The Marlow sisters regather in their compartment. Karen has a nervous breakdown and Ginty continues to be a giant pain:<\/p>\n

\u2018I must tell Peter,\u2019 burst out Ginty irrepressibly. \u2018He\u2019s always been absolutely wild to pull a communication cord or smash one of those things that stop elevators\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Be quiet<\/strong>, Ginty,\u2019 snapped Karen, without looking round.<\/p>\n

\u2018You needn\u2019t bite my head off,\u2019 retorted Ginty. \u2018For once, I haven\u2019t done a thing.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, Gin, for heaven\u2019s sake,\u2019 said Rowan. \u2018Don\u2019t talk as if you were the tomboy of the Remove. All through the holidays you kept trying to give the impression that a mild case of bounds-breaking had brought you to the edge of expulsion. I could have throttled you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018There was a row,\u2019 said Ginty indignantly. \u2018An awful row. Miss Keith said \u2013\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I know you went round weeping for days after whatever Miss Keith said,\u2019 said Rowan pitilessly, \u2018but that still doesn\u2019t make you the naughtiest girl in the Fourth.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rowan is the best. She walks Nicola up to school (while the others take a taxi) and shares some words of wisdom with her little sister. Nicola belatedly realises she could have been killed, or worse, expelled. When they reach school, they encounter an unfriendly presence:<\/p>\n

\u2018Two more of your illustrious family to bring honour to the dear old school \u2026 And one of them stopped the train, I hear. Such a clever and original way of making the Marlows conspicuous the very first day.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s Malfoy! No, it\u2019s Lois Sanger. There is clearly bad blood between her and Rowan, but what could possibly have needled easy-going, sensible Rowan? Something netball-related? Meanwhile, Miss Keith, the headmistress, ticks off Karen, then Nicola. Chastened, they head upstairs to unpack. <\/p>\n

All the sisters except Karen are sharing a dormitory together, which seems a bit weird. Wouldn\u2019t it be more helpful for new girls to be in a dorm with their classmates? Ginty, in addition to everything else, is UNTIDY. I\u2019m really not seeing the point of Ginty so far, but maybe she has hidden talents. Also, each girl is permitted two framed photographs on her dressing-chest and Nicola has a portrait of Nelson and a photo of her brother Giles\u2019s ship! Not Giles, just his ship.<\/p>\n

Okay, so I\u2019m wondering whether this is actually set in the late 1940s? There\u2019s no mention of the war or rationing or Blitz damage. And if it was<\/em> post-WWII, wouldn\u2019t Nicola worship a more recent naval hero than Nelson (not that I can think of any particularly stellar performances by the British Navy during WWII, off hand). Also, where is this school? They take a \u2018southern region\u2019 train, there\u2019s a cathedral in the town and it\u2019s by the sea. I suppose it could be fictional, but I\u2019m going to try and figure it out. <\/p>\n

Malfoy<\/strike> Lois Sanger has the last word in this chapter, as the twins rush past her on their way downstairs to meet Tim. ‘I always feel it must be so gratifying to be a Marlow,\u2019 she says sarcastically. I have a feeling Lois is going to cause major trouble at some stage …<\/p>\n

Next, Chapter Three: A Form Examination<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

You might also be interested in reading:<\/p>\n

‘Autumn Term’: Part Two<\/a>
\n‘Autumn Term’: Part Three<\/a>
\n‘Autumn Term’: Part Four<\/a>
\n‘Autumn Term’: Part Five<\/a>
\n‘Autumn Term’: Part Six<\/a>
\n‘Autumn Term’: Part Seven<\/a>
\n‘Autumn Term’: Part Eight<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After hearing a lot of praise for Antonia Forest\u2019s Marlow books, I was happy to find a reasonably-priced copy of the first in the series, Autumn Term, originally published in 1948. I had high expectations for this book and so far, a few chapters in, I\u2019m liking it very much \u2013 and also having a … Continue reading \u2018Autumn Term\u2019 by Antonia Forest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,293,18],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-4956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-childrens-books","category-my-favourite-books","tag-antonia-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4956"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6176,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions\/6176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}