Summer holidays are nearly over, but first there\u2019s the gymkhana. (I have never had to write that word before and I\u2019m struck by how weird it is. What have horses got to do with gyms? According to my dictionary, \u2018gymkhana\u2019 was derived in the 19th century \u201cfrom Urdu gend\u1e35\u0101nah \u2018racket court,\u2019 from Hindi ge\u1e41d \u2018ball\u2019 + Persian \u1e35\u0101nah \u2018house\u2019 \u2026 altered by \u2018gymnasium\u2019 via Latin from Greek \u2018exercise naked,\u2019 from gumnos \u2018naked\u2019\u201d. Maybe related to polo?)<\/p>\n
Anyway, Nicola is riding Mr Buster, Patrick\u2019s pony, in various \u2018fun\u2019 events like Potato Races and Musical Poles, which she\u2019s only doing because she needs to win some money to pay for Sprog\u2019s upkeep. When she arrives, there are a lot of Serious Pony People doing horsey things (\u201cNicola didn\u2019t often feel shy or out of it, but she did now\u201d). Worse, there are death glares from a girl who turns out to be Wendy Reynolds, the girl Lawrie accidentally imitated at the elocution competition and who mistakes Nicola for Lawrie. Uh oh\u2026<\/p>\n
Ginty turns up to watch, because the other Marlows are all busy killing wasps at Trennels. Ginty, it turns out, is what Nicola calls \u201ca Pony Club type\u201d, although maybe Ginty gets it from her mother (\u201cMummy was talking about hunting this winter\u201d). So, Mrs Marlow must have had a fairly posh country upbringing, to have grown up hunting? Wendy Reynolds and her brother Oliver have TEN horses and win just about every event. But Wendy gets her revenge on the Marlows by barging Mr Buster, telling Nicola the apple in the obstacle race has a wasp on it, and worst of all, riding her horse at Mr Buster, causing him to hurt his leg and Nicola to fall off.<\/p>\n
Patrick is quite rightly furious about Mr Buster (although, of course, doesn\u2019t even check to see if Nicola\u2019s hurt) and tells off Oliver. But then Peter and Lawrie arrive with a dramatic account of how the wasp-killing in the attics turned into Trennels nearly burning down and it was ALL ANN\u2019S FAULT:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026and there was Ann, holding a candle, exactly as if she wanted to start a fire and the beam smoking away like mad \u2026 Ann went completely and utterly mad and called the fire brigade! \u2026 And Daddy was livid and Ann couldn\u2019t say anything, \u2019cos it was her fault \u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I must be missing something, because wasn\u2019t it a good<\/em> thing to call the fire brigade? They couldn’t be sure they\u2019d put the fire out and it was<\/em> a wooden roof. Unless they have to pay lots of money for the fire fighters? Is this meant to show that Ann subconsciously wants to destroy the family home? Or is this simply another dig at Ann\u2019s well-meaning but useless attempts at helping?<\/p>\n
Lawrie also learns about Wendy’s revenge and goes off to recite the poem again to Wendy. So there is some<\/em> sort of justice for poor Nicola.<\/p>\n
Rowan and Patrick then compete in a tense show-jumping event, which is extra-tense for Nicola because Rowan has promised to share her prize money if she wins. But alas, Rowan\u2019s horse falls and Patrick wins! What will happen to poor Sprog now? Except then Oliver Reynolds comes up and offers Nicola all of his and his sister\u2019s prize money. I think this is meant to present an ethical dilemma, but of course Nicola refuses the money, just as she refused to report Wendy\u2019s cheating to the judges. I\u2019m not really sure what this says about Marlow morality. It\u2019s important never to make a fuss? Leave judgement of others to God? <\/p>\n
Nicola miserably contemplates how to tell Patrick to let Sprog go, while Patrick gloats all the way back about his win. At home, he unkindly tells his father \u201cthe entire Gymkhana consisted of Marlows lying in heaps in the ring\u201d, but then his father hands over a cheque to Nicola from selling The Boke of Falconerie<\/em>. It\u2019s for eighty-seven pounds<\/em>! Nicola is rich and Sprog is saved! Hooray! Good has triumphed, courtesy of God or the Fates (or Antonia Forest).<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the end of Falconer\u2019s Lure<\/em>. There was a lot to enjoy in it, but I do think my favourite Marlow book so far has been Autumn Term<\/em><\/a>. I am really looking forward to getting back to the Kingscote girls in End of Term<\/em>, which I\u2019ve ordered from Girls Gone By<\/a>. <\/p>\n
You might also be interested in reading:<\/p>\n
\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019 by Antonia Forest<\/a>
\n\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Two<\/a>
\n\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Three<\/a>
\n\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Four<\/a>
\n\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Five<\/a>
\n\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Six<\/a>
\n\u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Seven<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer holidays are nearly over, but first there\u2019s the gymkhana. (I have never had to write that word before and I\u2019m struck by how weird it is. What have horses got to do with gyms? According to my dictionary, \u2018gymkhana\u2019 was derived in the 19th century \u201cfrom Urdu gend\u1e35\u0101nah \u2018racket court,\u2019 from Hindi ge\u1e41d \u2018ball\u2019 … Continue reading \u2018Falconer\u2019s Lure\u2019, Part Eight<\/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],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-5413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-antonia-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413","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=5413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5415,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5413\/revisions\/5415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}