{"id":5540,"date":"2018-01-03T00:15:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T13:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=5540"},"modified":"2018-01-03T15:53:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T04:53:41","slug":"end-of-term-part-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/end-of-term-part-seven\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018End of Term\u2019, Part Seven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter Nine: Right Way Round<\/strong><\/p>\n

The narrative point of view in this book is all over the place, in a way that would exasperate most of the editors I\u2019ve worked with. While the story is mostly told from Nicola\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s not uncommon for the reader to find herself suddenly inside the head of a completely different character for a single paragraph (for example, look at the end of Chapter One, when there\u2019s an abrupt and unnecessary change to Ann\u2019s point of view, before it swaps back to Nicola for the final two paragraphs). But I think Antonia Forest chose well when she decided the Nativity Play should be seen (mostly) through Patrick\u2019s eyes. He knows enough about the people in this chapter (those on-stage and off-stage) that it\u2019s not too confusing for him, but we get extra insight into them from his outsider\u2019s perspective. He also understands more about the religious story than many of the participants \u2013 certainly more than Lawrie, and even many readers (for instance, I had only the vaguest notion about St Stephen<\/a> before reading this).<\/p>\n

Anyway, this chapter starts with the Merrick family arriving at the Minster to watch the play. Daks has been rescued from Esther\u2019s house and is curled up happily in their car, waiting to be transferred to the Marlows. The Merricks sit up the front of the packed Minster (Three thousand people! No wonder Esther was terrified!) beside Mrs Marlow, Madame Orly, Karen and Rowan. Patrick is shocked when the exquisite voice leading the choir procession turns out to belong to Nicola, although not half as shocked as Nicola\u2019s grandmother (\u201cSurely<\/em> not\u201d, she keeps muttering, even when Nicola\u2019s walking right past her). Patrick\u2019s also impressed by the Reading Angel, until he realises it\u2019s Evil Lois and then he thinks:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026how queer it was that what people were like<\/em> had no connection whatever with what they could actually do. Like Coleridge: like Mozart: and now here was this dire twerp of a Lois Sanger\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At this point, Rowan and Patrick chivalrously give up their seats to some querulous old women, but luckily find their way to the empty gallery, where they can look down the central aisle to the whole scene and give us a lovely description of what\u2019s going on. Patrick is impressed by Miranda, an unmoving falcon-angel who reminds him of Regina, and by Ann\u2019s serenity, and by the sight of dear idiotic little Sprog being carried in by the King\u2019s page. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Lawrie who steals the show playing the youngest shepherd, forced by his brothers to guard the sheep instead of visiting the infant Christ, then rescued by the Archangel Gabriel and sent off to the stable, where he gives his only possession, his shepherd\u2019s crook, to the baby, \u201cLest He too, one day, should be a shepherd\u201d. Lawrie\u2019s performance has lots of clever links back to real-life scenes in the book, most clearly when Lawrie decides not to weep noisily in disappointment as the stage directions say, but to use the \u201cpit-bottomed blackness\u201d she\u2019d felt when she discovered Nicola was to be Shepherd Boy:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she knew how she\u2019d behaved: she remembered perfectly how she\u2019d put her hands over her face; she\u2019d rehearsed it quite often in her bath cubicle.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even Rowan gets choked up at this scene. Of course, being Lawrie, she\u2019s completely aware of how good she is in the role, running up to see Patrick and Rowan when she\u2019s not on stage and gloating about Esther\u2019s absence and how it\u2019s \u201cmaddening I didn\u2019t know in time to invite Ellen Holroyd\u201d, her theatrical mentor. As Rowan says, Lawrie really is a ghastly<\/em> child. <\/p>\n

We get some glimpses of Nicola\u2019s viewpoint \u2013 her relief that Sprog is behaving himself on stage, her sudden terror when the entire congregation rises to its feet in place of applause, then her deep breath as she prepares to sing her final solo:<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to sing it with regret,\u201d Dr Herrick had said. \u201cOnce<\/em> in Royal David\u2019s City. Not now<\/em>, you see. Now<\/em> we have only been pretending. But once, long ago, if only we\u2019d had the luck to be there, once<\/em>, just once, this thing really happened.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nicola, for the first time, manages to do it as he asked, and there\u2019s a lovely description from Patrick of her \u201cimmaculate succession of notes, lifting and drifting among the soaring pillars and arches as he had seen thistledown lift and drift one evening in the watermeadows, floating away at last above the trees\u201d. Patrick watches her silent, brief conversation with Miranda and muses how different people can be in different situations, \u201cas if everyone had a spoonful of chameleon blood and changed colour a little, depending on their companions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter Ten: And After<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afterwards Mrs Marlow does the usual Marlow thing, refusing to acknowledge how amazing her daughters were, but fortunately Mrs Merrick is there to praise Ginty\u2019s beauty, Ann\u2019s sincerity, Lawrie\u2019s acting skills and Nicola\u2019s singing. Mr Merrick reminds Mrs Marlow he has a puppy for her and Mrs Marlow has quite a lot to say about Nicola\u2019s \u201cfrightful impudence\u201d in asking him to collect Daks. Mr Merrick kindly points out that Nicola asked for a favour, rather than ordered him, and it was all to help Esther. None of the adults are very impressed with Esther\u2019s \u201cneglectful mother\u201d (there is no mention of Esther\u2019s even more neglectful father). Finally, Mrs Merrick asks if Madame Orly, who\u2019s been strangely silent, is all right and Mrs Marlow explains that it\u2019s just that her mother is in shock that her \u201cgrand-daughters could be anything but a grubby nuisance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nicola and Miranda are discussing how the play went as they walk back through the silent, snowy grounds. They think Lawrie was excellent (\u201cOf course, Lawrie is<\/em> frightened of lots of things. I suppose that\u2019s how she knew.\u201d) and Miranda says she enjoyed being in the play, once she got over her initial terror, but that the whole Christmas story seemed so unbelievable:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then it seemed so queer, that p\u2019raps that was<\/em> the reason people believed it \u2026 I mean, it\u2019s either complete nonsense, or else it\u2019s so<\/em> unlikely, it would have<\/em> to be true.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t see why things being extremely unlikely make them more believable, but then, that\u2019s why I\u2019m a sceptic and an atheist. Earlier Miranda had explained her family wasn\u2019t Orthodox, but even if she\u2019s from a Reform Jewish background, presumably she does believe in a God and follows some \u2018God-ordained\u2019 rules. Hopefully there\u2019ll be more about this in future books, because Miranda\u2019s such an interesting character.<\/p>\n

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and a furious Miss Keith is waiting for them. She thanks Miranda for her help but \u201cshall, of course, be writing to your father to explain\u201d (why not Miranda\u2019s mother?) and orders them all to see her in her office on Monday. Blood for breakfast! But Nicola\u2019s natural optimism comes to the rescue:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026after all, Monday was a long way off, and Thursday and end-of-term, by some curious converse, really quite near. And after that came Christmas. So it couldn\u2019t be too<\/em> awful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

THE END.<\/p>\n

And a big happy sigh from me. This has been my favourite Marlow book so far. I liked the first school book, but this took it to a new level, with such clever plotting and complex characterisation and thoughtful observations on life and lots of humour. Now I just have to wait for Girls Gone By to publish the next book.<\/p>\n

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

‘End of Term’ by Antonia Forest<\/a>
\n‘End of Term, Part Two<\/a>
\n‘End of Term’, Part Three<\/a>
\n‘End of Term’, Part Four<\/a>
\n‘End of Term’, Part Five<\/a>
\n‘End of Term’, Part Six<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter Nine: Right Way Round The narrative point of view in this book is all over the place, in a way that would exasperate most of the editors I\u2019ve worked with. While the story is mostly told from Nicola\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s not uncommon for the reader to find herself suddenly inside the head of a … Continue reading \u2018End of Term\u2019, Part Seven<\/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":[22,6,18],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1950s-and-1960s","category-books","category-my-favourite-books","tag-antonia-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","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=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5545,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions\/5545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}