{"id":6202,"date":"2020-12-28T00:42:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T13:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=6202"},"modified":"2020-12-28T00:42:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T13:42:52","slug":"the-cricket-term-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/the-cricket-term-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Cricket Term\u2019, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter Three: \u2014And Away<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back at Trennels now and Esther is joyfully reunited with Daks. She asks Nicola if it was \u201cyour sister Karen in the paper who got married\u201d and Nicola has to take \u201ctime and a moderate amount of skill\u201d to answer Esther\u2019s polite questions about \u201cthat near-disaster\u201d. Why is it a near<\/em> disaster? How was the disaster averted? I\u2019m going to have to read that book, aren\u2019t I?<\/p>\n

Daks also kills Nicola\u2019s hat, which Esther, always worried about rules, frets about. Nicola calms her down, while wondering \u201cwhether she wouldn\u2019t find Esther\u2019s panics a touch irritating if her face weren\u2019t so fascinating\u201d. I seem to remember Patrick also noticing Esther\u2019s beauty and of course, his girlfriend is Ginty, the prettiest of the Marlow sisters.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Ginty, she\u2019s been learning Miranda\u2019s lines from The Tempest<\/em>, so I guess that\u2019s the school play this term. Ginty had spent the holidays rehearsing her lines with Patrick and he had read the most romantic lines \u201crather well: she only wished she could be sure he meant them as Patrick\u201d. Hmm, perhaps Ginty is more enthusiastic about their relationship than Patrick is? Ginty\u2019s sensible, no-nonsense friend Monica arrives as the sisters are unpacking and she persuades Ginty not to audition too well for the play, so they can both concentrate on swimming and diving this term. Ginty immediately agrees and goes off with Monica to the pool, and Nicola observes disapprovingly that Ginty is as changeable as a chameleon. But perhaps Ginty\u2019s just more socially aware and eager to fit in with others? It\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing to care about others\u2019 opinions, unless you\u2019re a Marlow and believe yourself superior to everyone else.<\/p>\n

Ann has unpacked for Ginty and Lawrie, and when Nicola tells her to stop it, Ann incoherently objects (\u201cmainly from lack of practice\u2014she so seldom sprang to her own defence\u201d). She becomes totally flustered when Nicola mentions Ann is a dead cert to be Head Girl so she should practise being self-assertive. Nicola wonders why Ann is \u201cso soft\u201d only with her family, because Ann\u2019s a bossy, competent Guide leader at school with the other girls. I wonder about that, too. Perhaps Ann is aware her siblings dislike her, so she tries extra hard to \u2018help\u2019 them, to try to change their opinion? They all seem to take advantage of her when it suits them, however much they complain about her behind her back. Poor Ann, she needs to leave home and go somewhere she can be useful and valued. Did I read in an earlier book that she wants to be a nurse, or am I misremembering?<\/p>\n

Nicola runs into Tim, who is still Lawrie\u2019s Best Friend Forever and Nicola\u2019s Frenemy. Tim has a new spiky hairdo to match her personality. They go off to look at the noticeboards, where there is predictable chaos about the casting of the play. Lawrie is Ariel, but wants to be Caliban. Miranda West seems to be one of Lawrie\u2019s understudies. Tim is nothing, but wants to be Assistant Stage Manager and work her way up rapidly to Producer, so puts her name down for Costumes and Props with Miss Jennings, the cool Art teacher. Nicola and Esther are Ariel singers, even though poor Esther has debilitating stage fright.<\/p>\n

Then Miranda turns up and takes Nicola up a fire escape ladder to the roof, which seems a bit dangerous to be left open and accessible, but that\u2019s Kingscote for you. Miranda spent her holidays in Greece and Palestine, lucky thing, and Nicola tells her best friend a slightly edited version of the Karen wedding story. Then they discuss The Tempest<\/em>. Unlike Nicola, Miranda has actually read it and would quite like to be Ariel, once Lawrie inevitably gets her way and is recast as Caliban. Jan Scott is down for Prospero, which Miranda approves of, because she thinks Jan will do it properly, as \u201cwhite magic starting to go black \u2026 but then he decides he can\u2019t go through with it.\u201d It turns out Miranda has had a crush on Jan since she was a Junior and saw Jan performing an outlaw ballad:<\/p>\n

\u2026partly teasing, but more in admiration, Nicola said, \u201cYou have<\/u> been faithful, haven\u2019t you?\u201d
\n\u201cMy middle name,\u201d said Miranda; and added, \u201cAs a matter of fact, that\u2019s almost true.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy, what is it?\u201d
\n\u201cRuth. The whither thou goest I will go<\/u> girl. Oh dear,\u201d said Miranda sadly, \u201cafter this term, when Jan\u2019s left, will be so drear<\/u>. Absolutely no<\/u> one to be interested in at all<\/u>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think they\u2019re fourteen now, is that right? It\u2019s interesting how accepting Nicola is of Miranda\u2019s feelings for Jan, which are certainly romantic, even if they\u2019re not sexual. The other thing I observed is how often Nicola comments on other girls\u2019 appearances – not just Esther\u2019s beauty, but a detailed list of Monica\u2019s facial features (\u201cThe odd thing was, looked at all together, they made an attractive whole\u201d), Tim\u2019s \u201codd angular face, which remained, disconcertingly, neither absolutely plain nor absolutely pretty\u201d and Miranda (\u201chalf-curling dark hair, dark blue eyes, and fierce little hawk face\u201d). It\u2019s exactly the age when girls, even tomboyish, sensible girls like Nicola, start thinking of their appearance in relation to their peers, because it\u2019s finally starting to matter, in terms of popularity and boys. <\/p>\n

Antonia Forest also seems to assume that her young readers will be familiar with The Tempest<\/em> and the story of Ruth, which may be an accurate assumption for that time.<\/p>\n

Speaking of The Tempest<\/em>, has anyone seen the film version with Helen Mirren<\/a> as a female Prospero? Is it any good?<\/p>\n

Next, Chapter Four: Assorted Disappointments<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter Three: \u2014And Away Back at Trennels now and Esther is joyfully reunited with Daks. She asks Nicola if it was \u201cyour sister Karen in the paper who got married\u201d and Nicola has to take \u201ctime and a moderate amount of skill\u201d to answer Esther\u2019s polite questions about \u201cthat near-disaster\u201d. Why is it a near … Continue reading \u2018The Cricket Term\u2019, Part Two<\/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":[293],"tags":[25,308],"class_list":["post-6202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-books","tag-antonia-forest","tag-william-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202","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=6202"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6206,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions\/6206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}