Antonia Forest

[Tabouli]

Hey - there really are a couple of other Antonia Forest fans on OTC!  Who'd have thought it?  That makes a whole... *five* Forest fans!

Erm.

So OK, no point starting an Antonia Forest mailing list just yet (she muses sadly).  Actually, the first mailing list I ever got involved with in a major way (Girls' Own) was mostly due to wanting somewhere to analyse the AF books, and analyse 'em I did, in excruciating detail.  Some very sad news: Antonia herself has just died, aged 88, without finishing her 13th Marlow book:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1102784,00.html

I was lucky enough to get a letter from her and meet her in 1998, although as I detailed here a couple of years ago, the meeting was very awkward (she was a shy old lady, I overcompensated in the worst possible way and it all didn't work.  Winces at the memory).

Naama:
> OH - MY - GOD!!! Have you any idea how long I've been yearning for 
sequels to the first book?!  I found Automn Term in a used books store years ago, and for some 
reason decided to take it. And it was wonderful! As a child, I read 
all the Enid Blyton school stories, and was amazed at how similar yet 
different this book was. Deeper, realer, better. I've searched to see 
whether she wrote sequels, but couldn't find any mention of it. 
Hurrah! How do you think I can get the other books?<

Ah.  Well.  Some mixed news.  For years and years AF books have been just *impossible* to get hold of.  They were all out of print and collectors' items and insanely expensive even if you did manage to track one down.  I have all but three of her books, but long despaired of completing my collection: many's the second-hand bookseller who's said to me "Oooo, Antonia Forest, you'd be lucky, *everyone's* after those."  However, all is not lost - by popular demand they're starting to reprint them now:

http://www.maulu.demon.co.uk/AF/availability/reprint.html

Alicia:
> I loved these books! Antonia Forest created such a strong family 
history for the Marlows - as well as the 4 school stories and 6 
holiday stories, she also wrote two historical (Elizabethan era) 
books, "The Player's Boy" and "The Players and the Rebels", about an 
actor who was an ancestor of the Marlows. He's mentioned in at least 
one of novels about the more recent Marlow family.<

Forgot about those two, mostly because I wasn't as taken by them.  My favorite is probably "The Ready-Made Family", for its adept handling of a soap operatic premise - the 19 year old brilliant sister marrying the middle-aged widower with three kids and bringing them home to stay with her family, with friction and drama all round.  It culminates in a scene where Nicola goes to Oxford to look for one of the kids.  I actually took a copy of the book to Oxford in 1998 and retraced Nicola's steps, taking photos of scenes in the book (but then, I'm like that).

Those who've read them, who are your favorite characters?  I know Nicola's the heroine and we're suppose to love her etc.etc., but I always found her a bit too noble for my tastes (AF's Mary Sue, perhaps?  I did wonder when I talked to AF about her: she said "Not *my* Nicola" in response to something I'd asked).  Give me her temperamental twin sister Lawrie and her crafty best friend Tim any day.  Far more interesting.  And who could be unmoved by Patrick (swoon!) and the delightfully cheeky Peter?

Tabouli.

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