Customer Reviews

End of Term

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Plot summaries do little justice to the subtlety and complexity of forest's writing, but here goes: this book is about staging a Christmas nativity play, and the impact of the play on a diverse range of schoolgirl characters: eccentric actress Lawrie, her sensible and clever twin Nicola, unhappy Esther, confident, Jewish Miranda. There's also skulduggery over netball teams, a crisi or two over freindship, and a particularly brilliant, memorable teacher, perhaps the best since Kipling's King, and in that tradition, whose catch-cry for punishment is 'Blood for breakfast'. It's in characterisation that Froest excels;everyone in the book seems so real that by the end you feel as if you know them. It's no exaggeration to say that Forest is to the school story what Tolstoy is to the epic novel. She's also far more daring and experimental than many much-touted modern prizewinners; how many writers would be brave enough to compare a solo by a chorister to the 'ultimate solitude of God'?

This is a gem from when people wrote intelligently for children. That it is out of print is a sad indictment of our loss of faith in child-readers.

I have been reading Antonia Forest's books since I was a child. In all of my reading life I have never come across fictional characters drawn more finely than Nicola, Lawrie, Tim, Miranda and the rest. Forest's sophistication as a writer and psychologist is breathtaking.

As an American who happen to discover these books when I was a kid travelling with my family to England, I've never had the pleasure of meeting another person who has also read these books -- so it was a welcome surprise for me to find other readers' glowing reviews on Amazon.com. If any of the other reviewers would like to drop me a line to talk more about these books (for instance, I am curious to know whether they were ever popular with English children), I can be reached at sdevenyi@cgsh.com.

I have read all 4 books in this school series (starting with this one) and many of the holiday books about the Marlowe family. Forget children, Antonia Forest writes brilliantly for any age. I would put her in the same class as Jane Austin. I think the reason her books are out of print (! ) and neglected is because they are classified as children's books when they are really much more powerful and subtle than that. In my opinion, Attic term is the best because, although nothing much happens, the way the characters develop and interact, the sense of mood, and the understanding you get of the way people respond to being members of a restrictive community (ie school) is incredible. I chain-read seven Antonia Forest books last year and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them.

Why has Antonia Forest never received the recognition she deserved? I know nothing about this author save that her novels about the Marlowe family are some of the most psychologically acute I have ever read, and her characters are unforgettable as any in the canons of great literature, with just as much appeal to adults as to children. To me, End of Term and its companion novel The Cricket Term are the best of a brilliant series. In both novels, the plots centres around a school event: a nativity play and a cricket match, through which we are introduced to a range of complex characters - sensible Nicola and her more flamboyant twin Lawrie, pushy Tim, vain and flaky Ginty and saintly Ann, all of whom develop and surprise from novel to novel. There is no safe centre to Forest's subtle world - goodies can be just as blinkered and self righteous, as the more obvious baddies, endings are rarely straight forward but bitter sweet. Take the climax of End of Term, where both Lawrie and Nicola make their thwarted dreams come true - but at considerable cost. I would love to see these inexplicably-neglected books in print again - it is an insult to modern-day children's intelligence to deprive them of such delights.

Oddly enough, these books were recommended to me by a "collaborative filter" program -- a website that matches me with people that have similar reading tastes, and then recommends books to me based on what my matches like. I have a difficult time imagining the Amazon recommender doing that.

I started with The Cricket Term, and loaned it to a friend, who immediately got hooked and acquired all of Antonia Forest's other school books. Now I'm reading her copies. I think we both like the books for much the same reasons -- the character's are incredibly complex and developed throughout the series. Carefully plotted, these imperfect children face crushing disappointment and bittersweet triumph.

Arriving for her second year at Kingscote with her smallish raptor, The Sprog, Nicola Marlow is faced with early disappointment when the rival of her older sister uses her influence to keep her off the netball team. Likewise, her twin Lawrence, is denied a choice part in the Christmas play when the headmistress casts the actresses on the basis of virtue as opposed to actual talent (No "Best Christmas Pageant Ever" here!). With older sisters Karen (gone to Oxford) and Rowan (dropped out to run the new family farm!) out of the picture, pious Ann is now the senior Marlow at Kingscote, and of course, she is Mary. Miranda West, the snooty IIIA from the previous year, has become Nicola's best friend at school, while Patrick Merrick, the Catholic-next-door, provides meaningful discussion (and outside perspective on the Marlows) when they are home for break.

Faber & Faber is re-releasing the first Marlow book this November. I highly recommend going over to Amazon.co.uk and checking it out.

"End of Term" centers round one term in the lives of the Marlow twins as they prepare for the Christmas play at their boarding school Kingscote. This makes the plot sound like any number of dated, school-set stories for juveniles, yet in Forest's hands it becomes something much more ambitious and triumphant as a variety of sometimes quite adult themes are addressed.

Particular scenes stand out in my mind, such as Patrick and Nicola riding over the downs to Wade Minster. Even simple events like this, which would seem to lack drama, become moments of beauty. Certain phrases too remain with me: "Double chocolate cake had been a wise precaution against hunger before tea" and, "her voice had the slightly foreign stresses of someone who habitually speaks another language".

Such a precise way with words isn't always found in children's books and it's this respect for her readers - and for her characters - which most endears me to her.

In her later books Forest rocks the boat slightly as some unexpected and sometimes unpleasant things happen to the family. It is as if she has created a fictional and emotionally-involving world for us and then lets it wobble a little on its axis. However, in EoT the magic of Christmas and more particularly one girl's performance in a nativity play, is allowed to work its power to full effect.

Antonia Forest, beautiful and wise, is one my favorite authors and I think that perhaps "End of Term" is the best of all her work.

I have loved the Antonia Forest books since I accidentally found them in my local library when I was a child. I totally agree with the other reviewers - the books are excellent and it is very sad that they are out of print. As a comprehensive school child with no experience at all of life in a boarding school I nevertheless was entranced by the characters and the unfolding stories. I would love my daughter to read them and so I'm trying to collect them!

I have loved the Antonia Forest books since I accidentally found them in my local library when I was a child. I totally agree with the other reviewers - the books are excellent and it is very sad that they are out of print. As a comprehensive school child with no experience at all of life in a boarding school I nevertheless was entranced by the characters and the unfolding stories. I would love my daughter to read them and so I'm trying to collect them!