Marlow (book series)
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Marlow series |
| Abbreviation(s): | AF |
| Creator: | Antonia Forest |
| Date(s): | 1948-1982 |
| Medium: | Books |
| Country of Origin: | UK |
| External Links: | Antonia Forest: Marlow series at Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The books in Antonia Forest's Marlow series, about an upper-middle-class family living in Dorset, are divided between the contemporary and the historical Marlows.
Contemporary
Autumn Term, The Marlows and the Traitor, Falconer's Lure, End of Term, Peter's Room, The Ready-made Family, The Thuggery Affair, The Cricket Term, The Attic Term, Run Away Home.
Historical
The Player's Boy,The Players and the Rebels
Summary
Autumn Term starts with twins Nicola and Lawrie Marlow, the youngest girls in their large family, on their way to Kingscote School. Their elder sisters all have had academic and sporting success and the twins assume the same will fall into their lap. However, they have a rude awakening when they are placed in Third Remove, the class for the backwards, delicate or just plain stupid as Tim (Thalia) Keith, the Headmistress' niece and their new friend, puts it.
The remaining three "Term" stories, dealing with the twins and their sisters at school, examine and subvert the tropes of the boarding school genre.
The other contemporary stories are set in the school holidays, over a period of two school years plus one term.
The use of the term contemporary in relation to Forest's work is idiosyncratic. She wrote over the period 1948-1982 and with a few exceptions (such as the younger Marlow boy, Peter, being at Dartmouth at the age of 14-15 despite entry ages being raised first to 16 and then to 18 over the relevant period) take on the trappings of the time in which they are written, with Star Trek, fears about the Bomb, and contemporary issues such as drugs and international child abduction.
The two historical novels (actually one split into two) follow the fortunes of an earlier Marlow, Nicholas, who runs away from school and ends up as a boy player, playing women's parts on stage at the Globe and apprenticed to Will Shakespeare.
Fandom
Antonia Forest and her works are discussed in the Trennels community and in the Facebook community Antonia Forest and her Books. Fic is published on personal journals and at AO3.
Links and Resources
- The Marlows - Antonia Forest at Archive of Our Own
- Trennels at LiveJournal and trennels at Dreamwidth
- "Antonia Forest at Girls Gone By Publishers". Archived from the original on 2021-06-20.
- Girlsown, a mailing list for girls' school stories including the Marlow series