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The Marlows #8
The Cricket Term
It is busy summer again at Kingscote School. Nicola Marlow is coaching her team with a steely determination to beat the senior girls in the interform cricket cup, and her twin sister Lawrie is just as determined to get the part she really wants in the school play.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
114 people want to read
About the author
Antonia Forest
18 books29 followersAntonia Forest was the pen name of Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein. She was born in North London, the child of Russian-Jewish and Irish parents. She studied at South Hampstead High School and University College, London, and worked as a government clerk and a librarian. Best known for her series of novels about the Marlow family, she published her first book, Autumn Term, in 1948.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 2, 2022
Antonia Forest has it, the factor that makes you read a page and a half of a diary written over three hundred years ago and really be moved by it:
I can’t decide which, of characterization and dialogue, is Forest’s greatest strength. Look at this:
And then there’s this, maybe the greatest send-off a villain has ever gotten:
I’m pulling out bits and pieces because I find the whole so overwhelming. I acknowledge my bias toward school stories and won’t go so far as to call this a towering work of great literature (though is there any reason a ‘humble’ school story can’t be?), but for a story which limits itself, this is practically perfect. It doesn’t try to do too much - and yet there are glimpses at the edges - and what it does is so polished and deliberate and clear. It isn’t concerned with likeability and in an odd way isn’t that concerned with realism; it’s the way its characters interact with the plot that matters, and not the plot itself. And it’s so perfect in its characterization that it lives.
I desperately want another school story, but I’m a little worried about description for The Attic Term. I want more Nicola and Esther and Miranda; I’m not sure I can read an entire book about Ginty, even though she gives Forest room for such scathing, astute commentary.
In closing: I know absolutely nothing about cricket and I read every word of that cricket match. Characterization. (And I still know nothing about cricket.)
Kate tells me she heard a step within the door as she knelt to mend the fire and said not turning Is it you Nicholas? meaning our third son but it was a man’s voice answered Yes.This has no business being as compelling as it is. Of course, it’s entirely dropped for the rest of the book, but that’s pretty compelling, too. (A mere page later you have Rowan casually instigating the entire cricket plot while referencing Wimsey of Balliol…)
I can’t decide which, of characterization and dialogue, is Forest’s greatest strength. Look at this:
‘P’raps they’ll make you a doppelgänger.’Your doppel gangs off. My jaw dropped. I read it twice. I might have clapped.
‘Ever’s that?’
‘Your ghostly double - like you’re in one place and your doppel gangs off somewhere else and does something different.’
‘Yes, didn’t we!’ said Nicola with relish. ‘Poor old Crommie! It’s a bit tough on her, I must say, not winning the Form Shield two terms running.’And:
‘If it wasn’t that I like Crommie, I’d say she ought to be too old to care,’ stated Miranda severely.
‘Me too. But my ma said once that actually you don’t stop minding things when you’re grown up. Mind you, she was talking about people dying.’
Lawrie did not sing, because she never did at school: and Nicola did not sing either: not because she wanted to cry or anything of that sort: it was just that at the moment there was no singing in her.You can’t choose between them, so it’s fabulous that they’re both found in a single book. (And look at that punctuation!)
And then there’s this, maybe the greatest send-off a villain has ever gotten:
And in time, those who attended Old Girls’ functions reminisced about her too. D’you remember Lois Sanger? D’you remember how she sat and gloomed that night after we lost that comic cricket match? D’you ever hear from her? Does anyone ever hear from her? Whatever did happen to her, do you suppose?
I’m pulling out bits and pieces because I find the whole so overwhelming. I acknowledge my bias toward school stories and won’t go so far as to call this a towering work of great literature (though is there any reason a ‘humble’ school story can’t be?), but for a story which limits itself, this is practically perfect. It doesn’t try to do too much - and yet there are glimpses at the edges - and what it does is so polished and deliberate and clear. It isn’t concerned with likeability and in an odd way isn’t that concerned with realism; it’s the way its characters interact with the plot that matters, and not the plot itself. And it’s so perfect in its characterization that it lives.
I desperately want another school story, but I’m a little worried about description for The Attic Term. I want more Nicola and Esther and Miranda; I’m not sure I can read an entire book about Ginty, even though she gives Forest room for such scathing, astute commentary.
In closing: I know absolutely nothing about cricket and I read every word of that cricket match. Characterization. (And I still know nothing about cricket.)
August 1, 2014
Antonia Forest's masterpiece. Every Marlowe novel she'd written until this is good, almost timeless--but "The Cricket Term" is truly above & beyond. Nothing she wrote afterwards was nearly as good as it or even the earlier books.
It's slightly stunning that a novel about schoolgirls in an English boarding-school could be considered a great work of style and expression, and with a subtlety regarding emotions and mixed motives. Yet this novel is definitely IT.
Filled with literary allusions that the author doesn't bother to explain because she presumes that her audience (of adolescent readers!) will either pick up on the references, or be able to "run & find out" (as Miss Cromwell would say), it deals with what could be called "teenage" "issues" in a calm, measured, slightly sardonic way.
Should never be allowed to go out of print.
It's slightly stunning that a novel about schoolgirls in an English boarding-school could be considered a great work of style and expression, and with a subtlety regarding emotions and mixed motives. Yet this novel is definitely IT.
Filled with literary allusions that the author doesn't bother to explain because she presumes that her audience (of adolescent readers!) will either pick up on the references, or be able to "run & find out" (as Miss Cromwell would say), it deals with what could be called "teenage" "issues" in a calm, measured, slightly sardonic way.
Should never be allowed to go out of print.
August 26, 2019
The eighth entry in Antonia Forest's ten-book series about the Marlow family, their adventures at school and on holiday, The Cricket Term is the third title set at Kingscote, the Marlow girls' boarding school, and opens a little more than one week after the events of the previous installment,
The Ready Made Family
. Returning to school, where twins Nicola and Lawrie are still in Lower IV.A, the sisters are soon absorbed again in Kingscote affairs, with Lawrie actively campaigning (with something less than success) for the role of Caliban in the school production of
The Tempest
, and Nicola - named Games Captain for their form - determinedly coaching her team, in the hopes of beating the senior girls, and triumphing in the interform cricket cup. But when a letter arrives for Nicola, with the unexpected and unwelcome news that she will probably not be able to return to Kingscote the following term - tuition having been increased, money being short, and Nicola being the twin least likely to kick up a fuss - suddenly everything takes on a different, and added meaning...
Forest's talent for creating complex, convincing characters, whose internal and external affairs are as engrossing as they are satisfying, is very much to the fore in The Cricket Term. The ever-changing relationships amongst the girls - Tim and Nicola suddenly being more friendly than they had been, in End of Term , Nicola and Miranda's encounters with the somewhat elusive Jan Scott, the continued almost-hostility between the twins and the regrettable Lois Sanger - make for an engaging read; while Nicola's initial distress, and subsequent sense of detachment - of being an outsider, even though no one around her realizes yet that she is an outsider - in response to the news that this might be her last term at Kingscote, is emotionally gripping. I even found the cricket matches interesting, despite knowing less of the game than of our (American) baseball, and understanding little of the plays described. The conclusion of the interform cup was immensely satisfying!
All in all, another superb school story from Forest, and another wonderful contribution to her chronicle of the Marlow family! I rather regret that the next, The Attic Term , is the last Kingscote story she wrote.
Forest's talent for creating complex, convincing characters, whose internal and external affairs are as engrossing as they are satisfying, is very much to the fore in The Cricket Term. The ever-changing relationships amongst the girls - Tim and Nicola suddenly being more friendly than they had been, in End of Term , Nicola and Miranda's encounters with the somewhat elusive Jan Scott, the continued almost-hostility between the twins and the regrettable Lois Sanger - make for an engaging read; while Nicola's initial distress, and subsequent sense of detachment - of being an outsider, even though no one around her realizes yet that she is an outsider - in response to the news that this might be her last term at Kingscote, is emotionally gripping. I even found the cricket matches interesting, despite knowing less of the game than of our (American) baseball, and understanding little of the plays described. The conclusion of the interform cup was immensely satisfying!
All in all, another superb school story from Forest, and another wonderful contribution to her chronicle of the Marlow family! I rather regret that the next, The Attic Term , is the last Kingscote story she wrote.
June 24, 2009
As I have absolutely no interest in organized sports whatsoever, I would have avoided this book had it not been written by Antonia Forest.
It is about sports--Nicola becomes games captain--but like any good book, it's really about the people playing the sports. The last game was actually exciting to me, when usually I page past games (including, in fact, especially Quidditch, because Harry or his friends would always win) but this time the personalities were so intensely involving that I felt the pulse-pounding involvement that seems to infuse spectators.
There are other concerns--the school play, and whether or not Nicola can continue at the school. Some amazing discussions between the characters, on all subjects, including religion. I simply couldn't put the book down, though I fully intended to limit myself to a chapter or two a night.
It is about sports--Nicola becomes games captain--but like any good book, it's really about the people playing the sports. The last game was actually exciting to me, when usually I page past games (including, in fact, especially Quidditch, because Harry or his friends would always win) but this time the personalities were so intensely involving that I felt the pulse-pounding involvement that seems to infuse spectators.
There are other concerns--the school play, and whether or not Nicola can continue at the school. Some amazing discussions between the characters, on all subjects, including religion. I simply couldn't put the book down, though I fully intended to limit myself to a chapter or two a night.
June 24, 2009
Thanks to Hallie, another great Antonia Forest.
Intensely good. This might have been on the shelves when I was younger--it came out in the seventies--but the title would have been an instant turnoff, seeming to be about sports. Sports there were, but the personalities and the drive; the last cricket game was actually thrilling, because of the entirely personal stakes.
Forest is so brilliant, or was. I wish copies of Peter's Room weren't over a hundred bucks. It's ridiculous that these books are not in print.
To stave off withdrawal, I looked Forest up, and discovered a new tidbit, she not only loved Lord of the Rings, but her favorite of all was Patrick O'Brian. How utterly perfect was that?
Intensely good. This might have been on the shelves when I was younger--it came out in the seventies--but the title would have been an instant turnoff, seeming to be about sports. Sports there were, but the personalities and the drive; the last cricket game was actually thrilling, because of the entirely personal stakes.
Forest is so brilliant, or was. I wish copies of Peter's Room weren't over a hundred bucks. It's ridiculous that these books are not in print.
To stave off withdrawal, I looked Forest up, and discovered a new tidbit, she not only loved Lord of the Rings, but her favorite of all was Patrick O'Brian. How utterly perfect was that?
August 10, 2016
I have read this book so many times in the past 30 or so years that nowadays I can only do so very carefully, as is now a collection of loose pages rather than an actual book. It is my favourite of all Antonia Forest's stories, and not just because I like cricket. It ties in neatly to The Ready-Made Family beforehand, and the historical stories which I'm saving till last, and sets the scene for the events of The Attic Term. But it is complete in itself - it is all I knew of the Marlows for several years - and, as you'd expect, the characters are real, moving through a beautifully plotted sequence of events.
November 14, 2013
OH MY GOD HER WRITING! I had to read most sentences twice, they're just so sophisticated and make no sense when read hastily. We're lucky Forest wrote in girlsown, her talent is frankly unmatched. Very interesting story but there were rather more theatre things than cricket things, I thought. A lot of good sisterly moments and extremely realistic characterization. I CANNOT believe this used to sell for 75p, I got this for 5 quid and snatched it straight away as it goes for crazy money. Can we please reprint these?
July 6, 2021
It’s summer term at Kingscote and the Marlow sisters are thinking mostly of cricket and the school play. Will Nicola’s dream of winning the inter-form cup become a reality? How will Laurie cope with Ariel, the role she hates, and will she manage to win Caliban, the role of her dreams? And then a letter from home brings a whole new set of complications...
This is my favourite Marlow book - the ‘light and bright and sparkling’ one of a series which more often gives us the ‘tears of things’. Maybe it’s the cricket, with the influence of Forest’s literary predecessors casting a sunny gleam over the book. Maybe it’s the place of the book in the series, bending back up after the heavy atmosphere of Ready-Made Family before The Attic Term pulls down again. Maybe it’s the playing out of the finale of the Lois Sanger saga to this reader’s great emotional satisfaction: we get to see, far more than Nicola, that Lois has spent the whole term secretly trying to do her out of the cricket cup, and how she is hoist on her own petard, convicted of the sin of trying too hard.
Nicola is the centre of this book, with Lawrie’s dramatic crisis (in both senses of the word) mercifully kept in moderation. She really does seem the weak link here, awfully immature compared to Nicola, and I found her glooming over the Prosser in contrast to Nicola’s rigid self-containment a bit too much - Lawrie too blind and Nicola too martyr-like, Lawrie still the same emotional child of previous books while Nicola’s outlook matures and broadens. Ginty gets perhaps her most sympathetic portrayal at Forest’s hand: someone who depends on admiration is more to be pitied than blamed.
As ever, there are a host of other touches which enrich the book. Jan Scott, a detached person in a world where people’s desires so often have a distorting effect, is a cool force on the periphery, and yet Forest also hints that this detachment too has limitations. Marie Dobson, provoking uncomfortable probing of the reader’s attitude to minor characters as much as the girls’. Other threads - Monica’s friendship for Ginty, the role of books from Nicola’s recollections of Murder Must Advertise to the physicality of an old binding. Nicola’s - and Forest’s - critical reflections on difficult parents and their curious blind spot when it comes to Mrs Marlow.
But this book is a brilliant example of what can be done with the two inches of ivory that is the world of school. In one sense tiny things like a decision about batting order or the reaching out of a hand to catch a ball are infinitely small, and yet in another they are crucially important moments whose after-effects ripple down a person’s life. ‘D’you remember Lois Sanger? ... Whatever did happen to her do you suppose?’
This is my favourite Marlow book - the ‘light and bright and sparkling’ one of a series which more often gives us the ‘tears of things’. Maybe it’s the cricket, with the influence of Forest’s literary predecessors casting a sunny gleam over the book. Maybe it’s the place of the book in the series, bending back up after the heavy atmosphere of Ready-Made Family before The Attic Term pulls down again. Maybe it’s the playing out of the finale of the Lois Sanger saga to this reader’s great emotional satisfaction: we get to see, far more than Nicola, that Lois has spent the whole term secretly trying to do her out of the cricket cup, and how she is hoist on her own petard, convicted of the sin of trying too hard.
Nicola is the centre of this book, with Lawrie’s dramatic crisis (in both senses of the word) mercifully kept in moderation. She really does seem the weak link here, awfully immature compared to Nicola, and I found her glooming over the Prosser in contrast to Nicola’s rigid self-containment a bit too much - Lawrie too blind and Nicola too martyr-like, Lawrie still the same emotional child of previous books while Nicola’s outlook matures and broadens. Ginty gets perhaps her most sympathetic portrayal at Forest’s hand: someone who depends on admiration is more to be pitied than blamed.
As ever, there are a host of other touches which enrich the book. Jan Scott, a detached person in a world where people’s desires so often have a distorting effect, is a cool force on the periphery, and yet Forest also hints that this detachment too has limitations. Marie Dobson, provoking uncomfortable probing of the reader’s attitude to minor characters as much as the girls’. Other threads - Monica’s friendship for Ginty, the role of books from Nicola’s recollections of Murder Must Advertise to the physicality of an old binding. Nicola’s - and Forest’s - critical reflections on difficult parents and their curious blind spot when it comes to Mrs Marlow.
But this book is a brilliant example of what can be done with the two inches of ivory that is the world of school. In one sense tiny things like a decision about batting order or the reaching out of a hand to catch a ball are infinitely small, and yet in another they are crucially important moments whose after-effects ripple down a person’s life. ‘D’you remember Lois Sanger? ... Whatever did happen to her do you suppose?’
August 23, 2020
I don't give out many 5 star ratings, but this is a book that I read, almost in a day, such was my eagerness, then immediately read it again afterwards, so that I could absorb and enjoy a greater level of detail. I haven't done that very often in my life, and fewer times still can I honestly say I enjoyed it just as much the second time.
It's a kids’ book on one level, a simple school story, about sport, the school play and academic results, but so much more. The characterisation is so finely done that each character of myriads is never in danger of being confused with another. Each sister of the highly successful Marlow family has her own unique style of speech and action which shines through. You can't help feeling for Nicola here - the brilliant, clever, modest, decent Nicola, form games captain, leading her team on the cricket field, who never quite gets the kudos she deserves. She's a character so well drawn that you understand along with her why it's OK to bowl out your sister, but not the head girl. She reminds me of a friend of mine who is just so perfect you want to hate her - but she's also the nicest person you've ever met - so you can't. Nicola's wild talent along with overall sense of fairness and sportspersonship should see her rewarded, and yet she faces a crushing defeat in this book. I won't elaborate so as not to spoil the plot, but anyone who has a sibling will understand how she feels, and rightly so, to see a sibling rewarded for very little effort.
One small observation I'll make here of Antonia Forest's writing: she really gets how to use italics in speech. I love the way she will italicise words for emphasis, and usually they're not the word I would have chosen to emphasise in the sentence, but you know what, every time, Miss Forest was right after all when you read it through. Here's the best example I could find - about cricket of course - what else would you expect?
"Even to bowl a rabbit, it still has to be straight," protested Sally.
"But it wasn't straight. It broke. I saw it. It did exactly what I meant."
It's a kids’ book on one level, a simple school story, about sport, the school play and academic results, but so much more. The characterisation is so finely done that each character of myriads is never in danger of being confused with another. Each sister of the highly successful Marlow family has her own unique style of speech and action which shines through. You can't help feeling for Nicola here - the brilliant, clever, modest, decent Nicola, form games captain, leading her team on the cricket field, who never quite gets the kudos she deserves. She's a character so well drawn that you understand along with her why it's OK to bowl out your sister, but not the head girl. She reminds me of a friend of mine who is just so perfect you want to hate her - but she's also the nicest person you've ever met - so you can't. Nicola's wild talent along with overall sense of fairness and sportspersonship should see her rewarded, and yet she faces a crushing defeat in this book. I won't elaborate so as not to spoil the plot, but anyone who has a sibling will understand how she feels, and rightly so, to see a sibling rewarded for very little effort.
One small observation I'll make here of Antonia Forest's writing: she really gets how to use italics in speech. I love the way she will italicise words for emphasis, and usually they're not the word I would have chosen to emphasise in the sentence, but you know what, every time, Miss Forest was right after all when you read it through. Here's the best example I could find - about cricket of course - what else would you expect?
"Even to bowl a rabbit, it still has to be straight," protested Sally.
"But it wasn't straight. It broke. I saw it. It did exactly what I meant."
September 27, 2024
Forest is just so clever. Impressing me in the same ways as she did in the previous two boarding school books. The nuances of these characters and their interactions; the way she tells it like it is with neither moralising nor cheesiness; all the literary references; and not only had she written the end of term plays so wonderfully in the previous books, in this one she wrote the final cricket match in such a compelling and genius way too, because it was about the characters and their relationships to each other, and a culmination of all that had gone on before. I also loved the moments where friends would end up in hysterics over some subtle joke that lands so naturally, and even if you don't laugh out loud as a reader (because, you know, you 'had to be there'), you can absolutely imagine being there irl giggling away. Meanwhile, the way was handled was so interesting, with all the girls' complicated feelings about it. There's also a twist you wouldn't see coming at the end, and I loved the way Edwin's letters to Nicola acted like book-ends, giving the book a nice structure. Also, we learn a little more of Ginty, and I know The Attic Term is more from her POV, so that's welcome. She is yet another interesting, believable character, different again from any of the others. Plus, I loved Chas & Rose too. I could not love this series and its characters more!!!
ETA. - I completely forgot to mention, that at one point periods were actually mentioned!! . I had either forgotten that, or it went over my head when i was younger, but I was so pleased, as it's unusual for this to be mentioned even in adult books let alone a (admittedly sophisticated) middle grade boarding school story!
ETA. - I completely forgot to mention, that at one point periods were actually mentioned!! . I had either forgotten that, or it went over my head when i was younger, but I was so pleased, as it's unusual for this to be mentioned even in adult books let alone a (admittedly sophisticated) middle grade boarding school story!
March 9, 2021
Time moves strangely in the Marlow world: the first novel Autumn Term was published in 1949, and this one appeared in 1974. For the characters, only six months have elapsed, but, at the same time, changing social mores and attitudes are evident in The Cricket Term, as well as small differences like a move from "old" money to decimal money, and there are no longer references to post-WW2 refugees. Read directly after End of Term, which appeared 15 years earlier, I noticed some idiosyncrasies, but Forest is also very good at sticking to character and picking up threads from previous novels -- there were three in the Marlow series between End of Term and Cricket Term, but all "holiday" rather than "school" stories. It's the summer term, and Nicola and Lawrence are back at Kingscote after an eventful holiday, during which their sister got married. Lawrie is desperate to play Caliban in The Tempest but has been relegated to Ariel, while Nicola is determined that her form will beat the seniors in the inter-form cricket cup. I don't understand the rules of cricket in the slightest, but Forest is remarkably dynamic in writing about sports, making them much more exciting than one would expect. The thing that holds these books together for me is the dynamics between the sister, and between the classmates, and the bonds Forest demonstrates as well as the tensions and disagreements. There are a number of different tensions in The Cricket Term, and it's a dynamic and exciting book -- if you like this sort of thing!
February 14, 2015
To AF fans: I've put together a guide to Antonia Forest fanfic if anyone would like to take a look: written to acknowledge the first-class AF fanfic out there, and to share it with those who haven't seen it yet. I hope no-one minds that I'm sharing it in reviews of some other AF books here - my motives are altruistic, I do most horribly swear.
A Reader's Guide to Antonia Forest fanfic.
Enjoy!
A Reader's Guide to Antonia Forest fanfic.
Enjoy!
March 31, 2019
Gosh, these books are brilliant. Drily witty the whole way through, brilliantly written and plotted and filled with interesting but believable characters. Friendships shift around in an entirely realistic way and unlike almost every other school story, the villains are never too villainous but nor do they undergo an unlikely transformation at the end of the book. Lois Sanger might just be the best ”villain” I’ve ever come across in a school story.
March 24, 2009
Antonia Forest is really the best of the British school story writers. Characters are nuanced, there are plot twists, and not everything turns out perfectly. Spoiler ahead:
In Cricket Term, the sturdy Nicola is about to get removed from school simply because she is mature enough to handle it, when an older friend suggests she compete for the Prosser scholarship which her sister Karen has recently given up in order to marry. Nicola works hard and is very successful, but the scholarship is unexpectedly awarded to someone apparently far less deserving. But with another ironic twist, Nicola is allowed to stay in school after all. It's just not your conventional school story. The cricket passages are incomprehensible to me, but that's a small defect in a shining story.
In Cricket Term, the sturdy Nicola is about to get removed from school simply because she is mature enough to handle it, when an older friend suggests she compete for the Prosser scholarship which her sister Karen has recently given up in order to marry. Nicola works hard and is very successful, but the scholarship is unexpectedly awarded to someone apparently far less deserving. But with another ironic twist, Nicola is allowed to stay in school after all. It's just not your conventional school story. The cricket passages are incomprehensible to me, but that's a small defect in a shining story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 30, 2009
Nicola is faced with the threat of having to leave her beloved Kingscote, ironically, because she can handle it better than either of the two sisters also students there. She manages to keep this threat a secret even from her irresponsible twin Lawrie; how one deals internally with this pain is the main theme of the story. Although I like this less than the other Forest school stories (too much cricket!) it is still one of the best of the genre from the best writer in the genre. This was a second reading, the first being in January, 2003.
August 17, 2007
Girls infighting at school
September 4, 2007
Nicola and Lawrie Marlow are determined that their form will triumph in cricket but there are many obstacles to overcome.
September 22, 2010
Still not my cuppa, these books. I suppose that makes me unique, since millions have loved them beyond anything. I'm just the exception that proves the rule.
June 2, 2020
see on jätkuvalt mu lemmikuid Marlow-raamatuid. esmalugemisel paari aasta eest andsin sellele neli tärni, aga GGBP 2020. aasta väljaandele annan viis, sest siin on mitu väga sisukat eessõna - Marlow-sarja kohta autorilt endalt (kirjutatud 2002, suri ta 2003), autori põhjalik elulookirjeldus Sue Simsilt, konkreetse teose põhjalikum analüüs ja kirjastamisajalugu samuti Simsilt. 50 lehekülge kvaliteetsisu veel enne, kui lugu pihtagi hakkab, no tõeline maiuspala tõelisele huvilisele!
vast tänu eessõnadele pöörasin seekord kõvasti tähelepanu sellele, kuidas Forest suudab kirjutada kriketist haaravalt ka sellise inimese jaoks, kes kriketist MITTE MIDAGI ei tea (mina!). tõesti, 2 lk kriketimatši detailset kirjeldust, ja ma ei jätnud sõnagi vahele, sest... see lugu, mida mina lugesin, läks seal ka edasi. tegelased, nende suhted, iseloomud ja mõtted olid seal kogu aeg olemas ja olulisel kohal. kahjuks ma endiselt ei tea, misasi on stump ja misasi wicket.
jätkuvalt aga on mu lemmikliin selles raamatus see, kuidas Nicola võtab kooli kaasa lubatud ühe asemel kaks raamatut (üks neist selline, mida kool ei loe eakohaseks) ja saab selle eest karistada - peab lubama, et ei loe ühtegi endavalitud raamatut enne, kui on läbinud õpetaja poolt antud kohustusliku kirjanduse nimekirja, mis sisaldab muuhulgas Walter Scotti, Thackerayd, Stevensoni "Ballantrae isandat" ja vähemalt kaht Dickensi raamatut. Nicola on 13-aastane. semestri lõpuks saab nimekiri (mille pikkust meile küll ei reedeta) peaagu lõpetatud ka, kõigi nende näidendiproovide ja kriketitrennide kõrvalt. sedasorti kõrvallugude pärast (mõni on igas raamatus) ma seda sarja jumaldangi!
vast tänu eessõnadele pöörasin seekord kõvasti tähelepanu sellele, kuidas Forest suudab kirjutada kriketist haaravalt ka sellise inimese jaoks, kes kriketist MITTE MIDAGI ei tea (mina!). tõesti, 2 lk kriketimatši detailset kirjeldust, ja ma ei jätnud sõnagi vahele, sest... see lugu, mida mina lugesin, läks seal ka edasi. tegelased, nende suhted, iseloomud ja mõtted olid seal kogu aeg olemas ja olulisel kohal. kahjuks ma endiselt ei tea, misasi on stump ja misasi wicket.
jätkuvalt aga on mu lemmikliin selles raamatus see, kuidas Nicola võtab kooli kaasa lubatud ühe asemel kaks raamatut (üks neist selline, mida kool ei loe eakohaseks) ja saab selle eest karistada - peab lubama, et ei loe ühtegi endavalitud raamatut enne, kui on läbinud õpetaja poolt antud kohustusliku kirjanduse nimekirja, mis sisaldab muuhulgas Walter Scotti, Thackerayd, Stevensoni "Ballantrae isandat" ja vähemalt kaht Dickensi raamatut. Nicola on 13-aastane. semestri lõpuks saab nimekiri (mille pikkust meile küll ei reedeta) peaagu lõpetatud ka, kõigi nende näidendiproovide ja kriketitrennide kõrvalt. sedasorti kõrvallugude pärast (mõni on igas raamatus) ma seda sarja jumaldangi!
March 25, 2023
This is the eighth book in Forest’s series about the Marlow siblings, this one particularly focussing around the twins and in particular Nicola. It’s the summer term and Nicola is as determined to win the cricket cup as Lawrie is to play Caliban in the school play. Except the mistress in charge of the play has other ideas, as does the Games Captain who has a definite down on Nicola. But soon Nicola has more to worry about than getting her team into shape - unless she can do something to change things, it could be her last term at Kingscote.
This is a masterpiece of a school story. The characters are rounded and nuanced. One of the central problems of the series is a big grown up one but there are plenty of other things the girls have to deal with and it has such depth and cleverness in the writing. It had my love forever from the throwaway reference to the cricket match in Murder must advertise. Yes, the climax to this is a cricket match. Yes, it’s as brilliantly written as the cricket match from Murder Must advertise so casually referred by Rowan and Nicola at the start. Yes, it leaves you with a happy smile on your face as all the threads are tied up and the villain gets a wonderfully dismissive final send off. Yes, I wish I had read this when I was “the right age”. It was the perfect book at the perfect time.
This is a masterpiece of a school story. The characters are rounded and nuanced. One of the central problems of the series is a big grown up one but there are plenty of other things the girls have to deal with and it has such depth and cleverness in the writing. It had my love forever from the throwaway reference to the cricket match in Murder must advertise. Yes, the climax to this is a cricket match. Yes, it’s as brilliantly written as the cricket match from Murder Must advertise so casually referred by Rowan and Nicola at the start. Yes, it leaves you with a happy smile on your face as all the threads are tied up and the villain gets a wonderfully dismissive final send off. Yes, I wish I had read this when I was “the right age”. It was the perfect book at the perfect time.
October 29, 2019
For someone who doesn’t enjoy sport this was one exciting cricket match. The most grown up , well written school stories you’ll ever read
December 9, 2025
I haven't read this for years, so it was a pleasure to read it again. The characterization is so, so good, and the way the people interact is fantastic.
May 31, 2020
kogu see kriketijutt oli vaimustavalt jabur. vahepeal oli lehekülgede kaupa matšikirjeldusi, kus ma sain aru igast üksikust sõnast, aga absoluutselt mitte midagi sellest, mis tegelikult toimus. õnneks osutus see laiemas plaanis täiesti ebaoluliseks.
suurim maiuspala ses loos minu jaoks oli hoopis see liin, kus tüdrukutel on lubatud trimestriks kodust internaatkooli kaasa võtta üksainus raamat, aga mässumeelne Nicola võtab KAKS! kui ta sellega vahele jääb, siis karistuseks annab klassijuhataja talle raamatunimekirja ja võtab ausõna, et tüdruk ei loe enne ühtegi omavalitud raamatut, kui kõik nimekirjas olevad raamatud läbi on. kogu nimekirja (ega selle pikkust) meile ei avaldata, aga tasapisi selgub, et esindatud on Dickens, Walter Scott ja Thackeray. mnjaa.
suurim maiuspala ses loos minu jaoks oli hoopis see liin, kus tüdrukutel on lubatud trimestriks kodust internaatkooli kaasa võtta üksainus raamat, aga mässumeelne Nicola võtab KAKS! kui ta sellega vahele jääb, siis karistuseks annab klassijuhataja talle raamatunimekirja ja võtab ausõna, et tüdruk ei loe enne ühtegi omavalitud raamatut, kui kõik nimekirjas olevad raamatud läbi on. kogu nimekirja (ega selle pikkust) meile ei avaldata, aga tasapisi selgub, et esindatud on Dickens, Walter Scott ja Thackeray. mnjaa.
November 2, 2021
Ah one of my very favourite Marlow books where Lois finally gets her comeupance!
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May 15, 2021Perfect book for an evening in July. On the surface, nothing much happens, just the quiet triumphs and devastations of school - sports, drama, lessons, marks - but it's absolutely gripping.
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