How many children, exactly?

One of my absolute favourite 'childrens'' series is the books about the Marlow family, written by Antonia Forest. The series comprises 10 books, published between 1948 and 1982:

• Autumn Term
• The Marlows and the Traitor
• Falconer's Lure
• End of Term
• Peter's Room
• The Thuggery Affair
• The Ready Made Family
• The Cricket Term
• The Attic Term
• Run Away Home

The Marlow family was, by any standards, large. There were two sons and six daughters. So, that's eight children in all ................yep, eight. Yet Mrs Marlow, never a main chacter but often peripherally involved (usually wheeled in to either express exasperation at the lunacy of her offspring or to bewail the state of the family finances) appears to be neither mad nor it has to be said particularly maternal. Eight children. Really. Eight.

The main players in all the books are the twins, Nicola and Lawrie, who are the youngest of the brood. Nicola is the star (main POV character) of all but one of the books, the exception being The Thuggery Affair - but Lawrie generally has a big (although less sympathetic ) role. The other siblings - Giles, Kay, Rowan, Ann, Ginty and Peter take roles of varying importance throughout the series.

One thing the Marlow books is not is simply a school series. For a start, only four of the books are actually set in term time, in the school attended by most of the girls (although increasingly few as the series goes on - drop like flies they do. None of them dies but stuff happens. Blimey does stuff happen.) The first book, Autumn Term, is for the most part a straightforward (although superior) boarding school tale, in which we follow Nick and Lawrie as they go away to school with their sisters for the first time - but thereafter the books go way off piste (for traditional school stories).

Among the topics examined in the series are:
Faith
Artistic giftedness (is that even aword? Well, anyway)
Teen death
Adult death
Drugs
Gang culture
Teen romance
Exam cheating
Vatican II (seriously)
The Gondal writings of Emily Bronte
Mental illness
Superstition
Falconry
Financial woes
Wartime treachery
Divorce
Blended families

I fell in love with the Marlows when I was 10 - possibly a little bit young (at the time)for some of the themes but nevermind eh. It took me years to complete the set, anyway, although thanks to the lending library system in Croydon and Cambridge I was able to read them all before I managed to score my own copies. The most elusive volume, for me, was Falconer's Lure - naturally my favourite of the series (well, duh!). I finally managed to find a copy of that in the late 90s - just before Girls Gone By publising re-issued it themselves. But actually, I don't mind about that, I'm glad I own a real first edition.

I'm going to blog about each Marlow book individually (oh joy) . Something to look forward to, eh? ;)