Antonia Forest fans

 The reread continues. Very interesting comments on previous post much appreciated!

End of Term: The whole Christmas Play must be one of the most perfect setpieces anywhere. Not just the play itself, but the setup too, from the moment when Miranda comes to summon Nicola to Esther through the end. 
The possibility occurs to me for the first time that Miss Cromwell might be someone who, as Nicola would say, "believes properly." Whether that explains her interest in watching a rehearsal of the Play I can't say, but it seems a possible explanation for her fury at Lawrie's bargain with "Them." ("Upon my word" is a great moment.)
It interests me that Nicola perceives the snub to Miranda as the worst thing to happen in the momentarily disastrous kefuffle before the Play; I think what she is seeing is that Val's dismissal identifies Miranda as a Jew and an Other rather than considering her as a person, an internalized/built-in structure rather than the personal aspect of anti-Semitism, and the more frightening for that. I don't think I'm expressing myself very well. Ideas?

Peter's Room: In some ways I wonder what would have happened if Forest had tried her hand at writing a full-fledged fantasy novel; she obviously had the chops for it. Maybe she wasn't interested enough, or felt that it would end up as a Gondalian pastiche?
Peter gets all the good quotations: "Baby, it's cold outside," which makes me giggle because it comes from such an un-Forestian context, and Rowan having "returned to her muttons," which I ONLY NOW figured out is not only Rowan herding sheep but also revenons a ces moutons, nice one, Peter.
Some of the language in the hunting scene reminds me of National Velvet; not even so much the horses as the odd blend of lyrical and down-to-earth. Would Forest have read it? (For the record, I think it's a wonderful book even if, like me, you are extremely uninterested in horses.)

The Thuggery Affair: If there ever was a completely character-driven thriller this is it; the actual plot, pigeons and drugs and Thugs, is just a framework for Forest to revel in character studies. Patrick, Peter, and Lawrie, of course, jointly and severally, but also Jukie and even Kinky and Espresso and so on. (I still think Peter comes off by far the best here, as Patrick and Lawrie both get their character flaws examined in dispassionate detail, including the way the same aspects of character shift between flaws and merits in the same person.)


The Ready-Made Family (partway): I love the scene in the bathroom so much, and really, other than presenting some nonessential information, it does nothing to advance the plot. It's not needed in that sense, but it's superb. More character-drivenness. Being newly married myself, I can sympathize with Pam Marlow "sounding as if this was the worst thing of all" when Nicola points out that her father is unlikely to make it back from foreign parts for the wedding; she's been longing to have Geoff there to help handle the whole mess, so it doesn't all devolve on her both emotionally and practically. (And omigod, I'm now just about of an age with Mrs. Marlow. Grownups, as she says, are not all the same age.)
Fob really does fall for Peter at first sight, doesn't she. I wonder what it was that did it.

thanks for putting up with my ramblings. part 3 to come in time... (sorry, edited because I got my formatting backward...)