Antonia Forest | |
|---|---|
| Born | Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein 26 May 1915 London, England |
| Died | 29 November 2003(2003-11-29) (aged 88) Bournemouth, Bournemouth Unitary Authority, Dorset, England |
| Resting place | Wimborne Road Cemetery |
| Pen name | Antonia Forest |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Education | University College, London |
| Notable works | Marlow series |
Antonia Forest (26 May 1915 – 28 November 2003) was thepseudonym ofPatricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein,[1] anEnglish writer. She wrote 13 books for children, published between 1948 and 1982. Her 10 best-known works concern the doings of the fictional Marlow family. Forest also wrote two historical novels about the Marlows' Elizabethan ancestors.[2]
Forest was born to part Russian-Jewish and Irish parents on 26 May 1915.[3] She grew up inHampstead, London, and was educated atSouth Hampstead High School andUniversity College, London, where she studied journalism. DuringWorld War II, she worked at an Army Pay Office.[4]
From 1938 until her death in 2003, Forest lived inBournemouth andDorset.[citation needed]
Although she was brought upReform Jewish, her views became increasingly influenced byChristianity. In 1946, she converted toRoman Catholicism.[5]
Forest frequently corresponded with her readers and literary figures such asGB Stern.[6] She never married, and supported herself by renting out part of her house in Bournemouth.[4]
Forest is known for the Marlowseries of novels featuring one contemporary generation of the Marlows, an ancient, landed family whose patriarch is aRoyal Navy commander (later captain). Among eight children, all six daughters go to Kingscote, aboarding school where the four books named after school "Terms" are set.
The Marlows' world is richly described, with the school stories featuring the protagonists' wide-ranging interests and the strengths and weaknesses of members of their circle.[7]The Attic Term is notable for its use of the teenage character Patrick Merrick to express Forest's opposition to changes in Roman Catholicism after theSecond Vatican Council.
Forest also wroteThe Player's Boy (1970) andThe Players and the Rebels (1971), about the Marlows' ancestors inShakespeare's time.
| Title | Date | Setting | Twins' Form ‡ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn Term | 1948 | Autumn term | Third Form |
| The Marlows and the Traitor | 1953 | Easter holidays | Third Form |
| Falconer's Lure | 1957 | Summer holidays | Third Form |
| End of Term | 1959 | Autumn term | Lower Fourth |
| Peter's Room | 1961 | Christmas holidays | Lower Fourth |
| The Thuggery Affair | 1965 | Spring half-term | Lower Fourth |
| The Ready-Made Family | 1967 | Easter holidays | Lower Fourth |
| The Cricket Term | 1974 | Summer term | Lower Fourth |
| The Attic Term | 1976 | Autumn term | Upper Fourth |
| Run Away Home | 1982 | Christmas holidays | Upper Fourth |
The Marlow books have been noted for their 'floating timeline'; the same characters who experienced theLondon Blitz as children go on to watchUp Pompeii! and make themselves up as punks only a few years later.
Although Forest indicated that she was working on a successor toRun Away Home, no manuscript was found among her papers after her death in 2003.[4] In 2011, Girls Gone By published the bookSpring Term by Sally Hayward as a continuation of the Marlow series, which received positive reviews.[8][9]
The Thursday Kidnapping (1963) was Forest's only book not about the Marlows, and the only one published in the U.S.[10] It was a commended runner-up for theLibrary Association'sCarnegie Medal, for the year's best children's book by aBritish subject. Two Marlow books were also commended runners-up for the medal:Falconer's Lure andPeter's Room, for 1957 and 1961 respectively.[11][a]
Forest's books have received critical praise fromVictor Watson, who called her "the Jane Austen of children's literature",[12] and from Alison Shell, who has studied Forest's theme ofrecusant Catholicism.[13]
The Marlow books also featured inLucy Mangan's 2012 memoir of favourite childhood reading.[14] Mangan chose the first Marlow book as one of her top picks for a children's library, saying of the series: 'they are dense and complex books, but among the most fulfilling reads I think a child can have. When I first came acrossC.S. Lewis's adage, "I read to know that I am not alone", it was the Marlows I thought of'.[15]
All of Forest's books, initially published by Faber, went out of print for several decades. This situation was condemned as "outrageous" byThe Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (2001), which mentions Forest first in its section on neglected works, citing her as "one of the best children's writers of the 20th century" and noting that her work is marked by "extraordinary richness and complexity of characterisation, sensitive treatment of difficult situations, and a deep love of history and literature".[16]
Years after Forest's books went out of print, they gradually returned to the public eye with a Faber reprint ofAutumn Term in 2000. It was followed byGirls Gone By Publishers' reprints ofFalconer's Lure,Run Away Home,The Marlows and the Traitor,The Ready-Made Family,Peter's Room, andThe Thuggery Affair. Girls Gone By reprintedThe Player's Boy in 2006,The Players and the Rebels in 2008, andThe Thursday Kidnapping in 2009. Since reacquiring the copyright of all Forest's books apart fromAutumn Term, Girls Gone By also published new editions ofEnd of Term (2017) andThe Cricket Term (2020). They also reprintedThe Marlows and the Traitor (2015),Falconer's Lure (2016),Peter's Room (2018), andThe Thuggery Affair (2019).
The Marlows and Their Maker: A Companion to the Series by Antonia Forest was published in 2007.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
