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. ( )

I've not read any Forest before, but I will be looking out for more. Girls at boarding school, a large and close-knit family, plays, contests with the senior girls, and a cricket cup, culminating in an exciting final and a resolution to most of the term's dramas. Some of the wider cultural references made me check the publication date (early 1970s). In general it was a really lovely "school story" which masterfully managed to distinguish many different characters and switch between multiple viewpoints with convincing characterisation.

The one bit that made me stop dead and go "huh" was team selection for a swimming contest where one of the characters calculates that "she wouldn't be cursed". It took me entire minutes to realise this meant menstruation, and then I wondered why it would stop her competing, until I remembered some of the nastier times I had around 15-16 before getting appropriate medication.

http://rmc28.dreamwidth.org/418402.html ( )

The first of my birthday books, and after having almost no time to read on the weekend, I read nearly all of it in one hit today! What a lovely way to spend a day's leave.

Up until now, I have preferred Forest's holiday books over the ones set in term time. This quite surprised me as most people seem to prefer the school stories and I had expected that I would be the same. But I like the variety of plot and the balance of the other characters provided by the holiday stories. So I started Cricket term fully expecting not to enjoy it as much as The ready made family. But I did enjoy it. It was a wonderful Nicola book, with just a nice balance of optimism and achievement - she didn't overdo the cynicism and "realism" this time. And the cover is so very evocative - it's a different way of illustrating Nicola from what I've seen previously and I like it very much. She suddenly seems much more real, if more vulnerable, than I'd previously imagined her.

Even the extensive cricket detail does not get boring and I love her ultimate triumph. The supporting characters are also interesting and I was sorry to think that Janice was leaving. Sadly, Marie's death reminded me rather much of Eulogy by The Chasers, to which I've just been introduced - quite funny really.

It seems that both Nicola and Laurie are turning out to be true Marlows after all... Wonder what they'll do next? ( )

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/apr06.html#forestm ( )