only children
Has anybody noticed a curious thing about the books, that while the Marlows themselves are spectacularly fecund, just about every other major character - Patrick, Tim, Miranda, Esther….is an only child?
I’ve been wondering for a bit if this is more than coincidence….it seems to me that AF (who is on record as saying she began the Marlow stories very much with publication in mind) made sure to choose both a genre (school story) and a type of family (large, naval, adventurous, anglican) that were both acceptable and recognisable in terms of current children’s fiction. When Tim describes the various Marlow sisters at the start of AT, you can almost see how AF was thinking, setting them up: Kay scholarly, Rowan good at games, Ginty a bit wild but with good stuff in her etc etc…the “types” that inhabit so many school stories. Giles and Commander Marlow, of course, are both fine, upstanding naval types, and Mrs Marlow is a typically clichéd docile mother (IMOshe gets more interesting/complex in subsequent books).
However, as we all know, AF’s books are NOT simply genre school stories, and it seems to me that one way she made them more complex was by introducing characters who in some manner diverge from the mainstream and so tend to present rather different perspectives/values. So we have Patrick (Catholic) and Miranda (Jewish) and Esther (divorced parents) who all of them at various times present slightly unusual slants on accepted conventions/values, and certainly contrast strongly with the more conventional Marlows. And then there is Tim (artistic father, well-travelled) who tends to subvert and undermine practically all established school girl story values. If you try to imagine Autumn Term without Tim it is just about impossible - never mind the plot, but you would end up with a far more conventional piece of boarding school fiction. (Whether, as reader, you actually like Tim is another matter entirely!)
These “onlys” all have something of the outsider about them, and so it is only fitting that they should be “only children” - used to standing alone. Of course, they all have a foot in mainstream too: Miranda and Patrick’s families are rich, Esther’s dad is a barrister, Tim is the headmistress’s niece! A bit like AF’s books themselves: on the one hand, genre stories about upperclass families, full of ponies, team games and squabbles in the guides…and yet as we all know there’s a whole lot more? Or (not for the first time )am I spinning a theory out of nowhere?
AF was also an only child, and I also can’t help wondering if any of them represent her or aspects of her charater. (Based only on obits) the top candidate would seem to be Miranda (Londoner, Reform Jewish but with some interest - expressed in End of Term - for Christianity) but then Patrick shares AF’s real name and Catholic views. And I believe both AF and Esther like gardening...