Autumn Term is the first in the series of novels about the Marlow family by Antonia Forest

Antonia Forest

Antonia Forest was the pseudonym of a British children's author who was christened Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein...

. First published in 1948, and set in that post-war period. The plot focuses on the youngest Marlows, identical twins Nicola and Lawrence, during their first term at Kingscote School for Girls. The next book in the series is The Marlows and the Traitor

The Marlows and the Traitor

In the introduction to the Girls Gone By edition of The Marlows and the Traitor, Antonia Forest admits she never intended to write a series of books about the Marlows. At the time of writing the Nuremberg Trials were happening and Forest decided to write a book about a traitor. Only then did it...

.

Plot introduction

Antonia Forest set out to write adult fiction, but thought that perhaps a children's book would be an easier way to get published initially. Since there was a trend for school fiction, she chose this genre. However, like all of Forest's books, Autumn Term is quite different from most of this school literature. Her 'heroines', Nicola, Tim and Lawrie are often unsuccessful, sometimes unlikeable and always realistic. Even Forest's anti-heroine, Lois Sanger, is shown to have some redeeming characteristics.

Plot summary

Nicola makes an inauspicious start to her career at Kingscote School when she drops her leaving present, a penknife, out of the train and pulls the communication cord so that she can jump out to retrieve it. She and her twin then suffer the indignity of being placed in a Remove form, when all their sisters have always been in A forms. The misery is compounded when they discover that Removes are not even allowed to play netball!

Since there is nothing else they can do, they join the school Guide Company and hope to shine there. All goes well until a hike down to the beach is planned. Nicola and Lawrie offer to take a shortcut through a farmyard in order to get the campfire lit. Unfortunately a haystack on the farm is found burned down later that afternoon and the twins are the prime suspects. Lois Sanger, their Patrol Leader, should be the one to take responsibility but instead twists the story to make herself look good. After an agonizing Court of Honour, the twins are asked to leave the company.

Halfterm with the family gives opportunity for the elder Marlows to laugh at the twins' failures. Nicola takes advice from her eldest brother, Giles (a lieutenant in the Navy), that she should concentrate on what she is good at - being bad! A few weeks later, when things are particularly miserable at school, she remembers his advice. She takes the train down to Port Wade to visit Giles and his ship. When she gets there, she realises that she has not enough money for the return ticket and that she has no idea where to find Giles. Eventually she tracks him down and, although he is singularly unimpressed with her, he does at least put her on the train back to school.

The second half of term is dominated by the fundraising efforts of the Third form. The other classes are organising a Bazaar, and offer Third Remove the Jumble and Kitchen stalls. Preferring to do their own thing, Third Remove put on a play. Tim (Thalia) Keith, niece of the Headmistress, writes a version of The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper is an English-language novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada before its 1882 publication in the United States. The book represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction...

so that Nicola can be Edward VI

Edward VI of England

Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

and Lawrie can play Tom Canty, the beggar boy who looks just like the king.

The play is saved by Lois Sanger who agrees to read the narration for them, in an attempt to atone for her actions in the Guide company. Nicola is unreconciled, but acknowledges that Lois does read well. However, it is Lawrie who is the star of the show, carrying the rest of the cast with her.

Nicola, alone of Third Remove, makes a respectable showing in the end of term exams. However, the rest of the form are more than satisfied to have earned the epithet 'brilliant eccentrics' from one of the Sixth Form, if a little embarrassed to discover that through Nicola's efforts they have also won the Form Tidiness Prize!