'The Attic Term' by Antonia Forest Quiz

Answer: Hamlet

Ginty helps Patrick revise 'Hamlet' for his English Literature O-Level, playing the parts of Ophelia and Horatio. She and Patrick call each other 'Rupert' and 'Rosina', the names of the characters they roleplayed in 'Peter's Room'. Patrick, Ginty and Nicola later go hunting for fox cubs and Nicola has breakfast at the Merricks', and Ginty is annoyed when Mrs Marlow calls for her to come home and pack for school. Nicola stays behind at the Merricks' and helps Patrick look after Regina, his falcon, and tells him that Edwin, her brother-in-law, has been doing some research on Patrick's family and thinks that Anthony Merrick, one of his ancestors, had been executed at Tyburn Gallows for heresy.

Answer: The Second Vatican Conference

The Second Vatican Conference, otherwise known as Vatican II, caused a major upheaval in the Catholic Church, and is a point of contention between Patrick and his teachers. Reforms included the use of English in services rather than Latin, the protection of religious freedom, and interfaith dialogue. Patrick and his family are traditionalists, seeking out churches that still use the old mass, and Patrick states that he would rather go to a Protestant school than go to a Catholic school with the new mass. Although most of Patrick's classmates aren't bothered about his views, he gets into an argument with his form teacher after refusing to take Communion at the new service, as he feels it would be against his beliefs.

(Antonia Forest, incidentally, was a convert to Catholicism, and used Patrick as a mouthpiece for her own views on Vatican II.)

Answer: Sara Crewe

The attic is nicknamed 'Sara Crewe' after the heroine of 'A Little Princess', although neither of the twins get the reference as they haven't read it, and one of Miranda West's roommates has to explain it. Normally the Marlows room together, but Miss Keith has put the junior boarders in with Ann as she feels they would be happier together, so Ginty and the twins are housed in the attic room, which is used as an overflow. Nicola catches up with Esther, whose mother is pregnant, and the Marlows meet Mrs Lambert, the officious new school secretary.

Answer: She was injured in a car crash.

Miss Ferguson, Ginty's form teacher, has told the form that Monica has been badly injured in a car crash, and Ginty is worried that Monica is dead. She wants to phone Monica's mum but is too frightened to do so, so she gets Nicola to do it instead. Nicola sneaks into Mrs Lambert's office through the window and uses her phone to contact Monica's mum, who reassures her that Monica's injuries aren't as bad as they originally thought, although Monica will have to rest for a while.

Although Nicola passes the news on to Ginty, Ginty does not cope well with Monica's absence, to the point where it affects her game and she is left out of the netball team.

She also feels left out among her friendship group, as the other four girls are paired off with each other.

Answer: Changear

Miranda is annoyed that Elsa, the Wests' au pair, didn't pack a pair of trousers for her and packed a white dress she nicknames 'the Disaster' instead (although it looks good on Nicola). She and Nicola are out shopping for clothes and some birthday presents for Ann, and the volunteer in the Oxfam shop mentions a clothes shop called Changear that might have clothes in Miranda's size. The girls go to the shop and not only obtain clothes for themselves, but also some dresses for the other girls, as they think the girls' current supper dresses make the table look boring. The man on the till asks them if they have any clothes to swap and the girls realise that the shop is a clothes exchange; they don't have enough money for the clothes, so the man gives them the clothes at a discount. He asks them to take a package to the local polytechnic and Miranda refuses, thinking that it might be drugs (she later turns out to be right, as the man is arrested for possession of cannabis).

Unfortunately, the girls in Upper IVB want a piece of the action and send the day girls out to look for Changear, and swap several articles of clothing themselves. Miss Keith finds out what's going on when one of the girls' mothers complains about items of clothing going missing, and forbids the girls to have anything to do with Changear or wear their new clothes in school. Nicola and Miranda go to see her and explain, and Miss Keith forbids them from going on any more shopping trips during that term. They must also put half their allowance in the charity box. Most of the girls give away their new clothes, though Nicola and Lawrie keep theirs, with Mrs Marlow's permission.

Answer: Poems set to music

Tim originally suggests foreign-language carols and then medieval carols, but when she goes to clear it with Miss Ussher, the music teacher, she finds out that the Sixth Form have had the same idea. The Upper Fourth decide to perform three poems ('The Oxen' by Thomas Hardy, 'Eddi's Service' by Rudyard Kipling and 'Before Dawn' by Walter de la Mare), two of which will be set to music, and Tim and Miranda also write a short introductory carol. Some of the girls sing, and Lawrie will recite 'Eddi's Service', while the others will play instruments. As Miranda is Jewish and has previously been in trouble for participating in a Christmas play, she has reservations about participating in the concert, but agrees to play her violin in the orchestra group.

Tim and Miranda both stay behind at Kingscote during half-term and work on a short introductory carol together, and decide that Nicola will be singing it. Nicola isn't happy, but agrees to do it anyway.

Answer: Claudie

The Merricks know Claudie through Mr Merrick's French friends and she helps out with the cooking, and is also trying to improve her English; she has to keep asking Patrick what certain idioms mean. She teases Patrick about sex and his relationship with Ginty, and asks if she can have a boyfriend over to stay the night, in case it offends his religious sensibilities. Patrick later goes to a classical concert with his mother and Claudie, which he dreads because classical music makes him cry (and this is exactly what happens).

He and Claudie dance around the house together and also have their first kiss.

Answer: Exam papers

Patrick is worried that he won't be taking his O-Levels as the papers for schools in the south of England have gone missing. However, the exams go ahead and he tells Ginty to stop phoning him while he is doing his exams. Ginty is upset that she can't talk to Patrick and cracks after ten days. When she phones him that night, she discovers a load of maths exam papers on Mrs Lambert's desk and offers to read the answers down the phone. Patrick is wise enough to hang up, but Ginty continues talking just as Mrs Lambert enters the room. Miss Ferguson comes in to see what's going on and Mrs Lambert explains what happened: she took the envelope containing the exam papers out of the safe to make sure they were intact, but accidentally spilled coffee on the envelope and left the papers on her desk to dry out.

Miss Ferguson is not pleased as nobody is supposed to see the papers before the day of the exam. Ginty claims that it wasn't a real question and she was just making it up, but admits the person she was talking to has the exam tomorrow. Miss Ferguson and Mrs Lambert speculate that she may have been talking to another girl at the school and Ginty has to tell them to check with the exchange. Unfortunately, the woman at the exchange mentions that someone had regularly been phoning Patrick's number around a certain time, incriminating Ginty further. Patrick phones, and Miss Ferguson answers and tells him to make sure he has someone sitting with him to prove that he has not had any more contact with people doing the maths exam. She also makes Ginty spend the night in the school sick bay and do her exams in isolation.

Answer: Patrick

Ginty is called in to see Miss Keith and eventually confesses that she has been phoning Patrick on a regular basis on Mrs Lambert's phone, adding that she had originally asked Nicola to phone Monica's mother. Miss Keith makes her pay the call charges from her allowances and gives both her and Nicola conduct marks, as Nicola started the whole thing (and Miss Keith has a grudge against her). However, Ginty stays at Kingscote.

Patrick is not so lucky; he is sent home from school and Mr Merrick phones them while sending Patrick to a concert with Mrs Merrick and Claudie. Patrick's headmaster writes a long letter to Mr Merrick saying that Patrick will be expelled, although it is not so much the exam incident as his beliefs about Vatican II that are the problem. Although his parents are annoyed, Patrick is overjoyed at leaving school. Mrs Merrick says that Patrick will have to go to a non-Catholic school as no Catholic school will accept him.

Answer: No

While Nicola and Esther are working in the form garden, Esther plucks up the courage to ask Nicola if she can sing her solos in the concert. However, when the time finally comes for Upper IVa to do their bit, Esther panics and can't bring herself to do the solo. Luckily, Nicola realises just in time and sings it herself, and the concert goes well after that; Miss Latimer, Upper IVa's form mistress, tells them that Miss Keith disapproved of their choice of material, but makes it clear that she and other teachers enjoyed it and Miss Ussher was impressed with the musical arrangements. Tim is annoyed with Nicola, asking why she came in late, but Nicola makes it clear she doesn't want to talk about it.

Humiliated, Esther avoids Nicola and leaves without saying goodbye, even taking her dog Daks (who Nicola usually looks after) with her. Nicola wonders if Esther is still friends with her and hopes that she might befriend one of the other girls. She meets Miranda on the rooftop before going home, and Miranda gives her 'the Disaster' as a present.