Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on March 20, 2008 at 23:48:28 from 195.93.21.2 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Evil Nancy in SW? posted by Laurence Monkhouse on March 19, 2008 at 13:43:45:
I very much agree with Pam and with Laurence.
One of the tensions in the books is the competition between Nancy and John. In SW, John has streaked ahead of Nancy in two ways with his admirable conduct in WDMTGS - he has had a real deep sea sailing adventure and he has not been rebuked by adults - he has been commended.
Lurking in the background is the little point that John has now got a real live, present, father - something Nancy would really love to have had. Up to now, with Commander Walker in Malta or Hong Kong, Nancy has not had her nose rubbed in this - suddenly she is face to face with the real, dashing, admirable Father that John admires immensely and that she desperately wishes she had.
A year later, in PM, Nancy is older, wiser, more settled and completely in charge because John is not there, but, as Laurence says, her intellectual idleness causes trouble when she calmly expects Dick to identify the chemicals.
It's tremendously well realised.