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Cecil, Phil & Geoff Maynard

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#1: Cecil, Phil & Geoff Maynard Author: Katie, Location: A Yorkshire lass in London

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:42 am

Please discuss Second Twins and the magical Cecil (so good she was born twice) here...

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:58 am

It's hard to say much about them because they're still very young when the series ends, but I think the 2 girls in particular would have been very interesting characters when they were older. (Geoff doesn't seem to do much except ask Samaris to play ... forgotten what it was she played now! & get told off by Joey for lisping, as if he was doing it on purpose!) Phil with her health problems and associated psychological issues would certainly be very interesting. I can't remember who wrote that really good drabble about Phil having an eating disorder, but it was very interesting.

By the way, what happened to Cherry Christy (just thinking about the polio issue) - did she stay with the UK branch of the school?

We're told that Cecil is the prettiest of the Maynard girls, so Joey would probably have tried really hard not to let her become vain about her looks.

Not much to say about them in the books, but interesting drabble fodder...

OK, enough waffle! Smile

#3: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:13 am

When was Cecil born twice? Samaris started to play the flute which Phil enjoyed listening to.

#4: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:56 am

Cecil was born twice in the first paperback issue of Genius/Fete. When Nina goes to Freudesheim for tea at the end of Genius, Joey shows her a three-month-old Cecil. However, Cecil's birth occurs again in Fete, on April 2, while the seniors are in Geneva. This is apparently the real birth...the other was edited right back out.

Regarding the youngest Maynards (except Claire), I am also inclined to like Cecil and Phil. I feel sorry for Cecil, a singleton sandwiched between two sets of twins, the only singleton daughter. The first Swiss baby. But I like her because I am generally biased towards dark-haired dark-eyed characters in the series. I am still very confused by Josette's comment upon Cecil's birth that Cecil sounds like a "darkie". Yes, Josette, anyone with brown hair and eyes, LIKE YOUR AUNT is a "darkie".

I like Phil because she's going to be an interesting character because of her illnesses, as mentioned before.

Geoff, well...all the Maynard boys after Charles just seem to be placeholders, something that Joey can use to count to show that she really has had more children than anyone else. Felicity, with exception of the strange ballerina fixation, also seems to be a placeholder sort of character.

Chang

#5: Author: CatherineS, Location: Smalltown, West of Scotland

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:41 am

I too am really fond of Cecil. I like her because of her darkness (and with that probably because of her similarity to Con), and because of her singleton-girl status, which makes her more interesting to me amidst the crowd, especially where all the other girls have a partner or two to rely on or look after in that special twin/triplet sense.

I really feel for her around the Future or Feud books, where it seems she's always being left behind while the others go off on adventures with Joey. Joey gives a reasonable explanation for this, but Cecil still sounds so forlorn.

She's almost, to me, like the beginning of a new generation of children. I don't think that will make sense to anyone else! I think it's because she reminds me terribly of my own little half-sister, who's only five where I'm thirty (a very bright five, if I'm allowed to say that about my own kin!). It's odd for me watching her grow up, twenty-five years later, in the same surroundings as I did, and looking quite like I did too; and it's clearly strange for her too at times (although of course children adapt and accept a lot), trying to see where she fits in in the light of this 'big sister'. My parents split up when I was six and my father has lots of cutting of things I did and prizes I won etc.. I think the poor child must be sick of the sight of the newspaper cut out of me with a bowl cut in 1980 from when I won a competition for designing a Christmas stamp!

Anyway, this post is characterised by a usual lack of coherence and succinctness. I suppose what I'm saying is that in the situation she's in at the bottom end of such a large family, she's always just waiting to be able to do what others already can do, or have done. I also feel (and I know it's just because of their age, and that they are central characters), that Brent-Dyer celebrates the triplets rather too much at the expense of the younger ones. I can't help feeling that even Joey's family life might be a bit lack-lustre and ordinary once the trips have dispersed.

Sorry this is so waffly.

#6: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:30 pm

Cecil has the potential to be interesting, I think. She, as others have pointed out, is a singlton flanked by twins. Steve and Charles are quite close, so she and Mike are the two loners, age wise, in the family.

Cecil's described as the prettiest of the lot, as having a temper and being strong willed, even as a baby, and of being precocious and intelligent - she may be a lot like Margot. I could see her having a rough time growing up, particularly if she has to fight for attention at the tail of the family and deal with the issues of having four older sisters, two wards and innumerable cousins precede her at the school.

Geoff is 'just another boy' - he's a lot like Felix in personality.

I hadn't picked up on the Felicity/Peggy parallels, but it's true, she is like Peggy down to the trailing after her twin brother. The ballet thing could be interesting if she kept up with it, particularly if she wanted to go to school somehwere else.

#7: Author: betterincini,

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:24 pm

WHY DOES EVERYONE CALL HER CECIL? SHE SHOULD BE CALLED CECILY!!!

#8: Author: macyrose, Location: Great White North (Canada)

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:13 pm

I've always wondered, myself, why Cecil is not called Cecily as it is mentioned in Genius that Cecily is what she'll be called as a short. I think that EBD had a thing for ambiguous (for lack of a better word) names for girls. After all, Len could be short for Helena or Leonard, Con could be short for Constance or Conrad, Phil could be Philippa or Philip, etc ... But to me the name Cecil unfortunately brings to mind the image of a short, elderly, bald man - in other words, it's not an ambiguous short that I like, whereas I don't mind Len and Con.

By the way, did anyone think that EBD was influenced by L. M. Montgomery in naming two of the Maynard sisters Felicity and Cecily? Those are the names of the King sisters in The Story Girl and The Golden Road.

#9: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:16 pm

betterincini wrote:

WHY DOES EVERYONE CALL HER CECIL? SHE SHOULD BE CALLED CECILY!!!

There's no need to yell.

She's not real, you know. (Whether you want to admit it or not.) It doesn't bother her what she is called, and it really isn't important enough that it should bother you.

#10: Author: Josie, Location: London

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:28 am

KB wrote:

betterincini wrote:

WHY DOES EVERYONE CALL HER CECIL? SHE SHOULD BE CALLED CECILY!!!

There's no need to yell.

She's not real, you know. (Whether you want to admit it or not.) It doesn't bother her what she is called, and it really isn't important enough that it should bother you.

Call me picky, but that's a bit of an unnecessary response, KB. There's no reason to be quite so cutting and rude, is there?

Betterincini - who knows the inner workings of EBD's mind. She probably forgot she ever said that!

#11: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:42 am

Josie wrote:

Call me picky, but that's a bit of an unnecessary response, KB. There's no reason to be quite so cutting and rude, is there?

I do apologise for forgetting to attach the smileys that would have shown I had no intention of being either cutting or rude. (I blame either stress or old age. *g*)

On the topic, I would add that the baby's name is actually Cecilia, not Cecily, and that changing names a number of times seems to be normal for Jo. Remember Constance becomes Connie before she's Con. And Cecily is three syllables, so it's not much of a short, as well as being a bit of a babyish name.

Last edited by KB on Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:28 am; edited 1 time in total

#12: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:55 am

I just figured the name change was typical of real life. If Jo's family was anything like mine, what the parents meant to be the short, and what ended up the short, didn't necessarily match. For example, Peggy came home at about age 4-5 and said she was now Margy, and Mary Sue went to Susy in less than a week -- likely a good thing, given the current connotation of Mary Sue among fan fiction people....

#13: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:14 am

I always wondered if Cecil was Marya Cecilia or Cecilia Marya? I think in Genius/Fete, or at least in my editions, she's referred to both ways.

Is it ever made definitively clear?

Chang

#14: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:29 am

Changnoi wrote:

I always wondered if Cecil was Marya Cecilia or Cecilia Marya? I think in Genius/Fete, or at least in my editions, she's referred to both ways.

Is it ever made definitively clear?

Nope, and Robin is also called both, so I suspect EBD was very unsure on the subject herself! Laughing

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