Posted by John Wilson on April 25, 2003 at 13:08:14 from 203.96.58.8 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: Chronology of PM posted by Alan Hakim on April 24, 2003 at 06:48:52:
The second of August (the first day of PM) was a Tuesday in 1932 and a Wednesday in 1933. Dick has come straight from school, presumably leaving that day. Dorothea leaves her mother at Euston and meets Dick at Crewe.
It would seem logical start a school term on a Monday and end the term on a Friday (or even on a Tuesday & Thursday to allow staff a day free of pupils!). Would travelling on Sunday be an issue in England; perhaps it may have been in Scotland? In the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand)
the long summer holidays start at Christmas, though often February has better weather than January.
The S’s A’s & D’s all go to boarding schools and I would expect that various schools to have the same holiday timetable. The Walkers have four different schools to deal with as John & Roger and Susan & Titty go to different schools. John & Susan’s schools are nearer (PP Ch 1, p 7 of Red Fox pb) so they arrive earlier, but they all seem to finish term about the same time.
Nancy & Peggy go to the same school (“their school”; PM Ch 1 p 5). Tom Dudgeon goes to a day school. As of course do the Coots. In BS Port & Starboard are at school in Paris.
In PM (Ch 16 page 200) the pigeon bell goes off as the D’s are sailing up the river after their first sail in “Scarab”. Nancy dashes out and tears the wire off the battery (Ch 18 p 225). They get a lecture from the GA about her problem bell at Harrogate, and she says “We’ll have to have a man in to see to it”.
When they first arrive at Beckfoot Dick went to the pigeon loft and “found that nothing happened when he pushed his hand through”. Nancy said (Ch 2 page 23) “We undid the wire from the battery”. AR must have forgotten that when he has the pigeon bell ring later, and the noise “nearly sent the G.A. through the ceiling”.
Looking at PM Nancy says (Ch 21 p 270) of Sammy that “he knows Beckfoot, with his mother living close by ....” but does not say that he lives with her & Billy. So when Cook tells Billy to go home, and Billy says “Shall I say owt to Sammy if he’s at home?” (Ch 25 p 323) he does not mean that Sammy lives there too, just that Sammy may call in.