Posted by Joy on September 13, 2005 at 17:21:12 from 195.157.57.17 user Joy.
In Reply to: Relegation of Swallows (was Re: Ed at Norwich) posted by Jock on September 13, 2005 at 15:56:29:
I wonder if Ransome's first readers felt similarly frustrated when first in WINTER HOLIDAY he removed Nancy from the action by confining her to bed with mumps and then wrote a whole story about Coots without a single Swallow or Amazon in sight. Was there a huge sigh of relief when in PIGEON POST he gave the public what *they* wanted in the form of a proper story about Swallows and Amazons? And could that have been a factor why AR won the first Carnegie Medal with PP?!
I could find out by investigating a) an Amazon publication called THE BEST OF CHILDHOOD, which includes reviews and letters from his publisher and b) discovering what were the first sales figures for WH, CC and PP. But it's much easier to let Tarboarders speculate about this one ...