Posted by Robert Dilley on February 19, 2006 at 04:23:27 from 65.39.11.241 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Timeline etc etc posted by Mike Dennis on February 18, 2006 at 10:36:22:
Mike Dennis writes "I remember looking at maps of the Lake District and trying to work out which lake he was writing about, and being frustrated when I found out that the whole thing was an invention!
I disagree with the premiss of this statement. Nearly all AR's Lake District places are real. They are not all where he says they are, and they are often combinations of two or more real places. However (as the recent discussion of the North Pole illustrates) very little was actually invented.
Many of us get a great deal of pleasure trying to identify just which places match descriptions in the story. I have spent hours doing so on maps and on the ground. Others have no interest in this aspect of AR's work. That is quite understandable, but why depreciate those who are interested? I have very little interest in the details of boatbuilding and unashamedly skip John's endless descriptions of trying to create a sisterhook out of two brotherhooks, or whatever.
Which finally allows me to preach yet again on the importance of matching your subject line to what you are writing about, so people can skip stuff they don't want to read about without risking missing good stuff (to them).