Posted by Peter H on February 20, 2006 at 15:53:04 from 86.137.75.65 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: AR Locations posted by Mike Dennis on February 19, 2006 at 10:30:35:
all the actual locations are real
If by this it is meant that all the actual locations exist in real life just as they are in the books, then I strongly disagree, certainly with regard to the 'Lake' books (the E Anglia books do seem to be based more on real locations).
I am convinced that the following locations simply do not exist as AR described them: Swallowdale, High Topps, Horseshoe Cove, Beckfoot, and I could name more. The 'view house' called the North Pole may have existed - that depends on whether you believe in 'dowsing' - I am a little sceptical about it.
The tendency to try and identify every Ransome location, and also every Ransome character if possible, worries me profoundly, because it is implying that all AR did as a writer was wander round the Lake District taking 'mental photographs' of the people and places he might use for a story. In other words he was a sort of children's 'travelogue' writer. Is this not to 'depreciate' (to use Robert's word) the imaginative powers of Ransome? Are we saying that he was so limited in imagination that he had to 'borrow' every single scene in his books from reality?
In my view, AR absorbed the terrain and the culture of the Lakes, and then used his imagination and rapport with the area to create totally convincing original settings and personalities. That is what good writers do. It is the difference between painting a scene and taking a photograph of it.