Re: IF NOT DUFFERS...


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Posted by Adam Quinan on May 30, 2006 at 13:27:05 from 192.75.48.150 user Adam.

In Reply to: Re: IF NOT DUFFERS... posted by Jock on May 30, 2006 at 11:51:03:

The questions of "Where are the "real" Beckfoot, Dog's Home, Wildcat Island, Swallowdale North Pole?" etc. etc. etc. and the related questions of "Who was the "original" Nancy, Peggy, Walkers, Captain Flint, Peter Duck, Missee Lee? etc. etc. can generate endless discussions and heated posts on Tarboard.

Well I have the answer that will silence you all! (Fat chance)

They are in our imaginations, placed there by the skills of Arthur Ransome. He has made these imaginary people and places so realistic, that we are fooled into thinking that they really have an existence outside the books.

Yes, there are features of Pull Beck House and Lanehead that resemble Beckfoot, Peel Island and Blakeholme contribute to Wildcat Island. Perhaps Miterdale and associated other little valleys gave pieces to Swallowdale. Pauline Marshall and the Crossley girls may heve offered up some bits of themselves to become Ransome's Amazons. Captain Sehmel may be best remembered for his portrayal of aspects of Peter Duck. Madame Sun Yat-sen may have liked Oxford marmalade (though I somehow doubt it). The Altounyans may have leant more than their names to Ransome's children, but none of the book characters and places are taken straight from life.

It was Ransome and his imagination and skill as a writer that took these snippets of real places and people and put them together to create such satisfying and realistic images in our minds.

I enjoy the game of looking for the sources of these people and places as much as anyone else but I don't believe that any one person, place or thing was exactly the same as Ransome portrayed it.

With the possible exception of "Nancy Blackett" being the "Goblin"!


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