Posted by AndyG on February 19, 2007 at 12:31:10 from 130.159.248.222 user AndyG.
In Reply to: Re: motivation for posted by Peter Ceresole on February 19, 2007 at 10:51:27:
Building on the assumption that Captain Flint is the adult Arthur Ransome (both are published authors) and Dorothea the dreamier pre-Bohemia in London-era Ransome (both not yet published), are we ready for the: |
Riddle of Winter Holiday? |
The clues are all there! The Riddle of the Sands is a book about sailing and spying. Ransome was just 19 when it was published - his Bohemia in London lay four years away. In Winter Holiday this Ransome, as Dorothea, the want-to-be writer, puts the book back - finding the idea of technical sailing, spying and far-away maps a bit off-putting. But the corollary is that the book is put back on the shelf of the older Ransome (49 when Winter Holiday was published). And why? Because he's done it - the spying, map-reading, sailing and thumbing your nose at the enemies-of-His-Majesty thing that didn't appeal to the younger man. He even tells us where he did it...the book is found in a wintry, cold landscape, where the nights are long & dark, where ships get frozen in the ice... ;-) Who needs MI6 when authors tell us their innermost secrets!? Andy G |