Posted by Peter H on May 16, 2007 at 20:29:32 from 81.153.237.205 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Bannermere, was Aldeburgh avocets and archaeology posted by Alan Hakim on May 16, 2007 at 19:08:40:
Peter Hunt also claims that Geoffrey Trease 'specialised in rescuing worn genres', a two-edged compliment if I ever heard one. He also says that Trease was inspired to write Bannermere when two Cumbrian schoolgirls asked him why there were no day-school stories about children like themselves.
Grammar schools must have been regarded as a bit plebian in those days, no doubt in comparison with the boarding-school culture in the background of Ransome's and others' stories. Nowadays, grammar schools themselves are regarded as too selective - I see today that even the Conservatives are now against them! How things change . . .