Posted by Peter Ceresole on November 08, 2014 at 23:34:01 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Ransome's language posted by David Owen on November 07, 2014 at 13:47:24:
I even wonder whether it might tell us something about the period of time that was in Ransome's head as he wrote: was it really the 1920 and 30s, or pre-WWI?
Hello David.
It's hard to know exactly what's in AR's head; I suspect that there are some things from his childhood and youth that are in the books- for instance, although many here don't agree with this, I feel sure that Beckfoot contains elements- although it's not the same as- Lanehead; in its warmth and homelike qualities. But the actual content of the stories is definitely '20s and especially '30s. There are clues like the death of Bob Blackett, evoked glancingly but tellingly when they climb Kanchenjunga; discussion here has been about whether he died in WW1 or afterwards in the Spanish flu epidemic. There are no direct leads in the books. However the references to Rattletrap and other cars on the road seem to indicate a date in the early '30s. You can see, on Google Street View, the garage that AR and Evgenia built for their Trojan, which still stands by their home in Low Ludderburn. And WD seems to refer to ferry services from Vlissingen in the '30s, and the radio masts at Bawdsey, that Roger was first to spot on the return voyage, were erected in 1936, one of the few dates checkable in any of the stories.
But your thoughts about language are relevant and interesting. As you say, from recordings we know that AR himself had a very typical 'middle class- verging on posh' accent, and the S&As, and their parents, come across as perfectly standard middle class speakers, with not much to date their speech. The secondary 'local' characters are given 'local' dialect to speak. That might be worth researching.