Posted by Geraint_Lewis on December 21, 2015 at 23:21:15 user Geraint_Lewis.
In Reply to: Re: WH for Christmas posted by Adam Quinan on December 20, 2015 at 08:09:28:
In response to both Adam and Dave's comments, I believe Christmas is actually mentioned five times in WH. Two references are to Christmas Pudding and one to Nancy getting a new knife as a Christmas present (they used the file in it to cut the iron bar in the Igloo fireplace). The most useful reference comes at the first meeting between the D's and the other explorers, in Chapter 3. We know Dick and Dorothea have only just arrived. But Susan explains that "their Mother had gone away only yesterday morning (with Bridget, to Malta), and that "they had been staying at Holly Howe ever since Christmas and that they, too, would be going back to school when the holidays came to an end."
So AR does place the story in relation to Christmas, and tell us how long the Swallows have been at HH.
As for how Nancy got the mumps, it seems Mrs Blackett shared Adam's surprise: "But really (she said), where Nancy managed to pick it up I don't know. There's no mumps in the valley." I'd suggest AR realised this element of the plot was potentially tricky, so he reassured the reader by having the characters recognise that.
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