Posted by Alan Hakim on September 01, 2016 at 13:59:04 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Who Was The Eldest? posted by Mike Dennis on August 31, 2016 at 03:07:32:
This question comes up here almost as often as Beckfoot plumbing. Bill Wright has made a comprehensive attempt to tabulate the ages in All Things Ransome.
The ultimate source, other than internal evidence, is AR's own notes. One, used when he was writing SA, is cited in Roger Wardale's Arthur Ransome: Master Storyteller (p.38) and shows John 12, Susan 10, Titty 9, Roger 7 and Vic (who doesn't count) 1½.
The note is printed verbatim in the earlier Best of Childhood (p.22). That book was from Amazon Publications, and only available to TARS members - and in any case, it's out of print. In the same book, p.303, there is a table headed CHRONOLOGY, starting with SA ("Roger 7, Titty 9, Susan 11, Peggy 11, John 12, Nancy 12"), giving the dates of the events in each book up to PM ("R 10, T12, S14, J 15, D 13 [Dorothea?], D12, N 15, P 14"). The whole series, SA to PM, runs from Summer 1930 to Summer 1933. (This was after AR had failed to get Cape to change the date of the climb of Kanchenjunga to fit the 1929 date in SA.) PP to BS, which took from 1935 to 1940 to write, all take place in the 1932 summer holidays.
Post a followup (Only if you agree to the Terms and Conditions)