Posted by Peter Ceresole on May 20, 2003 at 18:13:13 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: 'Frequently' Asked Questions . . . posted by Peter H on May 19, 2003 at 22:38:05:
"why did AR not mention latrines in describing any of the camps (or heads in boats)? The answer is - we don't know. He mentioned other incidental details, so why not this? Did he think it improper, or just irrelevant?"
These were children's books in the '30s. Even now, it's rare enough to get much about such things in children's stories; when AR was writing I suspect the subject would have been beyond the pale, quite unmentionable in polite society or in books intended for properly brought-up children. So it would have been deeply improper. You have to remember that English society really was quite different then.
I'm sure AR would have been highly aware of this, but if he ever slipped up his publishers would have left him in no doubt that he wasn't George Orwell uncovering the squalor of Wigan, but a writer for children who had a market to maintain.