Posted by Joy on September 23, 2003 at 14:21:06 from 195.157.57.17 user Joy.
In Reply to: Re: Pubs, Inns etc posted by Joy on September 23, 2003 at 14:17:45:
Please ignore that last message - I got my negatives mixed.
Robert D wrote: If I can drag TarBoarders back from their boozy reminiscences, the original question was along the lines of "why so many mentions of pubs in the Broads books compared with the Lakes books?"
Easy-peasy. During the English Civil War, East Anglia was a hotbed of Roundheads while the Lake District - in common with much of the north and west (I'm generalising wildly here) supported the King and the Cavaliers. Do Roundheads drink in pubs? I think not. Do Cavaliers frequent taverns? You bet their knee-high boots they do.
Realising that he was writing fiction, Ransome turned this tradition on its head. Ransome's Broads are full of boozy types and the Lake District is as dry as a desert - a point vividly illustrated by the quest for water in PP. Just one more reason George Owdon loved the Broads was that he could go pubbing under age with his mate Ralph.