Posted by Dan Lind on December 06, 2005 at 04:56:47 from 70.69.176.93 user captain.
In Reply to: Re: September 2001 posted by Alan Hakim on December 04, 2005 at 00:27:20:
What a wonderful day it was! I was in Ann's Library, aka the beautiful Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds. And, thanks to our own Ann Farr, Librarian Extraordinaire, registered as an official researcher in the Special Collection section with a selection of files, letters, and all kinds of orignal stuff from Arthur Ransome's own papers. I was an academic, an intellectual, a researcher, and having a wonderful time, even wearing the special cotton gloves I'd been given.
I'm about as literary as the average Alberta gopher, but it was fun. Then, as I was anticipating a couple of pints for lunch at the nearby pub I'd researched earlier that morning, a library person said, "Excuse me, but are you an American? There is something you should see." And there it was on the computer news, the whole 911 bit. My initial reaction was that this is going to change things - that was an understatement.
Later that day Ann drove me by various addresses in Leeds where AR was born, and where the Ransomes lived over the years. (Keen Ransomeites will have read all about these in excellent articles by Margaret Ratcliffe published in various journals.) We finished the day with a super dinner at a lovely pub.
Mixed memories indeed.