Posted by Mike Dennis on February 18, 2006 at 10:36:22 from 81.79.63.222 user MTD.
I have to admit that I haven't fully followed the threads on the chronology of the books, but those posts I have read make me think we are losing sight of a couple of things.
Firstly, I assume that AR had no idea that the books were going to be the success they were. Also I assume he did not plan the whole series in advance (we are told that JK Rowling had the whole Potter series planned out before she even approached a publisher - did she at any point consider that the whole thing may have been a total failure?)
So AR has inconsistencies in his timescales, does it really matter? No, because this brings me to my second point, they are works of fiction! This enabled him to invent what he liked - the lake is not one real lake as we all know. It is only the later books that he wrote about 'real' places, was that because the success of the series was assured? But then again, does it matter?
Then again it does make things interesting, as a child I visited the Norfolk Broads and even visited most of the places that are described in CC & BS. Yet I remember looking at maps of the Lake District and trying to work out which lake he was writing about, and being frustrated when I found out that the whole thing was an invention!