Posted by Adam Quinan on March 16, 2006 at 23:42:32 from 72.136.51.111 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: How was it all paid for? posted by John Nichols on March 16, 2006 at 21:47:02:
John wrote: Finally AR did not invent that much, he re-arranged but in the end I do not think he created anything that does not exist. Statistically speaking, at the 5% level, it is likely that Beckfoot in one form or anothe exists. That we have not found Beckfoot is interesting but merely an unsolved riddle.
While I would agree that a lot of what AR wrote was based on something in reality, not just places but people too, the key word is based.
I don't think that there is a prototype of Beckfoot out there, any more than there is a Swallowdale or a Wildcat Island, there may be a number of houses which donated part of themselves to Ransome's imagination but no one Beckfoot.
I think that Ransome took elements from different real places and put them together in his own way to create his own spaces. Similarly, he took real people he knew and gave them a character makeover; was there really ever anyone exactly like Susan or, shame of it, Nancy Blackett or even the Great Aunt? Maybe there were people a bit like that but I am sure Ransome exaggerated or modified or added to those characteritics at least a little.
Most of the time he gave his people new names but in a few early cases, for whatever reason, he didn't and later he regretted it.