Posted by Alan Hakim on January 14, 2007 at 18:50:52 from 212.137.131.108 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: The Untold Stories - Re: When did Swallow get swamped? posted by Owen Roberts on January 14, 2007 at 00:46:41:
Time for another plug for Amazon Publications' The Best of Childhood. In the chapter about PM, they quote some planning notes for CITN from May 1943 (the month before PM was published), together with some opening paragraphs. These are very different from those eventually published in 1988, but the story was never completed.
Myles North did not write to AR with the GN plot suggestion until 1944. As the editor says, "It is interesting to conjecture whether he would have made another attempt to find a ploy for the second half of the book, if Myles North had not given him Great Northern?"
AR started writing it in August 1944, but stopped in early 1945. Apart from the difficulties of writing, he was involved in the upheaval of moving house to London. The first draft was completed on January 10, 1946, and the whole book on December 14.
So CITN was not the last story, nor was there a 4-year gap. On the other hand, AR's diary shows that Owen's conjecture that he had lost the impetus is on the right track:
January 4 1945
Page 295 and stuck again. I AM TOO OLD.