Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on August 01, 2007 at 17:21:49 from 212.134.16.242 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Ransome's usage of the posted by Ed Kiser on August 01, 2007 at 14:35:32:
I have no awareness of the acceptability of this "Nword" in Great Britain during those pre-war years, and during the war itself
Nor have I, although I feel that Ransome's use of it, by working class boys, Bill and Pete, is probably realistic. I do not believe that AR himself would have written anything which he thought would be offensive.
There is no doubt, from quite a number of contemporary sources, that during the war in my own County of Suffolk local people were deeply shocked by the way in which black American troops were treated by the white Americans.