Posted by Benedict on November 29, 2007 at 19:42:18 from 64.59.144.85 user Benedict.
In Reply to: Re: Lake district books posted by andyb on November 29, 2007 at 16:09:14:
Many thanks to all of you about the Lake District books. It now appears that I'll have to get both of them. The third book, by Jon Sparks, deals mainly with the area that AR knew best, although he does try to connect actual places to scenes in the books. It's clear, of course, that the Lake in the NOrth was an amalgam of Coniston and Windermere. Wild Cat Island is a combination of Blakeholme and Peel Island. As Sparks points out, however, other locations are not clear at all. Exactly where is Swallowdale, the half-way camp, Beckfoot, etc? IMHO, these disputed locations are really amalgams of AR's imagination, based partly on what he remembered of the area and partly on what he wanted his characters to do. In Swallowdale, for instance, a hidden valley with a hidden cave was important to the unfolding of the story, so he created it, wtith just a nod to an actual geographical location.
In the same way, I suggest, Rattletrap was an amalgam of the characteristics of several cars that he may have known. The type of car isn't as important as the use he made of it to show something of Mrs. Blackett's character as a reckless driver. At that time, men naturally considered women to be poor drivers and many of them still do today, even though records show women have far less accidents than men.
AR was a great writer because he could make the places in his imagination so real to us that we spend hours trying to find them - and writing about them