Re: Result!


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Posted by Peter Ceresole on December 22, 2009 at 19:13:34 user PeterC.

In Reply to: Re: Result! posted by andyb on December 22, 2009 at 16:34:28:

I'm inclined to agree but is it about AR's writing that is 'just plain good?'

Hard to define in a phrase, but purely from my point of view I'd say it derived at least in part from his journalism:

Economy of words.
No purple passages.
Mostly transitive verbs- subject-verb-object stuff.

A wonderful sense of place; the Lake District because he'd loved it as a child, the Broads because he'd gone there with Evgenia and he'd researched everything thoroughly. The research paid off handsomely in conviction and detailed description.

And a splendid cast of characters. Apart from being (of course) in love with Dorothea, I enjoy the others, who all feel real, or at least possible. Look at Roger, who in real life turned out to be astonishingly like what AR suggested he was. The adults too are well drawn; the mothers feel credible and fun, the GA likewise, especially towards the end of PM. Ditto Mrs Barrable and uncle Frank and Timothy. And of course, CF. And the adults are nicely integrated into the children's stories, without treading on their toes.

I've not read a great deal of children's fiction, largely because it bored me. The people were simply not real. I did read the Biggles books, but I was older then. Nearest to Ransome, I think, was Malcolm Saville, whose books I have read (actually they were my sister's, but we shared equitably); he also wrote well, but not as sharply and clearly as AR- but then he was in publishing, and hadn't had to produce copy against deadlines, and to length, as AR had.


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