Posted by Allan_Lang on July 30, 2010 at 07:30:47 user Allan_Lang.
In Reply to: Three questions posted by Tim Lustig on July 30, 2010 at 05:29:55:
~~~~~~Can we speculate in any informed way about the age of the Walker and Blackett children in Swallows and Amazons? It is possible that Peggy Blackett could have been born in 1919 and conceived during the war? ~~~~~
Peggy could have been born in 1919, provided the events of S&A occurred in 1929 as stated within. (The current theory appears to be that the SD 1931 date is the correct one - however then a 1919 birthday for Peggy would make Susan, John, and Nancy really old - so old that Nancy's outrage at being taken for a native in SW becomes less understandable).
Briefly
The only one of the cildren's birthday we can be precise about is Brigit. In SD, one day after the climbing of Kachenjunga (on August 11), Mrs Walker states Brigit's birthday will be "in a few days".
And as we know it's her third birthday, and assuming an actual 1930 date for SD, she was most likely born on either August 15,16, or 17 of 1927.
One other fact is that none of the other children seem to have birthdays during any of the times covered by the books. This rules out the months of August, September (SA,SD,PP,WDMTGTS,SW), mid-January to mid-February (WH), and for the D's: Easter of 1931.
In S&A, Roger is seven. This would place his birthday in early 1922.
From WH, Dick considers Roger to be quite a bit younger than he himself "But that youngest one probably goes to bed pretty early." (Although that's not conclusive, from all the books, particuarly P&M, both Dick and Dorothea have a fairly elastic attitude concerning what bedtime should apply to themselves.)
Ignoring this quibble, I assume that Dick is at least a year older than Roger and place his birthday in Late Autumn-Early Winter of 1920.
Dorothea, probably a year earlier in late Autumn-early Winter of 1919.
Peggy, (who Dorothea considers in WH: "She did not think Peggy could be very much older than she was herself") mid-1919.
Which makes Peggy just possible as a posthumous war baby.
Susan, whose birthday is on New Year's Day, 1 January 1919.
Going back to Brigit, her birthday in S&A was on day 6 of the Island camp, and they had come to the lake a fortnight before they sailed to the island.
So they came to the lake in late July. and John "It's a good thimg I had a birthday just before we came here."
Assuming this means not more than four weeks, John was born in July, and given Susan's definite birthday of New Years day, John must have been born in July 1917.
Nancy and Titty are left as a exercise for the reader.