Posted by Roger Wardale on February 01, 2011 at 01:22:16 user RogerW.
"I rather delighted in showing her around the Lake District in 2008 where she had never been, including riding on the Tern and the Gondola, and hiking through the woods to the Dogs Home and to Peel Island. Ah, the joys that Arthur Ransome brought into so many of our lives!"
How right you are Claire! Visiting a corner of 'Ransomeland' for the first time was like reading a SA book for the first time — a joy that could never quite be recaptured! I remember Bowness Bay in the rain, walking along the road by Rayrigg and seeing "Esperance", finding the Dogs' Home after miles of tramping through woods, the magical world of Witch's Quay . . .and "Swallowdale"! I could go on and on . . .
I don't suppose that AR ever realised the great joy that he brought to people visiting the locations etc. I remember seeing the expression of pure happiness of a middle-aged Japanese lady as she stroked "Mavis" in the Steamboat Museum one day (little did she know that the lady beside me was Taqui Altounyan — although I did introduce Taqui to a lovely family picnicking on Peel I with a little fire and father reading SA to the children). What joys indeed!