Posted by Adam Quinan on February 02, 2012 at 08:41:06 user Adam.
In Reply to: Conspiracy explanation (Re: problem with dates) posted by Jock on February 02, 2012 at 04:25:32:
One problem with the theory that Peter Duck was supposed to be real until the voyage got out of hand are the unpublished opening chapters "Their Own Story" set on a wherry on the Norfolk Broads in winter (presumably the one after S&A and before the summer of SD) which Christina Hardyment found and included in her book "Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk". These quite clearly set the story up as a creation of the Swallows and Amazons.
I suppose Ransome could have written them after the rest of PD to explain that PD was metafictional but then decided to leave the story as it stands, opening in Lowestoft. I don't know the chronology of writing the opening and omitted chapters.