Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 12, 2012 at 09:39:02 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: The sources for "Peter Duck" posted by Roger Wardale on February 09, 2012 at 14:30:58:
Those members of TARS who had the misfortune to sit through my talk on the origins of ML may recall that what seems to us the very implausible scenario of piracy and kidnap for ransom on the coast of China was an everyday reality in the 1920s and 30s and was the stuff of dinner party small talk.
Having demonstrated to my own satisfaction at least that the ML scenario, at first glance the most "improbable" of the twelve tales, is "vaguely possible", I thought it quite likely that treasure hunting on desert islands, reached by yacht, was something that was still going on when PD was written, and I turned up an example.
I will now get back under my rock.