Posted by Hilary Taylor on 11/16/99 from annex12.scu.edu.au:
Hi everyone!
Well I'm up late one night in sometimes sunny Australia (I suppose everyone's figured out by now that Koalas aren't brown and that you'd be lucky to keep your finger if you offered it covered in honey to one) (oh well, no one's perfect, she was, after all, a native) and it suddenly occurred to me to search for other people who'd benefitted as much as I from the Swallows and Amazons books. Thanks to my dad I read all the Swallows books when I was 8ish and managed to get over to the Lakes in 1984 and 1986 at the ripe old ages of 8 and 10. By the way, in 86, when stopping at Swainsons farm Taqui Altounyan drove up! Nancy is still my secret hero and I'm sorry to say that even though I was virtually speechless I scared her off. So really I have no substancial message and just want to say that I'm glad that other people have shared to some degree in the wonderful place in our imaginations that Arthur Ransome made possible. Sometimes I wonder if it's no wonder that real life can often feel like a let down when I spent so many wonderful hours in that beautiful exciting headspace.
Bye!
Regards,
Hilary Taylor.