Posted by Peter Ceresole on September 25, 2013 at 11:25:54 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Belle Grange as Beckfoot - putting the pieces together! posted by Roger ardale on September 25, 2013 at 03:08:03:
The words 'dark and gloomy' are of course not mine
Of course, Roger; I assumed that it was a quote from somebody with first hand experience. I've always admired your AR books, and your care for what you say. But the atmosphere is always in the eye of the beholder, and it seems to me that AR loved the place and the Collingwood family. I'm sure that, as Jock says, the warmth of AR's Lanehead has an echo in his creation of 'Beckfoot'.
It's not like the Dog's Home (I've just been re-reading PM) which is pretty much identical in every respect to the surviving stone hut. Beckfoot is a concept, an ideal if you like, which was clearly important to Ransome. Nowhere else is as thoroughly embedded in his stories- unless there's somewhere else which clearly matters to him as much?