Posted by John Birch on 12/27/99 from 195.40.196.72, 195.40.1.195 via proxy praetorian0.44whit.proxy.easynet.net:
I was an avid reader of Arthur Ransome in my youth - I remember the frustration of having to wait for the next Puffin edition to come out!
I picked up a copy of S&A second hand recently, and my 8 year old daughter showed some interest so we started it as a bedtime story. We have now (a couple of months later!) started Peter Duck as she has rater taken to the tales, despite all the technical detail which Ithought might be off putting (mind you it never put me off, so I don't know why I thought that). She has been camping, but never sailing, and we have visited Norfolk, but not yet the lakes. Despite this she love sthe stories and we have long debates about the relative ages of the characters, etc.
Anyway its all very encouraging and I was deslighted to find details of TARS here (might make a good birthday present....). It is often said that children of today are somehow different from children of past generations, and S&A where reputedly some well-off children do much over several hundred pages would not appeal to modern children. It is to my chagrin that I had thought this so myself. What nonsense!
What I would really like would be for her to see the feature film of S&A. I remember thinking it wonderful when it came out - it seemed perfect andjust how I had imagined things. Trouble is it seems unavailable....