Posted by iAiN on 01/17/00 from hide14.nhs.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Regulated Almost Out Of Existence posted by Robert Dilley on December 21, 1999 at 15:11:05:
Having just re-read all the Swallows and Amazons books on a whim
(well all right - I was invited to go sailing by a friend of mine
and got bored over christmas so I started reading them again) and
picked up the sailing bug, it seems to me that on both occasions where
Nancy uses her bow and arrow, she was an extremely good shot (although
I now cannot remember the second instance where it is used).
There is also reference to her shooting skills in the text, so i'd
have thought it likely that she aimed clear of the Swallows with her
arrow.
I'm not that old and i remember shooting arrows at people in the back
garden. I also remember lots of playfighting - which, as someone else
has pointed out, involved rough and tumble but there were definite lines
drawn as to how far one went. The idea was to win, but not cause major
injury or upset.
The only thing that i found slightly uncomfortable to the modern ear is
in one of the Norfolk Broads books where one of the Death and glories
remarks that the figures on Dick's photograph "look like niggers".
iAiN