Posted by Tim Johns on March 19, 1997 at 09:33:18:
In Reply to: What ever happened to... posted by Bronwyn Graves on March 17, 1997 at 17:31:53:
The following is extracted from Hugh Brogan's talk "What Russia did for
Arthur Ransome' at the 2nd Literary Weekend at Pulborough(1993):
]
It's perhaps not strictly relevant to say so but I was very struck
when looking at some of the photographs Ann (Farr) showed us, by
those of Tabitha. I met her several times; we corresponded, and I
was very sorry for her. She wrote to me after my biography came
out and actually said that it made her think again about her
relationship with her father, She felt she ought to have loved him
but regretted bitterly that she couldn,t. (Seeing the photographs
of that little firl staring so seriously at the camera, I noticed
the Altounyans had exactly the same stare.Children do not feel the need
to grin at the camera;it's one of their better traits!) When I consider
how much Tabitha suffered through the quarrels of her parents and her
father's desertion I feel we must always bear in mind that the price of
freedom is often somebody else's burden, and in this case it was
clearly Tabitha's.
Tim