Posted by Robert Hill on February 21, 2000 at 13:42:58 from ucs-pc2035.leeds.ac.uk:
In Reply to: Newbie Query posted by Jon Murray on February 21, 2000 at 06:32:09:
The fact that Peter Duck is a made-up story was never shouted from the
rooftops, as it were. The only reasonably clear indication in the book
itself is the dedication, where AR in essence chides the Swallows and
Amazons for leaving their mothers out of the story. The fact that the
pictures are claimed to have been drawn largely by the characters may
also perhaps be seen as an indication, though a very weak one - they
could also have drawn pictures of their "real" adventures.
There are slightly clearer indications in Swallowdale, where Peter
himself is Titty's imaginary friend, and where there are references to
how a story (which we can see to be that of PD) was made up by the
Swallows and Amazons during the previous Easter holidays.
There is also the fact that the events in Peter Duck and Missee Lee
(and some people would say Great Northern) are inherently less
believable than those in the other books.
I tend to think of PD as something similar to, but on a larger scale
than, the collective shipwreck fantasy that the Swallows and Amazons
engage in during the night of the storm near the end of S&A.
As I've said here before, I think it's an oversight by AR that in PD,
Swallow's sail has a patch in it - the patch that resulted from the
Horseshoe Cove accident in Swallowdale.