Posted by Alan Hakim on March 29, 2000 at 21:36:20 from asn21-206.mcmail.com:
In Reply to: Beckfoot - a compromise solution posted by Iain Hobbs on March 08, 2000 at 09:22:43:
Anthony Powell died yesterday - the author of "A Dance to the Music of Time". His obituary in the "Daily Telegraph" includes:
"Indeed, the author's pet hate was people suggesting that such-and-such a character might have been based on So-and-So; such literal-mindedness betrayed, in his view, a crass ignorance of the processes of fiction."
Although we know that AR based the Swallows on real people, attempts to identify every aspect of the rest of the books with specific people and places are in my view disrespectful to his talents as an author.