Posted by John Wilson on June 07, 2000 at 06:48:39 from wn-d90.actrix.co.nz:
In Reply to: When were the birthdays of the S, A, D's? posted by Allan Lang on June 01, 2000 at 02:02:45:
As well as SD, Bridget has a birthday in SA where chapter 16? is called “The Birthday Party”. Susan says that it can’t be her birthday which is New Year’s Day (or John’s either), and they work out that it is Bridget’s. But as she is too young the others get the presents!
The Swallows are aged from 7 to perhaps 12, and certainly it seems that Susan at 10-10½ had quite a lot of responsibility, with cooking for four and Roger only 7. As John says, the adults trust her rather than him on bed-times etc ! With four children between 7 and 12, did the timing of Ted Walker’s overseas postings (if he was also posted overseas earlier in his career) have something to do with the ages of those in between ie Susan and Titty?
I took John as 12 and Nancy 12½ from Bill Wright’s guide to the characters, based on AR’s notes etc. Nancy is nearly as tall as her mother, who is quite short/little. John is smaller than Nancy and about the same size as Peggy (SA), but of course some children particularly girls start growing earlier at about this age, so he could be the same age as Nancy. Ed Hillary was quite puny when he first went to secondary school at c13 (Auckland Grammar, NZ) where a gym master made a cruel remark about his physique, but shot up 23 cm in 2 years to become a mountaineer and “knock the bastard off”.